Sunday, November 2, 2008

I am a sweaty mess more and more often these days. The African sun feels like it's burning me from the inside out most of the time, and the fact that my malaria prophylaxis makes me more sensitive to the sun doesn't help. However, I just got back from a trip to Luapula province with some friends. We camped at Lake Bengweulu and Ntumbacushi falls, meeting up with some other volunteers in that province and enjoying being by water in this hot hot heat. We camped right on the beach in Samfya for 2 nights, then spent a night at the Peace Corps house in Mansa (and 4 hours doing karaoke :) ), then camped 2 nights at some amazing waterfalls up north. I've realized that Zambia is a country full of hidden treasures. Most of Zambia's tourism (not a very booming industry here) comes from its game parks and safaris, with most foreigners flying their private jets or driving in land cruisers straight to the parks while pretty much ignoring the rest of the country. Living here in Zambia has given me the opportunity to travel around this country and explore the undiscovered and untouched beauty here, albeit mostly on unsafe, uncomfortable, and ridiculously slow transport. Waterfalls in the middle of nowhere, marshy, green fields that seem to stretch on forever speckled with the silhouette of mango trees, rocky 'mountains' carved by fast-flowing rivers where hippos bathe. Once you arrive, the natural beauty is immediately worth the painful hitch in the back of a truck for 16 hours with 20 other Zambians, 2 of which are probably sitting on your lap. We got up at 5 a.m. a few days ago to try a 'shortcut' road from Mansa to Kasama. We arrived in Kasama around 10 p.m. on the same day caked in at least 3 layers of dirt and sweat, even after having been pelted with rain for about an hour. Almost the entire road was dirt, and at one point we were being passed by bikers. The truck we were in was carrying petrol, providing the fresh scent of gasoline to our luxurious hitch. In Luwingu, about 180km north of Kasama, we switched trucks and proceeded the rest of the way in a pickup that broke down about every 30km. 9 months ago I probably would have been more stressed out after such an experience with transport, but the 5 of us arrived late at night in kasama with weary smiles on our faces, able to chalk it all up experience. :) At least we know now never to try that specific 'shortcut' again.

I am looking forward to pulling an all-nighter and watching the U.S. elections in mpika on Tuesday. The Zambian presidential elections just occurred a few days ago here in Mpika, along with numerous charges of corruption against the victorious candidate. The candidate that lost is from mpika so I'm hoping there are no negative repercussions(sp?) in my area. If rioting or conflict occurs it will most likely take place in Lusaka, but hopefully the country remains peaceful.

The rains have started over here, but have mostly been in the late afternoon or at night. The rainy season will last for about 5 months, but I'm looking forward to the landscape becoming a lot more green and lush. Everything has been so dry with all the burning. I'm not looking forward, however, to how the rains will affect my work in the village. In October I scheduled meetings with my NHCs and only one was 'successful' (and by successful I mean at least half of the NHC showed up). Its incredibly frustrating to ride your bike for an hour or more in blistering heat just to find that one or two people have showed up to your meeting. Where can you go from there? If people won't even show up to meetings, won't even take the first step to work with you, what can you do? I'll be the most effective volunteer in my village if I work with those who want to work with me. I've established good relationships with a handful of community leaders so they are the ones of I will work with the most. I'm here to capacity-build and work with community members, not to be a cheerleader. Once I realized that working with those who are already motivated to improve health in their community and trying to get them to work with those who are unmotivated can keep me from going insane with frustration, I became better able to plan what I can realistically hope to accomplish in the next year and a half. I also hope to work more closely with the district health office in the future and attempt to initiate some improvements in their approach to rural health development. For example, all of the healthcare education material given to rural communities in Zambia is written in English. Yes, it's the official language of Zambia, but maybe 2% of villagers in my area can speak, read, or comprehend it. The information should be presented in Bemba until the ministry of education can effectively educate Zambians in their official language. The implementation of policy in the health and education sectors of the Zambian government is a mess, and I'm quickly realizing that every sector affects the other, and their improvement depends on cooperation between all sectors (health, education, agriculture, etc.) I have become so interested in public policy while I've been here, and have found myself wanting to learn more about why these policies were developed in the first place and what is preventing them from being implemented.

Well, it's about time to wrap up this post. I've been missing America a lot lately, especially as the holiday season approaches, but I did dress up as Jazzercize barbie for halloweeen, all the volunteers in northern province are planning to cook a big thanksgiving feast together (turkey and all!), and I am booking tickets to wine country for christmas and cape town for new years...all things that take my mind off of being so far away from family and friends. I also have made such great friends here, and I don't know what I would do without them in this country. I love my village and am definitely having the experience of a lifetime, yet all while realizing how lucky I am to have the best family and friends a girl could ask for back home. I just gotta keep on keepin' on. Sending you all my love from Zamland!

Katie