But life goes on. Samarou and his family continued to eat dinner, prodding me to do the same. My appetite left me when that child's soul left her. The crowd dispersed and everyone returned to their daily, mundane activities — seemingly unaware that one of their own had recently left them, or unwilling to deal with such a common occurrence as death.
I knew at that moment that my two-year service would be wrought with many trials and probably few triumphs. I also recognized that public health plays a larger role in sustainable development than I had previously thought. People cannot improve their quality of life via educational and environmental gains when they are not healthy enough to pursue any advancement. So this became my plight in the Peace Corps — to dispense as much "common" knowledge of basic health practices as possible.
And so my Community Health Agent program was born. Samarou, Aimee and I trained 28 health workers from nine different villages on a variety of topics over the following 18 months, including pre- and postnatal health, immunizations, nutrition, malaria prevention, HIV/AIDS and many more. We figured that the more information people were exposed to, the more likely it was that their practices would be altered for the better — and the more likely they would be to listen to those who had training on those topics.
A French and Togolese proverb fits this concept perfectly: Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid. Little by little, the bird makes its nest. And indeed it does. I hope the teachings of my health workers are some of the sticks that make up the nest in Katchamba.
People often ask me if I made a difference in Togo as a volunteer. I have revisited that question for countless hours. I know that if I made a difference in one — just one — life, then I did my job as well as I possibly could. I believe I did positively touch the lives of our 18 health workers. I can only hope that they each now make a difference in the life of just one person by passing on the information I passed to them.
At least that's what I tell myself to convince me it was all worth it. And it was.
