Health education ... it'll take a village.

Submitted by Michaela Sholes

Ben and I had the opportunity to observe a local community pull in their fishing nets from the sea. About mid-morning, we noticed individuals start pulling on the lines that led into the sea, but didn't think much of it as they were rather far off. Over the course of the morning, we found that there were in fact two groups (one on either side of us) and as they continued pulling the lines in, were getting closer and closer to where we were sitting. By the time they had pulled in the lines to within a quarter of a mile from the shore, it was almost noon. They would take short breaks, but continued to work together at what obviously hard work.

It wasn't until this point that we began to fully understand and appreciate what we were witnessing. People seemed to come from everywhere to help. The young, the old, everyone in between...those who couldn't physically pull helped by directing where to put the ropes and nets after they were out of the water. As more people appeared to help, we noticed that they were singing a song to help them keep rhythm, thus keeping from stepping on each others toes (no easy feat when there are more than 50 people on each rope!) . We were fascinated by the way the entire community comes together to achieve this task, everyone pitching in for a common goal that they will all benefit from.

How much then, will they be able to achieve when they are pitching in for the benefit of everyone's health? If only it were that simple...