Visitors at the Fritz Ritz

Hey All--


So I have been in Lusaka for the past couple of days for dental issues but going back up north, against the doctor's wishes, to help the NGO CamFED-Campaign for Female Education-with a one week girls' empowerment science and technology camp in Chinsali, the district north of Mpika. It should be quite interesting--Mary Ellen and I are the two PCVs who will be helping so we are excited because we are hoping to use CamFED as facilitators for our Camp GLOW in December, which speaking of, my grant proposal for our Mpika Camp Glow got approved with no questions so that is so exciting!! I will be writing to you all asking for help, so please if you want to know more right now, let me know!! But anyways, being in Lusaka with free unlimited internet access is quite amazing...especially coming from Mpika where it's soooo expensive just to type on a computer, let alone use the internet.


So I said there would be an update about my work so here goes it....

My busiest month of work was June, by far. I had so many community meetings lined up and everyone wanted to work, so that was great! I started working right away with my EHT on our behavior change study. We formed a committee with headmen from the different villages, teachers from the two basic schools, religious leaders and other active members of the community. Together, we planned how to implement the survey to the young girls. Kaole community, which is about 7 km south of where I live, is a community adamantly opposed to talking about/distributing or mentioning condoms so it was quite difficult to work with them at first, but after lots of conversation, they finally did see the value and my EHT and I were able to go into the school and freely talk about our study. So this was all going on in June. In addition to behavior change, my clinic and I organized a cooking demonstration for all the healthworkers in my community. It was a fantastic event! All 36 health workers came out, everyone brought what they were suppose to and they cooking all sorts of nutrition things that would help child nutrition. We also did a soya demonstration at this event and so we made soya milk and sausages-so good! Chris, my nearest PCV neighbor who came to Zambia in February with the Education program, came and my community absolutely loves him now ha ha. He took a great group photo of us so I blew it up and framed it and gave it to my clinic, they absolutely loved it.

I also started my HIV/Aids Outreach program with my counterpart from the Pepfar training and it went soooo well! Ba Dorothy-a lady who is half muzungu-her father was German- is HIV positive and a really great counterpart because she likes to tell people her story and encourage them to get tested. She came, along with Gilbert who is my original PC counterpart. So together, we met, planned activities and divided up the sessions then went out to a far village to do our outreach. We had a great turnout, about 50 people showed up both men and women, as well as the entire neighborhood health committee for that area. They loved the activities we did and at the end, we encouraged them all to come to the clinic the following Wednesday for World VCT Day. And success! At World VCT Day, the entire NHC came out together and got tested for the first time so it was awesome, I was thrilled at the progress. And the District chose my clinic to do their national event for VCT day so an added bonus of government money...always nice.

July I was away for the first two weeks for Malawi/Kasama but I returned to the village rested, relaxed and ready to continue work. By the end of June I was so ready for vacation, but as my previous vacation stated, it was not much of one in Malawi, thanks to transport issues! But when I got back to site, I had about a week to work before I was to host four new health trainees at my site for their first site visit. So during this week, I managed to get to both my schools and hand out the surveys for my behavior change study to girls ages 12-19. Between the two schools I handed out about 50 surveys, and out of 50, 18 girls are sexually active-the youngest being 12 years old! But according to their survey, all 18 said they use condoms for protection...very interesting. Now I am going to go back and try to get some more data from more girls but school is on break right now...

So on Monday, July 26th I got four new health volunteers at my site for their first site visit. Crazy to think that I was in their shoes a year ago but yes, Emily, Adrienne, Nancy and John arrived at the Fritz Ritz-yes isn't that a catchy title? Chris named my hut the Fritz Ritz during my one year anniversary party because I have an amazing site! So please everyone, come visit the Fritz Ritz. Chris and Courtney, another PCV who lives close by, came to help out for the visit. They were a great help and I really appreciated them being there because four newbies asking questions can be quite overwhelming! So the newbies arrived around 2 and since they had a long journey, we did not do much. I gave them a tour of the village, taught them how to fetch water and then we started on an early dinner of soya tacos. Chris is an amazing cook so I was glad he was there to help. The newbies enjoyed learning how to cook on braziers and loved the meal. The best thing about site visit is that the newbies bring you lots of yummy treats to eat...so now my kitchen is fully stocked, yay! The next day, I took them to meet my headman, he talked to them about roles of a headman and then we went to the clinic. My EHT and nurse met with the group, talked to them about how the clinic works and then we came back, ate a quick lunch before the cruiser came to pick us up and take us to Kaole School where I work with the anti-aids club. The students are so great, they are so motivated and love to perform! They did songs, dances and poems for the newbies then afterwards the new ones led them in some games. It was more just an opportunity for them to see school kids in Zambia, but fun nonetheless. We came back, and they were exhausted...they were still recuperating from jet lag so I don't blame them. We made popcorn and called it a night. The next day, we got up bright and early and I took them to White/Chilebela villages where they split into two groups and went with the NHC on village inspections. They seemed to enjoy it and this opportunity allowed them to see what NHCs are supppose to be like in village settings. After village inspections, we had a cooking party with the committee members. They taught the newbies how to pound groundnuts, cook nshima and kill a chicken! There was so much food and it was absolutely great. I think it was their favorite day, by far. So site visit was a success overall...my villagers were so excited that I had guests in the village so please everyone back home, come visit!! They left early the next day, which was sad but they now start their 9 weeks of intense training....I am so glad I am over that stage! It was a fun experience..and in a few weeks, I'll be hosting the new Mpika volunteers are my site...that will be even more fun because they will be my new neighbors!

Alrighty well this is extremely long....but there you have it, all the happenings of Zambia from the past few months.

Please please continue to write and COMMENT! I would love to know that people are reading this blog...even if it is a diary of sorts on my life here...

Miss you all so much!