I'm Back...!!!!

Greeting again from Zambia.  Yes, I'm still out here living in my hut, eating with my hands, and peeing in buckets in the middle of the night.  My Uncle Curtis is in town visiting from Atlanta, which has been a super nice treat having him spoil me to lunch and other treats around Lusaka.  This week has also been SUPER special, as I got the BEST carepackage ever from the BEST family ever.  I mean it was AMAZING.  I love you Cheers family.  But really Imani, a PBS bumper sticker.  Where am I supposed to put it?  On the back of my bike?  It arrived in mint condition with no problems passing through customs.  I placed it in storage at our training facility, cause there is no way in Hell I was bringing it back to my hut.  Not for the mice and roaches to eat through it.  But nontheless between my Uncle coming to visit and receiving my package, I really have had a good week.

Village life continue to move on and as always promised, here is an update as to what has been going on over the past couple of weeks.  Friday we got our site announcements as to where we will be living after training.  I will be moving to Southern Province, Mazabuka District, in Magonye Village.  It is about two hours from Lusaka using public transportation.  I am 30K from my rural health clinic, which truly sucks so I guess I need to start paying alot more attention in bike training considering I will be on that damn thing faithfully biking to and from the clinic everyday.  I am about 20K from the main road and from my closest neighbor who is one of my best buddies here.  Super excited about that!!!  The village poisoned and killed our family puppy last week which I thought was really f**ked up, but apparently Zambians don't like domestic animals and it is unfortunately really common here.  Later that day, I also learned that the village had also killed a cat on my neighbors compound.  Really Zambia?  Really?  On another note, I stopped eating chicken since I've been here cause I practically live with them and I've come to the conclusion that they are disgusting and eat everything around.  And, one threw up in the main house where I eat and after seeing what came out of it has completely ruined my life.

I burned myself making nsima with my host sister, causing a very ugly and painful second degree burn on my right arm.  Ironic because I was the volunteer who gave a presentation on burns earlier that week and of course it would happen to me first.  I almost set my hut on fire trying to use candles to create a soothing environment after a long day which I don't think I will be doing again.  The candle feel over and rolled near my mattress which of course in on the floor surrounded by dirt and grass that falls from my roof.  I think that I'll be staying away from fire from now on and only use my head lamp and solar lamp for light at night.

Training continues to be more time consuming and language is becoming more intense.  Or maybe I just need to study more.  Probably that actually.  As a group, we have been doing more hands on work in the community, getting out to individuals and small groups to assess and observe the knowledge and skill abilities of people living in the village.  Last week, we had an assignment to collectively build a dish rack for a family to help ensure dishes are properly cleaned and dried before using again and to help decrease contamination by unclean water and flies.  We also built a fence around a borehole water source to help keep animals (cows, goats, chickens) out and away from contaminating the water supply and possibly spreading bacteria and disease.  The community seemed to respond well to our new interventions but we'll see how long they last considering people were awkwardly staring at us while working and then huffed and puffed while walking around to the fences entrance as if we made their journey 10k longer.

We were also given an assignment in community health base training to facilitate interviews with people in the community on the common myths, traditions, and cultural practices about HIV/AIDS.  I chose to interview my host family mainly cause they speak English fairly well and we got the assignment really late that day, and we all know my rule about going outside after dark.  I don't!  So, interviewing my host parents it was and what I learned was interesting, but unfortunately to me, not too surprising.  Some common myths and traditions I learned were as follows:  Sex with a virgin cures HIV/AIDS.  Sex with an infant cures HIV/AIDS.  If you are circumcised (males), you cannot get AIDS.  Oral birth control contains HIV/AIDS.  Tradition healers can cure AIDS.  Traveling to South Africa to get a blood transfusion can cure AIDS.  Needless to say, this interview was an eyeopener and an informative introduction to what I will be dealing with when living and working in my rural health clinic alone come October.  Like i said, it was only an interview.  Step One, is to assess and observe.  Gathering collective data to set up the implementation process of my work will come in step two, and from what I have been hearing, I seem to have my work cut out for me.  Let's face it behavioral modification is going to be my biggest challenge.  Many of these people have lived by and followed some of these myths and practices for years.  Changing behavior and introducing new practices such as condom use, HIV testing, hand washing techniques WITH SOAP, water sanitation practices (boiling and/or filtering), using the pit latrine to pee and poop, which many Zambians do not use, is going to be a great challenge.  Hard, but not impossible so as I've said, I will keep you all posted on the many projects I find myself working on over the next 2 years.

I will be traveling next week to Southern Province for my second site visit with my Tonga classmates to get one last in-depth look at how we will be living and working on our own come October.  I'm super excited and I continue to ask you all to keep my in your prayers as I travel and visit my new village I will be living in come October.  Until the next time I find myself in the wonderful presence of internet...

Peace & Love,
Baby Cheers