4/10/08, Against Malaria, Sasha

I interviewed Lucy, my sister’s nanny, about malaria. She grew up in Honduras, where malaria was a big issue. My mom and I worked together to figure out how the tape recorder worked. When we finally figured it out, I sat down and called Lucy on speaker phone. The interview went for about 15- 20 minutes. I would say that it went well, but she may not have been the best person to interview because she has never gotten malaria, and she knows no one personally who got malaria or died of it. Also, she doesn’t remember that well from when she was little and she lived there. She did remember some things about malaria, though.

Lucy said that what she knew about malaria was that it was a very bad disease that gets started by a mosquito. It bites you, and you get very, very, sick and sometimes die. She said that she remembers it being a big problem when she was little, even though she wasn’t directly affected by it. She said that she knew a guy that worked in the sanitation department there. He would go into villages and talk to people about how they could prevent getting malaria. He would also go into peoples houses and spray their houses with insecticide so that the mosquitos would die if they came inside. I asked her how it was for her now in Honduras when she goes there for visits. She said that she and her son, Justin, have to take malaria pills in order to be safe. She said that she remembers her mom talking about it being a big problem now. I also asked her what she knows about the epidemic going around now. She said that she saw a big thing on the news about how it is a huge problem in Brazil.

That was what Lucy could think of or remember about malaria, and it was alot. She definitely helped my expose, even if someone else may have been able to help more. Interviewing helped the cause of defeating malaria because now, I know a little more about it, and when I tell others about the problem, I will be about to tell them more. The more people know, the more they will be inclined to do something about it. I think that next, I will either sell more stuff, or hand out flyers around the school talking about malaria and what the reader can do to help.