Eurafrika Pt. 10 - A Blue (Net) Day

We woke up early the next day - the roosters made sure we couldn't sleep in. The plan for the day was to see for ourselves the frontlines of the war against malaria: we would be visiting a nearby rice village and later the factory where they make the nets. I would get my first taste of how Africans lived.

So we got into a bus with a group of about 15 or so other scientists. I probably should have mentioned it earlier that the whole reason I was able to go to Africa was that it conveniently coincided with one of my mom's conferences. And not just any conference; this was the Gates Grand Challenge Conference. Here in Tanzania, hundreds of scientists sponsored by Bill Gates' money, were gathered to discuss their latest progress in fighting the world's worst diseases. My mom was there because she was part of a team trying to find an HIV vaccine.

Now back to where that bus was going. We drove to a nearby rice village. On the way kids were smiling and waving at us; I felt like royalty. The people were poor, but seeing them did not make me sad. They were getting on with their lives, cheerfully, unlike the helpless poverty so common back home. There were no mud huts, just simple masonry buildings with funny names like "Texas Club".

So we arrived at the rice village and went out to visit the homes. For a place with lots of standing water and a deadly mosquito-borne disease, I was surprised by how few mosquitos there were. I don't think I was bitten once that day. We visited one of the homes. There were chickens walking about and kids playing, one with a toy he had clearly made himself. I thought I'd entertain the kids and made a paper airplane from one of the sheets in my bag; it flew well and they loved it.

In the village, we went from home to home. For a farm, I was surprised by how little it smelled. The houses were simple and small, the largest with four rooms. One of them had electricity wired with a TV. What stood out was that all of them had these were these bright blue mosquito nets covering the beds. These weren't any nets either - these ones were embedded with insecticide. These nets were mean't to stop malaria in its tracks.

Malaria is a horrible disease; that much I knew. It kills millions of people every year. As I write this I am still taking anti-malarial medication, almost three weeks out of Africa. What I did not know, or rather what I had no sense for, was how it devastated peoples' lives and prevented them from lifting themselves out of poverty. It makes farmers too sick and weak to harvest crops, it forces parents to stop working to take care of their sick kids who are missing cool. It kills prosperity before it can grow.

As we left, I thought it would be nice to leave the kids a little souvenir. I grabbed my wallet for some Canadian pennies. This was a mistake; I was immediately surrounded by grabby kids. One of the organizers gave the kids some bottles of war. As our van drove off, I could see them fighting each other over them. It seemed an allegory for the continent I was now in. I guess wealth is something that must be earned and learned.

On the bus ride to the factory, I began to appreciate was how effective nets could be in eradicating malaria. None of the villagers had had malaria in over a year.

To understand how the nets could stop malaria, it's important to understand how Malaria works. Malaria is caused by the Plasmodium parasite and is carried by mosquitos. These mosquitos bite people, who are then infected with Malaria and bed-ridden. While immobilized by the symptoms of Malaria, these people are bitten by more mosquitos that then incubate the parasites and spread it to other victims.

Now here's why the nets are so effective. It should be noted that only a certain species of mosquito transmits malaria, and that these mosquitoes are most active at night when people are asleep. If the mosquitoes can't infect humans or bite infected humans because all of them sleep in insecticide-laced nets, the disease can't spread. If the disease can't spread, it quickly dies out as its host mosquitoes die out.

On our way to the net factory, we passed through Arusha town. It wasn't really a town anymore: it's population had grown to over 300,000 with the rapid urbanization that is taking place all over the continent. The town was filled with the generic masonry buildings with a few large modern buildings poking out. There were tons of these buildings that looked like they were under construction and then suddenly abandoned. There were no sidewalks, but tons of people walking along the side of the road. I saw some kids playing on a broken tree limb lying in an open storm sewer.

Arusha town was also the frontlines to another war: the Cola Wars. Every shop had either a Coke sign or a dark-blue Pepsi sign on it. It seemed at first that Pepsi was winning, but it just happened that their signs were far larger and more colorful. The coke was cheap too: only 350 Tsh (about 30 cents Canadian).

Eventually, we made our way through the busy streets of Arusha town to the outskirts where the plant lay. The Olyset Plant is a large, tightly-guarded compound; it was guarded by an armed guard and enclosed with a high brick wall. The whole place was very clean and modern, the product of a partnership between a long-established African textile compound and a Japanese chemical manufacturer.

We were given a tour of the plant and saw every step in how a net is made. Little blue insecticide-containing pellets were melted down, stretched into threads, weaved, cut and sewn into nets and then packaged. There were tons of young people around my age working; the plant employed 6400 workers. It was clockwork; the director said they expected to make 30 million nets that year.

There were questions at the end the of the tour, very good questions. The company made it clear they wanted to branch off into for-profit ventures. This sparked a flurry of ideas in my head of licensing the technology, of using the insecticide-laced material in tents for camping. Every problem is really an opportunity.

We drove back to the lodge. I saw all kinds of western icons as we went drove through town: Obama stickers, White Sox and Yankees logos, even a Colorado Avalanche Jacket. However, what people really idolized was football (soccer). The game was everywhere: fans were waving flags and chanting for the local team, all over town there were sportsbars showing La Liga and Premier League games and there were giant billboards displaying the heroes themselves. One Pepsi billboard featured some of the brightest stars: Kaka, Torres, Henry, Fabregas and Lampard with a very silly grin. Football truly is the world's game.

By the time we got back, I was exhausted by the overwhelming amount of new experience I was taking in. We ate dinner; my appetite still missing. 'At least I was still healthy' I though to myself. That was about to change in a big way.