Back to Volunteering

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Monday was back to projects. And guess what??? We have wheat bread at the house now! Yay! Better for toast! Monday morning I was at Linda Clinic. At the clinics we’re only in the outpatient area so we don’t really see any of the wards with the sick people. I want to see if I can shadow a clinical officer one day to get the real experience. In the afternoon I was at Maramba Old People’s Home for the first time. It isn’t the nicest place in the world, and the rooms are small, but it isn’t bad and there are even trees for shade so that the residents can sit outside. Its capacity is 40 and it’s funded by government grants and donations. It is for old people who don’t have any family members left, mostly because of AIDS. We did puzzles, drew pictures, looked at books, and sat in a circle and threw around a ball. They don’t really know any English, so it was a different type of challenge than playing with kids. I wish the could speak English or that I could speak Nyanja because some of them seem like really entertaining people. Both here and in Nepal especially I got the sense that the old women tend to have a lot of stories and a dry sense of humor (at least some of them) and I wish I could actually talk to them!

Tuesday I was at Maramba Clinic in the morning and then HIV Education planning in the afternoon. African Impact does an HIV awareness/education program for local women to increase knowledge and decrease stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. A new 4-week session starts on Thursday so today we were planning out the session. It’s basically just going to be an introduction, overview of the course, and basic info about what HIV/AIDS is, how it can be spread, and how it can be prevented. Should be good!

So over the summer the Zambian president died. Since then the VP has been running the country. Elections are on Thursday. Over the past couple weeks we’ve seen quite a bit of campaigning. Groups of women go around and spread the word about their candidate. It’s actually kind of cool that they’re getting so into it! Anyway, today things got a little bit out of hand. A rumor is going around that some ballots came from South Africa already filled in with the candidate who's currently in power (rigging the voting system). No one knows if it’s true, but of course the supporters of the other candidates were a little upset. So there was a pretty big riot in Livingstone. The whole main street ended up getting shut down. There were a bunch of protestors and police with big guns and there was even tear gas involved to get the situation under control. Right up the street from where we live! Scary! Elin and I went into town later to get some money and everything was calmed down, just more police and army driving around than usual. And news people and African Union Observers for the election. So starting tomorrow we’re not allowed to go out after dark and probably won’t be going many places even during the day, just in case. Better safe than sorry. African elections are often kind of sketchy…

More observations… kids here often have English names. Older people have traditional names, but the younger ones are more English. There are a lot that are Blessing or Gift or Precious or Beauty, but then also some more normal ones such as Emma, Ruth, Peter, and Joseph. And then the African names: Chipo, Nothambo, Solochi. Just kind of interesting how a lot of them are English.

School is free up until grade 7. After that, to continue, the children have to pass certain tests and then pay for school. So a lot of children end at grade 7. There are private schools for primary school that you have to pay for, but there are also free, public ones. But still only up to grade 7. Better than nothing though I guess.

While we were in Zimbabwe a couple other volunteers got mugged on the street right by our house. Yes, it was 3 am and there were only 2 of them and they were drunk so it was really stupid on their part, but still, kind of scary! So now we really have to travel only in big groups or by taxi. The scary part though was that it was a taxi that pulled over and mugged them! That can happen in any city though, you just have to be smart.

Women carry their babies on their backs, tied with a cloth. It actually looks like it’s an easier way of doing it because then their hands are free to do other stuff. They’re also a lot more open when it comes to breastfeeding. Women do it anywhere and everywhere. It’s actually kind of good because then when the baby is hungry he/she can eat.

Okay, I think that’s enough for now. More once these crazy elections are over. Happy Halloween everyone! Good Luck at Regions Delana!

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