Guest House

I have realized recently that I have failed to show where I live here while I am staying in Africa. Above is a picture of the guest house that we are all staying at. It is very nice and we all call it our 'home away from home'. It is always nice to be greeted by the knowledge that we have a stable place to call home in Africa, and a household staff that is just like family when we get back from traveling a long distance or when we come back from a two + day overnight trip.

Here are a few of us lounging in the living room. The kitchen is the bright door on the right, and the tv is on the very left. There is a long table that the meals are served on right behind the chairs on the left. And that is pretty much the living room. I am actually in this picture, but you can't see my face. Just my watch and water bottle.

This is my room. I sleep on the upper right bunk bed. We use that fan every day - 100 degree weather is HOT. We were already sweating by 9am this morning. By this time in our stay here, our mosquito nets have a lot of holes in them, so we have to sew them up. Good thing I have been equipped with that sewing kit my grandma and mom made for me when I was a freshman in college.

Here is a little bit of what Africa looks like in the Bush waaaaay out there. The huts on both sides of the brick building could be used as a kitchen, meeting place, or just a place to hide from the sun in the heat of the day. More than likely, the brick building in the middle is the house used for sleeping and escaping the hot sun. The sun is quite intense here... we are all wondering when the rainy season will start!

Enjoy the pictures! I have a lot of work to do today, so I had better get on to writing those papers!

Fashion Show and Independence Day

Friday was the fashion show that lasted from 8:30pm to around 1am (but we only stayed until 12am). I must admit that I have not been in my 'college student' mode. I was beat by around 10:30pm while the fashion show was still lively and energetic. However, the night was young as the 10 contestants came out to model what they were wearing. The different categories consisted of: office wear, sports wear, summer wear, traditional, and cocktail. The category that interested me the most was the traditional wear because they dressed like the different province tribes in Africa and the significance of each costume.

This picture shows the model in a nursing outfit. The person who was modeling actually wants to be a nurse as a profession. Other models wanted to be a soldier, social worker, secretary, among other jobs that I am not remembering at the

present moment. Between each modeling category, there were groups of young men who were on the stage to do a performance of entertainment. A couple groups did lip-sync raps and songs. There were two groups who did break dancing, which was very impressive. The music was very loud - all of us were the honored guests so we sat right in front on the right side with the speakers blasting into our ears. However, I did not hear anyone who had informed of ringing in their ears. I guess our ears can take more than what we give them credit for.

Independence day was Saturday, October 24th (a.k.a. Yesterday). The entertainment and celebration of the morning and afternoon consisted of frequent school who either sang songs or who performed the 'social dance' with both boys and girls. I think that s

ame dance was done about 4 or 5 times by different schools. The dance didn't change much, but the costumes and the number of people changed. There was also a boy who had a sack on his head and danced in front of the guest of honor. In the middle of his dance, he opened up his hands and

a whole bunch of people began to fill his hands with Kwatcha because he was dancing very well. Songs were sung by secondary schools as well as a disability school, St. Mulumba. The pictures shows a group of kids in the trees. The area around the performance square was packed with kids - about 85-90% of the audience seemed to be kids. There were guards and tape around the area. It was also really neat to see 'soldiers' march into the square with rifles (no bullets included) and saluted Zambia and its people in the beginning and the end of the program. After the entertainment of the morning, we headed back to the compound and were greeted with turkey, baked potatoes, potato salad, salad cuts, carrots, green veggies, and FROSTED cake. It was so very good! And the rest of the day was filled with catching up on homework and lovely napping. Out of the entire experience, I think I will remember the most about sitting behind the guest of honor in the shade of a small tin-roof stand and being served chilled peach-flavored water.

Three different cultures sitting under the trees

We went to St. Mulumba school today, a school for children who have an impairment such as blindness, Down Syndrome, and deafness. All the students, teachers, and some people from the community (including us Americans) were seated under three large shady trees to watch a Japanese group dance and show us a little bit of their culture. There wasn't a lot of karate chopping or anything, but there was a lot of full body moves (jumping in the air, thrusting their hands to the skies, bending low to the ground and then coming back up in about a millisecond). It wasn't just the Japanese culture dance that we got to see. We also got to witness some 'social dancing', and a group of girls that danced very fast, fast enough and energized enough that people were going up to the girls and throwing Kwatcha on the ground. They were all very talented.

It was also really neat to see how one of the people did sign language for the hearing impaired (the girl dancers were hearing impaired), and also to listen to the sound of a group of blind children. Their voices were amazing and excellent at harmonizing. The program consisted of a drummer drumming, Japanese dance, Zambian 'social dance' and 'girl-coming-out dance', singing, playing with Japanese children's toys, eating strawberry/vanilla ice cream, seeing what your name was in Japanese, a fashion show (the Zambians dressed up in Japanese clothes and the Japanese dressed up in Zambian clothes), and then learning how to do the Japanese dance they did at the beginning.

As far as my health is concerned, I am pretty much back to normal except for little spells of being really tired. But, the doctor told me at my checkup yesterday that it would take me about a full week to recover. So, I am drinking about 4-5 liters of water, and eating normally. Dinner time!

Malaria

My apologies for not have writing so long. A lot has happened, so I will briefly summarize:

Last Wednesday through Friday I went to the Salvation Army Hospital in Chikankata, which is a nursing school/hospital/AIDS research facility. I was allowed to sit in on one of the classes in the nursing school. It is amazing at how they have to learn. The teacher writes down EVERYTHING onto the chalkboard and the students copy those notes into big notebooks. We're talking pages upon pages of notes that the students write down. It makes sense to do this since they did not have a projector of any type or a laptop in sight. I befriended one of the students. She told me that they have school all year round with only a two week break in December and holidays off.

I didn't do anything with the AIDS research part of the hospital, but I was able to give an IV push in the ICU, observe tube feedings of babies in the NICU, and observe a G-tube placement in an infant. I did a lot of observing while following around the nurses who would explain the procedures they were doing as well as briefing me about different patients and what process of healing and care they were going through.

Now for the not so exciting news.... My original plan was going to be to blog all of this on Saturday night, but I wasn't planning on getting a severe case of gastroenteritis (aka nausea, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, vomiting). It was an experience that I stayed conscious and very alert throughout the entire thing. I won't go into the gross specifics (who wants to hear about that? Yuck), but I will just say that by 1:30am Sunday morning, the last time I tried to head back to bed from a bathroom visit was the turning point. I crawled to my room and laid on the floor - I crawled very slowly because I was severely dehydrated to the point where orthostatic hypotention would cause me to be unconscious if I tried to stand up. My two roommates helped me by making a bed on the floor with some blankets and one of my nursing professors came to assess my condition (she had been checking up on me all night). We decided that if I couldn’t stand up without feeling lightheaded, then I would have to go to the doctor. So, I tried to get up. I made it to a bent over sitting position and that’s as far as I could go.

I was carried out to the van and transported to the nearby clinic. The doctor was waiting for me. An IV was instantly inserted and I was started on IV fluids. My very first IV I happen to get in Africa. My very first experience as a patient I have in Africa. I thought that was an interesting little twist. I also received antibiotics for my gut infection and a fever was starting to develop… Malaria. Originally, looking back on it all and during the time, I thought that the attack on my intestines was the Malaria, but that was actually some weird unexplainable fluke that happened to be on my fork or food or a fly that landed on something I ate. So, I am a little upset that I don’t really know what it was that made me so sick. But, it was food related. This weakness, however, was the perfect opportunity for the Malaria to form its battle regiments and attack my immune system subtly. So, really, I only experienced fever, backache, possible nausea (but that was probably from the gastroenteritis infection), and weakness from the Malaria. I did not get fever and chills, dilusions, or any of the full-blown attack signs of Malaria because I was already being treated in the clinic. So, Malaria was present in my system (the blood test was positive), which made my case a very mild one.

I spent from early Sunday morning to late Tuesday morning recovering in the clinic with my IV line constantly pumping fluids into my veins. The doctor who took care of me (all credit to him) knew exactly what to do with my case and was so good at educating me about what I was experiencing. Very excellent doctor. He’s had worse cases involving the gut… such as hippos biting a chunk out of some guy’s side. But, that’s besides the point. He did say jokingly that I was now officially welcomed into the country by Africa because I had been welcomed by the common illness of Malaria.

I am now back recovering at the compound drinking a lot of water, eating here and there, and overall trying to get the energy racing in my system again. Anyways, there’s more to that story, but this entry has already been long.

Thanks so much for everyone’s prayers in my healing process. God is definitely doing so much for me and my health, both physically and spiritually. Not once did I panic because I was in Africa without my family. Not once did I get homesick because I knew God was with me and I had so many people here supporting me – even our wonderful Zambian staff who is like family to me. Prayer is a powerful tool that God has given us to use to lift others up when they are ill in any area of their life. I am so thankful for prayer!

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!

We went to Zimba (an hour away from Choma) to have my first transcultural nursing experience. It was quite a success. I successively put in an IV, with my clinical instructor’s help, measured blood pressures, respirations, and pulses, learned how to use a mercury thermometer, and also learned how to use the charting systems. It was interesting to see how the nurses and doctors ‘improvised’ when they did not have something they ne

eded on hand. I admired their ingenuity and how they made things work because they had to. We were also able to go on an outreach program to one of the villages with a Zambian nurse to give immunizations and patient teaching. It was mostly said in Tonga, so I did not understand any of it. But, we got to sit under a mango tree on home-made Zambian chairs! Most of the things I experienced seemed pretty confidential on that visit, so I will just say that we helped a lot of people and educated them in several areas. It was an amazing experience!

One of the girls that I was with spotted this chameleon when we were waiting for the bus to come back. It was a bright bright green when it fell from a nearby tree, but then turned to this darker green once it reached the tree. It took it about 30 minutes to cross the drive. I was amazed by the way they walk with their jerking movements. It takes them about 5 to 10 seconds to make a step with one of their legs. The other nursing student I was with took these pictures; we got laughed at by the Zambians because of our peculiar behavior at marveling about something they see quite often.

Visit to the Village

We went to the village yesterday afternoon. It was about a five minute walk on little 'rabbit' trails that swerved and broke off into different directions. It was fun to see the reactions when we were in sight of the little kids who were playing on some bare ground right next to the huts in the village. There was a group of children on the trail already, and they followed us excitedly until we got to the rest of the kids. Overall, there were probably about 40 to 50 kids who were playing 'football' (soccer), throwing sandals, climbing in and out of dug out pits, and just chasing each other around. There was one little girl dressed in pink who just wanted to hold everyone's hand that she saw.

A couple girls taught one group of the littler kids how to play 'Duck Duck Goose'. They ran around in circles and sometimes would pass the person they were suppose to tag, not really getting the idea at first. However, by the end of the game, they were getting the gist of it. A few other girls held the little kids (ages around 3-5), some with beads in their hair, others with wide curious eyes. But, there was no loss of sickness in the large group before us. There was one little girl who had either lost an eye or had an eye infection (it was swollen shut). There was a lot of runny noses, crusts around the eyes, a few blackening teeth, and a few kids with bandaged feet. We also played with the ball that was either an actual cloth ball or a water bottle, and one girl from my group really got into racing the boys across the flat dirt area. There were so many kids bare foot, and sandals were used as toys to be thrown, picked up again, and thrown.

There was one little boy who had thrown a sandal in my direction, so I picked it up and started talking to him while holding the sandal out for him to take (like we would do in Am

erica), but he may not have understood English (some kids knew English, some didn't), and I kept trying to give it back to him. He looked intimidated because he backed away, even though he had a smile on his face nearly the entire time, as if he thought I was going to chase him. I tried a couple times to give it to him by approach, until finally I bent down and offered the sandal to him in my right hand (the 'clean' hand), which he immediately took the sandal from me and ended up throwing it again in a different direction and smiling back at me. I do not know if this applies to what I have been told, but in one of the WHIZ meetings, one of the staff said that when they are offering or giving something to someone, they always bend down on one or two knees and offer it with the right hand. The kid was pretty little - 6 or 7, probably, so I didn't know if he would know this cultural courtesy, although the possibility did cross my mind.

A slim few of us went to walk in the village (the other girls on my team were still distracted with playing with the children). Some of the houses were brick, others were grass huts. But, the place was pretty clean compared to other places around here. There was a

decent-sized garden, green plants that seemed to be used as property walls (probably not, though), a wel

l with clear water, and small grass-walled outhouses. Within the village, another group of boys were playing football while the women filled water jugs and balanced them on their heads while a couple of men stood besides them and watched them do this chore, talking about something. The women here have a lot of muscle - they can take a 5 gallon jug and put it on their heads in one fluent motion. And then go off with no hands holding it.

I am excited to go back!