Invest in the Future, Defeat Malaria.

April 25^th is World Malaria and this day has a lot more meaning to it for me since I have suffered from malaria myself. It is 4 days I will never forget in my Peace Corps service.

Here was a little about my firsthand experience with malaria…One late afternoon/early evening on s Saturday in the beginning of February 2012 I felt a little off. My neck and back were sore and I just felt really fatigued, but I didn’t think much of it because the previous 2 days I had done a lot of biking and just thought it was because of that that I was feeling sore achy and tired. The next day, I still felt really tired and sore and just overall really weak, which again I thought was due to biking and just stress from the village life. The only new thing that happened to me that day was that I didn’t really have much of an appetite. Still I had no clue I was suffering from malaria because I slept under a mosquito net every night and I took malaria prophylaxis medicine.

That Sunday night was awful for me, I woke up with a fever and would wake up alternating feeling hot and then cold. Monday morning I woke up with a fever of 104 and a splitting headache plus an overall weak and fatigued feeling. Once I woke up with the headache between my eyes I thought, “Wait, could this be malaria?” So I went and read my PC Medical handbook and saw that I was missing only 2 of the symptoms but very strongly had everything else including headache between the eyes, fever, sweats and chills, fatigue, aches and pains. So I went and took a malaria test at my local clinic and the result came back negative because of my prophylaxis medicine so I took the Coartem to kill the parasite in my blood.

The next 3-4 days were the worst I have felt in my entire life and I am not even being dramatic by saying that. And since I take the prophylaxis medicine I was told my malaria was just “ break through” malaria and supposedly less intense, but I hope that is not true because if that was only a bit of malaria I don’t know how people survive the full force.

The worst was just doing something small and feeling so exhausted by doing that. I didn’t really get out of bed for those 3 days and I was still so tired. I had no appetite so I am pretty sure I lost between 5-7lbs, and the worst thing with malaria is that it’s cyclic which means that maybe in the morning you feel okay so you start moving around a bit, but by the afternoon you feel as if it’s your first day with malaria all over again. Then for me about a week after I was still feeling some of the effects of the malaria but this time with severe pain in my joints, specifically my knees. Bending my legs and walking was so painful!

Even with all this coming from such a small insect I survived and sadly to say many people in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially children, don’t survive. Many don’t have access to nets, or when they go to the clinic they find there is no medicine available to kill the parasite, or I found in my community some people think all they need is rest to cure malaria and therefore don’t make it to the clinic to get the needed medicine. 

 

Stomping Out Malaria in Africa is a Peace Corps initiative that uses strategic partnerships, targeted training Volunteers and intelligent use of information technology to support the local malaria prevention efforts of over 3,000 Volunteers in sub-Saharan Africa. For more information go to stompoutmalaria.org and follow Stomp activities at http://www.facebook.com/StompOutMalaria.

It's Not Easy Being a Woman

Being back at work after a wonderful month of home leave and then 2.5 weeks of a fun-filled Zambian adventure with friends is really tough. I've decided that I love vacation and wish I could do it more often! But alas, I can't so here is what's been happening at work lately.

We here at SFH sell male and female condoms and we have like 20,000 pieces of female condoms that are going to expire in the next few months so we've been working on selling them and then giving away the generic brand. So far we have given away our entire stock of 14,000 pieces of the generic brand to clinics, individuals, and brothels around the Kitwe area. You would think it would be easy giving away condoms, but it's not. Zambians prefer the male condoms and therefore when we went to give a box of the female ones to them for free they were hesitant in taking them and requested free male condoms instead. So if it's hard to give them away imagine how hard a time we have had in selling them!

One interesting experience I had while selling these female condoms was in Kasumba Lesa which is right on the border of DRC. We went to what could technically be called a guest house, but was more like a brothel. Each room comes with a girl in it. We went on a Tuesday afternoon to meet with some of the ladies to try and teach them about safe sex to protect themselves against HIV and other STIs and sell them condoms (a dispenser comes with 24 condoms for the equivalent of about $1). Some of the ladies were not wanting to buy and instead wanted them for free because they said that business was slow and they couldn't afford it. They have to pay for there room ($20/day), and since they don't normally even have that much they share it with at least one other woman, and then to get customers they have to look nice so they have to eat, buy make-up, clothes, get their hair done, etc. To make this money they have become commercial sex workers who charge $4 for every sexual act. $4 can you imagine that?!?!?! Just to make their rent they have to have sex with at least 3 men per day and then to buy all their other things they need just imagine how many more times they need to perform. It was an eye opening experience and one I will never forget. Some of these women come from all over Southern Africa just to sell there bodies to make just a little bit of money.

Another area that has been the focus this month is cervical cancer screening. The First Lady of Zambia is a huge advocate for women going to for cancer screening and so women are really wanting the service. Our screeners have busy traveling around the country and I have gone with them a few times to see them work. Unlike America, here they don't do a pap smear and instead do something called a Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) test where they take a piece of cotton and put it in vinegar and then insert that into a woman and let it stay for 3 minutes. The vinegar works to bring out any white spots on the cervix which indicates pre-cancer cells. Then the providers take a picture of the woman's cervix with a digital camera and can see if the cervix pink and normal, has white pre-cancer lesions, or has cancer and needs to be referred for treatment. The pictures they take will blow your mind!!! So many woman have VIA positive results and several have to be referred to Lusaka CIDRZ for treatment. If women don't have cancer, many of them have cervicitis, which is inflammation and swelling of the cervix. This is overly common in women here, especially in rural areas, because women insert things like Snuff tobacco (think of chewing tobacco), fresh marijuana leaves, crushed African herbs, into there vagina because of a belief that it will make them "warm and tight for their husbands to enjoy sex more." They also think that vaginal fluid is very dirty and will wash inside with harsh soaps (one woman said she even uses laundry soap), but in fact this is causing lots of damage to their cervix.

There are so many of these myths and misinformation about the woman's body that I would love to spend more time focusing on this and really educating woman on taking care of their bodies because a lot of this practice has come from tradition and they are unaware the harm it is causing. 

So that's my life as of late in a nutshell! I can't believe March is already half over!

A Tour of Zambian Life

2013 is off to a great start thus far! I spent a month on home leave, which was wonderful! I missed the Minnesota cold and snow and of course my family and friends! Then when I came back I travelled with two of my friends so they could get a taste of Zambian life. We started off their tour of Zambia with a stop at my boyfriend's family's house in Lusaka where they got to meet everyone, make the traditional meal of nshima and see what city life is like!

Riding on the mini bus

Sarah making nshima

Excited for the bus ride up to Kitwe

 Once we arrived at my home in Kitwe, we went and visited the Chimfunshi Chimpanzee Wildlife Orphanage in Chingola, Copperbelt. It was a chance for Anna and Sarah to glimpse at life in the bush and for all of us to get up close with primates. The chimps are rescued from all over the world from circuses, homes, and poachers and are kept at the orphanage. In total there were 125 chimps and we were able to walk with 6 of them...Dominic, Didi, Karla, Kitty, Cindy and one more whose name I have forgotten.After that, we went around with my colleagues to do some school programs, and then we did a tour of SOS Children's Village-Kitwe, which is an orphanage and has a school and clinic as well. 

Playing with the pre-school kids

Dominic and Anna

Our pockets were filled with treats for the chimps to find

Baby Kitty. We weren't allowed to pick up this baby because the mother wouldn't allow it

Me and Didi, who got to be quite heavy. She weighed about 75lbs

These male chimps aren't allowed to walk with people. This one was the leader, and he's only 12 years old.

 After about 5 days in Kitwe we took a 12 hour bus ride down to the Southern Province and stayed in Livingstone, which is home to Victoria Falls. We spent a day exploring the Falls, went on a 2-Day, 1-night safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana, did a lion walk, and watched the sunset at the swanky Royal Livingstone Hotel.

Good morning to you too!

going for a walk

Posing for a pic with Luba, a 2 year old lioness

Simba, the male lion

Victoria Falls

There was so much water coming from the Falls we got soaked!

Relaxing

Preparing ourselves to face baboons for the walk down to the boiling pot

Boiling Pot

All you can eat at the Royal Livingstone

Getting ready for an amazing sunset over Victoria Falls

Sarah is a little nervous about the hippo behind here

I love safari!