Livingstone! Settling In

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After I last talked to you I spent the afternoon doing sports coaching at Livingstone Primary School. We started out with a bunch of different futbol drills until we were slightly sunburned and highly overheated. Then we just let them play futbol for the last little bit because that's what they really wanted to do anyway and we sat in the shade and played with some of the younger kids and talked to one of the teachers. There was one little boy who was 2 or 3 years old who really enjoyed rolling a soccer ball around so I played with him for a while. We also drew pictures in the sand and took turns "hiding" a nail that was lying around. His name is Shawndik and he was adorable! I don't know how all the kids here can play soccer, or any sport for that matter, in this insane heat! It actually isn't as bad as Asia was, mainly because it's a lot less humid, but it's still at least in the 90's and with the sun it's too hot to be running around! I guess we're all just pansy white people...

This morning I was at Libuyu Clinic with Lynette, a girl from Holland. We're both new this week so it was a little bit intimidating at first since there weren't even any nurses there when we arrived. It all worked out fine though. At Libuyu we have to do registration, find the patients' books (which is harder than it sounds), take payment, write receipts, and take all the normal blood pressure, temperature, etc. I like it better when we have more stuff to do. They have less staff at these smaller clinics so I feel like we're more needed. Plus I like to organize stuff and keep track of things as well as doing the medical part. The record keeping here is really sad! First of all, it's all by hand, but that's to be expected. Each patient has a notebook that their appointments, vitals, doctors' comments, meds, etc. are recorded in. The sad part is that at the end of the year the notebooks are thrown away. Each year the patients have to get new notebooks. Some patients keep theirs if they have specific conditions, but most don't. So most people don't have a medical history because their records have been thrown away! And then the organization! Or lack thereof. The notebooks are in stacks by patient number. But then some are out of order and then there are some piles that are a mix of numbers. So if you can't find the book in the right stack you have to search through the other piles to try to find it. There was one patient today whose book no one could find so he ended up having to buy another book. Even though it was the clinic's fault that they had lost it. People pay 5000 kwacha (about $1.50) for an appointment. People older than 65 and younger than 5 don't pay. People with hypertension and diabetes also don't pay and people who are at the clinic for a follow-up appointment don't pay. So it actually isn't too hard on the pocketbook. Which is good. Even with the crazy record-keeping it's still really good that the clinics are here and operating as well as they are!

This afternoon I did the Adult Literacy Club. It is a program for adults to help them in life...reading, writing, math, etc. within the context of the real world. Basically life skills. It's a whole program with a syllabus and everything set up by one of the women at African Impact. It's a great idea and it was a lot of fun! We only had 3 people though, I wish more would be able to take advantage of this opportunity! Today I taught math (multiplication and long division in the context of buying food) and then Gareth taught them how to write a letter in the proper business format and then also for friends. One man, Stanford, is really good at math, and reading and writing for that matter, so I gave him a really long multiplication problem and it took him a while, but he solved it! It was impressive! He walks 2 hours each way to the class. Dedication right there! It's good that at least some people get to take this class. It really helps to have these basic skills.

People here are really friendly! In India people always wanted to talk to us, but there was always an ulterior motive, pretty much always to do with money. Here everyone just likes talking to us. Even the shopkeepers, if we tell them we aren't interested or are just looking, they'll still be happy to have a conversation with us. It's a very welcome change! Everyone here calls each other brother and sister, including us, which is also nice. Makes us feel welcome.

Tomorrow morning some of us are going to Livingstone Island, in the middle of the Zambezi River, for breakfast and swimming right at the top of the falls. It will be the first time I see Victoria Falls so I'm really excited! We're here at the wrong time of year though. It's right before the wet season so the falls aren't as impressive. Supposedly they're better from the Zimbabwe side so I'll have to go over there at some point...

I know I have more to say but I left my notebook at the house and I can't think of it off the top of my head so I will have to ramble more to you all later.

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