Hope

It rained Saturday and Sunday! We were all very excited about it. I went to the Market Saturday morning at around 9 or 10 am with a small group of girls from my team. It had only sprinkled for about two minutes, so we didn’t think it would rain. BUT it did! During our market visit while buying fabrics for chetinges and bags, it began to gently rain on us. We befriended a Zambian young woman who had let one of the girls on our team carry her baby. He slept away as the rain downpoured onto his covered head. Our new acquaintance was amazing – she knew all sorts of back ways in the market as we zig-zagged through the stalls that sheltered us from the rain. Of course, none of us had an umbrella, so we felt very fortunate to have the skies downpour on us when walking through a wide open area around the railroad tracks. By the time we got to Spar (Zambia’s Wal-Mart), we were all pretty soaked. But it was our first African rain experience that we were soaked with, so just that part was a thrill (it doesn't take much to make me happy).

Today I went to a hospice and helped two Zambian nurses make beds and clean the bedside tables. It was amazing and very encouraging to know that their view of a hospice is a place to get well and return home, and not a place to go when a patient is near death. Most all the patients at this hospice were HIV positive, but they had hope of recovery and are fighting to live. The hospice also had an outpatient teaching program centered on the idea that if a person has HIV/AIDS they need to learn how to live and strive with it; to have immense hope because a person can still live with this disease if they take the time to get treatment. It is very encouraging to see the responses of hope and health promotion going on here in Zambia concerning HIV infected patients. There is a lot of teaching, disease prevention, and health promotion being spread throughout villages and towns. Zambia is not lost to AIDS due to the growth that is happening. I have become much more excited to help these

people who come to the clinics and hospitals waiting for check-ups, immunizations, or ART (antiretrovirus treatment). It is amazing to see how many people are not giving up because they are sick or have a disease they cannot get rid of, which means they have hope for their ailments to decrease. Although the battles rage, there is still a great sense of faith, hope, and trust surrounding these people.

This is today's sunset. Please enjoy!