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