Kalomo Hospital

6 people are allowed to go with Ba Rogers to the Kalomo Hospital each Thursday. I went for the first time this week, and I had heard stories about how hard it was but I finally got to experience it 1^st hand. It is definitely not a place with top notch care where they can give you anything you need. We walked through about 4 different wards which were just single rooms that had anywhere from 3-10 beds with the sick person on the bed along with the family/visitors because they didn’t have room to sit anywhere else. It was really difficult to walk through because we are there to comfort them but we don’t know what to say or how to say it so they’d understand. All we could do is walk around and greet them in tonga and then ask them something in English and if you were lucky they’d understand and then you could start a convo. with them. Most rooms though after greeting them someone prayed over the room and shared an encouraging scripture while Ba Rogers translated. One of the strangest things I saw was a man’s hand who herds cattle. One day he reached down to grab a stick and a thorn punctured his hand so now his hand looks raw and is infected so much that it’s the size of a tennis ball.

After the wards we went out back to a building where pregnant women are waiting till they give birth and where care givers stay. There were no beds anywhere, just small sacks of personal belongings and straw sacks people sat on. The 6 of us sat down with everyone and we all sang in tonga and then one of the guys gave a message and prayed for them.

The experience wasn’t something I didn’t expect, because I was prepared for the poor conditions. It’s the thought that Macha Mission Hospital is 2 hours away and its cleaner with a higher standard of care, but these people don’t have the money or energy to get there so they are stuck physically ill in an unsanitary situation. 

Trip to Livingston!

BIG AIR

Sunday after church and lunch we drove to the Zambezi River and went through customs (since the bridge is half way in Zambia and half way in Zimbabwe). When we got through to the building they asked us all to sign a release form (OF COURSE) and then as we did they numbered us and called random numbers to go to different stations. Most of us signed up for Big Air, which means we’d bungee jump, gorge swing, and zip line. They called some numbers to go zip line and next they said #25 to the bridge (that was me?!) so I walked onto the bridge and right away he asked if I was #25 I said “yes?” and he started suiting me up with harnesses and chords…I couldn’t believe I was going to jump off the bridge first!! Next thing I know there’s a man videotaping me asking if I have any last words…I was sooo nervous that all I could say was “Well I hope it’s worth it?” then they prepped me and told me to go to the edge. “3, 2, 1” & I was in the air flying!! It was AMAZING! My heart was pounding out of my chest and I had no clue where I was but as I was hanging there all I could think of is I Did It! After they got me back up next thing I know they were getting Hanna Boyd and me ready for Tandem Swinging. It was also a lot of fun, even though I was still scared. The swing was probably scarier than bungee jumping so I’m glad I got to do it with someone! After that the hard parts were over and all we had left was tandem zip lining, which was a piece of cake and not scary AT ALL compared to the others.

It definitely helped being the first to go (even though it was scary) I didn’t have time to psych myself out or think about what I was about to do too much. I’d definitely recommend you all do this at one point in life, maybe never again but at least once!!!

Rafting

The next day we went rafting on the Zambezi River. I was really nervous since I’ve never rafted before and my first experience would be on a river that’s rated a 5! But once we got there they prepped us on what to do if you fall out or if someone else does, just random info you need to know before you try it, then we picked groups. I was in an all-girls group of 7 and our raft guide was Tim who was the head guide for the day. After we got into our rafts and Tim prepped us some more we went through our first rapid. He said “everyone forward” then “right forward left back” and next thing I know there are huge waves and I see people getting down so we all followed and got in the “get down” position. When we got to calmer water Tim said “back in position” and then gave us a talk on how he never said “get down” but we weren’t listening and did…Oops?! The rest of the trip we paid closer attention because we didn’t want to fall out, Luckily our raft NEVER flipped, I think all the others did and if not their guide purposely flipped them before the day was over but our guide knew since we were girls not to flip us!  We did get out into the water to swim when the river was calmer and then also we swam through rapid 23 which is only rated a class 2 (that was scary enough for me) I felt like I was going to drowned because I kept getting huge mouthfuls of water and couldn’t breathe!

Safari

Tues. we went to Chobe game park in Botswana for a safari. It began with a boat ride that morning where we saw lots of elephants, hippos, and crocs. Then after lunch we all got into jeeps and drove around…it reminded me of Yellowstone, except with a guide. We saw more elephants plus zebras, giraffes, baboons, and other animals that I don’t know the name of. My favorite parts of the day were when we saw a baby elephant that was about 2 weeks old, a croc catch a fish and eat it, and when an elephant charged at our car!

Presidential Election!

Tuesday Septemer 20,2011 were the presidential elections for Zambia. People all over the country were traveling to poll booths to vote for who they wanted to win. That evening before dinner I was talking to a few George Benson students and about half of them had voted. They said most people in the Southern province wanted H.H to win because he is Tonga, but they didn’t know who the winner was yet. All they had heard was that there was some violence in Lusaka, some cars were blown up, and they found pre-marked ballots but the press was announcing that the country was peaceful because they didn’t want anyone to think otherwise. The next day there was still no declared winner, but Ba Siaziyu informed us on what was going on. He said due to the pre-marked ballots there were delays and re-voting at certain polling stations. At the time Michael Sata was winning with 265,000 votes, Bana the former president had 192,000 votes, and H.H had 93,000 votes. But only 33 of the 79 constituency’s had turned in their totals.

Michael Sata also known as “The Opposition” is who most of the younger voters were voting for along with most of the Bemba tribes in North and Eastern Zambia. He was campaigning for better agriculture and mines. Also he is a really great speaker Ba Siazyu said if you are against him and then hear him speak once he supposedly will change your mind. He is against corruption but has a harsh personality.

Bana is the former President who’s running again. I heard from a few of the college students that they didn’t want him to win. He wasn’t even elected to be President, the real former president ran two five year terms beginning in 1991 and then passed away so Bana then replaced him until the next election.

H.H. also called Obama (because he wants CHANGE) is Tonga so all the Tonga tribes voted for him in Southern Zambia. He was running because he wanted change, not for power or money. He is a rich man that was driven into politics because of the countries circumstances and was campaigning for better agriculture, education, health, and basic needs of the people. During run offs between candidates, neither Sata nor Bana could find any way to complain or put H.H. down because he ran a very clean and honest race.

On Friday September 23,2011 at 6:00a.m after 52 days of politics the new President was announced from ECZ to officially be Micheal Sata, who received 70% of the votes. At 14:00 the inauguration at the State House in Lusaka began. I watched it in a class room at the college with about 60 Zambian students. We heard Bana give his farewell speech and then due to technical difficulties we could see Sata giving his inauguration speech and all the people who crowded the streets of Lusaka to watch but we couldn’t hear anything he was saying. Underneath on the screen it read “The change we wanted has finally come”. The next elections will be in 2016.

Highlights from the past few weeks!

Basic School-

Zambia and the United States have drastically different school settings. I went to the basic school one morning to observe a third grade class while they did math and sds exercises and then went to observe a sixth grade class while they worked on English and science.

If anyone came to an elementary school in the U.S dressed or with the supplies the Namwianga students had they would be made fun of, which really is sad. The basic school kids were all wearing their blue uniform but their clothes were falling apart with loose threads, holes, and dirt. No one had a new outfit. Also their shoes were falling apart. One girl didn’t even have shoes, over her tall knee high socks she wore a thick sock folded down to double over her foot as protection. Another girl was wearing a jacket that was way too small for her, the sleeves only came to the middle of her forearm instead of to her wrist which was at least 4 inches away from the end of the sleeve. Then they all had a book bag to carry all their exercise books in for each subject but their backpacks were also falling apart with holes, if they had a bag, some children just had several black plastic bags like Wal-Mart bags layered to hold up to their books. The school building had paint chipping and school desks that were falling apart. In the third grade class when they were gathered on the floor to listen to the teacher explain problems on the chalkboard they were sitting on a large blanket that was worn out and dirty.

The sad thing is that it’s normal to them; it’s the environment that they’ve grown up in. They aren’t used to schools that have janitors that wax the floors or repaint the building.

Clinic-

I was assigned to go to the clinic on Friday with 2 other people. We just got to listen to a ladies lungs with pneumonia, see a guy that the dr.’s couldn’t diagnose without a lab test, and a girl with an STD. I won’t go into any more detail, but it was interesting! Hopefully I will get to go back soon!

Tonga Partner-

Ba Siaziyu invited students from the college to a party that we hosted, so we could each get a Tonga partner. They are supposed to help us learn Tonga and we can help them with English, but really it’s just another friend to hang out with! They had a basket with everyone’s names in it so we drew out our partners name and just got to know them the rest of the night. My partner is Hanambe, she is from Central Zambia, she’s 22, it’s her second year here, and she’s studying to be a History teacher. I’m excited to get to know her better throughout the semester!

Gospel meeting-

This weekend a few of us went out into the bush for a gospel meeting on Saturday and Sunday.

After an hour and a half drive on bumpy dirt roads we arrived at the church around 11:10a.m. We were instantly greeted by the woman of the church and then went inside to have a recap of what the meeting was about before because it actually started on Friday, and the subject was Revelation.

At 13:00 we ate lunch, which consisted of nsima, rape, and goat. (rape is kind of like cooked spinach or cabbage) Since we were guests they served us first and we ate inside the church using a bench as our table while everyone else ate outside on the ground. What you do is grab the nsima, which has the consistency of mashed potatoes, with your right hand (using your left hand for anything is bad because it’s your “dirty” hand) and you roll it into a ball. Then with your thumb you make a dip in the middle of the ball so it’s shaped more like a spoon or cup and you scoop up rape and then take bites out of it and then start over. After we finished the women came in and grabbed the dishes, when women grab or hand anyone something they get down on their knee’s to show respect, even to their husbands at home, and if the person they are handing it too it on the ground they have to get down even farther. One of our culture teachers told us that if a husband is sitting on the floor and the wife comes in to the hut to give him dinner she will crawl in on her elbows to hand it to him so she’s lower. Anyway back to the weekend, the ladies then asked us to leave so they could clean off the benches and sweep the floor, and while they did that the men just stood around.

When it was clean we went inside and had several lessons, songs, and prayers, they even asked us to get up and sing for them and they had a men’s group that also sang.  About an hour before dinner they said we were free to go do what we wanted so we again all just stood around while the women cooked and prepared for dinner.

We ate inside the church again and were served first, after the women cleaned up after us and then moved the benches outside around a fire since it was dark.

We all sat around the fire under the stars and listened to a few more lessons on Revelation, sang, and had several prayers. When it ended at 22:00 they said the women would sleep in the church and the men outside so we got our sleeping bags ready and went to sleep. The next morning at 6:15 we woke up to a rooster and realized the Zambian ladies were already up and cooking. After cleaning up our sleeping bags we sat around a fire and ate porridge while the women were still working, I saw some carrying huge buckets of water on their heads from a river. The only thing the men did was kill and skin a goat that they were preparing for lunch.

Church started at 9:20 and didn’t end until 13:00, I don’t know what happened during the whole church service because I went out with the children and helped teach bible class. We acted out the story of Noah’s ark, David and Goliath, the good Samaritan, and Daniel in the lion’s den and then sang children’s songs with them. After church we had our third meal of nsima, rape, and goat. One thing we found out is we grew up spoiled with a variety of food because we had exact same meal 3 times. Also the women here are super women; they do so much. They were always cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children while the men socialized and sat around. Yet the women still respect their husbands by kneeling down to hand them anything and never complaining. I also learned about how the men treat their wives. During the gospel meeting I asked a boy that was 22 how the men and women submit to one another in Zambia and he said most men don’t, they treat their wives like animals, even some Christians.

Kids/college girls

We’ve been getting to know a lot of the college girls. We’ve gone to their rooms several times and just talked and they’ve come over and we taught some of them how to play spoons. But one of the cutest things are the little neighborhood kids. One day we were doing homework in the living room and a little girl and boy that are 6 and 5 came and knocked on our door asking if we wanted to play! So we went out on the porch and colored with them and just asked them a lot of questions. Hope is 6 she likes pink and yellow, she wants to be a teacher when she grows up, and she likes to help her mom cook! Joshua is 5, he likes orange, he likes ALL sports, he wants to be a policeman when he grows up, and he likes taking out the trash?!...really every time he didn’t understand us he’d just say “Yes” but it was adorable! A few days later I came home and there were 3 boys at our dining room table coloring and drawing pictures. Apparently they knocked on our door looking for someone, but we didn’t know where he was so they asked if they could come in and they felt bad saying no so they came in and colored. During that I asked them a lot of questions to, I guess if these kids don’t like questions they won’t come back? Lol but I like finding out about them! Adrian is 11, he is on a soccer team, he like green, he likes to read, and he wants to be a doctor. Gift, Adrian’s brother, is 10, he’s on the same soccer team, he likes red, he doesn’t like to read, and he wants to be a manager when we grows up. They said their dad is a brick layer and their mom works in Haven 3. Taonga is 10, he likes purple, he’s on a different soccer team, and I don’t remember his other answers. But they all three like Dragon Ball Z so they were drawing some muscle character that they said was a fighter for good people?! And they have a soccer game against one another on Tues. at 14:00, so I told them I would go watch them!! They are really sweet and its funny watching all their different personalities!

We went to their game by the clinic and they were so excited to have us watch them. It was so cute! We had to leave before It was over and the next day I wasn’t home so they left me a note inviting us to go fishing in the river with them at 10:00 on Saturday, so that will be interesting!!

MAYA AND MARISSA-

Last Saturday twins, Maya and Marissa, were dropped off at the Haven when they were 3 hours old because the mother died in labor. On Wednesday I was rocking Maya to sleep when two guys came in and went over to Marissa’s bed, I was kind of confused because I didn’t know what they were saying. Then one of the aunties pointed to me so they walked over, and I just assumed they wanted to hold her so I asked and the auntie said “no, it’s her father, he just came to look”…I wanted to hand him his baby girl SO BAD!!! But the two men just looked at her for a few minutes and left. After I asked the Auntie and she said Fathers in Zambia don’t hold their kids, it is just a custom. You might see younger fathers that are more westernized involved in a child’s life and showing love but it’s not very common. 

Random!

VICTORIA:

About one and a half weeks ago we were given a sheet that had all the names of the children at the haven so we could sign up for at least one we’d go visit every day. They wanted to make sure that all the children were getting attention, that way not just one child is held by 20 people at different times during the day! I signed up for Victoria in Haven one because shes the girl I held on the very first day! She was on in July and is so cute; the only thing is she never smiles. I’ve held her and played with her every day, trying to make her laugh but she has a concerned look on her face with tears falling down (even if she’s not “crying”). BUT a few days ago I held her for probably one & ½ to 2 hrs and she FINALLY SMLIED!! It was adorable, I think she just had to warm up to me because after that she just got better and better! She claps, laughs, “talks”…now all we need to work on is her standing so her leg muscles can build up and she can walk! That’ll take a lot of time, but I love going to the Havens, & look forward to seeing her every day!

NEW BABIES:

I was sitting in Haven 1 holding Victoria when Ba Cecilia came in from the front porch with a baby saying “Look we got a new baby!”… I was shocked; I guess I never really thought about the process and how all those kids came to live at the Haven?! So we asked her and she told us that some people call ahead and warn them when they are coming to bring a child and other people just show up and expect them to take it. Most of the children still have families, the only reason they are placed here is because their family can’t take care of them because of their age or health, but once they are older most will go back into the village and live a normal Zambian life. That day Ba Cecilia had actually received two babies, one was a day old and its mom died in child birth from lose of blood and the other baby (the one I saw come in) was 2 months old and the mom died of an illness. It was really sad to see these two babies crying, knowing that they weren’t going to live with their family for the first few years in life, but all the aunties that care for the children love them and do so much that I know in the Haven they will have a good life.

CHURCH OUT IN THE BUSH:

Sunday we drove about an hour to a village for church. It was a completely new experience. The building was practically a square hut; The walls were made out of mud and it had a thatched roof. We sat girls on the left and boys on the right, because in some places its culturally inappropriate for mixed genders to sit together. The benches were just really rough wood planks that were about 6 inches wide with a leg on each side holding it up, I was fortunate enough to have a flat spot, others in our group sat on random humps and bulges because spending money on comfort to them is not a necessity. Communion was really different, Biblically we do the same thing, its just they lack the money to have several trays going around at once and the wine was definitely not welches lol. It was a really bitter fruit that is locally grown that they just added water to; I don’t know if it was safe to drink so I took a really tiny sip but luckily no one that I know of got sick from it. During the service an elderly lady or “Baama” came in and sat behind me and on her way to sit she shook all of our hands because she was just so delighted to see all these Americans worshiping , it was so sweet seeing how welcoming and happy she was. One of my favorite parts about church here is how friendly everyone is because it’s a tradition they grew up learning. After worship is over the men leave from the back bench to the front and then the women from the back to front leave and when you get out the door everyone’s lined up and you have to go through the line shaking everyone’s hand greeting them. Once you get to the end you stand next to the last person and all the people behind you greet you. I don’t know if that makes sense or not, but essentially in the end you’ve greeted every single person that was at church that day!

GIRLS DORM:

The George S. Benson College students started arriving last Monday and so we’ve met a few here and there. Michelle met two girls that invited her to come visit them thurs. in their dorm room so she took me and Stephanie with her. When we first got there we were really confused on where their room was so we met a girl named Cheapo which means gift, she told us shes the only daughter of seven children…anyway she showed us where to go and then said we were welcome anytime to her room which is #6, she was so welcoming and the hospitality didn’t stop there. When we got to the room we were looking for we knocked and then went in and it was the smallest dorm room I’ve ever seen, it somehow fit 2 bunk beds in it and 3 school desk chairs but I don’t know how. We all introduced ourselves to each other and met Fita, Deborah, and a 3^rd girl that has a name I can’t pronounce. They cleaned of the only chairs they had and offered it to us, and its rude not to accept so we took them and talked to them for a while about school random stuff. I noticed while we were talking one of the  girls left the room and came back and was then hand washing 3 cups, after she filled them up with a juice and gave each of us one. It was just so polite and we’ve learned in their culture that they always offer something when guests are in their homes. I felt really bad drinking it because I knew they spent money on it and I could just go back to our house or to the kitchen and get whatever I wanted. After talking for a while we taught them how to play spoons. It shocked me when we asked them they said they had never played a card game in their life! It surprised me but they just don’t have the luxury of sitting down and entertaining themselves. They loved the game though, they always laughed at whoever didn’t get a spoon!! While we were playing they were talking to us about random things and one thing they said was “do you all three have boyfriends?”…and we all said “No” and they were SHOCKED! One of the girls with a concerned look on her face asked, “Well when are you planning on getting one?”…and we replied “I don’t know, just whenever we meet someone we could see ourselves with. So then we asked them if they had boyfriends and all three of them did, one had been dating her boyfriend for 2 years now and is planning on marrying him.

Klaus Muller:

We visited Twin Fountains which is a college that focuses on agriculture. A German named Klaus Muller was the founder. He first moved to Namwianga missions and taught agricultural science at the secondary school, but decided that hands on learning would be more effective. He then moved to Lubbock, TX for three months because the land there is most similar to Zambia’s and learned how to work better with the land. After he came back to Zambia and started twin fountains. Its 2,000 acres that are used to teach students how to…grow crops year round, handle and train cattle to plow, manage money, along with teaching them about Christ. It is a really good program; it’s 2 years long and costs a total of $2,000 (which sounds cheap but here the average annual income is $700), during their time they will learn everything I listed above and sell all the crops they grow. If they are working hard in their garden and tend to it as they should then the school will double the amount of land they can plant on, which means more crops to sell. After the 2 years are over they graduate and are given the amount of money they earned through their crops. Last year Klaus said his top 2 students graduated with $2,500 each, which means that they really sold $4,500 of crops in 2 years!! That is Amazing!!! 

Marriage in Zambia

Marriage in Zambia is a lot different than American couples. I realized that when Ba Daka came and spoke to use about courting and the marriage process.

Once a girl hits puberty she goes through Kuvundika. Kuvundika is a three month time period when a girl is secluded from society in order to spend that time learning tolerance. They teach the girls how to respect and obey their husbands.

After the three months boys can now begin to notice the girl in which he wants to marry, but before marriage is an option he has to go to both his and her grandparents with a strategy to convince them that he is worthy, which in the U.S is like asking the father for permission to marry his daughter. The girls grandma will then go ask the girl what she knows about him, to make sure they are in love. If it is proven that they are, then the girls’ grandma will take a plate filled with white beats covered to the boys’ grandparents to show approval. It is a gift showing they agree on the marriage of their grandchildren.

Before they are married the boy also goes through a period where he is instructed by an elderly man how to live a married life. When the day comes for them to be married the girl is taken to the boy like a gift.

In urban areas of Zambia weddings have become more westernized with cake, music, and dancing but rural areas still have Zambian traditions. They beat drums and dance traditional dances, but the couple getting married is calm and watches the excitement. Ba Daka said there isn’t a lot of kissing like American weddings where they show how affectionate they are of one another.

After the excitement of getting married they then live together for better or for worse. In Zambia there isn’t a lot of divorce like in America; it has just recently been introduced by younger generations. Couples still do fight like in all relationships, but they don’t let anyone know of their struggles. Zambians are not very open about their relationships; they believe that they should first solve the conflict between themselves and if that’s not possible then go to their grandparents for advice to help. Zambians don’t take their problems to other people or to church, if they talk about marriage problems to friends their marriage will be seen as a failure and won’t last. Ba Daka symbolized their problems as a sealed bucket; when there is a problem they put it in the bucket and then put the lid on and cover it to hide their struggles from others.

Ba Daka went through Kuvundika when she was about fourteen years old. She was then bought with a bride price to show appreciation and has now been married for forty-two years, has several daughters, a son, and ten grandchildren.