All Good Things

Well, all good things must come to an end and my inner-voice saying "stay forever" was silenced by a much more practical one...that must have come from Tim or my parents! Anyway, we're back in America and Tim is getting ready to start working as I continue to look for the "right job." In the meantime, sorting our photos is a fun distraction and I promise we will figure out a way to get all 1356 of them online so you, too, can be distracted by them if you choose!

Ambulance

Here in Livingstone there is one ambulance. By ambulance I mean a 4WD vehicle that would be considered a rugged SUV in the States. The marking on the side of the truck indicates it is a Ministry of Health vehicle intended to be used for promoting childrens' health - instead it is used as the sole ambulance. This is the only means of emergency transportation here in this city of 100,000 residents. However, emergency is also a loose term because people first come to the local clinics, wait for hours to see the clinic officer or physician on duty and then receive a referral to the hospital...then they try to locate this one emergency vehicle.

It is an interesting experience being exposed to the local branches of international aid organizations. Surprisingly, these organizations all have vehicles identical to the one used as an ambulance but it is still unclear to me what they are being used for. There is also a blood bank SUV that appears all over town but I have never heard of a blood bank or of anyone in the hospitals receiving a transfusion! It's hard to imagine what could be accomplished if all of these vehicles were put to use as transportation from the compounds (neighborhoods) into the health care facilities. Maybe it's not so hard to imagine ... less DOAs ariving each day. (here it is "BID" - brought in dead)

Care International has done an excellent job training peer educators in HIV/AIDS prevention and general health outreach. Our friend, Brave, in charge of peer education for the Maramba area was trained by Care and is exceptionally well versed in all local health issues. He is unbelievably dedicated to his community and works all day every day in the clinic, as a radio talk show host and as a friend to his neighbors to educate them and support them in all their health needs. Unfortunately, after all the good training provided by Care he is unemployed - there are no jobs and no funding to employ all of the individuals who are now skilled educators. This extends past Brave's work to the many teachers, nurses and others in Livingstone who are unemployed.

Our time here is soon coming to an end and we have seen so much, made so many friends and gained a little better perspective on this part of the world. I am greatly looking forward to coming home and organizing all of my thoughts and ideas! Not to mention getting all our photos up on this blog - keep checking :)

Zim, Zam and Beyond

We are continuing to have an amazing time here on the other side of the world! Every day is something new and very unexpected. Here are some highlights from the last three days:

Friday AM: I (liz)was working in the clinic's Labor Ward and Mother/Child Health Unit with my friend and fellow volunteer, Anka - she's just become an MD in the Netherlands. The work we do and observe varies from childbirth, pre-natal examinations,and pre-natal health education. All of the mothers sit in the waiting area where we weigh them and recorded their progress. Then we checked blood pressure - which I can do! Afterwards, the patients are seen one or two at a time by the midwives and the health of the mother and fetus are assessed. The midwives showed us how to feel the baby's head, back and arms/legs as well as a "measurement" of how many weeks pregnant the mother is. The best part is the "ultra-sound" which is a plastic cone-shaped instrument that is placed on the mother's belly to hear the fetal heartbeat. We completed this examination on about 40 mothers. I felt a lot of bellies, heard babies heartbeats and even a little kick - it was just amazing.

Friday PM: As if the morning wasn't wonderful enough ... we headed off to Zimbabwe with our group to visit another African Impact site in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We crossed the border and hours later arived safely 2 miles away from where we stay in Livingstone, Zambia. It was quite a lenthy trip for such a short distance. Interestingly, Zim is a totally different world. It's very very touristy and there are Muzungus (white people) everywhere. We went straight to dinner at a restaurant that specializes in African game and an "african experience." We ate warthog, buffalo, ostrich, guinea fowl, and mopani worms! It was great - minus the worms.

Saturday AM: We woke up at the crack of dawn to participate in the volunteer project based in Vic Falls - Lion Encounter. This conservation project was set up to protect the dwindling wild lion population in the region. As tourists, we get to walk with the lions aged 6 weeks - 20 months which funds the conservation program. After the lions outgrow the walking stage they are moved on to the next phase of the project and bred and released. The project began in the early 1970s and has been really successful. DID I MENTION WE WALKED WITH LIONS???? We walked with, snuggled and kissed three 19 month lions and two sweet little 4 month cubs. It was so much fun - since then I have had dreams about walking with them. Those pictures will definitely be posted as soon as we get back to a sufficient internet connection!

Saturday PM: We have a friend who works in Livingstone but is originally Zimbabwean and invited us all over to his home for a Brei (bar-b-que). It was really generous of his family to have our whole group over and really nice to see their home. The Vic Falls neighborhood is an interesting combination of tropical and "african."

Sunday AM: Tim and I ventured out with some friends to see the Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side. Even though they are only 1/10 of their maximum size since it is now the dry season they were remarkable. The spray was so refreshing and a relief from the heat. We could see Livingstone Island on the Zambian side where we were swimming two weeks ago. It was really beautiful.

Sunday PM: Home sweet home. It was so nice to return to Livingstone and to our house on Mushili way. I can't believe after such a short time it feels so comfortable here!

Quick Update

Just happened to be at the internet cafe this afternoon.

We are working at the Maramba Clinic in the mornings, as usual. Today was baby weighing for children under 5. Children must be weighed every month. The scale hangs from a metal beam and holds the baby in a canvas bag. Then we record the weight and determine if the baby is eligible for any vaccinations. We are supposed to "scold" the mothers when they miss a month. This tends to be a bit uncomfortable. If the baby is underweight, we inquire whether the baby has been sick and encourage the mothers to wait in the long line to see the attending doctor or nurse.

This afternoon was very fun. We went out to the Home Based Care Center about 1/2 KM from the Maramba Clinic. We help with their gardening/farming which helps support the volunteers, patients, and general funding of the organization. We have been out there a few times, but today was special. Liz led an HIV/AIDS support group and taught them some Yoga!!! It was very funny, yet inspirational to watch. I briefly showed them some hand exercises, but then got embarassed and went back to watering the "farm."

Our time continues to be fun (except for the ham and tongue sandwich we had today for lunch).

This weekend is a trip to Zimbabwe. We'll update sometime after.

With love,

Liz and Tim

Highs and Lows

Though Liz receives rave reviews about her writing, it was time for me to finally chime in with a post. Here it goes...

As the title of this post indicates, this has been a week of highs and lows. If you read our last blog posting, you know that we have been volunteering in the Maramba Community this past week. We have been helping the palliative care workers and offering whatever comfort, encouragement, or help we can muster.

On Thursday morning we travelled to "Zone E." This Zone is the furthest distance away from the Maramba Clinic and has the least resources available to treat patients. There is only one ambulance to serve the entire city of Livingstone (population 100,000). The ambulance rarely, if ever, makes trips to Zone E.

After a 1/2 hour walk to get to the Zone, we visited about 8 homes and encountered the most harrowing situations we have seen in our time in Africa. For example, we visited an HIV positive mother and her HIV positive 2 year old baby. Both mother and child were without Anti-retroviral medications because they could not make it to the clinic. Both seemed to be on the brink.

We also visited a 14 year old HIV positive girl who was pregnant and had been slashed in the mouth with a knife by her 16 year old husband (it almost sounds unreal just writing the story).

On our way out of Zone E, we encountered a 6 year old girl sitting on the ground by herself with a piece of fabric covering her legs. She could not walk, so we asked to see her legs. She hesitantly removed the fabric to reveal a severe infection on her lower left leg that had gone down to the bone and rendered her unable to walk. Her mother was working and had left her alone. This was truly shocking to all of us. Along with the caretakers, we carried the child halfway to the clinic and then took her in a taxi the rest of the way. As we walked, to strangers from the community, a man and a woman, volunteered to carry the girl on their backs to get her to the clinic. After being disheartened that the mother was nowhere to be found, we were amazed by the compassion of other people in the community. She made it to the clinic and is hopefully just finishing up her prescribed penicillin treatments tomorrow.

After thursday morning, we were beat, but we knew we had the weekend to look forward to.

On Saturday, we woke up early for a day trip to Botswana. We visited Chobe National Park for a daylong safari. Chobe Park is 11,000 square kilometers. We started the morning with a 3 hour Chobe River cruise. On the cruise, we were flanked by land on the left and an island to the right. Many animals flock to the island to drink water because this is the dry season. Some of the highlights of the cruise were a group of 40 hippos, being within a meter of a crocodile, watching about 150 (yes.....150!!!) elephants cross the river to then go in a mudbath. In the boat, we were able to get very close to all the animals.

On the afternoon safari in an open air truck, we saw a "pride" of 8 lions feasting on something that had been alive shortly before we got there. We saw a herd of probably 500 buffalo migrating in front of our truck. We saw many more elephants that were within 20 feet of us. A little scary to say the least. We came close to giraffes, but they spook easily and were not easily photographed.

Words do not describe what we saw properly, so we look forward to showing you the pictures if you want to see them.

This week we are back at the Clinic in the morning. Liz saw a baby being born last week and was the first one to hold him. Maybe it was birthday luck! (Men are not allowed in the room so I just get to hear about it). We will post again asap.

Miss you all!

Maramba Community

We are working in the community this week going into the homes of the bedridden. We are assisting the volunteer organization, Maramba Community Palliative Care, comprised of several women and men from the community who volunteer their time and energy for their community. The organization is funded by the UN and a national Zambian church network. So far the experience has been emotional and very touching.

The Maramba community is the area served by the clinic and has five zones, A through E. Each morning we head out to one zone paired with a couple of their volunteers and visit around 7 individuals. We are welcomed into the homes of the sick and offered seats on their couches, chairs or wooden stools. There are detailed and organized notebooks that have the "charts" of the patients and a log of their "complaints" and "action taken." Each time the patient and community workers look to us for diagnosis, suggested remedies, encouragement and prayers. This morning Tim taught a young woman who has weak and sore eyes how to exercise her eyes! It is heart-warming to see their reactions and enthusiasm but also sad how much they look to us for the "cure." What do we know? They have asked me to teach a Yoga class next week to an AIDS community support group.

Overall, it seems that everyone who we are visiting is dying of AIDS regardless of whether that is a known diagnosis. (The reported statistics are questionable at 60-70% of the population) However, some days all of the people we visit are taking ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs) and are aware of their status but other days none have been tested and claim they are merely suffering from acute TB or other ailments. Everyone knows AIDS is prevalent but there is such reluctance to get tested. I can't blame them - such a tragic fate to face.

In our surreal tourist world we have had some fantastic opportunities - we finally saw Victoria Falls. Actually, we didn't just see the falls, we sat on the edge of them! Needless to say in the US no waiver would be adequate to allow tourists to do something so crazy. So we did it! I never need to sky-dive or bungee jump, that's it for me. It was a spectacular natural wonder.

This weekend we're heading to Botswana for a game drive and quick safari. I couldn't imagine spending my 16th birthday in any other way!

Still no pics...ugh.