Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

"Microbes" demonstration

One of the toughest parts of our jobs at Peace Corps Volunteers is trying to facilitate what we like to call "behavior change." Old habits die hard, and trying to convince someone to make even a small adjustment in their everyday actions is a very difficult sell, especially when it is a practice that has been around for generations. After almost two years of trying to convince people of "alternative solutions" and "best practices," many of us older volunteers begin to question whether or not we should even be tackling some of these issues. After all, who are we to insist that all sick people should be immediately taken to the local health post when the traditional healers have been serving the people's needs for hundreds of years?

Certainly on many issues there is room for compromise, but some things are more cut and dry. Like washing your hands with soap before eating or preparing meals. In a country where your left hand serves as your all purpose toilet paper, tissue and diaper changer, you would think a good soapy lather before meals would be a no-brainier. Instead, everyone lightly dips their eating hand into the same bowl of dirty water before chowing down, and uses the same bowl to "wash" their hands and mouths after the meal. Its tough to teach an old dog new tricks, and despite my best impression of a broken record  it has so far been impossible to convince the adults in the village that the cost of a .50 cent bar of soap per month is worth the prevention of diarrhea. That's where the kids come in.

Transferring germs

Just like learning to love vegemite, or becoming a gymnast, or being brainwashed into a cult, its best to start 'em young. Ideally I would start with babies in the womb, but all I had was a gaggle of elementary school students, so I had to work with what I could get. Senegalese adults have a deeply ingrained resistance to trying new things, but the children hear are curious and open-minded, and most importantly, willing to play along with everything the weird American asks them to do. With that in mind, a met a group of about 60 kids on the steps of the school last Saturday morning, with the hope of changing a few minds, and at the very least having some fun. My counterpart Ngor, a school director in another village, started off the day with a lesson on germs ("microbes") that many of the kids had heard before in school. He explained what germs were, where they come from and how they can get inside our bodies and make us sick.

Demonstrating proper technique

Getting kids here to believe that something so small it is invisible can do them harm is a lot tougher than convincing American kids of a magical tutu-wearing fairy that comes in the dead of night to trade your discarded teeth for shiny quarters, so for good measure we threw in a demonstration. I coated one child's hand with glitter, and told everyone to think of the little specks of colorful glass as microbes. I then asked him to shake hands with a fellow classmate in greeting, and had them both display their hands to the class. Lo and behold, the microbes had transferred from one students hand to the next! I then asked them each to dip their hand quickly into a bowl of water, as if they were about to sit down to lunch, and then show their hands to the group again. Now, not only were they both still covered in microbes, but the water in the bowl was filled with them too. All of the students agreed that putting your hand in a bowl of water wouldn't make it clean, so I gave each of the students a dab of soap and a kettle of water and asked them to demonstrate to the group how they would wash their hands to get all of the microbes off. After rubbing and rinsing for about 30 seconds under a clean stream of water, they presented their hands one more time and were declared microbe-free by the group. To give the kids a time frame for washing their hands and enforce the message, we taught them a little song to the tune of "row row row your boat." Laxad, laxad, laxad xa bay (wash wash wash the hands) / Laxad xa bay a paax (wash the hands a lot) / Bar o wec safu of (dont forget your soap) / Laxadi boo te fax (wash until they're good)

Making promises

Once all the learning was done it was time for a game. We made two teams of 5 and had them each stand in a line. The first kid received a handful of "microbes" and was asked to turn around and greet the person behind him, who would greet the person behind them and so on until the first persons germs had been transferred to the whole team. Then they began a relay race to see which team could wash their hands clean the fastest. It just so happens that the race ended in a tie, which was a good way to enforce the lesson that "everybody wins when we wash our hands with soap." To seal the deal we brought out a large banner with the words "I will wash my hands with soap" written in Seereer across the top, and asked all of the kids who agreed to sign it as a contract by tracing their handprint and writing their name. The banner will be hung at the school as a daily reminder of their promise and of what they learned.

Pinata construction

To round out the day we hung a pinata (made by my brothers and sisters the night before) full of sample-size soaps, candy and stickers from the low limb of a baobab tree and let the kids have at it. The barely-contained excitement of the spectators on the outer circle quickly turned to chaos when the pinata burst open and there was an all out war to get at the goodies. I counted three kids that came out of the pile bleeding, clutching their hard-earned treats with grins on their faces. Certainly an exciting end to the morning.


Its hard to say whether or not any of the kids who attended the session will begin washing their hands with soap, but I hope we were at least able to plant the seeds of the idea in their impressionable little minds. As I near the end of my service I'll be spending most of my time wrapping up all of my projects, so it will be up to future volunteers to water them and re-enforce the message.