acclimating

Although we have not left the guest house here in Choma that much this week, so much has happened!  One of our members got malaria, just about every one of us enjoyed the typical traveler’s GI upset, and one of our leaders was shocked with 240 volts, more than the amount given to revive a person.  It seemed like it would not stop!  However, God has been faithful and every one of us has rebounded, and we are all doing great.  Because so much of our group has been ill this week, our classes and schedule have been even more relaxed, allowing for plenty of rest.  This week was also the Presidential elections, and Michael C. Sata has been elected, replacing Rupiah Banda.  The country is split up in to provinces, and the province the new president is from usually benefits the most.  Sata is not from the Southern province where we are, so the results were disappointing to the locals here.  However, there has not been any unrest or anything. 

We have now attended two church services in Choma.  We are traveling to three different churches while here.  They have still been such neat experiences.  The 3 I have been to so far are very similar in the order of things.  There is a bible study an hour before church begins, which is typically pretty full.  As the church service begins, announcements are made, special music is performed (often times by children), worship begins (it lasts for probably 45 minutes or so), and then the sermon begins.  The sermons have lasted anywhere from 50 minutes to almost 2 hours.  Let me tell you, I get pretty antsy after an hour.  The Zambians are very receptive though!  They are quiet, look straight ahead, and hardly move a muscle.  The children are incredibly good as well.  They either sit up front on the floor all together or sit in the pews, not necessarily with their parents.  It’s pretty typical to see the eight year olds with a baby on their back, caring for the younger siblings.  They youngest children walk around to different people during the church service, and babies breastfeed (very openly) at any point during the service.  It is very relaxed to say the least!  I find it funny that offering is taken up 2 or 3 times during the service, too!  Worship is amazing.  We dance, sing very loudly and openly.  Several of us have recorded some of the songs we have sung, and it is beautiful!  The sermons are first spoken in English by the pastor and then repeated by another speaker in the local language, Tonga.  There are hardly words to describe the service and it is just one of those experiences you have to witness to truly understand.

The first church I attended in Choma: Pilgrim Wesleyan Church

On Thursday of this week, we went to a rural school where we helped sponsored children write letters to their sponsor.  Many of them are familiar with some English, but have a hard time understanding and writing full sentences.  So, we went to see their school and help out.  The classroom I was in was just one large room with a green slate board in front.  About 70 children are in each classroom, with each room comprising three different grades.  I was paired with fifteen year old Linety.  She was so sweet, and although she had a hard time understanding me, we had a good time!  I heard a little about her family.  She is one of the eldest siblings in her family, and she likes to help in the kitchen.  She loves to sing, and I was very happy to hear she would like to go to nursing school.  Linety was pretty bright, but some of the other children were very behind.  It took one of the sixth grade girls fifteen minutes just to write her name on the paper.  The person working with her had to go through each letter of her name, showing her how to write it, and then she would copy it.  There are success stories in the school, but there are also so many children who have fallen through the cracks.  We were told that many of the children come to school after having performed their household chores, then they walk the distance to school, many come without having breakfast, and then they sit in an overcrowded schoolroom and try to learn.  Unfortunately it is not conducive to learning, and many of the children stop attending.  The higher the grade level, the smaller the class.  Linety wrote me a letter when she was done drawing and writing to her sponsor.  It says “My very early mother just sent us nine potatoes (not sure what she meant by early mother). Thank you Sarrah.  Sarrah is friend, I lover Sarrah.  My name is Linety.  I am fittyn years old.”  Obviously she is very behind compared to American standards, but I got the feeling that she is one of the better students.  She laughed easily and was very good with the younger children.  I was so happy she agreed to a picture!

 


Top: One of the little boys- he obviously enjoyed his sucker!
Bottom: Linety and I!

 

That same day we traveled to church, where community meetings are often held, and we were told about another community development project going on in the area.  The project has some great ideas and have been successful in training some of the local people trades and skills.  The leader of the project wanted to take us to one of the wells in the community.  It looked good to me, but I quickly was told about the problems they have been having with it.  First of all, it takes a lot of pumping before water ever comes out of the spout- like a few minutes.  That isn’t normal, and the man thought some of the pipes needed repair.  The well is completely exposed without any kind of a gate or fence around it.  This allows animals to come and lick the dripping water from the spout.  This can produce and spread all kinds of disease.  The other major concern with the well was that the run-off water sits in the warm sun all day, becoming stagnant and producing the perfect environment for mosquitoes.  Mosquitoes = malaria = bad news.  The leader said this could be prevented if a hole was dug where the water runs, and then covered with rocks.  That way the water would run through the rocks and be absorbed in to the earth again and mosquitoes would not be tempted to lay their eggs.  These were all things I hadn’t thought of before and I found it interesting.  The community is aware of the problems and how to solve them, but do not have the resources available to change it. 



Our last big outing in the community was at the orphanages!!!  I was so excited about finally getting to go.  We saw three in one day!  It felt like a trick being in each place for such a short time.  From the minute we unloaded from the land rovers, children ran to us wanting to hold our hands or pick them up.  We gladly did both.  We mostly went to meet the staff, and establish a relationship.  Because there are three orphanages in Choma, we are going to be very free to stop by whenever we want.  One of the houses is only about a quarter of a mile down the road from us!  We are hopefully going to be able to go play and visit some more today.  There are little ones who are only about a year and others who would be twelve or so.  I didn’t see any children who would have been much older than that.  I have hardly spent time with the kids yet, but I can tell they will be easy to fall in love with. 



Candy is a universal language with children!  They flocked to me.  A few of them stuck their suckers in their pockets and said they didn't get one! haha!  And I thought this little girl was adorable!  She would have been two or three years old.



This week our prayers as a group have been focusing on our health.  We had some crazy stuff going on, and each morning we would take a count of who was feeling good and who wasn’t.  Luckily I think it is behind us now, and hopefully our immune systems are better equipped to take on the different bugs Africa has to offer : )  We have started to have some really hot days, and not much relief is found in our un-airconditioned house!  Thankfully we purchased about 5 fans this week that have been life savers.  On Saturday we had a Fall party complete with apple cider, apple crisp, and a bonfire and it was actually cold out.  It was perfect because we all have been sad about missing out on fall activities!  These were the highlights of this week! Enjoy the pictures!!





out and about



I have seen a lot of this! So many of the children I've seen have been on their own.  Luckily this little girl's mother was nearby.  This was on our way to Chikankata at a market on the side of the road.





I thought this was beautiful.  These women are both were chitenges, and have their babies wrapped up on their backs.  They have to be strong women!




Just finished painting this girl's nails.  She loved it.  A bottle of purple sparkles goes a long way!




This is one of the homes in Malala, where we visited the HIV patients, orphans, and vulnerable children.



In the past several days, our group has traveled quite a bit, and we have officially started classes and clinicals.  We took a long ride from Lusaka to Chikankata, which was very fun!  It was the first time we were all able to see the rural areas of Africa, and it is beautiful.  Our ride was extremely bumpy to say the least.  About half of our 4 hour trip was on paved roads, with the other half being on dirt roads.  I was unbelievably dusty…when I washed my hands and face after the ride, the water was brown.  However, I think we all enjoyed it.  There is nothing like 2 buses full of white Americans to get the attention of the Africans.  We have been celebrities.  We wave out of the buses, and kids wave back with huge smiles, jump up and down, yell “white people” in their native language, and laugh.  This goes for the adults too, particularly when we greet them in Tonga.  They laugh and laugh, totally loving us butchering the five words we know! Once in Chikankata, we stayed in another very nice guest house and became familiar with the Salvation Army Hospital that was there.  We had a couple hosts, Simon and Lindsay.  Simon is from the UK, and Lindsay from Ireland.  We also met Medical students, Anna and Eleanor from Denmark, and Gemma from England.  We loved our time with them so much, and we have offered to have them come visit us later on.




Gearing up for the OR!

 

The first day of our clinicals, we toured the Chikankata Salvation Army Hospital.  It is very well known, and the hospital serves about 100,000 people, with many being HIV + patients.  People walk miles and miles to get there from all over.  I wanted to go to the Maternity ward, but there was not currently anyone in labor.  So, me and three others went to the “theater,” or operating room, where there was to be a cesarean section.  There was only one surgeon, who was still working on a previous emergency surgery, and so we walked in to watch the end of that.  The patient had a sexually transmitted infection that developed spread in to his abdomen.  The infection was very wide-spread throughout his body.  The thing that surprised me the most was that he was put to sleep, but received no pain medications whatsoever, until after he woke up from the surgery.  He was breathing very quickly, obviously in a lot of pain.  This is very typical of how the hospital is with such limited resources, and the stigma that pain medication is a sign of weakness.  We were also told many doctors do not like to use it because they are afraid of addiction.  It was difficult to understand, but is also very what they are used to.  Once the c-section started, the same went for the mother.  No pain medication during surgery, but she was put to sleep and given a paralytic, so she couldn’t move during the surgery.  I don’t know how they can do it.  The woman was only 24, and looked nervous beforehand.  I prayed for her, hoping that she either wouldn’t feel the intensity of the pain, or that she wouldn’t remember it.  During surgery, the suction for both mom and baby stopped working.  In all fairness, the suction had been checked prior to it beginning, but further complicated things.  It took probably ten minutes before they got it going again.  Once baby was born, the baby did not cry for the first 8 minutes.  It killed me!! I wanted to step in and stimulate that baby, but I could only observe.  The surgeon lifted the baby out and held the baby upside down by one foot!  Then the midwife took the baby, and starting assessing the baby, trying to get suction working again.  Finally 8 minutes later, after bagging the baby and with suction working, the baby starting whimpering and crying.  (Mom, the apgar scores for the baby would have been pathetic!)  I was told that even for this hospital, that surgery was more involved than what is typical.  I was relieved.  I was impressed with most of the staff.  They obviously enjoy their work, and are good, hard workers.  Before the baby was born, a few of the nurses, all men, bet on the sex of the baby in the OR suite!  The man who bet 10,000 kwacha (only about 2 or 3 $) lost. 



This was our guest home in Chikankata.



The next day I went to a nearby village, Dundu, where a Mother and Child clinic was set up.  Our job was to help educate the mothers, weigh babies (many were malnourished), give immunizations, and prenatal exams to the pregnant women.  This was a neat way to get to see how these rural people were.   They were extremely receptive to the teaching that was provided, and all very eager to weigh their babies.  We are estimating there were probably over 200 people there, with many walking miles to get there.  The mothers are a huge support system for one another, and often times I didn’t even know whose baby was whose, because they all care for one another.  As the clinic wrapped up, we were able to paint many of the girls, and some of the boys, nails.  They loved it and we had a long line of people waiting!  We also blew bubbles and had balloons.  It was a hit!

On Friday, our group had the opportunity to go to Malala, where we visited the homes of HIV + patients and OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children).  There is a program set up to help support these people, and the program has become very effective in helping to provide resources and school needs.  I went to the home (a hut) of a grandmother who was caring for 9 of her orphaned grandchildren.  She had 7 children, 2 of whom have died.  She is now the provider for those children, and we met 3 of them.  She said she has a hard time having enough food, and most often does not have any stored food.  They find food on a daily basis.  Her grandchildren farm for the family, and they did have a good number of chickens.  We asked her if there was anything she wanted us to know about her and her family.  She said she wanted us to remember them when we went back to America, and help send fertilizer and seed.  She was so happy to have us and it was so interesting to see how she lives.  She sang a blessing over us, and we all had a hard time not being able to do anything for her.  However, she is getting help from the program, but still has a hard time making ends meet.

We just arrived in Choma (where we will be the next 3 weeks), a nice town that is not so much a part of the country.  We are in yet another very nice guest house, with excellent food.  The last place had good food, but they served the same thing for lunch and dinner four days in a row.  Our team is so excited to have fresh fruit and peanut butter at this new place!!!  The next few days will much slower, as the elections for the new Zambian president are on Tuesday.  We plan on staying pretty close to the guest house while that goes on, but there should not be any concern for our safety.  I need the time to get homework completed! 

This was a long one, but I am still getting over the surgeries I saw!  Hope all are doing well and I would love to hear from you!  Thank you for the continued prayers!  This week has been a little harder for many people on the team, as the adrenaline and initial excitement has worn off a bit.  We are still doing well, and are amazed at all we have seen and done in just over a week!  Love to you all, Sarah

Oh, and I know our group blog was recently updated as well!

we are here!!



This is where we stayed the first four nights. SO nice! And, this is only half of it!




A couple girls (Katana and Mel) and I at one of our lunches out.




The market I had so much success at! It was one of the larger ones we will be at.

 We have finally arrived after what seems like FOREVER in the air! But, it was well worth it! Zambia is ending their spring season, and it is about 80 degrees here with everything in bloom. It’s just starting to get hot, and it is beautiful!

Our travels went pretty smoothly, with only a few hiccups along the way.  One of our girls misplaced one of her boarding passes, but had her receipt and they let her on without question.  That was a miracle!  Our long flight to Johannesburg left over an hour late, putting us in danger of missing our connecting flight to Lusaka.  However, because we were such a large group, the plane waited for us!  If they hadn’t, we would have been stuck in the Jo-burg airport until 1 am, which would have added on at least six more hours to our trip.   And then several of us, including me, only received one of two of our luggage bags.  Thankfully, we were able to pick those up today, so we didn’t have to suffer too long.  That’s about as bad as it got, and we were so thankful!! Oh, and I had a horrible time trying to sleep on the plane!  No position was comfortable and we had a 1 and 4 year old in front of us.  All of our feet and lower legs were swollen from the super long flights and our whole team was dehydrated.  We have been guzzling water like crazy today and propping up our feet whenever we can! To say the least, not much rest was had, and we were all exhausted when we arrived.

Once we arrived in Lusaka, missionaries John and Erin came to pick us up, along with a couple drivers from World Hope International.  We are in a guest house right outside of Lusaka for a few days that is very, very nice!  We are paired up with one other person, we all have our own beds, and each bedroom has its own full bath—this place is huge!  The outside of the building is very tropical.  Tons of flowering plants, a pool, and green grass!

Last night, our cooks had an authentic dinner ready for us.  After 4 airplane meals and a weird schedule, we weren’t very enthused about the meal, but it was actually very good!  We ate at 11 pm, took showers, and went straight to bed.  Best night of sleep ever.

Today has been relaxed.  Our team went to a couple mall areas in the city.  There, we were able to exchange our American dollars for Zambian Kwacha.  We ate lunch out wherever we wanted (I went to a pretty amazing pizza place!) and then we shopped around for a bit.  This part of Zambia is very westernized, and doesn’t look at all how Africa is typically viewed.  It looks just like our outdoor malls, and in some parts is pretty fancy.  I had the chance to go to one of the grocery stores today, and everything was very similar to what we see in the states.  Laura and I bought some treats at the bakery, which involved chocolate...soo good! After a couple hours in the mall, I had to return to the airport to retrieve my lost luggage, but it was really fun to drive through the downtown.  I definitely saw some of the poorer areas of the city.  We passed many shanty-houses, children working (they were sitting in the dirt, breaking rocks with hammers to make gravel- very different from anything I’ve seen), a huge soccer field of course, an orphanage, and many hole-in-the-wall shops.  I had my first experience riding on the left side of the road on the way!

Tonight we had a speaker that came to talk to us about African Art and Literature.  He actually wasn’t that impressive with his teaching, and we are hoping the speakers we have the next 2 nights will be better! Tomorrow the plans are to attend a local Wesleyan church, which starts between “9 and 9:30.”  I thought it was funny how they allow a half an hour to start the service!  It will be interesting to see how long it lasts too- from what I hear, they can be very long!  Then we will eat out for lunch, and hopefully have time to purchase some chitenges, large pieces of material used for anything and everything around here!  We are still catching up from our jet-lag and taking it pretty easy.  It has been a great beginning so far! 

We will probably not have internet at our next stop, Chikankata, which will be about a week long.  It will be our most primitive site, and is pretty far out there.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers—your prayers have been felt and answered here!  Love to you all <3

Oh, and mom, there is a boy cat that lives in the house.  He is extremely affectionate, and I’m about the only person who is paying him any kind of attention!  He is really great : )

ready...

Tomorrow we leave for the beginning of this new adventure!  Today, a commissioning service was held for our team, where we were each anointed with oil, participated in communion, and prayed for.  My bags are packed, I've said all my goodbye's and.... I am ready to go!  We found out yesterday that our flight is the second longest-- 16 1/2 hours!!  I'm dreading it, but hoping some serious dramamine or benadryl will help ease the pain of being couped up for so long! 

For the length of our trip, internet access is iffy.  Even in some of the larger cities, you can't guarantee anything! But, my hope is to be able to write about once a week to keep everyone informed and updated on where I am and what we are doing.

This is our VERY tentative itinerary: 
                September 8 / Depart Indianapolis
                September 9 / Arrive in Lusaka
                September 9 - 11 / Lusaka
                September 14 - 17 / Chikankata Salvation Army Hospital
                September 18 - October 2 / Choma (World Hope)
                October 3 - 21 / Macha Malaria Institute and Hospital
                October 22 - 25 / Choma
                October 26 - November 5 / Zimba Mission Hospital and Namwianga Orphanage
                November 6 - 18 / Choma
                November 19 - 21 / Livingstone
                November 21 / Depart from Livingstone
                November 22 / Arrive home!
               
Our clinical sites will be in at least one hospital, a Malaria clinic, an orphanage (which I am most excited about!),  an immunization clinic, and house visits out in the communities.  We have been told to expect working with many children.  Life expectancy is right at 40 years of age for Zambians, with HIV/AIDS and malaria being extremely common.  Because of this, there are so many more children than adults, most of whom are orphans.  It seems natural to feel sorry for them, however, we have been cautioned not to pity them.  We are to offer hope, intstill dreams, and have fun getting to know these people and their culture!  I am so excited to spend time immersing myself in this here!