A Series of Strange and Sometimes Unfortunate Events

Zambia is a sometimes beautiful, sometimes sad ,sometimes bewildering place. I thought I’d get a few experiences down in print that have happened to me since I’ve been here. I'm really doing this so that I’ll remember and not convince myself in twenty years I must have made up these completely ridiculous events.

Scene 1:

Arrive home from the market. A goat is tied to the post of our porch.
Me: Oh God, this isn’t a gift is it?!
Scott: I... have no idea.

Scene 2:

Woman carrying an entire twin bed frame on her head. No hands.

That one was just impressive.

Scene 3:

I am sitting on a bus next to a woman. She never speaks, probably assuming I don’t know Tonga. She stares. I try to ignore the fact that the person sitting five inches from my face is looking directly at me. She then proceeds to touch everything I am wearing. I am at this point staring back at her in complete confusion. She is unfazed and touches my hair, earrings, shirt, bracelets, necklace, ring, etc. All in complete silence. Then she stops as suddenly as she started and we both stare straight forward for the rest of the trip.

Scene 4:

One morning around dawn I was waiting in town for early transport to the clinics. As I sat next to the road, a transfer truck pulled in. 15 guys ran to help unload it. As they started, these paragons of manliness began to sing a loud and enthusiastic rendition of Shania Twain’s “Forever and For Always” in parts.

Scene 5:

The day I met Porno and his son, Cyborg.

Scene 6:

As I was making my usual walk to work, a little girl (maybe 4 or 5) ran up and took my hand like we’d known each other for years. She didn’t even look at me she just held my hand. She escorted me all the way to work and dropped me off at the gate of my office. She waved good bye and ran down the road.

Scene 7:

Around dawn, I was walking towards town to catch a cab. In the usual fashion a child comes up beside me to stare. He keeps up with me, staring all the while. I stare forward growing slightly annoyed that this is happening...again. He is looking at my shoes as I turned to match his intense annoying gawking. He looks up from my outfit to find me staring back at him. He lets out a small scream and scampers ahead. Little does he know that we are going in the exact same direction and I being a much larger person am going just as fast as his little scooting sprint. He panics thinking, I assume, that I will soon murder him. He ducks through the market but, I too, go that way through the market. He continues to look back at me in a soul-searing panic. At this point I can't control my laughter. He must believe, at this point, that I am certainly a monster. Eventually, he runs full tilt the opposite direction and I let him think that he's "lost" me and go the other way.

That is my one gift to the children of Zambia.

Scene 8:

Childbirth. Period. I can now say that I’ve caught placenta in a bucket.

Scene 9:

One day while we were far out in the bush visiting clinics, we hit a dove with the cruiser. I was very sad these blue doves were beautiful. The driver stopped, got out, and put the destroyed little bird in a plastic bag. He climbs back inside. Puts the bag in my lap and says, "dinner."

Scene 10:

The day 4 kids peed on me. I don’t really want to remember this one. Just know that it happened.

Scene 11:

One day I was visiting a clinic, with the folks who do Mobile ART (a service that brings meds to rural patients with HIV/AIDS). Crowds of people rushed the clinic. I was busy helping Esnart deliver a baby (I use the term "help" loosely- more like I got in the way while Esnart delivered a baby). I went out to find the In-Charge to find some delivery equipment. Shouts and rapid Tonga came out of the throng of people. I got close and moved through the crowd and found the In-charge holding a woman who was kicking another woman. A third woman had her hands on the weave of the first. "Help!" he struggled. I grabbed the woman with the handful of hair and pulled her back before some other folks finally stepped in and the fight was dispersed. It turns out the three women were wives to a man who was not present. One of the wives supposedly brought HIV into the family and the other women wanted her out. I helped escort the happy triad to the office for counseling. I then went back to the delivery room having completely forgotten why I left in the first place.

Scene 12:

The woman who passed me her baby and went to sleep on a bus.

Scene 13:

The woman who passed me her chicken and went to sleep on a bus.

Scene 14:

One day, as I was trying to get back to Choma, I grabbed a cab. It was a car roughly the size of a Toyota Corolla. They had one more spot and I felt lucky that I didn't have to wait for it to fill up. As we move down the road the cab driver tells the person in the passenger seat to put on his seat because we may go through a check point. The man looks around, hesitating. He takes the seat belt and wraps it twice around his neck. He settles back into the seat satisfied that the command had been accomplished. The driver just stares. Even he can't believe that just happened. He then pulls over and shows him how to use a seat belt in a way that will not actively try to kill him in the event of a fender bender. It was a truly painful lesson to witness. But "what a conscientious cab driver" I thought. As if God just thought of a joke, the driver pulls over again in front of a person flagging us down. "We are already full I say. No more." The driver laughs. The potential passenger then motions 2 other men out of the bushes. What follows is a lesson in body compression and shear dumb luck.

As if this happens all the time, which I'm sure it does, the men assume a spoon chain. We now have five passengers in the back seat crushed and spooning each other with two passenger now in the front seat.  The two proceed to buckle up for safety. I laugh cause why not? The man I'm spooning is palpably uncomfortable being held by a strange white woman. Then we approach the check point. There is no way we won't be stopped. Like no fucking way. We blaze through it like audacious clown car we are and nothing happens. The driver looks back at me and smiles.

"Seat belt" he says.

Scene 15:

I was once pinned in my kitchen for an hour by a cricket. It was the size of a mouse. I was not as terrified as I was mystified.

 

 

Rest in the knowledge that winning moments like these happen to me everyday. I've got more but I'll save them for another time. Hope you enjoyed.

 

So Zambia Has Gone and Made Me a Beggar for a Good Cause

Hello friends and family!

It is with awkward pride and unbridled hope that I announce I am raising money for a project that I love. I cannot stress enough that you will be riddled with warm fuzzy feelings and tax deductions if you give to this project. So, if that is enough convincing and you need not read further visit this website and donate:

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-611-005

If you need just a bit more info, here's where I break it down for you...

Helping Mothers in Need

SUMMARY

Conditions in rural Zambia make it difficult for mothers to receive care during pregnancy and delivery. Saving Mother’s Giving Life (SMGL) has trained community groups called Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGs) to address mobilization and demand for services by encouraging women to deliver at clinics. Clinics and SMAGs (with support of the community) provide structures where pregnant women can stay at the clinic before their delivery date. These buildings make it easier and safer for mother and baby to access care when the time comes to deliver. These structures are paramount to encouraging skilled care among women in rural areas but many of them are incomplete or have fallen into disrepair. These impoverished communities have given of their time and resources to see that these structures are built but may not have the funds to finish or rehabilitate these shelters once problems arise. And that’s where you come in…

BACKGROUND

Kalomo District in Zambia’s Southern Province is a vast rural area in one of the world’s poorest countries. Housed within this district are 38 health facilities spread out over 15,000 square kilometers serving nearly 250,000 people.

These communities face innumerable challenges and overcome harsh conditions in daily living. Chief among these concerns is isolation and access to basic medical care. Because of these needs, Zambia has one of the highest rates of maternal and neonatal mortality in the world (440 deaths per 100,000 births and 39 deaths per 1,000 respectively). Due to isolated conditions and lack of knowledge concerning pregnancy care and delivery, well over half of all Zambian women deliver at home without skilled attendance during delivery.

SAVING MOTHERS, GIVING LIFE

In 2012, the Zambian Ministry of Health and US Government agencies like USAID, CDC and Peace Corps (along with multiple other partnering organizations) began an ambitious initiative to reduce Zambia’s maternal mortality by 50%. This program titled Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL) addresses maternal and neonatal mortality in a number of areas from systems strengthening down to the community level. The primary intervention used to increase demand and access to care by women is the training of community led groups called Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGs). Partner organizations and area health center staff train twenty community members per clinic area to form SMAGs. These groups are responsible for community outreach and public health campaigning on behalf of mothers and their families. During outreach the members teach women and men about family planning, antenatal care, warning signs, making birth plans, and the importance of coming to the clinic for delivery.

MOTHERS SHELTERS

Even with improved health messages and mobilization by SMAGs, women still must battle long distances to reach the clinic for delivery. Imagine being 8-9 months pregnant or in early labor and having to walk 10-50 kilometers to deliver your baby. Add to that poor road conditions and lack of emergency services like ambulances and you can see why some women opt to risk having a home delivery when their time comes. One way in which SMGL, SMAGs, and Rural Health Clinics attempt to circumvent issues of access is the building of Mother’s Waiting Shelters. These shelters are built on clinic compounds and house pregnant women for up to 2 months before their delivery insuring that they are near the facility during this critical time before the baby is born.

THE NEED FOR AIDE

As a Peace Corps Volunteer working with SMGL, I work with SMAGs to mentor and support their efforts in the community. After a lengthy needs assessment and discussions with SMAGs about the challenges they face, I soon discovered that those groups that did not have functioning shelters often suffered the most when encouraging women to come to the facility for delivery or attend antenatal care visits.

"We can only do so much. We have educated these women- they want to come to the clinic! But they will not stay here on the floor! Their homes are more comfortable. Our community has already given so much for this shelter but it is not enough to make it nice and now the termites have taken the walls. We can’t tell women to walk 40 kilometers when there is not a good place for them to stay. We need help!”

            -   Fellow Chilungwe, SMAG member (Dimbwe, Rural Health Clinic)*

Those groups who have low rates of maternal and neonatal death often site their mother’s shelters as the reason why women access the clinic.

“It is comfortable. Women can feel safe here even when the rains come. Their families can visit, so, they come well in advance and they benefit. We haven’t had a death since the mother’s shelter was built!”

           - Patience Chibwe, SMAG member (Simwatachela, Zonal Health Center)*

These accounts are also supported by ministry and clinic data which correlates that areas with uninhabitable or non-existent mother’s shelters have maternal and neonatal death rates that are 2-3 times higher than those with functioning shelters.

As a volunteer, I have the unique position to connect the needs of these SMAGs and communities to help them obtain the resources and skills they need to improve access to care for women. There are several facilities that could benefit from your support to see that their shelters are finished or restored but because grants through Peace Corps are limited, I have focused on three shelters that have shown the most need in terms of SMAG feedback and clinic delivery data. These Rural Health Clinics have highly committed and enthusiastic communities but need your help to fulfill remaining needs for their shelters.

GRANT AND FUNDRAISING

Each community will provide the man power to make improvements/start construction on these structures but this grant will help provide materials like cement, window panes, paint, beds, etc to make these mothers comfortable and safe. BUT this project would not be sustainable if we were only giving money, so to avoid problems of financing and upkeep in the future we are also providing Incoming Generating Activity (IGA) Training to these SMAGs. This training shows them ways of making money within their communities that will sustain itself for years to come (i.e. raising and selling chickens, investing and running a maize grinder, etc). So we are fulfilling an immediate need for mothers and providing a training that will help for years to come.

I hope to raise at least $5,000 USD for this project but the more that we raise the more facilities we can support! You may be asking- why are you raising money if this is a grant? Good question! The Peace Corps has several small grants that can be used by volunteers but construction projects are a perfect opportunity to involve friends, family, and organizations back home. This helps address the 2^nd Goal of Peace Corps which seeks to make Americans more aware of the culture and needs of my host country, Zambia. It also provides a handy website for you to submit donations and provides accountability and assurance that funds will be used appropriately- so you know your money is being spent directly in the communities that need it. Also, by making this a US government grant all donations are tax deductible!

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-611-005

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated not only by me but by the thousands of mothers that will utilize these facilities. Please feel free to share this information with any individual or group that might be interested!

Please contact me with any questions or concerns! I’d love to hear from you!

*Dimbwe’s Mother’s Shelter remained unfinished after the initial community drive and is now crumbling from termites.
*Simwatachela’s Mother’s Shelter has a larger community that was able to contribute more funds to its construction as well as partner organizations that saw that the structure was comfortable and complete.