Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet...”
One day with the much older Egyptian WHO malariologist (who must have been in his 60’s at that time) walking up a very hot hill in a village he asked ‘do you know what the most important part of a malariologists body is? It’s not the head, it’s the legs. You need to be able to walk in the villages to understand malaria.’
This has served me well. Starting off malaria at the most basic level – camping out with spray teams, provided me with an appreciation and a humility towards those on the front-line who are actually doing the work.
Story from RPCV Michael MacDonald, Malaysia 1977 - 1981
Mike served as a district-level “Senior Malaria Technician” first in a remote coastal district (on the South China Sea) supervising an insecticide trial with spray operator supervision, active case detection (spending all day walking through villages collecting blood slides) etc. for his first two years in Malaysia. His second 1 ½ years were spent in an interior district mostly with the spray teams, including long 1-2 week treks into the forest spraying villages. His final year + I was in the state capital, Kota Kinabalu, working as the acting entomologist. Currently, he works for USAID.