It's HOT here. I mean really hot. With temperatures rising up to 112F, the preparation I did prior to moving to Zambia of living the first part of the summer without air conditioning, has got nothing on Sub-Saharian African Heat. Boob sweat and wet soggy butt is unfortunately a regular thing now and my armpits smell like a garbage pit despite my Lady Speed Stick. To find myself in the company of a cold drink is like striking gold out here. I try to stay hydrated as much as I possibly can with all the biking and walking that I do on a day to day basis, but all I want to do is jump into an ice cold pool. But needless to say, like the other many challenges that this country has posed, I continue to take things one day at a time.
By the grace of God, I got through my first run in with explosive diarrhea and stomach cramps a few weeks ago. A bunch of volunteers went out to dinner in Lusaka and whatever I had at the Indian restaurant damn there killed me. Let me tell you one thing. Having explosive diarrhea, cramps, and nausea in a mud hut with no toilet and running water is not a good situation. I pooped all night. When I filled up my pee bucket, I found myself using leftover ziplock bags I was storing my toiletries in. Thank God Joy sent me a carepackage earlier this week with a new supply of bags. But I'm good and healthy now and feeling better than ever.
Second site visit has finally approached an end, as I'm spending the last night in Choma, the provincial capital of Southern with my other Tonga speaking volunteers. We started Sunday September 4th and headed deep south to Kalomo district to stay with senior volunteer apart of the LIFE (Linking Income Food in the Environment) program. A crazy cool married couple that made us feel right at home. There we continued our health training as much we could despite the fact they weren't health care volunteers. We facitilated a health talk to a Under 5 clinic of mothers and their children on topics of diarrhea, clean water, and Oral Rehydration Solutions (ORS) that can be used to treat diarrhea and dehydration. I have to admit, I never in a million years thought I would enjoy working with the Mother/Baby Pediatric population, but since working in the communities here in Zambia, I have grown to love it. Although, I have a bad habit of grabbing babies in the village and picking them up and holding them, I am constantly being pissed on because diapers just don't really exist. So in addition of being hot and stinky with my own body odor, I also have the smell of child piss on me all the time. Great.
The second half of site visit, I traveled to my new village where I will be living in October. Magoye village in Mazabuka district. I received the best village welcome ever. Singing and dancing and tons of smiles welcomed me and I loved it all. I will be staying on a Headwoman's compound with her husband, two daughters, and about 13 children (Oh, God help me). My house although not complete yet, looks amazing, and I cannot wait for them to finish it and I move in. It a two bedroom house with a Chikuta(Tonga for kitchen) and of course a pit latriene for pooping and a bathing shelter. My water source is a borehole about 12-15ft from my house. My rural health clinic that I will be working in is busy six days a week with it being closed on Sunday. I am super excited to get back in October and start working there and although extremely understaffed with no doctor, four nurses, one lab tech, and one pharm tech, they are too cannot wait for me to come back and begin working.
In my community, I performed an initial assessment of the village, going around asking individuals and family households what they feel is the biggest concern in the village. Go figure, the number one concern is water sanitation and security in relation to diarrhea. Well considering that animals(cows, goats, chickens) roam free and use the same water source that people use, causing contamination of clean water and people in the village do not use the best hygienic methods, I can see how water sanitation is the number one issue. With the help of my Tonga speaking counterpart, we collectively decided that when I return in October, we would work to facilitate a health talk on healthy clean water and the prevention of diarrhea. I am so excited. So, of course I will keep you all updated as to how that goes.
I am officially headed into the last weeks of training. Three weeks left before our swear in ceremony as official volunteers at the US Ambassador's house. When I get back to my village later this week, I really need to look into getting a traditional Zambian outfit made cause apparently swear in ceremony is a big deal with lots of important people. Elections are coming up next week which means I have to stay put safely in the village and I realistically won't be able to come back and update you all until early October. So, with that said, I love you all back home and continue as always thank you all for the love and support. Until next time.
Peace & Love,
Baby Cheers!!!
