European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 04, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday september 4, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 9 we had to get used to almost everything by Don Tate staff writer leprosy polio tuberculosis yellow fever malaria blindness grotesque skin problems starvation and intes tinal diseases thai break the jaw to pronounce. All the mysteries of Medicine arc abundant in and around Pesti Lence plagued Gao Mali where epidemics sweep through the hordes of refugees like wildfire. Where sanitation is virtually unknown or ignored. Where if a child reaches 6 he is Likely to survive for awhile because he s already had about everything there is to have. Fifty percent or More Don t reach 6. Thanks to chief warrant officer Bill Doc Brooks an army physician s assistant and Sec. Lyle Voight an army medic accompanying the team of . Army Engi neers to Mali the team a my out of the desert sometimes holding their bellies but o her Wise looking in pretty Good shape. One of the members of the team got meningitis. Others got strange headaches unknown fevers and re current diarrhoea. They drank a spectate like water. They also drank water water Gallons of water and virtually swam in pools of their own sweat because of the torrid heat which broke 140 on occasions and turned them As Brown As the land. Here is Brooks account of the trip. The worst thin was when our Cook got meningitis. We managed to get in touch with the american embassy almost 500 Miles away in Bamako and they got a real Brave Pilot who came into Gao with its Short run Way and absence of lights at night. We lighted up the runway with smudge pots and Little lights and the Pilot came in Here and landed and by the next morning we bad our Cook in a Hospital in Nigeria. The doctors in Gao Aren t exactly what you would Call real doctors. In the Hospital surgery room there s blood All Over the alls and Gore All Over the floor. In the paediatrics Ward the Beds Are grass Mats on the floor. If mama does t come in and feed baby baby does t eat. For our Guys we had to be sure and keep them out of the River. You can get anything in that River. One minute the natives Are going to the bathroom in the River and the next minute they re drinking out of it. We got our water from the River but we chlorinated it and filtered it and everybody still got malian revenge. If we ate anything in Gao we took antibiotics for the next five Days. This place must have a billion flies. If you went to the hotel what they Call a hotel and ordered a drink you looked Down and complained hey there s a Fly in my drink a few weeks later you went Back and a Fly landed in your drink and you just fished it out and went on drink ing. A few weeks after that you went in that hotel and ordered a drink and said hey where my Fly there was one Little broken Down club in town. You had to hold your nose in there. You had to step Over people asleep or sick on the floor. It was called be de Sert. It had a native band that played one song. Over and Over. We had to get used to almost everything. The filth. The refugees living in tiny rag and Burlap and Straw huts they could t stand up in. Got used to seeing them sleep ing on the ground or a mat flies crawling All Over the children in their food what there was of it. No matter How bad it got they were always Friendly saying Cava Cava meaning How is in How docs it go even when it was going terrible. And lord it could be terrible. When we first got Here they Relief agencies were feeding the kids and making them eat right there on the spot. Because if they took the food Home daddy was going to take it from them. Daddy was hungry too. You ought to Sec what these people will cat. They la Butcher a Goat and the kids will get the Bones and dig the marrow out. They la gnaw on the Bones like a dog. This is a place where the kids fight the dogs for the Bones. Parents Don t worry what their kids Wear. If the kids find some clothes they la put them on. If they Don to they go around naked. It s sad. If i had to live like these people i d kill myself. We Hao to try to get immune to it. Sometimes 1 would look at them and i would just have tears in my eyes. It s going to be a big culture Shock for us when we get Back in Germany and see All the people eating. Filling their Mouths with food. All of us lost a lot of weight 15 to 30 pounds. I think a lot of it was sympathy pounds. 1 had a hard Lime eating for  time but not misery has passed area by by Don Tate staff writer Vicki Zimmerman is a Baptist missionary who along with her missionary husband David has been in Gao Mali for six years living close to the people. Here is her Bleak View of the situation in an area that time but not misery seems to have passed by. The Relief agencies Are trying but what the children Are getting is just enough to sustain life something like 470 calories a Day. Unless there s a red Cross worker there to watch the feeding what the hired local people give out is very very Little. They give the kids a Little bit and keep the rest aside for themselves. It s been estimated that 50,000 people out of maybe 100,000 Here Are famine victims. One problem is that they Are being issued mostly Corn instead of Rice. They Don t understand it. They Don t know what to do with it. They Don t like it. The refugees Are mostly nomads. They arc herders not Farmers not City dwellers. They have Only the clothes on their backs. They Don t like the City but there s Noth ing left for them in the desert. They went from Oasis to Oasis Well to Well in the desert with their livestock until their animals All died from Lack of water. The Wells Are dry. When their animals arc gone they have no Means of is photo by Don talc Leslie Northrop left talks with Bill Brooks.  photo by Don tale Vicki Zimmerman Speaks with a desert Nomad. Livelihood. They have no Trade. They can t go Back to the desert without their animals. Now they arc just stranded. Their whole Way of life has changed. Thousands of them Don t know where to go what to do where to turn. The farming people Are almost As bad off because the niger River has set record lows the past two years. When the River is Down they have no water to irrigate their Fields. The rain is better this year but that s not saying much. The last two years have been the worst famine years in the history of this country. There is no Way of knowing How Many died because they Don t Register them Don t keep records As we do. The cemeteries Are full so they just take the dead out into the desert and Bury them. We know 350 people personally people that we be had Contact with who have died As a result of the fam Ine. That s just one Small group. We saw 50 people in one Large extended family die within a two month period. And you can multiply that Many Many times. Is it from starvation or disease people come to our door every Day and we see the sickness and the suffering and the people growing weaker and weaker and skinnier and skinnier and who knows exactly what they re dying of they get so weak a cold can kill them. From our Vantage Point we see what is being done and we Sec How very much More needs to be done photo Lor s8.s by Sec. Leto Voloni Cao once a City of Kings and a major caravan trading Center at the Edge of the Sahara now looks like Little More than huge disorganized refugee Camp