New Girls Hostel

Yesterday was a big day for the community of Macha. It was the official opening of the girls hostel at Francis Davidson High School. Unlike most high schools in Zambia which are boarding schools, Francis Davidson is a day school. The students who come from far away must find their own lodging, and this leaves the female students particularly vulnerable and their enrollment and academic performance are much lower than the male students. Also, their drop out rate (often due to pregnancy) is much higher. The teachers, students, church and parents have all expressed the need for a place for the girls to live for years. Typically this is not the type of project that MCC helps with, but they kept asking, statistics were produced and the female students wrote letters about their experiences and their need for a dorm. The funding was raised from three groups of people.  A large BIC church in Canada called The Meetinghouse, several BIC churches in Pennsylvania and friends in Winnipeg. The project was finished on time and within budget. The PTA made all the bricks locally in the community. You could sense the ownership of this new building.

Lots of government and church officials were present for the several hour ceremony. A tent was even rented for the guests of honour to sit under. Parents and teachers found shade under a few trees, but most of the students were out in the sun. There was singing, traditional dancers, many speeches, a ribbon cutting ceremony and a tour of the hostel. When it was all finished they served all the guests lunch. It was an exciting day.

There are still some finishing touches. The outdoor kitchen needs to be built for the girls to do their own cooking. A house for the matron needs to be built and a good water supply connected. Mattresses and curtains are still missing, but some of the girls are moving in on Monday. The entire hostel which will house nearly 60 girls (only three toilets and three showers to share amongst them all!) cost $40,000.

Over the last few weeks, as I have mentioned the opening of the hostel to people in conversation, several of them, especially women leaders in the community would comment on how needed this hostel is and what a benefit it will be for the girls. There are over 200 female students at the school. The girls had to apply for a place in the hostel and a committee of about 6 people (teachers and church leaders) chose the most needy (usually those from farthest away with no family locally to live with). Hopefully the benefits of this new hostel will be sensed soon, you can already sense sighs of relief.

Not a Good Patient

So, I was down sick this week, again. I think this is the third illness that has caused me to miss work since I have been here.  My co-workers are all very understanding and tell me I need to be home resting, but I have a hard time, sometimes listening to what my body needs. Thankfully, I am able to do some work at home on my computer since I am involved in a lot of data gathering and management. I had a cold that started about 10 days ago. Able to work the first couple of days, rested over the weekend, went to work Monday (a mistake) home Tuesday and Wednesday, back Thursday (sent home by my co-workers) and stayed home Friday. My energy is finally picking up today, Saturday. I guess it is just a whole new germ pool that I need to get used to and build up some immunity to. Mentally it is a challenge for me to be ill. A true test in patience and grace.

There were some good things that came out of the week. I was able to read most of two books. Shake Hands with the Devil, about the Rwandan genocide and failed international/UN attempt at stopping it. Not light reading, but an eye opener. Then I am almost finished with Unbowed, the autobiography of Wangari Maathai the late 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner who started the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. She has lots of perspective and insight into the Africa of today and what has contributed to it's state in today's world. I had known of her briefly for her environmental work, but she is an all around inspiration of peace and justice in the world. In seemingly simple grassroots ways, she connects all the important pieces of the puzzle to the complex world we live in today.  As one of the first African women to receive a Phd, she used her opportunities for the betterment of her country and the world and stood up nonviolently to some pretty powerful people and institutions along the way. What a loss to this world her premature death was. I highly recommend this easy read. Fun fact for those of you from Kansas City, Wangari went to undergrad at Mt. St. Scolastica in Atchinson, KS in the 60s and worked at the lab in St. Joseph's hospital in Kansas City during the summers.

I also was home one day when Bridget, a woman from the village of Lupata stopped by selling her beautiful hand made baskets. The quality was excellent. I couldn't believe when she told me the price of just under $3 US. These baskets would have sold for $60 or $80 in the States. She understood enough English to tell me where she got the grasses/reeds (from two different neigboring towns) and to tell me that it takes her two days to make each one. Once my Tonga is better I hope to visit her at home and learn more about basket making. I paid more than the asking price for the basket I bought.

I also have been cared for by my neighbor Jaeron who has been bringing me food here and there and just checking in on me.Which is very sweet of her considering she has to listen to my coughing all night ( she and her husband share a duplex and a bedroom wall with me).  One day, she hollered through my window "Lisa do you want to go on an adventure?" She had a big butcher knife in her hand and led me to the banana grove in our backyard. She had spotted a bunch of bananas that the birds were getting to so she had me do the honors of cutting down the whole plant to get to the bunch. They have ripened beautifully and I am sharing them with friends.

Maria, Patricia and Racheal

I want to tell you about three new faces for me. I will start with Maria. I was taking a walk one evening through the dry brush near the water tank when I heard pounding and conversation so I turned off my path and found Maria and Naomi sitting on the ground with legs out in front of them pounding away at white quartz rock turning it into piles of golf ball sized pieces to try and sell. They had old feed sacks wrapped around their chitenges (colorful wraps women wear here as skirts) to protect them from the flying rock shards. Both Maria and Naomi had to have been in their 60s. Luckily Maria's English was pretty good, she even pulled up from her memory the word slab when I asked her what the rocks were used for (the concrete slab which a house is built upon). I have also seen them used in landscaping/mud removal or prevention around buildings. The rocks are natural in this area, sticking out where erosion occurs and just needing someone to dig down and break off big pieces or pull up large rocks.  Maria worked at the hospital for 27 years before retiring. She was using a sledge hammer and Naomi was using some old piece of metal from a vehicle of some sort that had a heavy head. I shivered to think of the shock their hands, wrists and arms were absorbing which each blow of the hammer against the rock. Maria told me it took them three or four days to make a heap and they could sell it for about $12 US. I thanked Maria for answering all my questions and let them get back to work. I keep meaning to go back (with my camera) and visit again, but I have not made it.

Patricia is a 12 year old seventh grader who loves to read! This is a rare thing in Macha. She quickly moved on from the children's story books I have and is borrowing some old children's encyclopedia's that were in the house when I got here. She borrows one at a time and usually brings them back the next day. While here, she often picks up some of the adult books on the shelf and browses through them asking what certain words mean. Winter, precious and souls are a few that come to mind. She also likes to look at my map of the world. She seems to be a sponge for new information. Patricia is the youngest of three girls I also am one of three girls. From there our similarities part. Patricia's father died four years ago, her mother three years ago. I am assuming from AIDS, but I have not asked. Patricia was raised in the Copperbelt an area in the Northwest of the country where the primary language is Bemba. When their parents died, the girls were split up. Her oldest sister now 17 is in Kitwe with friends. Her other sister 15 is with an uncle in the town where they grew up. Patricia was sent here to live with her grandmother. It is just the two of them in their home. She says they get along. I have not met her grandmother yet, but hope to soon. Patricia seems to mentor some of the younger children around and so far is a young twelve, not trying to grow up too fast. I look forward to getting to know her better these next few years.

Finally I want to tell you about Rachael, the most vibrant one year old I have seen yet in Zambia. Rachael's mother has hiv, and we had called her in because her last CD4 count was under 350 indicating it is time for her to start full HAART, a three drug regimen that she will be on for the rest of her life. Because she is still breastfeeding Rachael, this is even more important. As the head ART nurse was talking to mom and explaining her lab results and the next steps, little Rachael was wiggling and smiling and clapping and flirting with me.   Rachael has been taking Neveripine daily since birth and a daily dose of prophylactic antibiotic since six weeks of age. She was due for her one year hiv test.  I carried Rachael next door where the testing takes place with mom close by. Thankfully she tested negative. I just could not get over how active and engaging Rachael was. Most babies that age are pretty stoic and observant around here. Rachael's love of life was contagious and we were all laughing at her at some point. Mom is not married, but you could tell this baby was getting lots of love. I asked the nurse to ask mom who all lived in their house. Sure enough, mom still lived with her parents. So this little one had three adults to love her up, and it showed. So many kids have stressed out parents with many to take care of, you could tell this little one had lots of one on one attention. I hope I get to see more of her.

Back in Macha

This is my fifth day back in Macha after six weeks of travelling. It sure feels good to be home sleeping in the same bed, no longer living out of a suitcase and with no plans to go anywhere in the near future. My time away was full of many good things but the pace was beginning to wear on me.

I did some informal tallies of the six weeks that I was away from Macha. I was in four different countries (one in transit) and 20 cities/towns (5 in transit) While traveling between these different places, I road 19 times in a personal car, 16 times on a train, 10 times on a bus, 8 times on a plane and 3 times in a taxi. Most of that with luggage. Besides my 11 nights at orientation in Akron, I did not stay more than 3 or 4 nights in one place. Too frequently it was just one night.  As I say, I'm glad to be home.

There was a wedding while I was away, and one funeral that I have heard of. There was a 100% pass rate of the national nurses exam by the students from the Macha Nurses Training School. Apparently I missed the worst of the cold season while I was away. Things are much drier than when I left. The temperatures are very pleasant after 100 degrees plus humidity in the midwest, but the heat is on it's way.

I must tell you that I also passed the foreign trained nurse exam, which is great news! I don't have to repeat it in November. I still had to get a temporary work permit as the certification from the General Nursing Council will not be out till the end of the month. I need that certification to get my permanent work permit. I was only given 7 days upon entering the country this time, but went to immigration the next day and procured the temporary work permit. We were hoping to avoid that additional cost, but it was not to be. At least I am able to be here legally and work.  I need to report to immigration in Choma each month until my permanent work permit comes through. I will just try and time it with shopping trips.

So my first day back at work there were important "visitors". People from the Ministry of Health and Boston University/CDC were checking in on our PMTCT work. Apparently they advised us of their visit just a few days before. We actually did quite well, considering that there was a register that had not been updated in the last six months due to a turnover in staff and most of us not being aware that it existed. I have been given the job of getting it up to date. It was a good visit with myself and Mrs. Mabeta, the new charge nurse of MCH (Maternal Child Health) learning alot.

Here in Zambia, patients tend to carry their patient file with them. Just like in the States parents are given immunization cards for their children, here, pregnant women are given antenatal cards that they bring with them to each visit, children are given "under 5" cards, women receiving family planning are given family planning cards, etc. In the general outpatient department patients just have small notebooks that they buy from the hospital ($2 for adults, $1 for children) where all visits and prescriptions are written. Except for inpatients and ART (hiv) patients, no file is kept on record at the hospital. Instead, we have registers (log books) where this information is kept. My observation is that the cards have the most accurate information, which on one hand is good so that when the patient shows up here or at another clinic, the needed information is at the ready. There is no need to look it up in various registers (under 5, safe motherhood, pmtct, integrated mother/baby, family planning....you get the picture). However, the registers are big, bulky and cumbersome. Often you are seeing both mom and baby and so need to write in two, 3 or 4 registers and all those steps don't often get followed through on due to time constraints or someone else using the register etc. So, when it comes time to do a report or gather statistics, the information is not at hand, because the registers aren't up to date. At this meeting the importance of good documentation was reinforced by the visitors. We can't prove we are doing the work if we don't have the documentation. So, we are going to work on improving that.

I had a good meeting with the nursing officer Miriam after our time with the visitors. We have roughed out a plan of where I will focus my energies for now. I told her I want my work to be useful, sustainable and enjoyable. She also is concerned about the sustainable part, not leaving a hole when I leave. It is good to know we are on the same page there. We have come up with three main areas for me to focus on. Helping MCH with better documentation and follow-up of  hiv+ mothers and their babies. Working with the ART clinic's database of exposed babies. Helping with the monthly and quarterly statistic gathering for PMTCT.  I am still pulling together a schedule, and I hope to include going out into the villages 2-4 times a month with either MCH or ART.

My Time in the States

Well dear followers, I obviously did not get around to posting while in the States. I do apologize. Time was fuller than I expected and I focused my energy on being present to those I was with.

Orientation was a good time to reconnect with a few, meet new friends and make connections with those who will also be in Africa, and put faces to the names of staff in the North American offices. There were 29 of us in orientation from Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Congo, Egypt, Mexico and the US. We were headed to work in Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Uganda, US and Zambia. Hopefully I will get a chance to visit or have visits from some of the folks in Central and East Africa. I have the advantage of living only three hours from Victoria Falls, a common vacation destination on the continent.  

MCC had kindly allowed me to stay in the States for a planned family vacation in the Black Hills in honor of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Originally, there was a week between orientation and my family trip. Orientation was shortened, and the airlines bumped my flight to the States ahead by one day, so I was able to squeeze in several visits to dear friends on the East Coast I had not seen in awhile.

The easiest east coast friends to visit were Sue and Kevin, formerly members of Portland Mennonite Church, now living in Akron for the past several years. Sue works for MCC, so I saw her frequently throughout orientation. She was my go to person. It was great to spend time and catch up.  I also went to their house for dinner one night and got to catch up a bit with Kevin.

Before orientation I was able to visit my friend Corbin and family. Corbin and I met through SOAW and helped start the Catholic Worker together in Portland. We hadn't seen each other in about 7 years. We walked about Troy, visited a nearby Peace Pagoda and mostly just hung out, played games and caught up. It was so great to meet 11-month old Riley.

The weekend after orientation I spent at Cape Cod with Cole, a friend from Holden whom I had not seen in a couple years. The weather was so pleasant after the heat and humidity of Akron. We walked on the beach, went to a wetlands, walked about the village of Barnstable where Cole's parents live, and visited Provincetown one evening.

Then it was off to NYC where I was able to see my friend David who is now living in Brooklyn. David and I worked together for MCC Work and Learn Teams after the earthquakes in El Salvador in 2001, and hadn't seen each other since. He was my life saver during that stressful six months. David and his family met me at Penn Station on their way home from church and helped me navigate my way to my Aunt Jan's apartment where I would be staying. We visited over pizza and I played hide and seek with the kids before they headed back home.

The next day I met up with my dear friend Julia at Grand Central Station. Julia is a Maryknoll sister who has served the last 4+ years in East Timor as a high school teacher. We also met through SOAW and had last seen each other in 2007 when Julia had visited the Catholic Worker. Julia was in the States on renewal, and the Maryknoll headquarters are just outside of NYC, so we were blessed to have a few days of catching up. We walked along the High Line (a park created on an old elevated train line), explored Central Park and even took a day out of the city to hike at Bear Mountain State Park. Ran into some Appalachian Trail thru hikers and had fun talking trail with them.

Then it was off to the midwest for time with family. Over the last few months, my Dad has developed bad back pain caused by stenosis of the spine which has become quite debilitating. He must now walk with a cane and any movement causes pain. He has a good attitude, pointing out that he has much to be grateful for, 73 years of life without any pain till now. Surgery is scheduled for Monday August 21, we pray that it will be successful and he can have some relief from the pain and return of mobility.

My dad's health meant the family vacation to the Black Hills was cancelled. Instead we all convened in Kansas City where my parents live and then went down to the Lake of the Ozarks and hung out as a family there for a few days. It was not the trip we'd planned, but we were able to be together as a family. We even tried to take some photos, but my youngest nephew was not in the mood to cooperate.

My niece and oldest nephew will be in college when I return. One nephew will be nearly 13, the other in double digits (ie 10) and the youngest will be in first grade and reading. Three years may not be long in an adult life, but children change so quickly. It was good to have some time with them.

With MCC's consent, I was also able to stop a night in London on my way back to Zambia. No, not to see the Olympics, but to see my friends Kath and Steve who I had worked with in El Salvador back in the early 90's. The last time I had seen Kath and Steve, I held their newborn son David who is now in university. We had stayed in touch over the years mostly through their Christmas letters which I would usually respond to by letter or e-mail. We avoided London and instead hung out around their village of Hassocks. Steve and I walked about the countryside around the South Downs one day and Kath and I went to Brighton and the seashore the next day. The countryside near their home is beautiful, with some lovely old windmills. We had dinner with their daughter Anna and pulled out all their photo albums of El Salvador and reminisced.

I am a person rich in friendships. I am grateful for them all. I thank each of you for the chance to reconnect and for hosting me along the way. May it not be so long this time before we meet again.

Leaving for the States

Just a quick post to let you know that I am still here and well. Today I head to the States for a few weeks. I will participate in MCC orientation in Akron, PA and get to see several dear friends while on the East Coast. Before heading back to Zambia I will spend time with my family to help celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Then on the way back to Zambia I will stop overnight in London to see friends I worked with in El Salvador 18 years ago!  It will be a busy few weeks. I am looking forward to seeing everyone, but there are things here I will miss.

I will miss the termite hills. I will miss the people standing outside on the hospital lawn warming themselves in the sun on these cool winter mornings. I will miss the flowering trees on my way to work that gift me with something beautiful and sweet smelling to carry with me during the day. I will miss the children at the preschool very near this flowering tree that always greet me on my way home for lunch with a chorus of numerous shouted “how are you?” or recently “how are you today?”. This is one phrase that school age children through out the country learn, as greetings are very important in Zambia. The standard response is “fine, how are you?” I know I will be getting odd looks back in the States when I respond in that way. I will miss the fresh bananas, lemons and papayas from my yard. I will miss the glorious singing at church. I have finally bumped into all three of my favorite singers there and have been able to tell them how much I appreciate them sharing their music with us each week. I will miss the women in their chitenges greeting me with a big smile, hands together and a little curtsy and the men with their hands to their heart. I will miss the the left hand supporting the right arm  whenever giving or receiving something from someone or when shaking their hand. These are all signs of respect which I find very endearing and have readily adapted. I will miss the mild weather and the beautiful skies and sunsets.

I feel that I am getting a better picture of what my work may or will be. It is not crystal clear yet, but it is coming into focus. I believe a time to step away from the information I have gathered and look at it from a distance will be good.  It may give me some insight into how to go about achieving the goals of my job description. At least I hope so. Relationships with the key people I will be working with continue to grow and that is important. My Tonga is still in need of plenty of work. At times I wish I could have a couple months of direct language study without working at the hospital but hopefully I can manage to language learn and work at the same time. It is going to require more self-discipline than I have had so far.

These last few weeks I have had a circle of friends with which to hang out with during off hours. They have all been a blessing for me during my weeks of frustrations with adapting to the new culture and work. They, have listened to me vent and encouraged me to play and helped me to get out to the villages and connect with the people. They will all be gone upon my return to Macha. A shout out to Esther, Fiona, Rachel, Kylie, Stiin, Sarah, Andrew and Allister.  Thanks for the fun times. Stay in touch.

I hope to continue posting while in the States about discoveries and learnings from Zambia.

ps I am going to try and attach a photo to the Village Visits post of the choir in their blue uniforms I spoke so highly of.

Bike Ride to Bulebo

I was so excited to return to Macha and be here a whole month before having to leave again. My week, though, had some frustrations, mostly around work, so I have been working on self-care and staying focussed.

My position is a new position, and we are all trying to figure it out. No one is really my direct supervisor, and figuring out what my job will concretely be is largely up to me. There is a general goal, but how I go about that is not clear. I am creating my own way. I have of course been in and out as has the nursing officer and now another key person who I have been trying to sit down and meet with is out all this month. I would like to spend more time in the ART clinic and the nurse in charge of ART agrees with this, but he will be out all next week and it needs to go through the nursing officer first. This week the acting nursing officer was dealing with alot, including the senior nursing students doing their final clincal exams. So I will try and find a time this week to meet with him.

In the meantime, I have been sitting in front of my computer a lot, dealing with data. I also have been trying to pin down a time for a Tonga lesson without success. Thus the need for self-care.

I borrowed a bike for a ride one evening, went for a walk with a friend to the dam another evening. I have been trying to visit people. I harvested my lemon tree Saturday morning (with a few scars to prove it) when the power was out and took bags around to various people. A few of us got together to play a game the other night and some friends had me over for dinner last night. Community is always important. This is the first time I have lived alone in many years, and though I enjoy it in many ways, I have to be more proactive in socializing than when living with others.

Yesterday afternoon Fiona, a Scottish doctor here for three months, and I took a three hour long bike ride out into the bush. It was a great afternoon. With minimal Tonga, no road signs or maps, but a great sense of adventure,  some food, water and sunblock,we headed out. We were really hoping to make a loop. It was quite funny because after riding through the tall grass and past several villages we had very different opinions of where we were in relation to Macha hospital, but we just laughed and kept going. The people we met, who spoke little more English than we spoke Tonga kept telling us we had to go back the way we came to return to the hospital but we kept continuing on, thinking there must be a way to loop back on one of the many village paths. 

We ran into an older gentleman who asked if we were headed to the big bridge. That was exciting for us, because we had wanted to get to a river. So we headed that way, and soon found the bridge and a nearby bar with people hollering at us to join them. We smiled and kept biking. The river was not very inviting with it being the dry season and all. We got the name of the river and the bridge from people on the other side. On we went to a junction in the road with a sign for a school. We wanted to turn back by 4 in case we got lost. It was 3:30 and we decided to keep looking for a loop. Eventually we got to a village on top of a hill where people pointed forwards instead of back when we asked the way to Macha hospital. We did have to cross the same river, without a bridge this time, but it was way dryer in this spot with big sand bars and small streams of water we could step across and push our bikes through. We are guessing people were telling us to return the other way not knowing the height of the river at that crossing. Anyrate, we were quite pleased with ourselves for having found a loop.

Now that we were on the path home, we decided we would be up for stopping and visiting at a house if the chance presented itself. It soon did. We were biking past a house near the football (soccer) field in Bulebo when the women greated us and clapped their hands and said "come". So we went to sit with Grandma Mwaanga, her grandaughter and great-grandchildren and another woman and her child whose connection to the others we didn't quite figure out. The two older women were degraining maize and the younger woman was milling ground nuts in the traditional wooden mortar and pestle. Tonga stools were brought out for us, the bottom of Fiona's was a bit rotten and she immediately fell over which provided for lots of laughter. Grandma Mwaanga's granddaughter did most of the communicating with us. She has 6 children, 5 girls and one boy including two sets of twins. Six month old Choolwe (a common name in Tonga which means luck) and 3 1/2 year old Progress were at mom's side when we arrived. When we sat down, we were a bit too close for Progress's comfort and though she shook Fiona's hand and we tried to sit a distance from her, she still got up and walked away. Later in the visit she was back hovering close by, and even said something directly to me at one point, but I couldn't understand her. Then when her two older sisters Mavis and Natasha arrived carrying water, she was even more engaging. We never did meet Progress' twin Precious. We sat and helped the women finish with the maize. Took a few pictures and headed on our way. I was a bit frustrated not being able to ask simple things in Tonga. I hope to remember where the house is and go back for another visit when my Tonga is better.

Today I have stayed near home. Went to the big BIC church here in Macha. There is a trio that sings every Sunday who are just wonderful. The bigger choirs are wonderful also, but those three are something special. One day I will meet them and thank them for their powerful singing. I am blogging and journaling and still have some lemons to deliver. I also want to go visit the principal of the nursing school who helped me prepare for the exam to say thanks. Then I want to visit my Tonga teacher and try to arrange a new tutoring schedule. Tomorrow is Monday, and the beginning of a new work week. I hope it will be a bit less frustrating than the last. There is much to be grateful for.