GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and is a Peace Corps run program around the world. We as volunteers put together a weeklong camp for 2 girls from each of our villages and then invite one female teacher to attend as well. In Peace Corps Zambia we have these camps run in each province and because northern province is so big we have 3 different camps based on district (e.g. Mpika, Mbala, and Kasama).
From 5 December to 9 December we had our Kasama Camp GLOW at a facility about 10km outside of Kasama town. We had 8 Peace Corps Volunteers, 16 girls aged 13-19, 7 teachers, and 3 Zambian counterparts from Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ). Throughout the week we had sessions lead by our counterparts from PPAZ on topics like confidence and motivation, assertiveness, sugar daddies, peer pressure and boyfriends. These sessions provided skills for the girls to take back to the village so that they can empower other girls and women in their communities. We also had arts and crafts time where the girls made things like tye-dye t shirts, decorating journals, and making washable menstrual pads using local citenge fabric and towels. Then we also had a time for sports where we did activities like bowling using empty plastic bottles, knock out, and a relay race. At the end of the week the teams were awarded homemade medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place as well as a team spirit award.
Another thing that my district did was assign 4 girls to 2 Peace Corps Volunteers in prides. We had 4 different prides (orange, green, yellow, and purple) and we met as a pride each day during tea break to discuss more about the sessions, answer questions, and just build a small family during the camp with other girls that aren’t from your village. We chose to name them prides for two different reasons. One was to teach the girls about what it means to be proud of yourself and the other because lions live in a group called a pride and in that pride they take care of one another and we hoped that over the week each pride of girls would look out for one another. These prides also competed against each other in sports throughout the week.
I was with the green pride. We named ourselves the green giants and had a great time during the week. I am proud to report that my green giants dominated in sports and therefore took 1st place and walked away with the gold medal for the week! It was so much fun cheering on my girls Mercy, Deophister, Lydia, and Sheila as they competed. I felt like such a proud mom
Now when in January once the schools open again I hope to work with my two girls I brought, Alice and Auxilla, and the teacher to start a girls club that will meet once weekly and do the same things that we did at camp.
Here’s to hoping that it goes as well as the club!
Friday, December 16, 2011
1st December…WORLD AIDS DAY
Every 1st of December marks the celebration of World AIDS Day. Last year on this day I went to my Peace Corps neighbors village which was having a big district wide celebration, but this year I decided to bring the party to Misengo.
Overall I think that things went pretty well. We were supposed to start at 8am with a march, but because this I live on Zambian time we didn’t start until after 10am. We then assembled the students and began our march through the “village center.” I had hoped we would sing a song, but instead we just had the group of older girls in the front yell “FIRST DECEMBER” followed by everyone else yelling “WORLD AIDS DAY”. In theory it sounds like a good idea but my bet is that almost all of the pupils who were yelling world AIDS Day had no idea what they were actually saying!
After our march we returned to the school and had our main program that featured speeches by the headman of the village, clinic nurse, and deputy head teacher. I thought these speeches were really good because they really emphasized how important it is to be safe during sex by practicing the ABC’s (which stands for abstinence, being faithful, and condom), and just they that should use the power to say NO and not to pressure other people. It was just good to have these messages coming from people who are leaders in the community.
My favorite portion of the day was the drama and poem section. Zambian LOVE role plays. I remember in school, or even my peace corps training, if you had to do a role play in front of the class chances are you felt embarrassed or pretended to because it wasn’t cool to be into it. Well in Zambia it is exactly the opposite! We had a drama created by the students about how having multiple partners can increase your chances of getting HIV and the best way to avoid is by abstaining from sex. And the poems here are not just read, they are read and danced to robot style. My favorite poem of the day went something like this:
“My name is Mulenga Charles, and I have a poem for you entitled AIDS. AIDS is a killer disease. Thank you.”
But just imagine it going to a beat and having the kid doing some arm motion as he was saying it. Hilarious!
We ended the day with some netball, girl’s soccer, and a soccer game between the grade 8 students and older people in the community. This is where the event took a little dip thanks to some of the older Zambians who were set to play in the soccer game. At first two of the men sent a teacher to come and ask me if they would be receiving a reward for playing. I said no and thought the subject was over. About 15 minutes later I see another teacher approaching me after having just left the two men and know what he is about to ask me. Before he opens his mouth I simply say, ‘no I will not be giving them a reward’ he laughs and then asks if I would be willing to give the two men money so that after the game they can buy beer. Well, naturally I get annoyed and instead of sending my reply back with the teacher I go direct to the men and tell them their request is unacceptable. This was a school event and to ask me to buy them beer for playing a simple game is just ridiculous, and if they refuse to play unless they get a reward then they can just go home now. I then went on to explain that I spend a lot of time and money arranging for the non-alcoholic traditional Zambian drink monkoyo to be made as well as over 250 scones so that should be reward enough for them. After that they stopped complaining and played the game.
So with the beer incident being the only damper overall it was a good day. I had hoped that people would be getting tested to know their status, but not many adults came which was disappointing. However, I think I will just look at this event as a opener to a VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) I am planning to have in May.
Overall I think that things went pretty well. We were supposed to start at 8am with a march, but because this I live on Zambian time we didn’t start until after 10am. We then assembled the students and began our march through the “village center.” I had hoped we would sing a song, but instead we just had the group of older girls in the front yell “FIRST DECEMBER” followed by everyone else yelling “WORLD AIDS DAY”. In theory it sounds like a good idea but my bet is that almost all of the pupils who were yelling world AIDS Day had no idea what they were actually saying!
After our march we returned to the school and had our main program that featured speeches by the headman of the village, clinic nurse, and deputy head teacher. I thought these speeches were really good because they really emphasized how important it is to be safe during sex by practicing the ABC’s (which stands for abstinence, being faithful, and condom), and just they that should use the power to say NO and not to pressure other people. It was just good to have these messages coming from people who are leaders in the community.
My favorite portion of the day was the drama and poem section. Zambian LOVE role plays. I remember in school, or even my peace corps training, if you had to do a role play in front of the class chances are you felt embarrassed or pretended to because it wasn’t cool to be into it. Well in Zambia it is exactly the opposite! We had a drama created by the students about how having multiple partners can increase your chances of getting HIV and the best way to avoid is by abstaining from sex. And the poems here are not just read, they are read and danced to robot style. My favorite poem of the day went something like this:
“My name is Mulenga Charles, and I have a poem for you entitled AIDS. AIDS is a killer disease. Thank you.”
But just imagine it going to a beat and having the kid doing some arm motion as he was saying it. Hilarious!
We ended the day with some netball, girl’s soccer, and a soccer game between the grade 8 students and older people in the community. This is where the event took a little dip thanks to some of the older Zambians who were set to play in the soccer game. At first two of the men sent a teacher to come and ask me if they would be receiving a reward for playing. I said no and thought the subject was over. About 15 minutes later I see another teacher approaching me after having just left the two men and know what he is about to ask me. Before he opens his mouth I simply say, ‘no I will not be giving them a reward’ he laughs and then asks if I would be willing to give the two men money so that after the game they can buy beer. Well, naturally I get annoyed and instead of sending my reply back with the teacher I go direct to the men and tell them their request is unacceptable. This was a school event and to ask me to buy them beer for playing a simple game is just ridiculous, and if they refuse to play unless they get a reward then they can just go home now. I then went on to explain that I spend a lot of time and money arranging for the non-alcoholic traditional Zambian drink monkoyo to be made as well as over 250 scones so that should be reward enough for them. After that they stopped complaining and played the game.
So with the beer incident being the only damper overall it was a good day. I had hoped that people would be getting tested to know their status, but not many adults came which was disappointing. However, I think I will just look at this event as a opener to a VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) I am planning to have in May.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Turkey Day In Zam Land Round 2
Hello all and Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I can't believe it is already thanksgiving yet again. And it is so strange to be at the Peace Corps house to celebrate with about 40 other volunteers and now being considered one of the old and vetern volunteers. It seems like just yesterday I was the newbie asking all sorts of questions!!
Life in the vill has been going well. It is caterpillar season again meaning that most of my neighbors spend every morning out in the bush collecting the caterpillars and then their afternoons squeezing out the insides and cooking them and preparing to sell them by the gallon. It is quite the long and smelly process I must say and I dont really enjoy the afternoons when the wind blows the smell directly into my house. Yuck!
I have also been busy preparing my house for the second season of rains. I have bought about 10 bundles of grass and I have had members of the Kumbi NHC around a couple times to put it on the house and stop the giant leaks that were coming in with even the slightest of rain. So far since the put it up I am happy to report my house remains dry :)
Right now I am once again in the preparing stages of some things. On 1 December is World AIDS Day and this year we are having a celebration in my village. It first started out as just going to be a graduation type ceremony for my soccer programs I have been meeting with since the end of September, but now it has turned into much more than that. The plan includes to start in the morning with a march (featuring a homemade banner) starting at the clinic, down through the shops, and to the soccer field, having some role plays, poems and songs performed by the students, a booth set up by the clinic, counsellers available to do HIV testing on anyone who is wanting to know their status (which we are hoping many will want to) and then a soccer tournament and a netball tournament for the girls. And as an incentive we will be having someone make scones and a zambian maize drink called munkoyo available at the end. So since I came to Kasama on Tuesday I have been running around and calling around buying things and in search of freebies from the district health office and other shops. I dont really know how it turned into such this big event, but here is to hoping it will all go well!!
Then a few days after I will be taking two grade 8 girls and one female teacher at my school to Camp GLOW, which is a weeklong girls empowement camp. We will be teaching the girls about many things including confidence and motivation, assertiveness, boyfriend and peer pressure, preventing pregnancy and HIV, and sugar daddies. We will also be doing a sport olympics kind of thing and arts and crafts. A lot of planning has been going into the week and I really think it will be a great experience and I am really looking forward to it.
So it is a busy and fun time for me lately!!! Once I finish the two big events I will make sure to put up an update of how it went and also some pictures.
Keep sending letters, emails, facebook messages and anything because I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from my friends and family back in the old US of A.
I can't believe it is already thanksgiving yet again. And it is so strange to be at the Peace Corps house to celebrate with about 40 other volunteers and now being considered one of the old and vetern volunteers. It seems like just yesterday I was the newbie asking all sorts of questions!!
Life in the vill has been going well. It is caterpillar season again meaning that most of my neighbors spend every morning out in the bush collecting the caterpillars and then their afternoons squeezing out the insides and cooking them and preparing to sell them by the gallon. It is quite the long and smelly process I must say and I dont really enjoy the afternoons when the wind blows the smell directly into my house. Yuck!
I have also been busy preparing my house for the second season of rains. I have bought about 10 bundles of grass and I have had members of the Kumbi NHC around a couple times to put it on the house and stop the giant leaks that were coming in with even the slightest of rain. So far since the put it up I am happy to report my house remains dry :)
Right now I am once again in the preparing stages of some things. On 1 December is World AIDS Day and this year we are having a celebration in my village. It first started out as just going to be a graduation type ceremony for my soccer programs I have been meeting with since the end of September, but now it has turned into much more than that. The plan includes to start in the morning with a march (featuring a homemade banner) starting at the clinic, down through the shops, and to the soccer field, having some role plays, poems and songs performed by the students, a booth set up by the clinic, counsellers available to do HIV testing on anyone who is wanting to know their status (which we are hoping many will want to) and then a soccer tournament and a netball tournament for the girls. And as an incentive we will be having someone make scones and a zambian maize drink called munkoyo available at the end. So since I came to Kasama on Tuesday I have been running around and calling around buying things and in search of freebies from the district health office and other shops. I dont really know how it turned into such this big event, but here is to hoping it will all go well!!
Then a few days after I will be taking two grade 8 girls and one female teacher at my school to Camp GLOW, which is a weeklong girls empowement camp. We will be teaching the girls about many things including confidence and motivation, assertiveness, boyfriend and peer pressure, preventing pregnancy and HIV, and sugar daddies. We will also be doing a sport olympics kind of thing and arts and crafts. A lot of planning has been going into the week and I really think it will be a great experience and I am really looking forward to it.
So it is a busy and fun time for me lately!!! Once I finish the two big events I will make sure to put up an update of how it went and also some pictures.
Keep sending letters, emails, facebook messages and anything because I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from my friends and family back in the old US of A.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
PS ISHIKO
Well the 12 day nutrition project in Kumbi village has finished! We graduated 6 mothers after the 12 days were over.
Each day for 12 days these 6 maayos came together in Kumbi village (about 5km from my village) and we would cook an improved porridge to feed to their underweight children. Previously the kind of porridge they would make just consisted of mealie meal aka a carbohydrate so the kids were lacking food with a protein and vitamin/mineral source. This porridges I was teaching them to make included all three food groups. The combinations we made were:
1. kapenta(little dried fish similar to sardine, but much smaller) and veg
2. sweet potato and ground nut
3. soya bean and veg
4. pumpkin and groundnut
The favorite of the maayos was probably the sweet potato and groundnut porridge. Then after the cooking and feeding time I gave a health talk on numerous topics like family planning, malaria, nutrition, and hygeine.
I am glad I did the project, but I am also glad that it is done because it was a lot of work and a lot of time. Also many times I was left feeling frustrated because some days people wouldnt show up, or would be really late (like 1.5 hours), or I just doubted that any of it was even worth it. Were they really learning anything? Are they going to even adopt any of these behaviours when these 12 days are finished?
However, in the end the women who participated seemed to enjoy the program and I am happy to report we had weight gain from the children who attended daily. So it is a step in the right direction at least!
Each day for 12 days these 6 maayos came together in Kumbi village (about 5km from my village) and we would cook an improved porridge to feed to their underweight children. Previously the kind of porridge they would make just consisted of mealie meal aka a carbohydrate so the kids were lacking food with a protein and vitamin/mineral source. This porridges I was teaching them to make included all three food groups. The combinations we made were:
1. kapenta(little dried fish similar to sardine, but much smaller) and veg
2. sweet potato and ground nut
3. soya bean and veg
4. pumpkin and groundnut
The favorite of the maayos was probably the sweet potato and groundnut porridge. Then after the cooking and feeding time I gave a health talk on numerous topics like family planning, malaria, nutrition, and hygeine.
I am glad I did the project, but I am also glad that it is done because it was a lot of work and a lot of time. Also many times I was left feeling frustrated because some days people wouldnt show up, or would be really late (like 1.5 hours), or I just doubted that any of it was even worth it. Were they really learning anything? Are they going to even adopt any of these behaviours when these 12 days are finished?
However, in the end the women who participated seemed to enjoy the program and I am happy to report we had weight gain from the children who attended daily. So it is a step in the right direction at least!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Return To Zambia
Well I've been back in Zambia for just about a month after being on a visit home for a few weeks. It's so strange to go home to America and feel like I never left and then to come back to Zambia and again feel like I never left. It's like a double life or something.
Since being back I've been preparing for some projects that are about to get started. One is the PS-Ishiko project, which is our version of the PD Hearth model. The program gets together between 6-10 underweight children with their caregivers for 12 days. Over the course of these 12 days the caregivers will learn how to cook nutritious foods for their kids such as porridge with a protein and veg source instead of just a carbohydrate as well as getting a daily health talk on topics ranging from HIV, malaria, to family planning. I will be starting it on Monday in Kumbi village, and then will hope to expand it to more villages if all goes well. So it'll be a busy 12 days for sure!
The second project I will be beginning is called Grass Roots Soccer (GRS) project. The program uses soccer to teach youth about HIV and other life skills. I haven't had much of an opportunity to do a ton of HIV work with the youth in my community so I am hoping this project will help to reach them.And the kids in my community LOVE soccer so I think they will really enjoy the program. So now I'm just getting last minute supplies together in order to get the project started. I have to conduct 2 sets of 11 sessions before the year comes to an end and then one more in the beginning of 2012 so it should keep me pretty busy.
Also I have a new addition to my hut in the form of an oven so now I can begin baking up a storm! So if you have any good recipes please feel free to send them my way :)
Since being back I've been preparing for some projects that are about to get started. One is the PS-Ishiko project, which is our version of the PD Hearth model. The program gets together between 6-10 underweight children with their caregivers for 12 days. Over the course of these 12 days the caregivers will learn how to cook nutritious foods for their kids such as porridge with a protein and veg source instead of just a carbohydrate as well as getting a daily health talk on topics ranging from HIV, malaria, to family planning. I will be starting it on Monday in Kumbi village, and then will hope to expand it to more villages if all goes well. So it'll be a busy 12 days for sure!
The second project I will be beginning is called Grass Roots Soccer (GRS) project. The program uses soccer to teach youth about HIV and other life skills. I haven't had much of an opportunity to do a ton of HIV work with the youth in my community so I am hoping this project will help to reach them.And the kids in my community LOVE soccer so I think they will really enjoy the program. So now I'm just getting last minute supplies together in order to get the project started. I have to conduct 2 sets of 11 sessions before the year comes to an end and then one more in the beginning of 2012 so it should keep me pretty busy.
Also I have a new addition to my hut in the form of an oven so now I can begin baking up a storm! So if you have any good recipes please feel free to send them my way :)
Saturday, June 25, 2011
AmericaLand
I'm coming back to America for a visit in less than a month and I have started compliling many lists of what I want to do, what I have to get done, what I want to buy and bring back with me, and most importantly what I want to eat. Here's my working list:
To Do (both want and need):
1. Weddings
2. Doctor, eye, dentist appointments
3. Go to the cabin
4. Drive my car...a lot.
5. Watch a new movie
6. Get my hair cut
7. Open house party
To Eat:
1. Chipotle
2. Steak
3. Pulled pork
4. Cheeseburger
5. Pizza (from Bulldogs and V.I.P)
6. Starbs (obvi)
7. French toast
8. Hotdog
9. BBQ sauce (I'll probably put it on anything)
10. Dr. Pepper
Well that's it for now but I expect it to continue. Less than one month!!!!
To Do (both want and need):
1. Weddings
2. Doctor, eye, dentist appointments
3. Go to the cabin
4. Drive my car...a lot.
5. Watch a new movie
6. Get my hair cut
7. Open house party
To Eat:
1. Chipotle
2. Steak
3. Pulled pork
4. Cheeseburger
5. Pizza (from Bulldogs and V.I.P)
6. Starbs (obvi)
7. French toast
8. Hotdog
9. BBQ sauce (I'll probably put it on anything)
10. Dr. Pepper
Well that's it for now but I expect it to continue. Less than one month!!!!
Friday, June 24, 2011
"How are you? I'm Fine!"
Well, I survived my first child health week and let me say it was a VERY busy week! 2 times per year (June and November/December) the ministry of health has a week dedicated to child health where the purpose is to weigh every child under 5 and provide Vitamin A, de-worming meds, and even measles vaccine to all the kids all for free. In my catchment area we covered our 10 zones over a 2-day period doing 5 zones per day. It was crazy to say the least but we made it through!
My main objective was to collect my data for all the kids age 6-60 months for my upcoming PS-Ishiko project. I had to collect the names of all the mothers and children, their weight and corresponding status (eg normal, mildly malnourished, severely malnourished), birth date, and then mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). After all this data was collected I then calculated the overall nutrition status of each child and complied the statics for each zone. In each of my 10 zones there were HIGH rates of malnutrition totaling about 45-60% and normal children only being about 20%.
So the upcoming PS-Ishiko project will work to rehabilitate these malnourished children by having the mothers of the healthy children teach them healthy feeding behaviors. This will be done by holding daily sessions for 12 days where the mothers learn about a different health topic and then how to cook an improved porridge with the addition of a protein and vitamin source. The mothers will leave each day with a liter of this improved porridge to give their children throughout the day in addition to their regular meals. So the hope is that at the end of the 12 days the children will have gained weight and the mothers will have learned new behaviors to continue the weight gain and take their children to a healthy weight status. It's a lot of work, but the impact can also be really big as well.
The rest of my month has been spent doing work around my house. I am happy to report that after 8 months of being in my house I now have all my furniture! It was a big day when I finally placed the couch in my house and was a LONG time coming. I've also been working hard clearing the dry grasses from my yard to make it less inviting for snakes. So I purchased a slasher and then went to work and have finished with a blister to remember my hard work.
I also completed one of my goals of biking to Chishimba Falls, which is about 35km from my house. I set out one morning and made it in about 2 hours and was able to spend some time with some other volunteers swimming in the water before heading back. The ride back was much more difficult and took about 2.5 hours and for the next few days I was feeling that 70km!
So needless to say, June has been a busy month! Thanks for reading!
My main objective was to collect my data for all the kids age 6-60 months for my upcoming PS-Ishiko project. I had to collect the names of all the mothers and children, their weight and corresponding status (eg normal, mildly malnourished, severely malnourished), birth date, and then mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). After all this data was collected I then calculated the overall nutrition status of each child and complied the statics for each zone. In each of my 10 zones there were HIGH rates of malnutrition totaling about 45-60% and normal children only being about 20%.
So the upcoming PS-Ishiko project will work to rehabilitate these malnourished children by having the mothers of the healthy children teach them healthy feeding behaviors. This will be done by holding daily sessions for 12 days where the mothers learn about a different health topic and then how to cook an improved porridge with the addition of a protein and vitamin source. The mothers will leave each day with a liter of this improved porridge to give their children throughout the day in addition to their regular meals. So the hope is that at the end of the 12 days the children will have gained weight and the mothers will have learned new behaviors to continue the weight gain and take their children to a healthy weight status. It's a lot of work, but the impact can also be really big as well.
The rest of my month has been spent doing work around my house. I am happy to report that after 8 months of being in my house I now have all my furniture! It was a big day when I finally placed the couch in my house and was a LONG time coming. I've also been working hard clearing the dry grasses from my yard to make it less inviting for snakes. So I purchased a slasher and then went to work and have finished with a blister to remember my hard work.
I also completed one of my goals of biking to Chishimba Falls, which is about 35km from my house. I set out one morning and made it in about 2 hours and was able to spend some time with some other volunteers swimming in the water before heading back. The ride back was much more difficult and took about 2.5 hours and for the next few days I was feeling that 70km!
So needless to say, June has been a busy month! Thanks for reading!
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