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Yassah helped on the mural project in Fissebu. She was also my housekeeper while I stayed at the Zorzor Rural Teachers Training Institute. I knew that several of the volunteers who painted my mural had some kind of connection with Ebola. However, it wasn’t until the mural was actually completed that I felt comfortable enough to ask Yassah about her experience. But, before I get into that, I think I should tell a little about the virus. Ebola struck Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia with little warning. Medical professionals in West Africa had not been trained to combat the virus or care for its victims. Until they received proper training, doctors and nurses were among the early victims of the virus. Ebola is spread by any and all body fluids including saliva, blood, vomit, urine, stools, tears, sweat and breast milk. A person with the virus is highly infectious even after death. Although the person may be dead, the virus isn’t. In order to stop the spread of the disease, family members in Liberia were told not to touch their loved ones if they died. Special teams with protective clothing were to be contacted for removal. Bodies of the victims were cremated. The main symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, diarrhea and vomiting. Victims may also have weakness, loss of appetite, nausea, sore throat, difficulty swallowing, joint pain, hiccups, muscle pain, fast breathing and abdominal pain. The symptoms can begin between two and twenty-one days after exposure to the virus. Washing hands is one of the most important ways to stop the spread of Ebola. If your hands come in contact with the virus, it can enter your body through your eyes, nose, mouth or any broken skin surface. So, touching your face with the virus on your hands, could be fatal. In addition to washing hands, people who treated Ebola patients needed to wear thick rubber gloves over inner gloves, boots, head coverings, face masks, face shields and protective gowns. Special procedures were required for removing these safe-guards to prevent infection after examining Ebola patients. It goes without saying that there was widespread fear during the outbreak. Education helped to stop the virus. My Liberian friends who worked for the US Embassy told me that they received special training to help keep them safe. They, in turn, took the message out to their families and friends in the community to help save lives. I came to Liberia to paint murals with “Ebola survivors”, but the term was broader than I first understood. There were some victims who had the virus and survived. But, the term “Ebola survivor” also extends to the family members left behind to deal with the after effects of the outbreak. Of the twelve people selected to work on the mural project in Zorzor, none actually had the virus. But, there were “Ebola survivors” working side by side with me on the mural. Among them were two young brothers who lost their parents and now lived with their uncle. There is no way I’d ever ask two children any questions about their deceased parents. Instead, I tried to shower them with positive attention and I went to their home to make chocolate no-bake cookies. Yassah said that five people in Zorzor contracted the virus. They were sent to a special treatment facility closer to the border of Sierra Leone. Only one of the five survived. In the village of Fissebu, nobody contracted Ebola. Unfortunately, her brother, who lived in the same village, was exposed to the virus when he went to visit his uncle in the capital city, Monrovia. He was the only member of her family to die from the disease. When the outbreak was declared over last year, I never once thought about those left behind. Their lives were forever changed and now mine is. |