Ilze Henderson Oral History

Interview Transcript
	   
This is an interview with Ilze Henderson on July 13, 2006, at the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, about her
involvement with the West African Smallpox Eradication Project. The
interview is being conducted as part of a reunion marking the 40th
anniversary of the launch of the program. The interviewer is Alicia Decker.


Decker:     What I thought would be an interesting way to begin is for you
           to just briefly describe your early life, some of the major
           factors or influences that affected you as you were growing up.
Henderson:  That's a question that's hard for me to answer. I was born in
           Riga, Latvia, and my life was very normal until age 7. Then the
           world fell apart. Now we call it genetic cleansing. It was
           Soviets shipping out people to Siberia. They just missed my
           family, so we had to flee to my grandparents, to the country.
           But that was the first time I realized that you can't depend on
           anyone. Then the war started. Finally, we fled to Germany and we
           stayed there, in southern Germany, until the war ended, and then
           spent 5 years in displaced persons camps.
                 We came to the United States. Immigrants are sponsored.
           Well, our sponsor had become a drug addict, and he was losing
           his own job. So we managed. Finally, my father got a job in
           Milledgeville State Hospital, the largest hospital in Georgia,
           if not anywhere else, and,despite being a surgeon, he became a
           psychiatrist.
                 Then I went to the University of Georgia, degree in
           pharmacy, and worked here in 1965, met Rafe Henderson [Ralph H.
           Henderson]. And he went off to Africa for a while and came back,
           and we got married in May of '66.
                 In October, we went off to Lagos, in Nigeria.
Decker:     Wow! So you were married in May 1966, and then in October 1966,
           you moved to Africa.
Henderson:  Yes, yes, we did.
Decker:     Wow!
Henderson:  And I started a journal.
Decker:     Oh, wow.
Henderson:  And I can't stop it, so I've been doing it ever since then.
Decker:     Forty years.
Henderson:  Yes. An interesting part is that we left Atlanta October 13,
           1966, and then we had the weekend off because the plane to Lagos
           left from New York. So we did this wonderful trip, well, Pan Am
           to Dakar, Roberts Field, stopping every few places, and we
           arrived on October 19 in Lagos. It was hot, humid, colorful,
           smelly, I'm saying. We got there at 2:00 pm, and we were very
           tired. The weather was hot.
                 We were provided with USAID [U.S. Agency for International
           Development] houses, which was like living in Florida, and we
           had a cook and a small boy and a gardener, a night watchman, and
           day watchman. So that's where it started.
Decker:     Wow! Did you write in your journal every day?
Henderson:  Yes. And this is 4 years on 1 page. Now I have 1 year on 1
           page.
Decker:     Wow! So, as newlyweds, what was the motivation for you and Rafe
           to pack up and to move to Lagos?
Henderson:  Well, he was an EIS [Epidemic Intelligence Service] Officer,
           and he came to Atlanta in July '65, and he did the usual EIS
           things. And then there were a couple of people, Mike Lane [J.
           Michael Lane] and Larry Altman [Lawrence K. Altman], who were
           already in West Africa, and I guess Larry was coming back. And
           they needed somebody else. So they said, "Do you want to go on
           this smallpox-measles thing?" And so Rafe did. He came back and
           married me.
Decker:     And when you got married, did you know that you were going to
           be going off to Africa, or was it a surprise?
Henderson:  Oh, yes. No, it wasn't a surprise..
Decker:     Was this your first time to Africa?
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     How much notice did you have between finding out that he wanted
           to go to Africa and your actually leaving? Did you have a lot of
           time to prepare mentally, physically, emotionally? Or was it a
           very quick transition?
Henderson:  At that age, you don't care about those things. You know,
           "Let's just go."
Decker:     Just do it.
Henderson:  Yeah.
Decker:     That's great.
Henderson:  I have a scrapbook in the meeting room where we got briefed.
           And we got French lessons, of course-we were going to Lagos,
           which is English-speaking. We got lists of things as to what we
           were supposed to take that's supposed to last us 3 years, as if
           we were going to the end of the world. Anything and everything.
           That was a summer of preparation.
Decker:     Okay. So it's just a few months.
Henderson:  Yes, July to October.
Decker:     So, then, what were some of the greatest challenges you faced
           upon arriving in Lagos?
Henderson:  The heat. Humidity. Not knowing where anything was; different
           money; the new languages being spoken around you.
                 Oh, and also, looking back, one flies a lot and one has
           colds in Lagos, and we had colds, and we had viruses, and we had
           diarrhea, and we had trots. In the 30, 40 years, I've only had 3
           bad attacks of diarrhea, whereas my husband had a lot more. And
           other people. I mean, in this group . . .
Decker:     Healthy bunch?
Henderson:  No, no. We had to take what we called Sunday-to-Sunday
           medicine, which is chloroquine every Sunday. One of our group
           said one of the side effects is going deaf, and Margaret Grigsby
           [Margaret E. Grigsby] did. Of course, now we don't take it
           anymore because it's not good. I mean, they said it developed
           resistance, so you had to take other things. It wasn't ever a
           normal life for me. We started the morning with salt pills,
           vitamins, and aspirin (because we rode around in trucks a lot
           and we got shook up).
                 The program covered 25 countries in West Africa, and
           everybody did not start work at the same time. There was a lot
           of travel for the regional office and people coming in and going
           out to the bush. So, we lived in Lagos, but it was mostly to
           regroup and wash up and then go out again.
                 What was real different with me was that we didn't have-we
           don't have-children, so if we had enough money, I could go with
           Rafe, and that was fantastic.
                 That s ort of subnormal life lasted until the end of April
           of '67, when Don Millar [J. Donald Millar] sent a cable saying,
           "You're supposed to be in Delhi with Dr.Lyle  Conrad and  Dr.
           Gordon Reid  to put out the smallpox epidemic in India,  like
           yesterday." (We called Conrad "Conree" because we combined the 2
           names.)
Decker:     So this was in May of 1967.
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     So you had been in Nigeria for less than a year. Right?
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     From October '66 through May '67. And then you went to New
           Delhi?
Henderson:  Yes, because, seemingly, India was out of smallpox vaccine, and
           theirs was the kind that you apply with a rotary lancet, which
           is really an instrument of torture. But D. A. Henderson [Donald
           A. Henderson] from Geneva had said that "we will give you all
           the vaccine you want, but you have to use the Ped-O-Jet." So he
           said, "We're going to send 3 people from CDC-Atlanta to
           vaccinate India."
                 Well, it turned out that that was the sort of
           demonstration project, vaccinating a whole lot of people like
           the police and the school kids. They were  all  already
           vaccinated, and that was what we did.
                 When they sent the vaccine, they forgot to include the
           diluent, and the first demonstration project too! Many of the
           public health people had been saying, "This is a test and it
           doesn't hurt." Well, the vaccinees were all cringing and
           grabbing their arms because the vaccine was reconstituted with
           water and not saline.
Decker:     Oh, because it was freeze-dried, and so you had to reconstitute
           it with saline.
Henderson:  So they had to make their own saline, and from then it went a
           little better. And it was pre-monsoon.  It was very hot and dry.
           .  Whereever we went, we were given tea or Orange Spot or Pop
           Cola or Pee Cola,  which tasted not so good, but, you know, it
           was liquid.  India  had thrown out Coca-Cola
.  So I think we survived that and came back to Atlanta for debriefing, and
that was one of those wonderful flights, like New Delhi, Tehran, Ankara,
Istanbul, Rome, New York. And we rushed from 1 plane to another and got
back to what was the Sheraton Emery back then. I think it was like a 33-
hour flight or something, so exciting.
Decker:     And when was this?
Henderson:  It was June 4, 1967. The next day, we had breakfast in the CDC
           cafeteria and lunch at CDC, and we slept a lot, and we're awake
           at 3:00 in the morning.
                 And the war in the Middle East was starting, and RFK
           [Robert Kennedy] was shot in L.A. And I guess we had a little
           vacation for some reason. Then, on June 23, Rafe went to Lagos,
           and I stayed here for some reason. And then, in July, I went
           back to Africa. And then the Biafran War started.
Decker:     So July 1967, you returned to Lagos.
Henderson:  Well, no, to Accra.
Decker:     To Accra first, and then Lagos?
Henderson:  No. I can't remember the date of the start of the Biafran War,
           but it looks like that was a time when dependents could not go
           back into Lagos because it was too dangerous. Although there was
           only 1 small plane that tried to bomb Lagos, and that didn't
           work too well.
                 So then Rafe was given or asked for a job to do
           assessments of the different programs in West Africa program. So
           I don't think I got back to Lagos. ..
                 This was really wonderful. This was sort of like camping
           out forever. But I didn't get back to Lagos for a long, long
           time, to the point where it was becoming financially difficult
           because we had to pay for my tickets, and Rafe was sort of at
           wit's end and saying, "I'm just going to quit because this can't
           go on." And then they said, "Well, do some more assessments,"
           and that worked out okay, and that was really a lot of fun in
           Niger and northern Nigeria and western Nigeria.
                 And the trucks breaking down. The Dodge trucks were
           guzzling gas and were not made  for the roads that were there.
           There was a trip from Niamey to Kaduna on which I think we broke
           like 5 things on the truck. Usually it was just washboard roads,
           you know, so you were really shook up all the time. But near
           Kaduna, there was a paved road or asphalt. But the truck was so
           bad that we couldn't hold it on the road, so we had to drive 2
           tires off the asphalt and 2 on. And by the time we got to
           Kaduna,, we drove up to Hogan's house  and they couldn't
           recognize us because we had red dust all over. Really fun.
Decker:     How exciting!
Henderson:  Yes. In western Nigeria, the assessment was during rainy
           season, so we got stuck coming and going. There's a picture
           downstairs where Rafe is crawling into the Dodge truck through
           the window. We went to a village-this famous survey where you
           pick out the village and you check people in  their houses  for
           vaccination scars. So there was this nice road, and then we got
           to what looked like a puddle, but it was big ruts, so we got
           stuck. And the villagers came and looked, and they said, "For 2
           pounds, we'll pull you out," and they did, and we were very
           thankful. We came back, and we got stuck again in the same
           place.
Decker:     Fifty pounds.
Henderson:  No, five.
Decker:     Oh, my.
Henderson:  And just some fantastic meetings of the emir of Yelwa, which is
           on the western part of the country. People were fighting over
           their land or their churches or whatever, like last year. But
           the emir back then, I guess he was 40, had been to Oxford, but
           he still wore his robes.
            In Yelwa, there were these fantastic markets, where all kinds
           of people gathered and we did market surveys. I helped a little
           bit, to look at arms. And the first group was usually the
           butchers because they were the first ones in the market. The
           meat was all raw, and ever since then, I really like it well
           done. And they were very accommodating. It was a cold  early
           morning, so the people wore many layers, and you had to stand
           there, and the aroma of the meat was overwhelming,  until  till
           they took  off  all the layers of clothing so we could see their
           arm with the vaccination scar. But other people then started
           coming. The busiest time, I guess, was between 11:00 and 2:00,
           when the sun is at the hottest. And most of the different groups
           didn't mind showing their arms. Except we met some ladies. Now
           we'd say they were dressed in leather miniskirts with cowry
           shells. I don't think they had spears, but they had some kind of
           a weapon. And, of course, they wouldn't, certainly, let us look
           at their children. And they didn't talk to us, and we knew not
           to ask if we could take their photo because they were really
           tough.
Decker:     Was this in Yelwa?
Henderson:  Yes, the Yelwa market.
Decker:     So you were really on the front lines with Rafe the whole time?
Henderson:  Yes, I guess partially because of the Biafran War.
Decker:     So you got to see everything that he got to see?
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     Instead of staying isolated in a compound somewhere.
Henderson:  With air-conditioning.
Decker:     How interesting. You're my kind of woman. I like that; I
           definitely like that. So, some of the challenges. . . Did you
           have to learn how to fix the Dodge trucks yourselves?
Henderson:  No. They did.
Decker:     They being the men?
Henderson:  Well, you finally had to rely on the driver because the driver
           was the most competent. I mean, some of the people who went,
           like Rafe, could kick the tire and look under the hood. Although
           once we broke down in a rubber plantation in Sierra Leone or
           Liberia. There was this feeling that we'd been losing brake
           fluid, and eventually the brakes didn't work. So what they
           discovered was that the Dodge was designed where the brake-fluid
           line was right next to the engine block, so of course when you
           shook on the washboard roads, it eventually would rub a hole in
           there. So, what do you do?
                 Well, we had a first-aid kit which had cotton, and we
           found some thin rope somewhere, and we said, "Well, that won't
           do. But, look, there's a rubber tree, with rubber." So they got
           some rubber and cotton, and then they wound the twine or the
           rope around the line, and it held for some time.
Decker:     So you bit off part of the rubber tree, chewed it off?
Henderson:  No. The rubber itself, because they tapped the rubber tree.
Decker:     Oh, and it's like syrup, it's sap.
Henderson:  It's like chewing gum, almost.
Decker:     That's right. That's a great story, that's a great story.
Henderson:  All true.
Decker:     So, when you went back in '67, back to Lagos finally, that's
           when you started traveling around the region?
Henderson:  No, it was before that. It was from the time after India, after
           Atlanta, and then we started traveling.
Decker:     Okay. And then, after the travels around the region, you came
           back to Lagos?
Henderson:  Yes. And it was nice to meet all the MOs [medical officers] and
           the OOs [operations officers] everywhere. There was something
           about Jay Friedman [Jay S. Friedman] bellowing for his driver
           named Benson  , who was supposed to come pick him up. The driver
           finally showed up and he said, "Well, my watch didn't work,"
           which was not  exactly right. . .
                 And in western Nigeria, I think we did part of the
           assessment iduring the war with Biafra, so there were roadblocks
           everywhere, every few miles, manned by the local police and
           usually drunk soldiers. And they didn't get along among
           themselves very well. And there was, of course, a curfew.
           Wherever you were going, you had to be there by 7 pm. So when
           you get stuck in mud on the road and you can't quite get out . .
           .
                 We had 1 very uncomfortable checkpoint stop where the
           police and army were arguing with each other. We had to take
           everything out of the truck, and they went through everything.
           And I think one probably wanted a little gift, and  they
           couldn't agree, until Rafe finally said, "This is an American
           Embassy vehicle, and I need your names because I have to make a
           report," so that sort of stopped them. And they thought a bit
           and they said, "Look, just go on."
Decker:     Oh, so you were in an embassy vehicle, or did you just make it
           up?
Henderson:  No. Well, I guess, you know, USAID is part of the government.
Decker:     That's true.
Henderson:  And the embassy is our thing in the country, so, yeah.
Decker:     Clever, very clever. So, what were some of the challenges of
           working with your local country counterparts? I mean, you talked
           about some of the physical challenges of living in Africa. What
           about the interpersonal relationships with the Nigerians?
Henderson:  The regional office was regional, so the Nigeria program was a
           country program.
Decker:     Oh, okay.
Henderson:  Dr. Foster [Stanley O. Foster] and Dottie [Dorothy Foster] were
           working with the Nigerians, so we really didn't interact with
           the Nigeria program.
Decker:     Oh, you didn't. Okay.
Henderson:  Well, at dinners and receptions. And I'm sure Rafe had some
           interaction, but that was a big program. Nigeria is a big
           country, so it was Dr. Foster who did it. Well, whenever we went
           to a country, we'd stay with either the MO or the OO. It was
           just wonderful: an exhausting day and a delicious dinner and
           fall in bed.
Decker:     So your husband was the regional epidemiologist? Is that
           correct?
Henderson:  He was Deputy Director of the regional office. And George
           Lythcott was the Director. And Don Millar was the counterpart
           here in Atlanta, and then D. A. Henderson in Geneva.
Decker:     Okay. Were you and your husband actually administering
           vaccinations yourselves, or were you supervising teams that were
           doing that?
Henderson:  I didn't. I took pictures and observed the ambiance.
Decker:     Have you written a book, published a book?
Henderson:  No. This "Any Year Diary" I am holding,  is my book.
Decker:     It sounds like you have amazing  memories.. . .
Henderson:  The OOs and the MOs were all epidemiologists. So when Rafe went
           to a country, he'd make a checklist as to whatever was going on
           and the problems, the accomplishments, the unsolvables, all
           that. And , we all  would volunteer , sometimes, to be
           vaccinated. I've been vaccinated so much. So that was my only
           involvement.
Decker:     Okay. Can you describe a typical day, or was every day
           different?
Henderson:  Every day is different.
Decker:     Every day is different. So you were always moving around?
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     So, then, was it difficult, I suppose, to form attachments with
           local friends?
Henderson:  Well, not in those years in West Africa because we were all
           friends. We were all like a big team. No, that was no problem.
           It was a unique experience and situation.
Decker:     What are some of the things that you or your husband would have
           done differently, looking back on the program today? I mean,
           obviously, it was a great success. But are there any elements
           that you would have changed if you could do it again?
Henderson:  Probably the orientation wasn't that realistic. But in any
           travel, they give you a sheet of things that are supposed to go
           on, I mean, and it doesn't really. And I don't think anyone can
           really know, unless they send someone to do exactly what you're
           going to do and they come back and they report. But their report
           sometimes is very different from what really goes on on the
           ground.
                 Back then there were no emails. Phones didn't work very
           well. I think if you'd called from Lagos to Cotonou-which is
           like, what? an hour away or so?-the call went from Lagos to
           London to Paris to Cotonou because the French had their system
           and the British had their system. And there were no satellite
           phones, of course. The mails were not reliable. So communication
           is always a problem. And when there's that breakdown, people in
           Atlanta had a different idea of what was going on in West
           Africa. And, of course, we thought the Atlanta people really
           didn't care much about us. That's putting it politely.
Decker:     Yeah.
Henderson:  And we had broken equipment. I mean, the trucks just weren't
           meant for West Africa. There were many times the Land Rover had
           to pull us out. Just to get spare parts . . . And there was a
           time we broke an axle-I mean, everybody was breaking axles, and
           it happens on a washboard road out in the middle of nowhere. And
           finally somebody comes by and pulls you into a town, and then
           you get a         cable from Atlanta saying, "Well, 3 months to
           get a new axle."
Decker:     And what do you do?
Henderson:  Well, you can raid another truck, that kind of thing.
                 And, when Atlanta  came to West Africa, but it was rather
           ceremonial. I mean, they came for, I guess, the ten-millionth
           vaccination and the twenty-fifth million.
Decker:     I read about the ceremony that they had,
Henderson:  That was very good.
Decker:     They had a big observance: they vaccinated a young girl.
Henderson:  Yes. I was there.
Decker:     Could you describe that day or the event?
Henderson:  Oh, it was fantastic! Other than hot. It was a little bit up
           from Accra, so maybe it was higher, so it wasn't so humid. But
           all the chiefs were coming in. Each chief was under a ceremonial
           umbrella, of course, just red and gold-I guess Ghana used to be
           called the Gold Coast. These umbrellas were like what we have on
           our patios. And, of course, the chiefs were preceeded by the
           bearer and the person who carried the paramount chief's insignia
           and all that, and then probably a praise singer. Finally they
           got seated, and somebody had to hold the chief's arms because
           they were so weighed down in gold. And then we all sort of filed
           by and shook hands. And that's when the visiting  cards were
           exchanged.
            And the drumming and the dancing! There was a group of women
           who pulled my husband into their midst and formed a sort of a
           circle, and I think they took turns dancing with him. I'd better
           not describe them, but they liked my husband.
Decker:     So it was a big event.
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     And the folks from Atlanta, like Dr. Sencer [David J. Sencer],
           flew in.
Henderson:  Millar, Dr. William  Stewart,  the Surgeon General of the
           United States, then.
Decker:     Oh, right.
Henderson:  And here are just wonderful pictures. [she is showingpictures]
Decker:     That's the Ogden book that you're showing me?
Henderson:  Yes, it is. It's the 10th anniversary.
Decker:     Okay. I just got done reading that book.
Henderson:  A letter from Billy Griggs is saying, "Sorry that you couldn't
           be with us," December 2, '87. And then James Mason, the CDC
           Director, was talking about the smallpox warriors in a special
           exhibit.
Decker:     Wow! Is this a letter that you would be willing to photocopy
           and give to the museum?
Henderson:  Sure.
Decker:     Okay.
Henderson:  And this mentions, in the first paragraph,  the people who
           came. And here is a picture of the 3 instruments for vaccinating-
           the rotary lancet, jet gun, and the bifurcated needle. And this
           is where they're learning to repair Dodge trucks.
Decker:     So your husband was in one of photos?
Henderson:  Right there. And Bill Foege [William H. Foege].
Decker:     So you're all just young-young, fresh, energetic. That's great.
           What an experience. How many years total were you in Nigeria and
           the region?
Henderson:  Three.
Decker:     Three. So you came back in . . .
Henderson:  July of '69.
Decker:     '69, okay. So I read that Nigeria was smallpox-free by May
           1970. So you came back before it was completely eradicated.
Henderson:  Yes, because things were slowing down.
Decker:     Okay. It was just that final little pocket in Nigeria.
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     Okay. So, at what point did you actually think or believe that
           the smallpox would be eradicated?
Henderson:  Day 1.
Decker:     Day 1! So you were an optimist from the get-go.
Henderson:  Well, I think everybody thought that, except for maybe Millar,
           and,  D.A. I don't know.
Decker:     Did you recognize the magnitude of what you were trying to
           accomplish at the time, or only years later?
Henderson:  Well, it's a horrible disease, and to see what it was doing to
           the villagers. There was  one  village that we went to, with
           either Jean Roy [Jeannel A. Roy] or Andy Agle, that had a
           smallpox epidemic. I don't know how many died. And the chief
           felt so responsible for it, felt that the smallpox was his
           fault, that he burned down his house. And he didn't have very
           much to start with.
                 And in India we saw hemorrhagic smallpox, which is just on
           the skin. It's like having very thin skin. All the capillaries
           are just about to burst. The hospital in Delhi had a special
           ward for the people. It's an awful, awful disease.
Decker:     Was there an understanding among the folks on the ground of how
           smallpox was transmitted?
Henderson:  Well, not in those words, no.
Decker:     What was the local understanding of the disease?
Henderson:  If you go to the village level, it's just something that comes
           every year or every so many years. That's just part of life.
Decker:     Was it attributed to a particular god or act or witchcraft? Is
           there a way that people explained the disease?
Henderson:  Well, we really never got into it too much because you had to
           have several interpreters. And by the time the answer came back,
           it probably is not what was said at the end of the line. So I
           don't know.
Decker:     That's the anthropological side of me probing you here.
Henderson:  Well, Nigeria, or the Yorubas - Lagos, in Aboekuta, , Ibadan,
           had a smallpox cult that had been going for several hundred
           years probably. And maybe the priests or the Fetisheurs had been
           using variolation  because they didn't get smallpox. So they
           could say, "Well, I'm the special person, and the chief of
           smallpox, but if you give me some gifts, maybe smallpox will not
           attack you. There are 2 kinds of smallpox; with one, your skin
           will break out; with the other, your mind is affected. So a
           little gift would help. And if it doesn't, then I'll just take
           care of you after you're dead. But I will need to be paid with
           your possessions." The British finally outlawed the cult, I
           guess, in 1905, but they had some outbreaks after that. Shapona
           is supposedly the smallpox god. The Fetisheur has a little sort
           of a shrine where he has the god, a special smallpox pot, and
           bottles of gin and vodka and things like that. I have a history
           of the Yorubas that I bought in a market.
            We all loved markets. Other than checking for vaccination
           coverage, I mean, they're just vibrant places and had wonderful
           stuff. There's the medicine and the Juju [phonetic] part of it,
           and all of the different things you can eat from these huge
           snails that must weigh 3 or 4 pounds, dried rats, and all the
           delicacies.
Decker:     Were you able to partake in eating all of the delicacies? Did
           you tend to live an American lifestyle in terms of diet, or did
           you jump into the culture with both feet?
Henderson:  Well, what is that thing that CDC travel book says, unless you
           cook it, peel it, or  -you know, the 3 things-you don't touch.
           And, well, it's not comfortable to have a lot of diarrhea
           attacks, so one sort of watched. But we also went to the
           restaurants. The dishes I cook with  ground nuts, too, they're
           just wonderful. Curries, West African curry, just different from
           Indian curry, somewhat. Brochettes of things, frog's legs,
           shrimp, barbeques. In northern Nigeria, they had too many
           peanuts, so the hogs were fed on peanuts, so that was a very
           good.
Decker:     You can tell it's close to lunchtime now. I'm talking about the
           food.
Henderson:  Well, yes, the food. And then, of course, there was English
           food, which wasn't so great. But the French, Lebanese, was just
           wonderful stuff. I was going to say that we should have tried
           more-well, we did, we did, but we didn't eat things off the
           street. I didn't think that was the best. And even then, I got
           diarrhea. My first diarrhea attack occurred in Accra, between
           the jet-gun demonstration in January and the 25th millionth
           vaccination. It was bad, and I took too many Lomotils, and I
           think I slept probably a whole day.
Decker:     Did you have major illnesses while you were there or just
           mostly routine diarrheas?
Henderson:  Diarrheas, colds, feeling, I guess Brits say, seedy, lousy.
                 I think my husband probably had typhoid fever between Lome
           and Niamey. Maybe that's why he left me somewhere, and he went
           off to Lagos. But, well, I guess it was Niamey where the Peace
           Corps doctor had this big book of tropical diseases. I went down
           to look in it to see what he could have because he'd been
           treating himself, thinking he had malaria and he didn't. So he'd
           be okay one  day, and the next day he would be just shaking.
           There was a nurse who said, "Well, I've met some typhoid people,
           and sometimes they just jump out the window, it's so bad." But,
           luckily, the Peace Corps doctor had Chloromycetin, so Rafe got a
           dose of that, and I think I got some, and he recovered.
                 Well, at that age, you don't think that health is that
           important. I think it's only after retirement, that that sort of
           hits people, things that should have been looked at before, like
           prostate cancer, colon cancer. I don't know if anyone had lung
           cancer in the group. But back then, we were invincible.
Decker:     During the time that you were actually in the field, were there
           moments that you had regrets or feelings such as, "What am I
           doing here? Why did we do this?"
Henderson:  No.
Decker:     No regrets. That's fabulous, that's fabulous.
                 So, it seems like such a silly follow-up question, but in
           what ways did this experience as part of the project for these 3
           years change your life?
Henderson:  We got sent to Geneva, Switzerland, to WHO [World Health
           Organization].
Decker:     Oh, okay.
Henderson:  So we got back here in '69. Then Rafe got 2 more degrees, an
           MPH and an MPP [Master of Public Policy] from the JFK School.
           And then he came back to Atlanta, and he was given several
           projects. One involved blood in labs, I think; I can't remember.
           There's some blood network. It's not the Red Cross. And then Dr.
           Sencer thought that we should get some taste for how Washington
           is run, so we spent the summer there. And then we came back and
           Rafe started supervising the Venereal Disease Division.
           Eventually, the name was changed to Sexually Transmitted
           Diseases, and the list of diseases enlarged from just 2-
           gonorrhea, syphilis-to all the others, ending with unwanted
           pregnancy. Guess one shouldn't talk about that. And that lasted
           from '72 to '77.
                 And in January of '77, Dr. Sencer said, "WHO needs an
           American to create the Expanded Program on Immunization for WHO,
           so do you want to go?" So Rafe said, "Oh, yes," and he spent the
           month of January in Geneva justifying why he was capable of
           doing it and why he would want to do it because WHO had many
           experts, over 50 or so, because they'd done everything and they
           knew everything, and then this young American comes.
Decker:     And Rafe was in his 30s, right?
Henderson:  Yes. And so, finally, they said, "Well, okay." I think D. A.
           Henderson was coming back, and that created the slot. And Rafe
           came back, I think, the end of January of-this is not the book;
           I have another book.
Decker:     You must have a line of books in your house.
Henderson:  I do, yes. I think I'll have a bonfire or something.
Decker:     No. You should donate them.
Henderson:  Yes, well.
Decker:     It depends on your secrets.
Henderson:  No. Most of them are in a code.
Decker:     Oh, that's good.
Henderson:  But it was a Saturday, and, Rafe was in Geneva. Back then CDC
           was smaller.              . Jane and Dave Sencer were really
           taking care of everybody and supervising and giving wonderful
           dinners.   Dr. Sencer came back from Washington. And this was
           after the swine flu problem. He'd been up there to brief Hale
           Champion, who was Undersecretary of Health and Human Services,
           Health, Education and Welfare, I guess. Dr. Sencer had been
           briefing him, and he was about to go out the door, and Hale
           Champion said, "By the way, you're fired."
Decker:     Wow!
Henderson:  So Dr. Sencer came back, and there we were all going to have a
           nice, joyful party, and that certainly put a damper on things.
           A few days later, Rafe came back, and CDC decided he could still
           go to Geneva, and they gave us a month to pack up and go, and we
           did. We went for 2 years, and the contract was renewable every 2
           years, so if WHO and CDC were happy with Rafe, and Rafe was
           happy, it was renewed. So we stayed for 23 years.
Decker:     Oh, my. Are you still there? No.
Henderson:  No. We came back October 1, 1999.
Decker:     Wow! What an exciting life!
Henderson:  And the interesting thing is that, after the smallpox program,
           there were all these - in the states and other places.  WHO
           turned out to be a place that had abbreviations for everything
           and they called  the  Expanded Program on Immunization EPI. ,
           The old smallpox people  were very valuable, so they were coming
           through EPI all the time. So smallpox and EPI sort of runs
           together to me, and I can't tell sometimes who's who.
Decker:     They view your experience in one, not into the next experience.
Henderson:  Well, the OOs and the MOs, that's what they did. They were
           valuable in running vaccination programs. So they had this
           expertise that WHO didn't have.
Decker:     So WHO needed them for their next thing?
Henderson:  And, well, Jean Roy is still running around doing that, and he
           works for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, whose
           headquarters are in Geneva.
Decker:     I understand that you're trained as a pharmacist?
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     Do you practice as a pharmacist?
Henderson:  No. I retired in July of '66.
Decker:     Good for you!    Had you practiced before you retired?
Henderson:  Yes. I was a pharmacist at Emory University  Hospital pharmacy,
           and I should have worked about 4 more months so I would get full
           Social Security, but I didn't, so mine is half of what my
           husband is.
Decker:     Wow. Did you ever feel that because you were going where your
           husband was going, you missed out on your own career?
Henderson:  No, because the West Africa experience was so unique. Who wants
           to have a 9-to-5 job if you can do that?
Decker:     That's true.
Henderson:  And then coming back here for a few years was very nice. And
           then the EPI experience. I think I said before that I don't want
           to travel. I've had it. And I don't want to go camping. The only
           places I haven't been, I guess, are South America and China,
           Mongolia. We had a big network of friends; some of them, as I
           said, were from the Smallpox Program and some new ones.
            I went to so many meetings. And I wasn't welcomed everywhere at
           the meetings. Finally, we hit upon Rafe's introducing me as his
           personal assistant, instead of as his wife. There was no problem
           with that because there were other people who took people along
           who weren't exactly their wives. But, no, that was fantastic.
Decker:     Wow. So you were definitely a member of the team.
Henderson:  Yes, in a sense as being a personal assistant, taking
           photographs. Well, I'm also sort of a people watcher, and it's
           wonderful to see the people, what they say and what they do and
           how they perform.
Decker:     Did you have an opportunity to learn any local dialects?
Henderson:  No. We weren't there long enough.
Decker:     You were moving around too much. Well, you've done amazing
           things.
Henderson:  I wonder if I've forgotten something I wrote down but no,
           probably not.
Decker:     One of my last questions was actually going to be whether or
           not you would like to add anything that we haven't discussed?
Henderson:  I think the EPI experience is interesting.
Decker:     The EPI is the one in Switzerland?
Henderson:  No, global.
Decker:     Oh, the global, okay. You'll have to forgive me with the
           acronyms because I'm on the academic side over here with
           historians. But what incredible opportunities you've had.
                 Is there a particular story that you can conclude with, of
           like the greatest challenge or the toughest moment or the most
           exciting moment?
Henderson:  All of those!
Decker:     And it all happened on 1 day.
Henderson:  Just about.
Decker:     Were you able to stay in contact with your family back in the
           United States?
Henderson:  Yes. At first it was just postcards. I have them on the
           desk.downstairs. And then I took home leave every 2 years. I
           would visit everybody for 2 weeks, and then collapse,
           emotionally, psychologically, and physically. And airplane
           travel isn't that great. But then it used to be better.
                 But 1 thing I forgot: Rafe and I developed a hobby that we
           both participate in. The thing is that it's a hobby that you
           have to do together. It's bird watching. It started in Lagos. In
           Lagos, it would be dark and all of a sudden it would be sunny.
           And then in the evening, 6:00 sunset.
Decker:     Yes, the 12-hour days.
Henderson:  So we would be woken up to this bird outside our window-well,
           our windows were closed, but it was loud enough. And the bird
           was saying, "Quick, doctor, quick!" and it kept on and on and
           on. And Rafe said, "What in the world?" Well, it was a bird.
           Luckily, there was a little book that we found, The Birds of
           West Africa, I think, and it had that bird in it. It was a
           common bulbul, and it's the Omar Khayyam's  nightingale. It's a
           nondescript bird, and it's not like the European nightingale.
           And then we saw all these other birds out there in the garden,
           and sure enough, they were in the book. They were all colorful
           and loud and great. And from then on, we started birding, and
           now we do that.
                 We always had been members of the Georgia Ornithological
           Society. They have a spring meeting and a fall meeting and a
           winter meeting in different places in Georgia. So now that we're
           back here, we're going bird watching and we meet these
           unbelievable people who just know what's what and hear a sound,
           and they say, "No, that's not it. That's what that is."
Decker:     So you traveled the world and found .
Henderson:  Yes, but this is just in Georgia. In August, we're going to
           Jekyll, Tallahassee, Kennesaw, Columbus. We don't do all the
           canoeing and kayaking, and we're not that good, because each
           continent has different birds, but we're learning.
Decker:     What a fun hobby.
Henderson:  Yes. Oh, the thing is that if you see a bird and you say that's
           what it is, well, someone has to agree with you, so that's the
           hobby that we can do.
Decker:     And do you ever fight over it?
Henderson:  Yes.
Decker:     And who's right?
Henderson:  This spring, he was. He saw an orange-crowned warbler, and you
           can't see a crown and it's not orange, but that's what it was.
Decker:     That's great. So Africa comes back to you again. Well, thank
           you so much.
Henderson:  Well, thank you.
Decker:     Thank you for your stories, thank you for your time. You're
           just a firecracker.
Henderson:  Yeah, on vacation.
Decker:     Yeah, well, that's great. So thank you for your time.
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