Independence Day

October ended nicely with a trip to Lake Tanganyika for Zambia's Independence Day. The weather is hotter than ever and it was a relief to be able to swim in the crystal clear water while catching some of the last sun rays we'll see as rainy season is rapidly approaching.

We took a three hour hike to Kalambo Falls and although I think I sweat more than my body weight in salty liquid, it was an amazing feeling to stand in the valley and look back on what we had accomplished...and this as only half-way through our hike.

We made it to the falls and sat in awe. With a 221m of vertical drop, Kalambo Falls is the second highest waterfall on the entire continent of Africa, and the 12th highest in the world.

We finished our hike at the mouth of the waterfall, ate lunch and took a swim in the liquid that was about to plummet 221m to the ground.

Although the scenery was breathtaking, I was eager to leave the Northern heat and make my way back to Luapula. I made a quick stop in Central Province to visit my friend, Sevren, and nurse a foot injury. I was beautifully welcomed back to Mansa with a heavy rain shower which assisted in my massive need for a body temperature change. Ahhh, the beauties of season change!

I head back to the village soon, eager to work on my garden and spend time with the children. We'll soon start planning for World AIDS Day and a village-appropriate technology workshop. I'm also hoping to build an in-ground table and chairs in my front yard with a checker board painted on for the children to play with.

Love and miss you all,

b

Dad and Tammy Came to Visit!

Last month I was visited by my Dad and Tammy and took them around what my dad likes to call "Brittany World." It was an amazing chance to show family my life here in Zambia, and give them a chance to understand the culture and beauty of my home.

They arrived in Lusaka and we headed up to my village. Most parents are known for visiting their childrens' huts, seeing it, and then leaving, as it is nothing compared to life in America and a bit hard to embrace. Dad and Tammy were the opposite...they didn't want to leave my village, and begged to stay another day so they could get more time to play with the children and meet other villagers.

As I dragged them away from the village, tears built up in their eyes...it was similar to how Frank acted when we left Disney Land (and World) when we were children. I then took them to Samfya, the beach I frequent when I want to get away, and I think this was the moment where my Dad and Tammy stopped thinking I was struggling in Zambia. The food we cooked in the village was American-style (make-your-own-pizza, chinese, omelets, chocolate chip pancakes) and I'm pretty sure they were wondering why they had wasted hundreds of dollars on packages to their 'poor daughter in Africa.'

After Samfya, we headed down to Victoria Falls in Livingstone. I had yet to visit so it was nice to spend time together in a place we had never been before. Bungee jumping and white water rafting were activities high on our list and we had an amazing time...although the Zambian "sickness" came to visit some of us.

After our tour of Zambia we flew off to Nairobi to visit family friends. With our friends we went to The Massai Mara (where the Lion King comes from). Thousands upon thousands of wildebeest surrounded us at all times, due to the wildebeest migration, and the smell of wild mint filled the air making the experience unforgettable. I had the one goal of seeing the "life cyle." Sure enough we saw two lions mating and also a lion killing and feasting on a wildebeest. It was the experience of a lifetime.

A Day of Intensity

Friday I spent the morning heating my water for tea, reading in my hammock, and washing clothes. In the afternoon I went to the clinic to hang out as I do about every day I spend in the village to greet the long line of villagers waiting to be seen for a wide-rage of reasons and say hello to the clinic staff. There was a maternity case and like I usually do, I walked in to spend time with the woman in labor.

It was perfect timing as the head was crowning as I joined them, the TBA (trained birth attendant) joked that I should put on gloves and help her out, and the mother of the woman in labor danced and sang with me. As the head popped out the TBA started to look stressed and concerned, the mother stopped talking, the woman in labor stopped pushing; the umbilical chord was wrapped around the newborn's neck. There are no ultrasounds at rural clinics, and there's no equipment for c-sections. We were in a bind. The TBA called for the clinic nurse to come and help. Minutes, but what seemed like hours, passed and the baby's head was laying there. The TBA tried frantically to unwind the chord and was finally successful. The baby boy was then born and the TBA started to hit it's chest to make the baby start crying. We waited silently, still, hopeful...and then, it cried. We breathed a sigh of relief, I unclenched my hand from the woman's shoulder that I had been unknowingly clinging to, and we cheered. A beautiful baby boy had entered the world...and cried as soon as he opened his eyes to see a white girl's face staring back at him, as if even in their first moments of life they still fear the muzungu(white person).

Later in the evening I cooked and ate dinner with Bethany and Jeremy, an American couple that has lived in my village for quite some time. Deciding to spend the night, we started making our game plan...literally..."should we play Settler's of Katan or Cribbage?"

Around 8pm we got a knock at the door. One of Jeremy's workers, Elijah, had come to ask if we could bring his wife to the clinic. Through major language barriers, we found that the woman had been badly burned and she was too weak to sit on the back of his bike to go to the clinic.

We got to his home and found a crowd of people. They carried Elijah's wife to the car, as she couldn't stand. A woman had told us that her and her baby were badly burned from water. The woman, in shock, climbed in the back of the car with me...I had to hold her body and head so she didn't fall. From the light I could see her arms, layers of skin peeled back with puss and blood around the burns. Under the layers of burnt skin you could see the white, never been touched by the sun, skin.

We decided that this woman did not need to go to the clinic, but needed to be rushed to the hospital. First, due to requirements from the hospital, we went to the clinic for a referral. We then sped to the hospital, as I held up her limp body and rested her burnt arms on my legs. On our way we hear the story: she and her baby had been scolded by boiling water at 3pm. The neighbors and friends came to help her and thought she should go to the clinic, but were in no rush because no one had a functioning bicycle at the moment. They waited. At 5, we picked up Elijah to take him to get his pay for the month during which he said nothing about his wife. At 7, the woman became unconscious and they started to worry. Elijah then got on his bike to get to Jeremy and Bethany's house...the only people with a vehicle in the village and the only people he knew of to turn to for help.

At 9 we arrived at the hospital. The baby who had been burnt was not crying, was not opening his eyes; it had been 6 hours since the incident. We left the hospital to head back to the village, leaving Elijah, his wife, and the baby at the hospital to wait for the doctor.

On Saturday when we came into town, we saw Elijah around 8am. His wife had not seen a doctor, as the doctor was not arriving until 10am. The clinic has nothing to help burn victims except for ib prophen, which is what she had been given.

I went to bed on Friday night and stared at the thatched roof above me. What a day. Through joys of births and victims at the clinic, the constant reminder of illness is always difficult, yet beautiful. The bond that ties everyone together is family, and the sense of family here is so powerful that it helps people through the biggest of problems. The community I live in have become my extended family members, eating with me, visiting with me, and asking for whatever help I can give. If that help is standing in a labor room holding my breath until a newborn baby breaths, then at the end of the day this experience is more than worth it. If that help is holding a woman while driving her to the hospital telling her in my best Bemba "It's going to be okay," then at the end of the day I can lay in bed and stare at my thatched roof and feel blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of this beautiful world.

Child Health Week

Every six months, Child Health Week occurs. This is an attempt for the Ministry of Health in Zambia to vaccinate for measles and polio, give vitamin A and deworming medication, and weight every child under five year old. I participated in Child Health Week and took a few photos as well as sound recorded the chaos. I still haven't figured out how to post my recordings (although it's just sounds of massive amounts of babies crying), but here are some photos for you:

Bad To The Bone

After viewing my brother Frank's blog (http://goatpath.wordpress.com/), I was inspired to post this photo of my neighbor Kapya. If anyone can find these sweat pants in Adult size Medium, send them my way!

My favorite maayo had a baby!

In July the children came to my home to tell me I was wanted at the clinic. To my delight, my favorite bamaayo (meaning "mother", maayo for short) was delivering a beautiful baby boy. Traditionally in Bemba culture, babies are not named until the umbilical falls off. Now, healthy and just a few weeks old, I present to you the adorable baby Allan:

Karate Kid

Often when I whip out my camera in the village, my neighbor Lloyd poses his latest karate moves. This picture is by far my favorite as I somehow captured the intensity of his air punch...

work updates

Last week I attended an event put together by a friend and fellow PCV, Ashely, where we showed a documentary made by the peer educators on issues in the village. I assisted in the making by editing the material, creating a village-feel documentary that shows real-life stories of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC's), early marriages, malaria, and beer drinking. I also put together a story for Radio Yangeni on the event. At the event we had Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing (VCT) and 52 people were tested...an extremely high number for an event like this.

This week is Child Health Week so I head back to the village today and we start off on Monday, reaching all the zones in my catchment area. Child Health Week, which is sponsored by the Ministry of Health in Zambia, is an attempt to reach all of the children under 5. We weigh and vaccinate the youth, which helps us monitor their growth. We also hold education talks on the importance of keeping the children healthy.

Although it's a great program, we bike to all of the villages and it gets very tiring, so next week I am heading for some R&R to Ashley's village where we are hosting a new set of Peace Corps Trainees that are fresh in-country. It's their first time in a rural village setting after only being in country a few days and the goal is to introduce them to their life after training, answer their unrelenting questions, and get them excited for the adventure that lies ahead.

With all of this work I still can't get the excitement out of my head for the arrival of my dad and tammy to Zambia! It's going to be one jammed-packed week in Zambia, then we head to Kenya to visit family friends and see the sites. I am excited to share this experience with them and can not wait to host them in my house in the village. It's going to be an adventure to say the least.

As for the radio program with NZP+, we are still waiting on our grant money to come in. When it does, we are starting off right away going to villages all over Luapula Province and interviewing people who are opening HIV positive in villages to talk about stigma, difficulties getting CD4 counts, troubles with medication and so on...our hope is to bring the subject of HIV into the homes of listeners and hopefully reduce stigma. I'll let you know when we start!

I am missing you all and hope life is great.

Love,

b

Such as yourself....

Flickr never misses a chance to take a stab at your ego. After multiple attempts to even create an account (apparently if you don't access it often enough they close it--not very lack-of-internet-friendly), I finally sat down today to give it another try. Of course, I forgot my username (does anyone even use Yahoo mail accounts??) but finally hacked in and rushed to upload photos and videos of my time here in Zambia. Worse than Microsoft Word's paperclip that pops up and asks, "do you need help?," harsher than Google's, "did you mean?," Flickr just told me "free account holders, such as yourself, are limited to only two video uploads per month." First of all, I refuse to be just another fish in the 'free account holder' sea and second, Flickr, I don't appreciate your tone. I must admit I continued to upload photos...but how else is the world going to get a glimpse of this?!?!?

The world needs babies, and I? I need Flickr...

Na Ine! Na Ine!

I took this photo on the Chief's Island Palace in Mongu, Western Province. Every time I would break out my camera, the group of children would say, "Na Ine! Na Ine!" (and me! and me!)

Mpeleniko Dolly!!!

I went back to the US in January, and returned to Zambia with two hand-made dolls given to me by my neighbors Mia and Stephanie. The girls in my village always come to my door and say, "Ba Britain! Mpeleniko dolly!" (Britain, please give me the doll!) It's pretty much the cutest thing ever...

Watch me jump!

The girls in my village love singing a Bemba nursery rhyme:

Ta ntombontombo, tafyeli tata, tatashi bwalya, tomboka mona wandi!

I would love to pretend that I could translate the whole thing, but I found out quickly what the end means...no thanks to my Bemba skills:

Yes, I know it's July

My delinquency has reached an all time high...sorry! Here is a quick update on my easter vacation...in picture form:

Below: traveling to the chiefs island palace in Mongu, Western Province, these floodplains are located 25k from the Zambezi.

Above: Drumming on the "Drum Rocks" in Lochinvar National Park, Southern Province. It's believed that ancient tribes would drum on these to pray for the rains to come early each year.

Below: Heading out of the "Hollow Baobab" in Lochinvar National Park, Southern Province.

Above: The sunset view from our lodge on Kafue River in Kafue National Park, Western Province.

Q&A

So I’ve received many questions on how life is lived in Zambia, and I figured the best way to answer them would be to do it is here, so enjoy!

What do Zambians do for work?

Most of the people in my village, if not all, are farmers. People usually wake up at the crack of dawn and go to their farms. Right now most villagers have planted their crops and applied fertilizer so now they are waiting to harvest their crops at the end of this month. The biggest harvest months here are April and May, right at the end of rainy season.

So if they’re farmers, what do they farm?

Most farm maize and kasava. People who have small farms usually grow groundnuts (which are being harvested now), beans, pumpkin (they usually eat the leaves first as a relish), rape (a leafy green), sorghum (like really tall wheat with a sweeter taste), finger millet (another type of grain), tomatoes, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, onion, and so on.

What do Zambians eat?

All of the above. The staple food in Zambia is N’shima. Or ‘ublawi’ in Bemba. It is a mixture of ground maize with water until it forms a hard consistency. Some regions add kasava to their N’shima, others add sorghum. As a relish they use leafy greens, boiled with a tomato, onion, and oil soup. If they don’t have greens (which is the cheapest relish), they use something like beans or capenta (a small fish). Luapula region is big on eating fish because there’s tons of it. We have many natural water sources and also fish farmers that make their own fish ponds and stock them to produce more and sell. The RAP program in Zambia basically works with these fish farmers to help them produce more yield.

What do you eat?

I eat a lot of American-style food. Oatmeal for breakfast, maybe crackers and tuna for lunch, beans for dinner. Sadly, I find a lot of what I eat actually comes from America (so keep the packages coming!). Nuts, dried fruit, fruit preserves, Clif Bars, Primal Strips, Annie’s Mac & Cheese…eating familiar food helps me stay sane, usually because when I’m eating alone in my hut I prefer to cook things I KNOW I’m going to enjoy…nothing’s worse than cooking something and not enjoying it!

Do you have electricity or running water?

I wish! There is no electricity in my village and I collect all of my water from a well near my house. Peace Corps gives us a water filter to use. I am lucky enough that my water is clean so I don’t have to boil the water before I filter it, like more volunteers in Zambia.

Where do you buy your food?

I buy most of my food in town:

Shoprite: A South African grocery store that Mansa is lucky enough to have. There are about 8-10 in all of Zambia. This is where I buy things like long-life butter, peanut butter, beers, yoghurt, sugar and so on…keep in mind that without electricity, the amount of dairy that I can house is very very limited. If I get yoghurt in town, I will either eat if right away or bring it to the Peace Corps house.

Green Market: This is where I buy, you guessed it: my vegetables. Usually I get my onions, tomatoes, and beans there, plus whatever is in season. On a lucky day I can find some fruit if I arrive early enough. I went a few months where I would go to the green market just to buy pineapple, and I would leave with like 4 or 5 and eat them all within a week. They are so good!

Other places to get food:

Village: Children come by my house and sell leafy greens and the occasional carrot, banana, or pineapple (word has spread of my pineapple obsession).

Villagers: My neighbors often come by and give me things like groundnuts and other fun things.

How do you cook your food?

On a brazure. A brazure is a metal device that you put charcoal in and when the charcoal is lit you place your pot or pan on top. There’s no way to regulate the heat but the coals get hotter the longer you wait. If you wait too long, the heat decreases. Just like any charcoal grill. I buy my charcoal from a local man in the village, and I purchased my brazures from the market in Mansa.

Where do you go to the bathroom? And what about feminine products?

I have a pit latrine behind my house. Peace Corps supplies name-brand feminine products. Emergencies at night call for a chamber pot.

Where do you bathe?

I have a bathing shelter outside, with walls made of grass. After the third attempt to build the bathing shelter because the rains continued to knock it down, I build an indoor bathing shelter. This was life altering because now I can bathe at any time of the day! I use a bucket and a cup to bathe…bucket showering if you will. I much prefer it over the ‘normal’ showering method, but this was known before I stepped foot in Zambia…

What do you do all day?

Ah, this question. I have a lot of time on my hands. This doesn’t mean that I am not working, it just shows that rural Zambians have a very slow-paced lifestyle. Usually I wake up in the morning, feed my cat, and go on a long bike ride exploring the bush around my village. When I get back I sweep my hut and rest in my hammock. I’ll read until about lunch time and prepare some food. Around this time is when I fetch my water, bathe, wash dishes, and maybe do some laundry. I usually have meetings in the afternoons, so I’ll bike to the meeting and wait for it to start. When it’s over I’ll go back to my house and hang out with my neighbors, visit for a while (usually in silence because my Bemba is not so great). When it starts to get dark I’ll go back to my hut and read some more, do some yoga/stretching/meditation, relax, and cook dinner. After dinner I…read! All of night activities are done with candlelight. Sometimes I listen to my iPod and paint or write letters. Some days I am so busy that when I lay in bed at night I’m exhausted. Other days are slooooowwww and I find myself counting down the hours until it is acceptable for me to go to bed. It all depends on meetings I have lined up, the season, day of week…you get the picture.

What sort of projects are you working on?

My village is really interested in building a nutrition center near the clinic. Plans have not started but what we are going to do is build a small area to house food and have a community garden. This will be a place where I can teach conservation farming, do nutrition talks, cooking demos, and introduce veggies/herbs to the villagers. I’m really excited about it and hopefully we can start plans soon to get this show on the road. Lately, I’ve been busy getting my floors cemented…yahoo! So I’m in town for the next few days waiting for the cement in my house to dry. It’s all very exciting; Extreme Home Makeover: Zambia, if you will. I even put some tiles and river rocks in the cement on the floor of my bathing shelter. It’s all very exciting. I’ve also been working with a few youth groups, meeting with the head teacher at the local school to start some projects, working with the Neighborhood Health Committees (NHC) on trainings and U5 clinics. U5 clinics are in different villages each month to weigh and vaccinate all children under 5. This helps the clinic keep a hold on the massive amounts of work. The NHC is also responsible for doing health talks during these U5 clinics, so basically teaching the moms and answering their questions.

Alright, well that’s all for now! Please let me know any questions you may have. I am more than happy to answer them!!!

Love,

b

Culture Shock

Living in the middle of the bush can feel remote at times, but I didn't truly realize how 'out there' I was until January 15th. As I was on my way into town (and coming into cell phone range) for a Peace Corps conference, I received a flood of text messages telling me that my sister-in-law, Jillian was trapped in her collapsed mission house and that my brother, Frank, was frantically trying to dig her out.

I was completely unaware of any natural disaster, let alone one in Port-au-Prince. I immediately called home, hearing about the news. Never did I think I would be coming back to America during my Peace Corps service in Zambia, but if Zambians have taught me anything it's that you're nothing without your family. Maybe this was supposed to bring our family together? Maybe...maybe...maybe...So many things run through your mind when you realize that life is precious-and every second counts.

So I flew home! To cold weather, choices at the grocery store, TOILETS, HDtv, cereal, cars, Avatar in 3D...you name it. I knew it was going to be difficult when I had a layover in Johannesburg and had to take deep breaths from crying...due to variety, and that's still Africa!

Being with family is always nice when things like this happen. We laughed, we cried, we flew play helicopters, we ATE, we sat in DC traffic, we went to the DMV, we went bowling, we ate pizza while drinking Bud Light. It was most definitely 'American,' if you will. We even had time to grow these:

So being completely busy with family and friends, my 8 days in America flew by so quickly that it seems like just a glimpse--and of course, what's a good trip State-side in mid-January without frozen vapor falling from the sky?

Disclaimer: East Carolina University is better than West Virginia University.

So I leave for Zambia this afternoon, and I promise to try to update my blog more due to massive amounts of complaints (mom). Stay warm America!!!!

If you are interested in reading about Frank and Jillian's story, check out http://www.haitianheros.org/

-b

OBAMA CAME TO MY VILLAGE!!!!!

Okay...not the REAL Obama...but I made this mask and the kids in my village love it.
This video is a perfect example of why NOT to give the kids in your village tons of sweets and pineapple before you whip out the Obama mask...

We've graduated!

From chalk to markers! Next up? Finger paints...

Bike Ride Photos

I've started to take long bike rides in the morning in hopes of exploring more of the Luapula landscape...and sometimes I find interesting things along the way:

Sadly, every time I bike past this shop it's never open....

Yes, this is a mushroom.

No, this is not a giraffe. It is a rock.

Cow crossing?

The View

The various views from my home...

The rainbow is leading to my pit latrine!
The wind's a howlin' and a storm's a brewin...it rained all night and all of the next day
Sunset behind my clinic

The wildlife of AFRICAAAAAAAA

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!!! Well, not quite. Although I do see a lot of cool looking spiders, farm animals, snakes, and bugs...

Food chain in action: wall spider eating moth

Moth...pre-lunch for wall spider. kidding.

Pig outside a friend's house. It just likes to run back and forth taunting us. Good thing I don't eat pork!

The STORK at Samfya beach!!!!

Grasshopper wing

Beetles are fun(!) when they're pretty...

and even more fun(!!) when they're pre-historically-scary. Yikes!!! (of course I'm in the background telling someone to touch it...)

Super Mario World large

The snake, pictured dead, that was residing in my bathing shelter. After my neighbor killed it he said about the snake, "oh, it just wanted to watch you bathe."