Work
has really picked up for me in the last few months, which is something I’m
really glad about. I peg myself as a pretty lazy person, unless I have a set
and busy schedule. Being my own boss out here in the village, there is no one
to set my schedule for me, or tell me what to do. I decide what I do, when I do
it, and how I go about it. I work best when I’ve got a lot going on- that’s why
I always stayed busy with after-school sports or extracurricular activities and
multiple jobs throughout high school and college. That’s why I took 9 to 12
classes per semester, while working, interning, and volunteering, and graduated
college in 3 years. If I have too much time on my hands, no direction, I don’t
know what to do with myself, so I do nothing.
During
my first three “settling in” months at site, I spent numerous days in bed,
doing nothing but reading and sleeping. I plowed through books, got lost in
series, and barely set foot outside some days. I feel like, although I would
sometimes help at the clinic or attend an occasional meeting, I didn’t work at
all during that time period. I remember more seasoned volunteers would tell me
that work would pick up after In-Service Training, but I couldn’t imagine how
that work would pick up- like I’d
just cross some imaginary threshold one day and all of the sudden a bunch of
projects and programs fall into my lap, I have meeting to hold and work to do?
Maybe it was because I wasn’t confident enough yet; I was afraid (yes, me) to even
call my own meetings, or speak up about things that got my attention: things
that were unjust, or the inefficiencies of how my clinic is run, or the way
some of the staff would treat the patients. It’s hard to just sit back and
watch these things, and not feel as if it is my place to say anything about it,
because I’m just this white American bombarding in on how they’ve always done
things. Maybe it’s because I was still in the observation and reservation
stage, which is, essentially, where we’re supposed to be during the Community
Integration period. Anyways, after Community Entry ended and we completed out
In-Service Training, things did start to pick up and get rolling, and by April,
they really accelerated.
Back
in March, I traveled to Serenje, which is in Central Province, for a meeting
for Camp GLOW. Although it took me 19 hours and 6 vehicles to make it to the
capital city of Lusaka from my site, I did make it around midnight, after being
annoyed, hassled, and frustrated
by multiple Zambians. Peace Corps booked me a hotel room, and although I was
exhausted, I was captivated by having a shower and TV, so I didn’t get much
sleep. The next morning PC provided transport for us up to Serenje, where we
got to stay at the Central Province house. It’s always nice being able to meet
other volunteers from around Zambia, and hear about their experiences. The GLOW
meeting was a lot of fun, I actually had a blast. We all got together from our
individual provinces and discussed what has worked and what hasn’t worked for
us in running these female-empowerment camps across the country. I’m really
excited to help run and participate in our camp this upcoming August, and
hearing everyones stories brought me back to my youth, when I would be able to
go away to summer camps, make new friends, and learn new things. I’m excited
for the girls who get the opportunity to attend these camps, because it’s
definitely a rare and once in a lifetime opportunity for them to get out of the
village and experience something of this nature. After our one day meeting, I
hitched back to Lusaka where I got to stay at Peace Corps Headquarters so I
could see our medical officers. For the previous two months, my left wrist had
been bothering me, and I was sure that I had dislocated it, as it pained me
quite a bit and looked different when compared to my right wrist. I was sent to
see an Orthopedic Surgeon, who nicely informed me that my wrist was not
dislocated as I had thought, it was in fact broken. I have no idea how I broke
my wrist, I don’t remember any defining moment in which I hurt it, I just
remember it hurting me. In true Zambian fashion, they sent me to a medical
supply store at the mall, and had me buy myself a wrist brace. The doctor
informed me that I would have to wear the rigid brace for two months, my wrist
would take about 6 months to heal, and I’d probably have pain for the rest of
my life. Not exactly the best news, but whatever, I don’t really care. The only
thing is, is I’ve been wearing this brace for a month and a half now,
religiously, and I feel like my wrist has only gotten worse. I can’t even hold
my coffee mug, I can’t switch gears on my bike with my left hand, I can’t do
the simplest of things or lift the lightest of weight. Unfortunately, this
might mean surgery, which is not something that Peace Corps has said yet, but
if it doesn’t get better within the next month before I see them again (which
I’m doubting it will) I’ll be opting to have it surgically fixed, because this
immense pain is not something I want to deal with the rest of my life. And
while PC is my medical provider and pays for everything, why not handle it
properly, right? Aside from having my wrist examined, I was also finally
treated for the Staph- infection that was in my legs and riveting my feet with
massive wounds, swellings, and infections. It feels so great to finally have
[decent] looking feet again, but even better to be able to put shoes on again
and run!
On
my way back from Lusaka, I took a week long vacation and traveled to the
wonderful, magical world of Lake Malawi. Entering Malawi, even going just a few
feet over the border, was immensely different that Zambia. Infrastructure makes
a huge difference. The country, at least the part I was in, was significantly
cleaner than Zambia; their roads were smoother, faster, safer. We got into
Lilongwe, the capital, at around 7:15pm, and unfortunately the last bus going
to where we were headed left at 7pm, so we had just missed it. We had to stay
the night at a hostel, which I wasn’t bummed about, because I had been
traveling from Lusaka since 3am that morning. I was with another PC Volunteer
and 3 of my Zambian friends, so we relaxed at this really nice hostel for the
night. The next morning we finally (after many hours stuck on a crammed, stuffy
bus) made it safely to Nkhata Bay, which is a bay on Lake Malawi. We met up
with a bunch of other volunteer friends at Mayoka Lodge, and I was finally able
to relax. It was absolutely gorgeous. There were green, rolling mountains and
hill surrounding the area. The lodge was set right on the water, with grass
bungalow type housing, outdoor showers, and compost toilets. They had their own
garden, and an amazing array of delicious, fresh foods. We could snorkel, bird
watch, canoe, etc. all for free. I decided to check out the local PADI scuba
certification center, as getting scuba certified is something I’ve been wanting
to do, and I thought, “why not now?” So I spent 3 days doing the certification
class; it’s amazing to be able to dive down under water and take a breath, and
be able to breath without surfacing. With my wrist being broken, the instructor
wouldn’t let me do the deep dives, to keep from air bubbles forming between the
broken bones and causing pressure during the decent, so we did all of the
technical training and shallow water dives. Lake Malawi has the most diverse
amount of fresh water fish species, and you can see a ~7 minute clip of it on
Planet Earth: Fresh Water edition. I was happy to spend my days there at the
dive center and hours under water, and I’d take the lunch breaks to go down to
the beach and converse with locals, eating the fish they were catching right
there in front of me. One of the cool things about knowing Tumbuka, is that
it’s also spoken in some parts of Malawi and Tanzania. It was nice to have that
edge above the other tourists in the area, to be able to speak to the locals in
their language and know more about the culture than a typical tourist would. In
the evenings I would go back and swim with my friends, and we’d spend the nights
dancing away to drums and local performers. I’m grateful to live so close to
such an amazing (and amazingly cheap) place, and I can’t wait to go back when
my friend comes to visit this month!
Going
back to the village after being gone for about two weeks was definitely
refreshing. I came back a little more relaxed, inspired, and motivated to work
hard during the upcoming month, which was extremely busy for me. I’m not really
an incentive driven person, and I wasn’t in this case, but having a Peace Corps
Competition for Malaria Month really kind of gave me the push I needed to start
my work here. I took the contest and ran with it, not because I wanted to get
the most points for activities completed, but because it gave me ideas,
activities to do. We could get certain points for training a group about
Malaria, or performing a skit, or doing a radio show, a net distribution, a
blog, a status update, ‘liking’ the STOMP Out Malaria Facebook page, whatever.
I didn’t do these things for the points, I did them because they gave me an
outlet to teach; they made me really learn about, on a village level, how
Malaria was ravishing my community, and then do something about it. I was
skeptical about calling my first meetings with the Neighborhood Health Committees,
especially because all we hear about calling meetings in the villages here are
bad things. People won’t show up, people won’t be on time, people won’t be
interested. I was amazed by the support I got at each of my meetings. I have 7
different “neighborhoods,” each one consisting of about 10-20 villages, and all
within distances of 8km away, to ~20 km away. A lot of these are areas that I
had not yet ventured to, so I called my meetings in their areas, at a local
school, so I could get an idea of my way around, as well as introduce myself to
people who might not have seen, met, or heard of me yet. Not only did people
show up on time for my meetings, but some of the neighborhoods brought a
majority of their communities out, because they all wanted to meet me and hear
what I had to say. I used this opportunity to introduce myself, why I was
there, what the purpose and goals of Peace Corps were, and what I could offer
them- how we could work together to improve the health and livelihoods of their
communities. Then I went into assessing how their Neighborhood Health Committee
(NHC) was doing as an NHC, and to my surprise (but was I really surprised?)
none of their committees knew what their 5 jobs were, nor were they functioning
properly. I told them of the Peace Corps Malaria Month Competition, which
motivated them as well, and insisted that they could earn points by going out
into their communities and educating people about Malaria. Then I gave them my
Malaria talk, going over the life-cycle of a mosquito, how one acquires
malaria, the symptoms, treatment options, interventions, and dispelling of
common myths. At the end, each NHC was able to pass my True/False quiz about
Malaria, and I sent them on their ways to talk to their communities. I also
asked if they’d allow me into their homes, something taboo, to take pictures of
them or their families with their properly hung mosquito nets. I did not think
that I would succeed in this endeavor, but to my surprise, they were thrilled
to bring me in and show off that they had hung their nets and were protecting
their families. Once I entered one home and took photos, it was like dominoes
fell, and everyone in the village was running at me, grabbing my hand, and
leading me into their homes to take pictures of them and their nets. I was
honestly astounded by the number of people that actually had nets hung in their
homes, and had them hung properly; I thought the number of those using mosquito
nets would be staggeringly lower. Later, when I was in Chipata to assist with the
moving of our Provincinal House, I printed out all the pictures I had taken of
people and their nets, and hung them at my clinic as a “wall of fame.” My idea
worked out, and I have had numerous villagers ask me to come out and visit
their homes and take pictures of them and their nets as well. The purpose of
this was to inspire Zambians to hang their nets, because once their hung it
increases their chances of them using them, and Zambians love to have their
pictures taken. What better way to get them to do something, than with a little
incentive of fame?
My
month was filled, almost every single day, with Malaria-related activities.
Whether it was giving the health talks, reading my Malaria childrens book to
local kids, a 1-hour radio show all about Malaria, or working with the local
drama group to present Malaria informative skits, I never took a break. On
World Malaria Day I had planned, with my clinic staff, to hold a huge event,
much like the ones we’ve held for World Aids Day, Mental Health Day, etc. However,
due to the unfortunate and unexpected passing of my counterpart/clinic nurse,
we were not able to hold the commemoration at the clinic, because it is against
their culture to ‘celebrate’ where people are grieving with a family. They
moved the event to the school near my village, and not a single staff member
showed up, leaving me to organize and present the entire event, which I was not
happy about. It all worked out though; over 70 villagers showed up, including 3
local Headmen, the Group Headman, and the Chief. At the end, I did my standard
True/False quiz, which they all answered correctly and absolutely loved.
The
problem with development here is that, people love to learn, people want to
learn, people learn… but people don’t change. The major issue I face in my work
is the behavior-change aspect. That couldn’t be more apparent than in the loss
of my friend, sister, counterpart, midwife, and clinic nurse- Jessy Kalipe. She
was a health professional, who could recite to you everything about Malaria-
from the signs and symptoms, down to the exact breed of mosquito (Anopholes)
that carries the deadly parasite (Plasmodium Falciparum). She tests, diagnoses,
and treats tens of people for Malaria on a daily basis at our clinic. She has
access to our pharmacy, to our tests, to our drugs. And yet she died on
Malaria. To me that is unacceptable, that someone that educated, that
knowledgeable, and with that much access to prevention and treatment, should
die of a PREVENTABLE disease. So what’s wrong here? What’s not clicking? How do
I get people to change??? All that pops into my head is the Chinese Proverb:
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” I think that’s an
extremely challenging part of my job here; I can educate to Earths end, but I
can’t force people to change their ways. I can make them see the benefits of
changing, of a better life, a healthier life. But I can’t make them adopt those
practices. And that’s hard. And it hurts. Because in the end, am I really
making a difference?
I’d
like to think I am. I’d like to think that just me being here, living amongst
these people and like them, makes a big difference in their lives. I know it
makes a difference for all of the village kids, who learn English, peace,
acceptance, and a different way of doing things from me. I know it makes a
difference for my host father, whose eyes have been broadened and now see the
world and humanity in a whole new light. I know it makes a difference for
people that have casual conversation with me, and learn that America isn’t as
bad or evil, or great or perfect, as others have mystified and made it out to
be. And I know it makes a difference for people back home, who learn more about
another culture and way of living, through me. But the difference I want to
make here is a permanent one, one that will make people’s lives better because
they are healthier. Because they won’t be faced with the same diseases that we
were able to eradicate in America decades ago. That they will have near to the
same access to treatment and care as the rest of the developed world does. That
they won’t have to suffer from things that should be a basic human right.
Looking Forward:
The
idea I got from the Malaria Competition has really given me direction in my
work. I didn’t know where to start, and now I’m so overwhelmed with meetings,
programs, and things I want to do that I feel like I don’t have enough time to
do them all. I’m 1/3 of the way done with my service, but not even 1/3 of the
way done with things that I wish to do during it. I’ve taken the idea of a
“Malaria Month” and decided that each month will have a health theme that I
will focus on. During the month of May, I’m going to be starting my
mass-hygiene project. In May, I’m challenging all of my NHC’s to complete village
inspections throughout their neighborhoods. A village inspection consists of
going door to door and evaluating peoples home, essentially coming up with a
‘health score’ for each of them. They will fill out a form that starts by
asking how many people live in that home, how many are children under 5, how
many deaths they’ve had of children under 5, how many of the children suffer
from diarrhea, etc. Then it asks if they have a trash pit, a dish rack, windows
in their home for ventilation (Tuberculosis), and pit latrines. It grades if
they have gardens, fruit, what their water source is, how far their water is,
how clean their water is. I’ll take all the information they gather and compile
it into an Excel document, then create graphs for each individual area showing
what their ‘health scores’ are. The second phase of the project, which I hope
to complete during the month of June, will be encouraging people to start
digging latrines (toilets) and trash pits, to build dish racks and tippy-taps
(hand washing stations). Of course, there will be an incentive, because I’ve
learned that incentives and prizes are excellent motivators, and either the
village or NHC that is most successful will be given a Peanut Grinder, to make
and sell peanut butter as an IGA (income generating activity), or a
bike-powered cell phone charger.
On
top of all that, May is promising to be as much of a busy month as April was.
I’m starting NHC Trainings at my clinic, because, as mentioned earlier, I’ve
found that many of my NHC’s are not functioning, not functioning properly, or
just have no direction in what they’re supposed to be doing. I’ll probably end
up writing a post more specifically on NHC’s later, but for now I’ll say that
I’ve scheduled this program into 12 trainings, starting from scratch on how to
socially mobilize community members, form an NHC, and write a constitution, to
being able to find resources, plan advanced interventions, write grants, and
see projects come to fruition. The final meeting, of course, will conclude with
the bestowing of Certificates of
Completion, because Zambians LOVE to get certificates to prove they have been
educated in a certain realm. Aside from NHC trainings, one of my friends and
former Peace Corps Volunteer Hosts, is eager to start up a Boys Club and a
Girls Club at his local grade school. Since I’ve been looking to start up a
Girls Club, I’m glad to have found someone that can be my counterpart, and is
motivated to work and help with youth. We’ll be discussing things like gender
issues, gender empowerment, HIV/AIDs, and whatever else these kids desire. I’m
extremely excited about this, even though it’s just going to pack my schedule
even tighter- but I’m okay with that! After the first few meeting with these
individual clubs, we will be, in conjunction, beginning a program called Grass
Roots Soccer, which uses the game of futbol to educate youth about HIV/AIDs.
Another program I’m extremely excited to delve into. I’ve also set up Health
Education days at my local Community School on Mondays, where I will be
teaching grades 5 and 6 about different Health Issues, as well as training the
volunteer teachers on HIV & English integrated lessons. I’m sure every day
of this month will be filled with activities… but that will only make it pass
by faster, which is a good thing because… MY EMILY COMES MAY 29TH!!!!!
I cannot wait for my best friend since I was 3 to step off that plane in
Lusaka, Zambia, and feast her eyes on this wondrous country J I’m so
enraptured to travel with her to Victoria Falls, where we will witness one of
the 7 Wonders of the World, walk and cuddle with lions, see giraffes, hippos,
crocs, elephants, monkeys, EVERYTHING. Go white water rafting down the Zambezi
River, then head to my village so she can experience village life for a bit.
We’ll top off her two week African Adventure by relaxing in a beautiful private
chalet, with private beach, at Mayoka, Nkhata Bay, Lake Malawi. I can’t wait
for her to experience this wonderful place I now call home, the mysterious
culture, and all that comes with being in the middle of Sub-Saharan Africa.
So
that’s what I have to look forward to in the coming weeks :D
