Who's Really Keeping Score?

I've been living out here in the bush for a little over 4 months, and you would have thought that I would have mastered peeing in a hole by now. Well, not quite.  I am notorious for peeing on myself every time I go to use my pit latrine.  Even when I use my pee bucket at night, I still manage to get pee on my pajamas.  I tell you, I just cannot get it right.  Sorry for my absence, as I honestly have not been motivated to write anything lately.  The heat here continues to linger on, and although it has rained a few times bringing in a nice cool front, the minute it stops, the heat only returns with a bitter vengeance as to truly piss me off and immediately put me in a bad mood.

I have fully furnished and decorated my hut to my liking (I'll eventually put pictures up.  Sorry!).  I got a cat when I first moved in awhile back, and it shortly died there after (4 days to be exact).  I was deeply traumatized and upset for a good week afterwards mainly because for the small period that she was around, I had no evidence of mice or creepy crawlers anywhere.  The minute kitty was gone, the mice came back and quickly began to eat through my books on my bookshelf.  They even ate through my IPOD case!!!  I resorted to rat poison after Firefly died (that's what I named kitty, after my favorite sweet tea vodka from back home), which did help a lot, although it came with a major problem.  Finding the dead mouse after it after the poison.  I left out poison one night on a piece of tomato as instructed and awoke the next morning to find it gone.  Good!!!  Mouse be gone I thought.  Nia 1, Zambia 0.  Two days later, I awoke to a Satan awful smell of what I could only describe as rotten intestines.  I searched my hut high and low for whatever and wherever the smell could be coming from.  After being sadly unsuccessful, it wasn't until the third day that I moved an item from up against my wall to find, yes of course, a dead mouse being eaten by thousands of maggots!  Needless to say, I threw up in the back of my mouth and sadly admitted a change in score.  Nia 0, Zambia 1.  Victory was no longer mine.

This present hoilday season has left me extremely sad lately and memories of home only make me feel worse.  I was super excited to spend Thanksgiving with the other volunteers and after bragging to everyone about how I make the world's best stuffing, it was only appropriate that I take on that task for our big dinner.  Unfortunately, the package I got sent from home also contained Caress body soap along with my Jiffy Cornbread mix and poultry seasoning I use in my dish, so in turn my infamous stuffing ended up tasting like soap.  I was deeply depressed and let down at dinner.  None of the other volunteers complained, as I could tell that they say the disappointment in my face.  I was too sad to even eat desert and ended up going to bed early that night.  Nia 0, Zambia 2.

When I arrived back in my village after the Thanksgiving break we had, I was greeted with tons of termite mounds on my walls and mice droppings.  This is the joy of living in the bush and having a house built out of mud and grass.  Once again Nia 0, Zambia 3.  I did get another cat which made me happy because living with mice is something I can no longer do.  It looks exactly like Firefly who died, which kind of freaked me out for a while and its eyes are really milky and one eye doesn't really open all the way.  I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the damn thing was blind, which would be the ultimate prank this country could ever play on me.  But for the time being, Belvedere ( I named him that after my other favorite vodka) and I are going to kick it out here in the bush.

I am continuing to work hard and stay busy at my Rural Health Clinic.  I've been working along side the staff on projects such as HIV/AIDS awareness, maternal and child health, and water sanitation.  Child Health Week (Nov. 7-12, 2011) was a huge success in the village, and as far as I am concerned, the BEST form of birth control a girl can get. I spent five days straight under the hot African sun weighing and deworming thousands of little snot nose kids.  They cried, they kicked, and they screamed for five straight days, but in the end, it was a pretty cool experience.  I am currently working closely with a clinic staff member to formulate ideas and projects we want to collaborate with each other after the new year.  The plan is to work two days in the clinic and three days out in the community doing different outreaches.  Hopefully getting into the schools and doing health talks to different grade levels around issues of safe sex, HIV/AIDS, STI's, and nutrition.  I also plan on working with the different clubs the schools have to offer like, the Anti-AIDS club and safe water sanitation clubs.  I am just trouble shooting right now and working with different ideas, but as usual, I will keep you all updated.  I have to run thanks again for staying in touch and until next time.

Peace & Love,
Baby Cheers