A High Point

Muli bwanji! (That’s Nyanja for hello and how are you?)
I have been very skimpy on the photographs, so I am trying to post more of them for everyone- this may prove to be difficult because the internet connection here is just something else. I will try though!
This past week was a lot better for me. I’ve made a lot of progress with regards to my thesis. One of the major stakeholders called me and wanted me to meet with her, which I gladly did. I got a lot of feedback and spent most of the week working on perfecting the proposal. Because I have 4 supervisors in 2 different countries I correspond with everyone mostly thru email and hence, I haven’t really handed in the forms yet because communication is sporadic and slow. I’ve decided to be more realistic- I know I can get the forms in by the first Friday of September. On the plus side, I am getting incredibly excited about doing research. My supervisors have been fantastic- I have tremendous respect and admiration for each of them and like most people in health policy, they work around the clock. This makes things a bit difficult for me because everyone is so busy and over stretched and sometimes it can be frustrating for me, but I am very lucky to be working with these people. This is what happens when a country depends on aid and there’s a massive shortage in human resources for health.
I have been putting a lot of effort into learning Bemba lately. There are 72 languages spoken in Zambia (English being the common tongue), and in Lusaka the two major languages are Bemba and Nyanja, but Bemba is a lot easier to learn. It’s hard to pick it up though because everyone knows I’m foreign and automatically speaks to me in English. Nevertheless, I bought an English-Bemba dictionary and am learning some new phrases. I already know how to say a few simple things , like hello, how are you, I’m fine, black person (this sounds bad- but when people call me a muzungu I say this back and they think its hilarious), please drop me off at the next stop (for minibuses), I don’t need a taxi, thank you and we all thank you. However, I hope that this dictionary can help me to learn a bit more. I am determined to be able to have a short conversation in Bemba by the time I leave! Currently, I am working on some more greetings and learning a few verbs. I’ve noticed that even if I just say hello or goodbye in Bemba or Nyanja people absolutely love it and think its hilarious. Its nice to get such a positive response!
This past weekend was a lot of fun and a real treat. Michael and Janice (roommate and girlfriend) invited me out to dinner with them and some friends somewhere in town for LEBANESE FOOD. I had shawarma and almost died of happiness! It was a good night out. Michael’s a very interesting guy. He spent 2 years volunteering with the Peace Corps in Northern Province and can speak Bemba very well (which makes a lot of Zambians laugh when he speaks it in public) so he has a very interesting understanding of Zambia. We met up with his friends who is still working for the Peace Corps and who can also speak Bemba, which made for an interesting night out. It made me realize that I still have a lot to learn about Zambia, despite the fact that I feel very comfortable here. After dinner, I met up with Tom at an area called Northmead where a lot of people spend their Saturday nights. We ended up running into some of his friends who insisted that I learn how to dance Zambian style. Now, my dance moves are pretty scary and I am not gifted at all in moving my hips, so this proved to be challenging. Everyone had a good laugh.
On Saturday, Monica (who is currently living a the Intercontinental Hotel…very fancy, but also kind of depressing after a few months) invited me to visit and tan at the hotel swimming pool- pretty spectacular. There aren’t any beaches nearby (Zambia’s landlocked) so this was a real treat. We ended up going to a really nice place for dinner as well…where there was live music (rare in Lusaka, so this was awesome!). I even satisfied my bizarre seafood craving by indulging in shrimp with pasta. On Sunday, a friend of mine named “Robert” came over and we cooked some Zambian food together, which is always delicious. Nothing beats meat, nshima, relish and a Mosi to wash it all down.
Life at the office has gotten insanely busy…this is a good thing for me. I love being busy (weird, I know!). I spent Friday at the Ministry of Health (MoH) trying to get in touch with a policy analyst for someone at my NGO but with little luck. Everyone at the MoH is exceptionally busy and almost never in their office, so I have a feeling I will get to know his secretary very well before I get to meet with him. Today was nuts. I spent the morning helping out the chairman for one of the NGO’s research-to-action groups. These groups are very cool- they consist of specialists in areas such as mental health from both the policy and academic communities. The members of these groups work together to conduct research and then have it incorporated into policy. These people are my heroes! Anyways, I also received an unexpected visit from a telemedicine and e-Learning specialist that works with the partner NGO. He wants to work with Dan and me to design a project that will help to train more researchers and policymakers in how to collect information and communicate online. He had some great ideas and I’m excited to work with him. Dan and I also found out that we’ll be responsible for organizing a 2-day telemedicine workshop for people from the Univsersity of Zambia and the MoH in November, very exciting but also daunting. We also have to organize a meeting for NGO members and stakeholders, plus people from the partner NGO will be there. AND I still have to get my thesis ethics forms in AND Dan and I have a lot of work to do on the NGO database. We also have to find more funding or else the NGO could be in trouble. But I’m not complaining, I’m feeling really good about all of this and am looking forward to the challenges ahead.
That’s it for now. Ne tasha (thanks) for listening. And I hope you are all doing well.


P.S. Jeff and Erin, the title of this blog was inspired by you guys. Thanks for the kind words last week.

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