Zambia...

For the last two weeks I have had the opportunity to help train 6 nurses in the country of Zambia. It was very interesting, and it was an honour to work with these seasoned nurses. The nurses work in remote villages running mobile clinics that take place in classrooms or sometimes even under trees. Mobile clinics provide medical care to people in communities that are that far away from hospitals. Two or three nurses will see up to 300 patients a day- can you imagine? We taught a two week course about HIV and childhood mortality- most childhood death are caused by preventable problems- dehydration, malnutrition, malaria, etc.

Most of our time was in the classroom, but we also got to take part in two mobile clinics. They were overwhelming! So many sick kids, women and babies. I got to spend some time with a midwife, and I learned so much from her (I would love to be a midwife some day). I was amazed by the simplicity of the instruments too- forget an electronic fetoscope! I was listening for the baby’s heart rate through a plastic tube- simple, effective and efficient- primary health care at its best.

One patient that I saw at the mobile clinic really broke my heart. She was a lovely little girl- 10 years old, although she looked much younger. She was too thin, had a rash and peeling skin, a cough and stomach problems. The nurse had her tested for HIV. She came back positive and it appeared that her disease was quite advanced. She was orphaned- her parents most likely dying of AIDS, and was living with her aunt and uncle. One of the nurses in our course, Helen, took special interest in the little girl. Helen will make sure that this little girl will get anti retroviral treatment, and that she will be visited twice a week by home based care. All I could do was pray for her.

It was good to see a home based care project in a different country (also part of Hands at Work). I was able to go out with a few of the volunteers and visit some patients and orphans. These volunteers are so inspiring. They have so little themselves, but they are going out into their own communities showing God’s love. They are dedicated. I am so glad that I have been able to meet them, and walk with them as they march on.

Dara and I are with Carlos and Pascua's kids here (Carlos is our boss). We get along great with the family and really enjoy spending time with them. Last week we had a dance party at their house with Carlos playing the accordian!

The lady in this picture in Inish- she's one of the volunteers that we go out with. This picture was taken way out in the bushes- we walked so far that day! There are lots of paths that go through the bushes with huts spaced out about 500 meters apart.

It's pretty common to see trucks like this on the road. Scary. There are constantly vehicles broken down on the side of the road. They are so hard on them here.

On Sunday I'll be flying to Zambia for two weeks. I'll be going with my American friend Jean Aimee who also works with Hands at Work, and lives in South Africa. We'll be doing some teaching to local nurses there about primary health care, HIV, AIDS, childhood diseases etc. I have no idea what Zambia will be like, so it'll be interesting. I'm anticipating it'll be hot.

a few pictures

Here I am with Santos- one of our favorite volunteers. He does a ton around Rubatano- lots of administrative work. He's so friendly- we love to work with him. He can speak about 4 words of English, but he told us that this is a "special" hat. We find it so funny because the sun shines right through the hole in the brim and into his eyes!

In this picture I'm with our good friend Jenny. She is working with the Peace Corps- she's so brave- she lives in a little house all alone in a village. We have lots of fun with her. I title this picture "Christmas come early". Dara got FIVE packages in one day! Don't worry though- she's really good at sharing and I got some mail last week, so I was just as excited as she was. We pulled a mattress into the living room (we don't have a couch), had tea and cake, and opened "presents". It was really fun.

This is me with one of the older girls on an orphan day. We're playing some sort of a hand game- I don't think either of us knew what hand game we were playing, but it was fun. Last weekend Rubatano had the first meeting for just the older orphan girls- aged 13 and up. The goal is to teach these girls a skill that they can support themselves and their younger siblings with. It's also to give them a chance to talk with each other about thier challenges and to hopefully prevent them from turning to men to fill their needs. The volunteers will teach the girls how to garden, cook little donuts to sell, and once we have sewing machines-how to sew. The first meeting went really well with around 60 girls showing up.

lesson 26- watch where you sit.

Well, I’ve still got a few things left to learn about Africa. This morning I got up early to take a walk, and found a nice, quiet place on the side of the dirt road to sit and think. As I was “sitting” and “thinking”, two nice Mozambican ladies came walking along the road. We greeted each other as they passed, but instead of the normal length “stare at the white girl”, they stopped and lingered. They were staring at me and pointing at where I was sitting. I stood up to talk to them and they asked me if I spoke Portuguese. A little I said. They rattled off a string of Portuguese- I missed most of it, but I did catch the key word- “cobra”. I was sitting right in the middle of two snake holes- about a foot from each hole. Needless to say I didn’t sit back down. After thanking them profusely I decided to walk a bit and watch where I sat next time…

Cakes...

We don't work all the time here... we make cakes too. Here are a couple that we've made for birthday parties. The one cake is supposed to be a monkey, but it turned out more like a rabid bear. This is our Irish friend, John, next to the "bear" on his 18th birthday. Tom is another good friend here- he's from England and has just turned 19... we hear that "theme cakes" are all the rage with the young kids these days...

a new home for Chico and his family

Here are Joao and Luisa- Chico's children in front of thier newly built house! The volunteers in Nhamatonda built it for Chico and his family after they saw what the family was living in (I have a picture of it in an old blog of mine).

servants

I am continually amazed, challenged and humbled by the volunteers that I work with. These people work so hard.

The man on the bicycle is a new patient named Louis that Rubatano took on last month. His elderly sister stopped us on the road and asked us to come help her brother. We walked about a kilometer into the bush and found him in a tiny little shack- his wife was gone at the time to her garden- it was about 10km away, and she would stay away from home for days at a time. On Wednesday three of the volunteers went to his house at 7:30 am and brought him to the road on their bicycle as he was too weak to walk. From there he was able to get to the hospital.

The two volunteers washing the kids are Inish and Adao- in this house there are three orphans that are being cared for by their grandmother. To wash an orphans feet- this is true religion.

To bring a sick, old man 1 km through the bushes at 7:30 am on your bicycle- this is true religion.

James 1:27- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in thier distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.