G.L.O.W. Girls

A couple weeks ago I attended my first G.L.O.W. Camp. Its an event that's put on by Peace Corps every years for girls 13 to 18 to teach them women's empowerment. Each volunteer brings two girls and a teacher from their respective villages. Then everyone spends one week at the camp while the volunteers talk about HIV awareness, family planning, sugar daddies, boyfriends, and planning for the future. Its only a start to what these girls need to learn, but in just one week you could see these things making a difference in the girl's lives and attitudes at camp. It wasn't all just sitting there learning. We also played sports and games, did arts and crafts, and danced. I helped another volunteer do her health talks. We made a great team I would say. Since we are both health volunteers we did health talks on: puberty, the male and female anatomy, family planning, and quickly discussed pregnancy. This next term we are supposed to go back and create a G.L.O.W. Club in our schools. A lot of these tend to fail, but I have high hopes for my school. The teacher I brought was the most active in the sessions and I could tell that these topics were also very important to her. The girl I brought, Matilda, doesn't speak much English and I think that was part of the reason why she was so shy in the beginning. But it was great to see her come out of her shell and start interacting with the other girls. She came alive when it was time to play sports. It was really a fantastic thing to watch.

The Whole Glow Camp!

Megan and I doing our health talk.

The girls playing sports. Matilda is the girl in the skirt running (front right)

World AIDS Day

This one is a little old. I'm trying to catch up on some blog entries.

December 1 was World AIDS Day. I wanted to have a celebration in my village. So I set up a football tournament (with the help of my clinic officer) to have the championship game play on World AIDS Day and all the other games played the proceeding weeks. Then I went to the school asking them to work on several skits and traditional dancing. Then I was going to do some health talks with my counterpart Gilbert. I wanted all the entertainment to come from the village. To show them that this celebration is something that they are able to do in future years. My village also had a few VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) counselors to do HIV testing. The event was going to take place on Sunday 1 December in the afternoon, after church.

The day of the event things didn't go as smoothly as planned. The two teams that won the semifinals showed up....then two more. Turns out that due to communication problems two other teams showed up ready to play. So we had to completely change the program and squeeze in two football games instead of one. Then only the traditional dancers showed up from the school so no skits were done.  Then my counterpart finally let me know that he was playing in the football tournament and didn't want to do the health talks because he was worried that if he had done the health talks and his team won people would claim that there was fowl play.

I quickly found a new translator and gave a few health talks and tried to make sure people knew why this event was happening. Then I was busy checking up on everything: the counselors, traditional dancing, and football tournament. Despite the challenges things went smoothly and I heard a lot of positive feedback from my villagers.

Nighttime Blues

So it's 10 PM. I've been asleep for about 2 hours. I woke up to the lovely melody of the dog scratching at the door. I let the dog out then figured he had a good idea. Sometimes, a pee bucket is a great thing. I hate those late night trips to the chimbu. Right after I crawled back into bed, just as soon as I was drifting to sleep...dude...there was something going on under the bed. The cat was catching a mouse. Oh yeah! I almost grabbed my headlamp to look under the bed to watch. I'll be honest its cool to see. Like national geographic but on a much smaller scale. Almost looked. I'm not sure why I didn't actually. Some reason. But then the fight moved out to the main room. I was up. Things were getting heated. Let the games begin! My headlamp. My spotlight for tonight's events; bestowed something that sent a shiver running down my spine. Not only my cat was on the hunt. This was a joint effort. A cat and dog team. Each taking their turns nipping at tonight's intruder...the deadly snake.

Because pictures say a thousand words...

This is where I draw water.

There is a river and waterfall only an hour or two bike ride from my village.

Pious and I found a lizard. You can find lizards everywhere in Zambia!

This is a huge crocodile that I saw at a crocodile farm in Livingstone. You can find crocodiles in the wild in Zambia, but they're not common where I live.

There's a few pictures! I hope you enjoy. I'm going back to the village for a few weeks.

Three Blind Mice

Taking my afternoon nap I hear "Ba Hidine! Ba Hidine! Mulefwaya rat?" Miss Heidi! Miss Heidi! Do you want a rat?) Words that have started becoming all too commonly heard these days. I stumble out the bed and make it to the door. Blink once. Blink twice. Mwila and Bright are holding a rat proudly into the sunlight. Sure that I would buy today's kill, which I have to admit, is a lot bigger than their usual fare offered. Only 1 kwacha! A steal. Sadly, I have to turn them down. "Nshekwete 1 kwacha." I respond in my rudimentary Bemba. Their faces hid no astonishment as they slowly lowered the mouse to their sides. The whole time repeating my answer. Discussing them amongst themselves. Truth is: I'm a regular customer. Rats are commonly enjoyed in rural Zambia. All over the world. My cat seems to love them. He enjoys every one.

Left a good job in the city

Just another typical week in the village. Tuesday morning I woke up motivated and determined to get some programs started. So I went to the school, the clinic, and to see Ba Annie. Nothing. Defeated I went and home and did some stuff around the house. My iwes wanted to help...well...really they just wanted popcorn. But they brought me some water and swept the yard, etc. As helpful as they try to be; they really add more stress than anything.

Wednesday ended up being a bit more fruitful. My main counterpart, Gilbert, came to see me. I hadn't seen him since February.Turns out he was in driving school all that time and just never told anyone. Then in the afternoon I went to the clinic and the clinic in charge bought me a leg of goat from a man walking around selling them out of a mealie meal sack. Delicious! And a nice treat for me and my family. Really...Americans never really eat goat. We're missing out you guys. Also I tried my hand at grinding millet by putting the millet in between two stones and moving the top stone back and forth. Does this make sense?

Thursday I made a program at the school for next week. A friend is going to to a condom demo for the boys and talk about HIV. I'm really excited to have him and I think he'll do a good job. Then I went to the clinic to pass out Vitamin A and de-worming tablets to all the kids and I watched them cry as the nurse gives them shots. Bwahaha!

Stomp

Picture yourself, sleeping, dreaming, maybe you're dreaming of a bountiful harvest. One that will feed your family and provide for your basic needs. Upon waking, you first look at your children; still sleeping peacefully in the cool mornig air. You do your best to provide safety and comfort to your family with what little you have. Your sling shot rarely leaves your side; incase a snake should intrude and you have dogs to protect while you're away. Yet, your children lay there, night after night, exposed, perfect prey for one of Africa's sneakest killers. The Anapholes mosquito. Unfortunately there was no net distribution this year. And after school fees, not enough money to buy your own. One of your children, your youngest, wakes with a fever and headaches. Malaria. You walk the 9km to the vlinic with your child slung on your back only to find out they are out of malarial drugs. There is nothing that can be done. Sadly, you walk the 9km back home. No food or water. The malaria spreads, becomes cerebral. Luckilly your child recovers, but develops brain damage. A future gone; with just one insect bite.

You may think this is an extreme situation. But things like this happen all the time.Just yesterday, at my clinic, we had to send people home, untreated. Because we were out of malarial drugs. There was nothing we could do to help them. And no transport out of Misengo until Monday. So it will be Tuesday before the drugs are available at the clinic. I would say; this time of year, during rainy season; an average of 80% of the patients we see are diagnosed with malaria. Some of them walk further than 9km to get treatment.

Malaria is caused, primarilly, by the Anapholes mosquito, which only comes out between midnight and 6 AM. This is why nets are so helpful in preventing malaria. There is also IRS (indoor residual spraying) where the health department will come and spray all your houses with insecticide (DDT) to help repel mosquitos. This needs to be done once a year, at the start of rainy season. Realistically, this is not always an option.

The most susceptible to malaria are pregnant women, immune compromised individuals, elderly, and children under 5 years of age. Others have built up an immunity to it. Most of the cases we see at the clinic are children under 5 years. Malaria has an incubation period of 9 days before you show any signs of sickness. The signs of malaria are: fever, chills, sweats, headaches, nausea & vomiting, body aches, and general malaise.

Malaria is a serious problem in Africa. 90% of all malaria related deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. How will you stomp out malaria in 2013?

.Stomping Out Malaria in Africa is a Peace Corps initiative that uses strategic partnerships, targeted training Volunteers and intelligent use of information technology to support the local malaria prevention efforts of over 3,000 Volunteers in sub-Saharan Africa. For more information go to www.stompoutmalaria.org and follow Stomp activities at http://www.facebook.com/StompOutMalaria.