Coppala Swag

Here is a conversation I just had with a neighbor boy, Grant, yesterday:

"Auntie, where is your dish?! I don't see any dish here!"

"I don't have one."

"WHAT?!? You mean you just watch ZNBC (Zambia National Broadcasting)?"

"No I have GoTV and it just uses an antenna"

"So how many channels do you have? Do you have power rangers? I love power rangers."

Grant is 7 years old and lives such a different life than any 7 year old in my village that I can't help but thinking I am in a completely different country here. In Misengo kids played with empty containers (seriously, they would fight over an empty shampoo bottle or tin can), or played church in my front yard (complete with sermons, songs, bible readings, and casting out of demons) while kids here in Kitwe would never really be satisfied with that. They know all about satelite dishes, LG vs. Phillips plasma screens, and the latest Blackberry phone. Aside from the stuff they have here, these kids can also speak English far better than most adults in Misengo. They are more educated in grade 2 than a lot of pupils are by grade 9 in the village. And sadly the majority of people in Zambia aren't like the people I am finding in the Copperbelt, but have experiences more like I found in the village.

It makes me wonder how I am going to cope with being back in America for a month. I think the transition will be easier than coming straigt from the ville because most of my co workers have cars, and smartphones, but I think the amount of stuff is going to be a little overwhelming, but nonetheless I am excited to be there and be back in America after being gone for about a year and a half!

Things here in the Copperbelt have been going well. I was busy organizing a workshop we hosted for teacher's about male circumscision because the Ministry of Health is having a big push to have every male in Zambia circumscised by the year 2015. We wanted to educate the teachers so that they can be our focal point people in the schools to help us educate the boy pupils since the age of 16-25 is one of our main target groups. To my teacher friends, imagine having the responsibility of teaching your pupils about protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS and MC?!?

Other than that my other latest project was the creation of a facebook page for our copperbelt platform. If you want to take a look and see some photos of our events or be in the loop on where we are going you can check us out on

http://www.facebook.com/sfhCopperbelt

A Month into Working Life

I have been a Communications Assistant at SFH for one month now. And it has been a busy month! My body is still trying to get used to the 8-5, Monday thru Friday schedule after being in the village life for 2 years where my days consisted of killing time by reading, washing clothes, cleaning, and hanging out with people with a scheduled program every now and then. So far it's been a good month. My job as a CA is to go out and create demand for SFH products and services. So we sell items like condoms, clorin for safe drinking water, birth control pills, and then we educate communities and schools on things like male circumcision, long term family planning methods (IUDS), and going to get tested for HIV and create demand for them to get these services. As the Copperbelt platform we have insane targets that each department has to meet each month (for example, the MC team has a target of providing 2,175 circumcisions every month) and so the CA is very important to help these departments reach these numbers. We've been going around to a few schools and doing some of the GrassRoots Soccer activities I learned to teach about HIV in a non formal way. Then we also go on outreaches where we attack some speakers to the top of the cruiser and drive around talking in a microphone alerting people that we are there and they should come and get the service we are offering. Going around like this with the PA system is really effective. Even though we can tell a clinic we are there and hope word spreads around, most times in the more urban areas the correct message doesn't reach everyone so this method targets a large number of people. So far in my month I have seen not only a lot of Kitwe, but also a lot of the Copperbelt thanks to the outreaches we've done. I've been to many of the districts including Chingola, Chililabombwe, and Mufulira.I still have yet to make it to Ndola, the provincial capitol, but I am hoping that one of our trips will take me there. Next up, we as a communications team have been planning a workshop for teachers to train them about MC so that they can tell their students about it and hopefully be referring them to our site so they can get circumcised. Being that pretty much every baby gets circumcised in the States I had never thought that much about it, but here it is really being pushed because it can help lower the risk of getting HIV by 60%, and lower the chances of the man passing on HPV to women which can cause cervical cancer. And MC is being provided for free to Zambian men thanks to funding from USAID. So thank you America! Otherwise, life outside of work is going well. I am slowing figuring out where to buy certain things in town and I am loving living in my house that has running water (most of the time, I still stock it up in a dish just in case it stops), power, a stove, and a fridge. Only a little over 1 month until I am in America for the holidays! I can't wait to see everyone and be back for some American living!!!

Life after the Village

I have been out of my village for a little over one month now, but it seems like a lifetime ago. Saying that getting pulled from my site was 'emotional' would be the understatment of the century. In the week prior to getting pulled I felt excited for what was to come next, sad to be saying goodbye, anxious, disappointment, and anger due to a HUGE mistake by Peace Corps. I won't get into too many details, but to make a long story short they didn't have Misengo on the list of sites to be replaced so one week before I was to go I find out that no one is coming to replace my site and continue on in the work that I was doing even though I had many times told many members of staff that I HIGHLY recommended it to be replaced. However, as we were driving away good news came and a girl is coming to my site for one year after previously being a volunteer in Southern Province. So at least, Misengo will have a volunteer again! Saying goodbyes was the worst experience ever and something I would never want to repeat again. Ever. Luckily though since then I have been able to communicate with some people from my village by phone which has been so great. The drama that Misengo has never ceases to amaze me and I find myself missing it so much!

But now I have left Misengo and Northern Province and have found myself in the Copperbelt Province, in the city of Kitwe. It is a HUGE step up from Kasama town which had one traffic light, one Shoprite, and very little else. Kitwe is huge with a population of over 500,000 and lots of cars, areas, and shops not to mention delicious pizza. I live in the Nkana West part of town which is really close to town center and a short walk to the Society for Family Health offices. I live in a flat that has two bedrooms (with closets), a bathroom (with a flush toilet, shower, and tub), a kitchen (with stove, fridge, countertops, sink), and a big sitting room. I really like it and slowly but surely I am making it a home :)

My job at Society for Family Health has been going well after week one and I have to say I forgot how tiring it is to actually have a job from 8-5 every day Monday-Friday. As part of the communications team we are asked to go out a lot and provide information to the community before an event takes place. Last week we went to Mufurila right on the border to the Democratic Republic of Congo to prepare people for male circumcision. The beginning of this week we went to schools to watch their programs in promotion of global handwashing day, and this weekend I will be traveling again up near the Congo to promote family planning methods. So far it is busy, but I am liking it!

Preparing for the end

This is it, my final month living in my village. Where did these last two years go? I have been brainstorming ideas about a going away party which I will throw for myself and figuring out what things of mine I will carry with me to my new place and which stuff I will leave in the village. Besides thinking about these things, I haven’t really thought about leaving and saying goodbye to my home and the people I have grown so close to over these two years because it is just too hard. Sometimes I have tried to think about saying goodbye but I have to stop because I get lots of anxiety and end up crying. It’s a bad scene. I mean leaving America was hard and sad, but at least with friends and family back home we can communicate frequently with email, letters (kind of), Skype, phone calls, etc, but in my village people just have phones and only limited network. And I spend a majority of my time with children ages 5-10 so they do not own phones and cannot really write or read a letter so how am I supposed to keep connected with them? I am also struggling with a “should of, could of, would of” mentality. I keep thinking that I could have done more in my village, wishing I would have tried to do a preschool, thinking I could have spent more time in my village, and many more things. However, it seems when I really get down thinking about all the things I didn’t do I get a word of encouragement from someone in my village that I did well and they will miss me. The biggest compliment I have received is from the head teacher of Misengo Basic School. We were riding on the bus coming back and talking about me leaving and he just told me, “Emily we will miss you so much. You dedicated your time to Misengo and really invested in our people and learned about us and let us into your life to learn about you. You will never be forgotten.” It’s a good thing we were on a bus because otherwise I would have cried right there on the spot! The one thing that will make leaving my village more bearable is the fact that I am not yet leaving Zambia. I have been approved to stay for a third year and have FINALLY figured out where I will be and what I will be doing. I am moving to Kitwe which is in the Copperbelt Province. It’s the second largest city in Zambia so it will be a big leap from the simple life I have been leading in the bush. And it’s also SO much closer to Lusaka which will make any travelling so much better. Instead of a 10-14 hour ride I will only have to face one that is about 6 hours. I will be working for Society for Family Health (SFH) as a Communications Assistant. In reading the job description it sounds a lot like things I do now but this time I will work with a team instead of by myself. SFH does all sorts of health marketing things like family planning (pills, IUCD), male circumcision, HIV testing, cervical cancer screening, and I will be a part of a team that goes out before they do these technical things and give the community education about it to prepare them for it. And because I have a nursing background they have asked if I would be willing to do quality assurance as well after they give me training. I am not totally sure what they mean by quality assurance, but from the description is sounds like I will just be making sure that standards of care are being met. So now I go for my final weeks! I remember when I first came I was hoping some days or weeks would go by quickly, but now I am just hoping that time will slow down a little bit.

VCT Event

For those of you who don't know VCT stands for Voluntary Counselling and Testing so that one can know his or her HIV status. I just found out from one of my bosses from Peace Corps that only about 20% of the Zambian population actually knows their status, which is really scary considering there is such a high HIV prevalence rate here. In Misengo village we have people that are trained to test someone whenever they want, but not many villagers take this opportunity because of many fears. They fear the lack of confidentiality shown by clinic staff, who will more than likely tell anyone who will listen what so and so's HIV status was (there is no HIPPA here that's for sure!). Secondly they fear even the stigma they will face just going to ask to be tested. To ask that is not commended by their peers as a smart choice so that they can be healthy, instead it is seen as a way to show that you have sex...lots and lots of sex. With a lot of different people. In my time in Misengo I have worked to dispel this myth of getting tested = promiscuous, but I wanted to do it on a bigger scale so I decided a VCT day would be best. I planned it for the end May because the rains have stopped and also we have a influx of people due to traders coming to stay in my village to by and sell beans, and this calls for education because a lot of times these beans are traded for sex because the women have no other way of paying for them. I also wanted it to be on a Sunday because that is when the most people from surrounding villages come to Misengo to go to church, buy veg from the market, and watch football. So in March I began the long process of writing a grant which was probably the hardest part of the whole event. I teamed up with ZANIS, part of the Ministry of Communication, who came out on Saturday 26th May around 1400 and drove around advertising the weekends events. That night starting at about 1830, they set up a projector at the football pitch and played movies in Bemba talking about topics like HIV stigma, getting tested, early marriages, as well as just entertaining movies to a crowd of about 500 until 2300. And some of those Zambians are strong...I went to bed at 2100 because I was cold by those in just a t shirt and shorts lasted until the end! The following morning after they set up a sound system and began the main VCT event. I arranged testers to come from the District AIDS Task Force of Kasama to come and do the testing to decrease peoples fears of confidentiality. They arrived at 1100 and began testing. Each person that was tested got a ribbon to wear and their name entered into a raffle for a prize. As people were getting tested music played, drama sketches were performed, speeches were made and a lot of HIV questions were answered. Later in the afternoon we had the final games of netball and football of the tournament that started the beginning of May. The winning teams received a ball and whistle and second place got a case of drinks. I found the games the most trying part of the day because several members of one of the football (aka soccer) teams refused to play because they thought that drinks were not enough for second place and wanted me to give them money instead. I explained that I would not be giving money because I knew that they would just spend it on beer, which I refused to support. But other than that everything else that day went smoother than I imagined. I myself got tested to show that I not only talk the talk, but walk the walk as well. I hate having my finger pricked so I was not looking forward to it, but in the end I am glad that I did it so that I can proudly say I know my status! Overall it was a really successful day! We had 128 people tested which is really something to be happy about!!

What is Normal?

One thing I have been learning that here there is no such thing as a typical day or week. On one Tuesday I can sit in the house reading all day without a care in the world and the following Tuesday it seems like I am in crisis control mode.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been thrown situations I never really anticipated finding myself in. First, on one Wednesday evening I heard a ruckus coming from the three grade 9 girls that live next to me. After investigating no one was really able to tell what started the fight. Then about 30 minutes after returning home the drama erupted all over again with a new development...this time a female teacher came and started beating one of the girls and calling another all sorts of names and accused her of "dating" her husband. Now that accusation is serious and one that would be illegal if it was true so dealing with the matter by going to the pupil (who is just 17 years old) was totally inappropriate. So after consulting the girls for their permission, I went the following morning and reported this teacher's behavior to the headmaster who was deeply embarrassed by her actions. And the really unfortunate part is that this was the teacher that I brought to my GLOW Camp in December and who was supposed to be a role model to the girls. I have since ceased having her work on the girls club and will begin with a new teacher next term.

So that was one atypical event. The next was that I became an unexpected caregiver. My other neighbor is a woman who has two boys aged 7 and 9. I love them all and we are very neighborly with one another where we lend each other things like salt or beans and she looks after my dog when I am away from site for awhile. On Tuesday her younger son was at my house in the morning and was feeling fine, but by around 1500 he started crying and complaining of stomach pains and a headache. Our clinic was closed so I just tried to comfort him as much as possible until his mom returned from farming that evening. The following morning around 0700 he returned to my house again crying of the same pains. When I asked where was his mom he said she left to go farming. And let me just say I had no way of contacting her. We have no network for phones and her farm is about an hour walk away. So I found myself with a sick child...again. I took him to the clinic (this has now been the third time in my service that I have been the one to take him there). After doing the test it turns out he had malaria again. This is his third round of malaria since I came to Misengo. His last one was just last month. So after he was given his medicine we went home to my house and I made us some potatoes while he laid and attempted sleeping in the insaka. Thankfully his mom returned about noon because it broke my heart to watch him cry and in so much pain without the one thing he wanted most-ba mommy.
The clinic worker told me that she talked to his mother later that day and told her to take more responsibility with her children and not to be depending on me to take care of them for her. I was glad she did because it was getting to be too much to suddenly become the caregiver for a sick 7 year old who you cant even really communicate with.
The following day my bicycle broke down as I was returning from teaching about HIV to a women's group about 14km from my house. And when I say broke I mean BROKE. The last km or so I pushed the bicycle through the mud and up a hill with the rear wheel not turning at all. I guess it may be the axle? We'll see I guess!
So like I said there is no such thing as typical. This is no 9-5 job, which sometimes is great, but then some days there is nothing more I want than a normal routine.

World Map!

The completed world map painting! Thank you to the University of Minnesota-Duluth Econ Club and Department of Economics for their donations!

I'm a Survivor...

Thus far 2012 has been a roller coaster ride of a year…and I am only in my second month of it. There have been several ups and downs that I will now try and recap for you all. Here we go…

Starting off getting back to site after being away for the Christmas and New Year holidays I was really excited for my upcoming projects. Work got started pretty quickly on the world map I was painting at the school. And I am happy to report that after 2 weeks of hard work it is complete. That was a highlight! Secondly I was really excited to get started on the girls club that was a break off from the Camp GLOW that I went to in December. So far we have had about 3 meetings and they have all gone pretty well. So that is another highlight.

So in the midst of these projects going on here in my village I was trying to work on getting a visa for my b-friend to come with me to London over Easter. We have already bought the plane tickets and then when my mom said he would need a visa I thought okay we will do it no problem. Well man was I wrong. He has now been denied two times for said visa and we are trying to attempt our third and final try at it. The problem was that the first time when we went online to do that application it had you fill it out to submit and then also provide “any other documentation you feel is necessary for your application.” Well to me I thought his application was pretty straightforward so all I turned in was our flight information. Turn out there is a LONG list of documents they deem necessary including financial statements for the previous three months, tenant information to prove that the person we would be staying with was in fact a British citizen, letter to prove he is a student, etc. So the second time we applied he also submitted about 20 pages of supporting documents. Now we just found out that was denied with the only thing they said was that he wasn’t proving his financial status wasn’t documented well enough. Well excuse me British embassy branch in South Africa if I wont provide you with actual account numbers for bank accounts!! So now we are looking up what America requires of people submitting for a visa and just doing that because if it works for the US than it should work for the UK.

Then the next low point was that after a day of visiting my nearest PC neighbor I was biking home when the rains came…hard. I was wearing my REI rain jacket and had my cell phone in one pocket and my iPod in the other and my camera in the back pack I was wearing. After the 45 minute bike ride I got back with the camera, iPod, and phone all not working. That was now 2 and a half weeks ago so if I haven’t been responding to your emails, or fb related messages or posts like I normally do it is because my internet phone is finished.

And finally, and the lowest point of my 2012 life (if not my service thus far) has been this week. It started on a Saturday night (Feb 4th to be exact) and I was awoken at night by terrible body aches, specifically in my back and neck. It continued the next day and I just thought it was due to the fact that the previous few days I had been doing a lot of biking and I was just sore or something. But then Sunday afternoon the fever started and along with that severe chills and even worse body aches, plus a terrible headache. By Monday morning my aches and pains were only getting worse and my fever had reached 101.3 and I thought to myself this may be malaria. I hadn’t believed it was because when other people have mentioned having it they always said they had diarrhea and vomiting and I, thankfully, had neither. But after talking to Peace Corps I was told that I had breakthrough malaria and that I should take my Coartem. My malaria was considered breakthrough malaria because every week I take prophylaxis medicine so that while it doesn’t totally prevent malaria it offers protection and will lessen the severity if you do get it. So I started taking my Coartem and after a few hours my fever dropped and I started feeling a little better. But the problem with malaria is that it is cyclic so you feel fine for a time but then it like comes back and you feel terrible again. So that has what has been happening to me for the past three days. I wake up feeling pretty fine and then around 1600 my fever spikes, I get cold even in spite of the fact that my body temperature is 103, and the aches are back all over my body. Needless to say it has been an awful week for me and I am just ready to be healthy again. And even though I am 23 years old when I feel that sick and terrible there is nothing I wanted more than to be at home with my mom and dad.

So that has been the re-cap on my year thus far and it looks as though the bad has so far outweighed the good but I am hoping that soon that will be changing.

Time in the Big City

I cannot believe that it is already 2012!! Happy New Year to everyone :)

I just wrapped spending time in the southern part of Zambia. First I went down to Lusaka to attend a wedding. It was my first non-village wedding here in Zambia so I was pretty excited. It was a lot of fun, but also very different than what I expected! It was held at like a community hall in the kabwata part of Lusaka. The family of the bride (aunts and uncles pretty much) wore outfits made out of matching brown icitenges and members of the committee (women who helped behind the scences stuff like decorating and set up) also were wearing their own citenge outfits. Then at first a matron dances in with a little girl and little boy who I would equate to a flower girl and ring bearer. And then the line-up (aka bridesmaids and groomsmen) danced in. And I do mean DANCE. They were SO hardcore that it was really fun to watch. Then they went out, had a costume change while the bride and groom then danced in. They didnt dance as intensly, but they were still dancing instead of walking. Then the line-up came in again and did their rountine with each pair getting their own opportunity to bust a move. And as this is happening members of the audience (I dont know what you would call us onlookers) were screaming, cheering, and several even got up to dance as well. Then there were speeches from a representative from both bride and groom and then a guest of honor who's affiliation with the wedding praty was questionable. Then we moved onto dinner which was a buffet and were warned by the MC to "take only what you know so that you dont wind up in the toliet." Those are words of wisdom!
After eating then it was time for cutting the cake and feeding one another and then presenting some of the cake as a gift to the parents of the bride. Then there was a dedication dance from the groom to the bride of Shania Twain's classic, "From this Moment." After this dance the opportunity to dance for other couples happened and I went and danced with my guy and this led to an eruption of cheers and screams from ALL the onlookers. It was so embarrassing, but we stuck through the whole song and tried to pretend no one was watching us. Then the rest of the evening was dancing and a time for photo op with the bride and groom. I felt the whole thing was more of a really fun reception and not so much a wedding ceremony. THere was no father walking the bride down the aisle, no exchanging of rings or vows, and not a whole lot of smiling from the bride. You can check out some pics by clicking on the link below!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.944479424096.2336351.59511885&type=1&l=df8e397ae9
Then after celebrating in Lusaka a few days later I headed to Victoria Falls and Livingstone to celebrate Christmas. I stayed at a really nice place that had a pool, big bed, and a fabulous shower. Pretty sure that everyday I was there I took at least 2 showers a day. Sometimes even 3 if I felt like it because it was just THAT great. The falls were also really fun to see because there was quite a bit of water because it is rainy season and thankfully we didnt encounter any baboons who were after our food. Again if you want to see some pics click on the link below!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.931464486136.2333894.59511885&type=1&l=f467de9e80..