January 31st: Today was a very difficult day for me at the hospital. I was very overjoyed to discover that the woman that I was told would be giving birth to a stillborn had a live healthy premature baby. The smile on her face when she was able to see and touch her baby was incredible. The woman that was not doing very well yesterday when I left her was also doing much better after receiving some blood and fluid. I spotted a nurse trying to get an IV on a patient that seemed to be having trouble so I went to help her. We must have tried atleast 10 times and finally we got an IV. I then noticed that the woman was not looking very well, though she was still breathing. I tried to take a blood pressure and when I noticed that she did not have one and I could not auscultate any heart sounds, only observe the carotid pulse faintly, I realized this patient was in very big trouble. I asked for an ambu-bag to help the patient breathe but the unit said they did not have one. So I told my partner to stay with the patient while I ran to get one from another ward. I told the nurse that her patient was crashing and she left to go to the patient. The ward that I looked on had a hard time finding the ambu-bag so by the time that I got back I knew that the patient was not going to make it, she had been too long without help. My partner and I initiated CPR and worked on the patient for about 15 minutes. Boy, is CPR tiring. We suggested calling the doctor and giving the patient epinephrine but the epinephrine was unaffective. By the time the doctor arrived, he pronounced the patient and it was all over. We stood by the family and translated what happened and it was the hardest thing that I have ever experienced. Because I was leading the 'code' and had failed it was hard to accept that. I realize, however, that the patient was so sick with so many different illnesses that even if we had revived her, she probably would not have made it and died later. I know that I did my best with what I had and I would do it again to try to save the patient even if I knew the outcome.
Later that day, I looked after a patient that had been through a large Road Traffic Accident with many many burns, a heart failure patient and many more. I went to the baby ward to drop off a mother and while there I decided to look at one of the babies with my friend. I noticed that it was seizing right away and we called everyone that we could and realized that the baby had been dosed with way to much dextrose than it could handle. Babies' blood sugar was 31 (supposed to be 3-6 roughly). The pediatrician told us that there was nothing we could do but wait for the baby's blood sugar to drop and hope that the seizures have not caused too much brain damage. It was so frustrating to experience this, especially after my morning.
Today was the hardest day I have ever had in nursing. I am very proud of myself for not freezing up and I know that I helped those people as much as I could. I know that I will never forget today. I thought that the female ward would be boring....but was I ever wrong. I hope everyone is well at home.
Tuesday 31 January 2012
Monday 30 January 2012
Limulenga, Mongu and Safari
January 24th: Today I spent the day at the Feeding Clinic with Nurse Elizabeth. We saw 6 children. The first child was very malnourished, it was very hard to treat her. She did not have a proper support system to ensure she was eating and developing properly. We encouraged her to take the baby to hospital, even giving the grandmother some money but baby never made it to hospital according to my colleagues who were working on the children's ward that day. I was confused when the person in charge of the vehicle that took emergency cases to the hospital did not consider this baby to be an emergency. It was very frustring and very heartbreaking. I have not stopped thinking about this child since we tried to help her and I can only hope she is in a better place than she was. The rest of the patients that we saw were doing well with the formula that is provided for them at the clinic. One of the mothers' who delivered twins had a mental illness and did not recognize one of the twins to be hers. So I was relieved to see that Grandma was taking care of both the twins. She let my friend and I practice wrapping a baby on our backs, like they do here. It was a blast! After the Feeding Clinic we got a tour of the actual rural clinic. I was surprised to hear that they are funded K600,000 to run the clinic per month. These people truly do wonders with what they are given. The doctor only comes Wednesday and Friday so when he is not there, the nurse acts as the doctor. Like at home, there are levels of education with the health care workers. 1. Clinical officers 2. practical nurses (3 years) 3. enrolled nurses (2 years).
January 25th: Today I spent the whole day at the Rural Clinic. They were overjoyed when we brought them supplies from our house in Melengwa like bandages, etc and gave us a very long list to bring next year. I sat in with the screening nurse and assessed patients. I saw many diagnosis different than Canada. Much malaria, gastroenteritis, peritonitis, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, a woman who was in labour (I practised the Leopold Maneuver or feeling where baby was positioned in the abdomen and used the Fetal Scope (a large wooden device used to detect baby's heart beat). I found it interesting that they give antibiotics often here. The nurse says it is because although there is no infection now, more often than not, especially because of the high rates of HIV and malaria, infection does develop.
January 26th: Spent the day at the Rural Clinic again today! Saw many things while in the screening room. I removed stitches, helped the nurse diagnose, requested treatment for patients and assessed all the patients coming through. One patient that stood out was a young girl with a fever of 105F and a very low blood pressure. Malaria is so nasty and the nurses are very good at spotting which patients are infected. The test that diagnoses malaria takes about 5 minutes so it was interesting to see which patients came back positive and which didn't. One little boy did not come back positive so we thought the infection in his chest may have entered his blood making him so sick. I preformed breast examinations and referred a woman to the cancer clinic. I saw very high blood pressures. For example, two people came in with blood pressures around 220/110. I was surprised that they were still walking, the nurse said to me that the African people are much tougher than the people at home most likely. It is difficult because at home I would know how to help these people but here they often do not have what I know will help them. After the clinic I went to a nice woman's house and measured her blood pressure and met a young boy along the way who offered to carry my very heavy bag. I later learned that this young man is deaf from meningitis when he was very young. It is my hope that the ministry will listen to this young man's advocate and get him off the streets to a school where he can learn with other deaf children because it is very apparent he is very smart. After visiting with this lady I went to the Girls Orphanage. Along with my friend Julet, we taught 15 girls aged 14 and up about menstruation and pregnancy. It was a blast and a wonderful experience. They listened to every word (giggled a lot) and at the end they could answer all of our questions. We had put together little hygiene packs the night before and they were overjoyed to receive them. We also encouraged them to listen to their own heart beats and their faces were amazing to see once they heard it.
January 27th: Today we arrived at Kafue Safari Lodge! After a long bus ride we were introduced to a beautiful lodge. There were 2 pools over looking Kafue River. There were many carvings, statues, snake skins, turtle shells and pictures of Basil, the hippo that lives at the lodge. I was staying in a tent with my friend Amy. It was a very nice tent actually. It was a bit of a walk from the lodge itself and the ground was extremely muddy because of all the rain. I am unsure if my toes will ever turn back from orange to their normal colour! On my first safari we went on a 'game drive' or went by truck into the bush. I saw antelope, Kupu, birds and scary ants. These ants that have very large pincers travel in a big line, the ants on the side acting as soldiers and the ants on the inside acting as workers. It is said that if an animal angers the chimpanzee, the chimpanzee will throw them into these ants. I did not enjoy the biting flies that followed the truck! I saw a sausage tree which the hippos eat. It is said that the juice from this fruit can help cure skin infections. On my way to dinner walking from my tent, I was chased by some wart hogs. Or so I thought. It turns out they took the same path as us to their feeding place and we were just in the way. The food here is excellent. A delicious buffet and a treat to have food served to us.
January 28th: Another day at the Safari Lodge! Basil scared me last night. I heard these big foot steps and I thought it was a lion coming to eat me. Everyone told me I was crazy until we saw Basil sitting by the lodge. So he had in fact walked by my tent! On a game drive I saw: a pack of zebras, lions, elephants and heard lots of noisy frogs. I learned that there are 3 zones when it comes to wild animals. The comfort zone, the warning zone and the crticial zone. We must have entered the elephants warning zone because it started to shake it's head. The guide got the message and we moved away fast. There have been some scary stories about messing with elephants so I was happy to move away from them. We were able to see the sun rise on the safari which was beautiful. The boat safari couldn't depart this night because of a massive storm, so instead we just had a few drinks and enjoyed the night. I tried shima and was not all that impressed. I decided to stick with potatoes. I played a game of chess with Amy and thought the chess board was very cool, being different animals instead of the normal pieces.I learned many things about the different animals around Zambia and what to do if I either ran into them or were bitten by them.
January 29th: Morning boat cruise safari! Saw lots of hippos, the national King Fisher Eagle of Zambia, an alligator, lots of birds and learned about many trees. I even tried a bite of one of the leaves that was said to relieve stomach pains. We headed home today :(.
January 30th: Today was my first day on the Female Ward at Lewanika Hospital. I am still processing what I experienced because it is so different than my experience at the Rural Clinic in Lumulenga. They have such scarce resources it scares me. A patient today was stable but her level of consciousness was so low that I knew that she would probably not make it much longer. The most that we could do for her was give her IV fluids until the doctor came and the nurse had no idea when he/she would be in. The nurses are very knowledgable. I observed 'rounds' with the gynecologist doctor which was interesting. I did a few vaginal examinations to check to feel for babies head and drew blood for one of the women. We were expecting some trauma cases from a village nearby but they never came. It is so different than home. They do not do assessments and morning baths. The pace also seems slower although there is roughly 2 nurses for 24 very sick patients with a variety of health problems. I am curious to see how I will enjoy the hospital. It is very challenging, that is for sure.
January 25th: Today I spent the whole day at the Rural Clinic. They were overjoyed when we brought them supplies from our house in Melengwa like bandages, etc and gave us a very long list to bring next year. I sat in with the screening nurse and assessed patients. I saw many diagnosis different than Canada. Much malaria, gastroenteritis, peritonitis, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, a woman who was in labour (I practised the Leopold Maneuver or feeling where baby was positioned in the abdomen and used the Fetal Scope (a large wooden device used to detect baby's heart beat). I found it interesting that they give antibiotics often here. The nurse says it is because although there is no infection now, more often than not, especially because of the high rates of HIV and malaria, infection does develop.
January 26th: Spent the day at the Rural Clinic again today! Saw many things while in the screening room. I removed stitches, helped the nurse diagnose, requested treatment for patients and assessed all the patients coming through. One patient that stood out was a young girl with a fever of 105F and a very low blood pressure. Malaria is so nasty and the nurses are very good at spotting which patients are infected. The test that diagnoses malaria takes about 5 minutes so it was interesting to see which patients came back positive and which didn't. One little boy did not come back positive so we thought the infection in his chest may have entered his blood making him so sick. I preformed breast examinations and referred a woman to the cancer clinic. I saw very high blood pressures. For example, two people came in with blood pressures around 220/110. I was surprised that they were still walking, the nurse said to me that the African people are much tougher than the people at home most likely. It is difficult because at home I would know how to help these people but here they often do not have what I know will help them. After the clinic I went to a nice woman's house and measured her blood pressure and met a young boy along the way who offered to carry my very heavy bag. I later learned that this young man is deaf from meningitis when he was very young. It is my hope that the ministry will listen to this young man's advocate and get him off the streets to a school where he can learn with other deaf children because it is very apparent he is very smart. After visiting with this lady I went to the Girls Orphanage. Along with my friend Julet, we taught 15 girls aged 14 and up about menstruation and pregnancy. It was a blast and a wonderful experience. They listened to every word (giggled a lot) and at the end they could answer all of our questions. We had put together little hygiene packs the night before and they were overjoyed to receive them. We also encouraged them to listen to their own heart beats and their faces were amazing to see once they heard it.
January 27th: Today we arrived at Kafue Safari Lodge! After a long bus ride we were introduced to a beautiful lodge. There were 2 pools over looking Kafue River. There were many carvings, statues, snake skins, turtle shells and pictures of Basil, the hippo that lives at the lodge. I was staying in a tent with my friend Amy. It was a very nice tent actually. It was a bit of a walk from the lodge itself and the ground was extremely muddy because of all the rain. I am unsure if my toes will ever turn back from orange to their normal colour! On my first safari we went on a 'game drive' or went by truck into the bush. I saw antelope, Kupu, birds and scary ants. These ants that have very large pincers travel in a big line, the ants on the side acting as soldiers and the ants on the inside acting as workers. It is said that if an animal angers the chimpanzee, the chimpanzee will throw them into these ants. I did not enjoy the biting flies that followed the truck! I saw a sausage tree which the hippos eat. It is said that the juice from this fruit can help cure skin infections. On my way to dinner walking from my tent, I was chased by some wart hogs. Or so I thought. It turns out they took the same path as us to their feeding place and we were just in the way. The food here is excellent. A delicious buffet and a treat to have food served to us.
January 28th: Another day at the Safari Lodge! Basil scared me last night. I heard these big foot steps and I thought it was a lion coming to eat me. Everyone told me I was crazy until we saw Basil sitting by the lodge. So he had in fact walked by my tent! On a game drive I saw: a pack of zebras, lions, elephants and heard lots of noisy frogs. I learned that there are 3 zones when it comes to wild animals. The comfort zone, the warning zone and the crticial zone. We must have entered the elephants warning zone because it started to shake it's head. The guide got the message and we moved away fast. There have been some scary stories about messing with elephants so I was happy to move away from them. We were able to see the sun rise on the safari which was beautiful. The boat safari couldn't depart this night because of a massive storm, so instead we just had a few drinks and enjoyed the night. I tried shima and was not all that impressed. I decided to stick with potatoes. I played a game of chess with Amy and thought the chess board was very cool, being different animals instead of the normal pieces.I learned many things about the different animals around Zambia and what to do if I either ran into them or were bitten by them.
January 29th: Morning boat cruise safari! Saw lots of hippos, the national King Fisher Eagle of Zambia, an alligator, lots of birds and learned about many trees. I even tried a bite of one of the leaves that was said to relieve stomach pains. We headed home today :(.
January 30th: Today was my first day on the Female Ward at Lewanika Hospital. I am still processing what I experienced because it is so different than my experience at the Rural Clinic in Lumulenga. They have such scarce resources it scares me. A patient today was stable but her level of consciousness was so low that I knew that she would probably not make it much longer. The most that we could do for her was give her IV fluids until the doctor came and the nurse had no idea when he/she would be in. The nurses are very knowledgable. I observed 'rounds' with the gynecologist doctor which was interesting. I did a few vaginal examinations to check to feel for babies head and drew blood for one of the women. We were expecting some trauma cases from a village nearby but they never came. It is so different than home. They do not do assessments and morning baths. The pace also seems slower although there is roughly 2 nurses for 24 very sick patients with a variety of health problems. I am curious to see how I will enjoy the hospital. It is very challenging, that is for sure.
Monday 23 January 2012
Mongu!
January 18th, 2012:
Finally, we have arrived in Mongu! We left Cheshire house at around 0630 and arrived by bus at 1630. The bus had a very rough time avoiding the huge potholes on the way here, the whole things tipped to one side when it did try to avoid them. We drove through the National Park but didn’t get to see any other animals besides antelope and hogs (like Pumba). On the way to the bus station via taxi, at a stop light we were stopped by a few men selling rabbits on the side of the road. It made me sad to see at least 20 piled into little crates stacked on top of eachother. My friend Denee wanted to take a picture and they said no, you can’t take a picture. A few minutes later, he asked her, okay, snap it!? So she replies with “great! Yes!” thinking that they meant the picture. My friend and I caught on however, that the man meant the bunny and we politely refused the offer. The taxi driver said that because there are not many jobs in Lusaka, many young adults out of high school are forced to do jobs like that. We also saw a man holding a chicken by its wings while riding a bike, the chicken did not look impressed. So it has been shocking coming here and seeing how different cultures value animals. There are also many wild dogs but it seems as if look all the same, brown, bigger and very cute. I keep thinking of the Wizard of Oz, “Toto, we aren’t in Kansas anymore!”
There are a few main streets to Mongu. Along these streets there are many shops. I find it interesting that Airtel, Zamtel, MTN (all cell phone providers) have painted their buildings red, green or white with their logo on them. It is different here versus Lusaka in terms of the amount of white people that are here. In Lusaka there were a few makuwas. In mongu, I have only seen 3 other white people! Children sit at our gates and stare at us, shouting “Makuwa, how are you?” We get “how are you” a lot because that is the first thing that the children learn in school. I felt horrible because one little extremely cute girl took one look at me and just started to bawl she was so afraid of me. Fay says that most children have never seen a white man up close before and that is why we scare them so much.
The place we are staying at is called the “Sister Presentation House” and consists of a large house which houses 13 of us, 3 small private huts which house 2 people each and one hut that holds 5 people. I was so surprised by how beautiful it is! My friend Denee and I were lucky enough to get one of the private houses. It has a large living room with a couch and table, a kitchen with an electric stove, a fridge, a toaster and such. Just no microwave. There are two beds in the bedroom with a little bathroom attached. It is very cozy and about the same size compared to my basement suite so I don’t mind at all! Lots of bugs like our house, a little black gecko lives in our room, as well as many little nats, jumping spiders, crickets and huge nasty cockroaches. We are so lucky to have a laundry service here and a van that we can use as long as one of our instructors is driving (they drive on the same side as london).
January 19th, 2012:
Today we spent the day relaxing and settling in to our new home. It felt so nice to unpack, the first time in over a week. I am learning to eat instant oatmeal and things that do not require power, because the power goes out on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from 7am-6pm roughly. This makes it very difficult to blog as the café is only open Monday to Friday. So the only days that I can blog is on Tuesdays and Thursdays after work, if the power is working (the thunder storms here are so crazy and they knock out the power quite often). We left Melengwa today (our part of town) and went into town into the ShopRite to get groceries. It was so crazy spending K630,000 at the grocery store! People here bike a lot and carry so much on the back of their bikes. Mostly you see mothers carrying babies on their backs using a shetanga (big piece of coloured cloth) and something on their head as well. Lozi people are very proud, you can see this by the way that they walk.
I have learned that the laundry service is not “one day”. It is more like 2 days. So I will be doing my laundry by hand I think from now on because I didn`t bring very many clothes! We are eating really well here when the power is working, much like I would eat at home. The nights here are a little long, it gets pitch black at around 7pm and then we sit in one of our houses and play cards, etc. We are usually exhausted by around 9 pm with the heat here and from being on high alert all the time.
January 20th, 2012:
“Take off your shoes when you walk on our ground. For the ground you are walking on, is holy.”
Today was challenging but good. At 10 am we had a culture talk with a sister from a neighbour Cheshire house. I learned many things from this lady who came from Ireland but has lived in 23 years. I learned that women here sit on the ground and men sit on stools because woman are seen as the only worthy sex to sit on the ground because they are the only ones who can bring life into this world. Men used to have to carry stools around everywhere for this reason. Many people here ask you for things (money, food, marriage proposals) because if they don’t ask, they won’t get. I discovered that the Lozi people here only answer what you ask. So for example, today I was chatting with the lady that braided my friend’s hair and I asked her if she had family. She answered “yes”. So I had to ask about 10 questions to get the full story. So we were reminded that we can never assume we know the whole story. It is important here to always ask how the person and their family is before asking people for anything. Also, people come first before tasks which is very different coming from such a task-orientated society at home. For example, if someone is supposed to come to a meeting and their neighbour shows up to talk, they will talk to their neighbour and then to go the meeting, even if they must miss the meeting.
I am practising my Lozi more and more and the locals here think it is hilarious but they say they appreciate it. I have learned a few Lozi words. “Metozi chwane” means good afternoon how are you. “metozi hande” means I am good. “Muzuhuile chwane” means good morning how are you. “nitumeziahule” means thank you very much. Clapping your hands here is a sign of respect, a greeting and much more. Women clap with their hands cupped and men clap with their hands flat, because it was believed that woman are trusted more than men so when they clap flat you know there is nothing in their hands.
After the culture chat we visited Lewanika hospital! I will never look at KGH the same again. I was surprised to see that the entire hospital is solid concrete. They have an emergency department and all the different wards like maternity and such, the only difference is that there are male and female wards here that have both medical and surgical patients on them. I found it interesting that the patients need to be referred to the hospital by a doctor in a clinic, they cannot stop in like the emergency department at home. There are private rooms but they are much more expensive than the cubes that the other people get. Their hallways are outside, so I hope I am not outside in them when it pours rain here! The OR here is also referred to as the Operating Theatre and C-sections are referred to as “cesars”. We met the nursing students that we will be teaching. I have never felt so welcome in my entire life until we entered that classroom. They clapped, slapped their desks, shouted, cheered and jumped. They wanted to meet all 23 of us, so we went one by one and they laughed at how we pronounced our names and repeated them. They would make us laugh by saying ‘wooow’ after some of our names. I am a little nervous to teach 40 high energy students but I know it will be an awesome experience.
We ordered 10 bikes so that we can choose to bike instead of taxi into town. I decided to ride one of the 10 bikes home from the hospital after our tour. The first thing I saw when I got to the bike place was a man lying in the dirt with flies buzzing around him. It was like the pictures off the TV of Africa. When I tried to leave the bike place, the locals were trying to hop on the back of the bike and buy the bikes off of us. I felt like I was in spin class in the sauna, biking in 27 degrees for 40 minutes! The roads here aren’t straight edged and are full of pot holes, so when a car comes behind you, you have to get off the road onto the sand. It makes me appreciate the bike lane in Kelowna! It is hard to ride the bike because everyone waves so you try to wave back and almost fall off the road.
After dinner, I biked to the Flood Plains. On the way, my friend``s bike broke! The seat was completely vertical. So I rode that one standing up all the way, it was a huge thigh workout especially after biking 40 minutes home earlier that day. The Plains are stunning. Very flat, so green, many trees. You can see where the floods would come. Traditionally, people who lived on the plains homes would be destroyed by the floods and they would rebuild them. So ‘maintenance’ here does not exist because of this history. We watched the sunset on the plains which was beautiful. After we got home I was sitting in my house eating dinner when I get this frantic message from one of my friends saying “help”. So my friend and I ran over to her house worried someone was hurt or something. Turns out, one of the really big ugly looking cockroaches had flown right through the window pushing through the net and flying into their room. I thought my friend was going to have a stroke. My brave friend got it outside. Needless to say, the bugs take getting used to, that’s for sure. I have only been bit a few times by bugs. We were told we will have days where we love Zambia and we will have “I hate Zambia” days. We decided that for my friend, she was having an “I hate Zambia” day. We had to talk my friend down from booking her flight home right then and there after the cockroach incident! After the cockroach scare, we sat outside for a while and looked at the beautiful stars. They are crystal clear here and I like knowing that everyone at home is looking at the same stars as me.
January 21st, 2012
Today was very hot, very sweaty and a little scary with a great ending. We started our day by unpacking and repacking all our medical supplies to ensure that we use them in our practicum which we will be starting on Monday. We went to the Black Market after this, which sells clothing, radios, sunglasses and that kind of stuff. We had an unfortunate experience today on our way to the market. Everything here is accessible only through taxi and mini bus. After waiting for 10 minutes with no luck, we decided to start walking until we could hail a taxi. A man started to walk with us and asked if it was okay if he ‘escorted’ us to the market. He was making us uncomfortable but we were trying to be nice. It is a hard place to be, because we are representing all of Canada in the way that we act, so I wanted to be nice. But this man who was very drunk, followed us around the market and refused to leave until we paid him. He was very angry when I told him I would not pay for his taxi home. I now know, that ‘escort’ here does not mean the same thing as at home. And I will be much more careful from now on. I was having an “I hate Zambia” day at that moment. He scared me and I just wanted to be home in my familiar surroundings.
Later that day though, we went out dancing which turned my day back to good. We went to a restaurant called Oasis which turns into a night club at night. We sat with the locals and watched the soccer game and cheered with them when Zambia scored against Senegal (they won eventually!). Then we danced and danced. They dance and dress much the same as a Kelowna club but I find they are much more energetic. The people were so friendly, at first it was 4 makuwas dancing by themselves but then one nice lady approached us and began dancing and soon we had so many people dancing with us we lost count. They would form a big circle and then we would get in the middle and do a little dance. They thought our dancing was hilarious, so I showed them my moves like the sprinkler and the shopping cart and they just laughed and laughed. Our taxi driver was very nice, he offered to stay in the club with us to make sure no men bothered us but we were just fine. We danced until one AM and then decided to call it a night!
January 22nd, 2012
Today was a relaxing day, our last before we start our clinical practice tomorrow. I washed my clothes by hand which was a lot of work. I stayed in the shade today, to give my body a break from the constant 28 degree weather. It hasn’t rained in a few days so I will like that when it happens. I have been very careful and have been so lucky as not to have burned or become sick like so many of the people here. There is a nasty cold going around recently and lots of people have got stomach bugs. Luckily we must have purchased half of Walmart’s medicine between all 23 of us so we have everything we need. I am wearing my shetange (used as a skirt which 98% of the women wear here and also to carry babies on mothers or father’s backs) which turns out is about 5000 degrees. I have no idea how these women wear these all the time in this heat! It is so interesting living here where power is so unreliable. For example, just now we were making a big supper for all 23 of us and the power has just gone out. I will definetly appreciate power at home more than ever. I am already appreciating home so much and I have only been here a week and have not even started my practicum! I have learned my rotation for my practicums. Week one is at Lumalinga village, where I will be teaching and helping to run the clinic that is there. Week two will be working in the female ward. Week three will be working in the children`s ward. Finally, week four I will be working in the HIV clinic. I am very excited!
January 23rd:
Today I went to Lumalika with my friend Julet. The in charge doctor didn’t show up, so we spent 3 hours walking back and forth from the health clinic to the school that is there. By the time we settled into the school, we only had time to work with the 3 year olds and the 4 year olds. I helped them write the letter “B” using little pieces of chalk on wood. My friend Julet helped them with their alphabet, their numbers and finally they got to listen to their own heart with the stethoscope she brought. I almost passed out from the heat. In scrubs it is like sitting in an oven. I have heard that a few students passed out today as well so I don’t feel quite so silly any more. Taking the mini bus is interesting, you and 12 other people are shoved in this very old bus that only has 2 windows. I will never complain about the kelowna transit system again! Going to the ShopRite, so I will talk to you soon. My cell phone number is 0962219471. It is expensive if I call you, but if you call me it is cheap for me. It is about 40 cents per text so I am not texting much and would rather you contact me through here or facebook. Love, Amanda
Tuesday 17 January 2012
January 17th: Today we are roaming around Lusaka! We are finally starting to figure out quachas. I am going to the bank machine in a few minutes here and pulling out 2 million quachas. I feel like I should be buying a house with it! In Lusaka, it is pretty expensive because it is the touristy capital. They say in Mongu it will be cheaper. I have already seen so many things I want to buy for everyone and take home, the baskets are beautiful and the carvings and paintings blow my mind. Interesting things I have seen today are two ladies balancing huge baskets full of food on their heads and a mom wrap her baby around her back with a piece of cloth. I find it a little intimidating that their are armed guards at every store and police everywhere. I bought some groceries and then realized I forgot something in the store so I went to go back in with my bags (like we do at home) and a guard stopped me right away and I thought oh no, i'm not even going to make it to Mongu, he's going to shoot me here and now for thinking i've stolen groceries! I am having a blast. The house we are staying at today is a Cheshire House for disabled children. Which, is right up my alley! They absolutely LOVE bubbles. there were a few fist fights over the bubbles. it was a good thing they were edible because one kid who also loved to wear my sunglasses upside down ate about half the bottle. we danced, they sang the zambian version of ring around the rosy im assuming and we gave them lots of canadian stickers. they decided that i would look better with 20 stickers all over me eventually so i looked like a walking canadian flag. one of the kids laughed and said "well now you don't have to tell us where you're from atleast!". i have met an incredible lady named Maureen. she is the school teacher for the Cheshire house. there is a gym and physiotherapy as well as a school, so many people come to this house. She is going to get her PHD soon in Lusaka and she absolutely loved seeing our London pictures and hearing all about Canada. We figured it out and it would cost her roughly 10,000,000 quachas to even get to Canada. So we told her that we would house her because she has been so nice to us. I gave her a little shampoo and conditioner from the body shop (courtesy of mom from xmas!) and she was so excited. We exchanged emails and she is very excited to hear about Mongu. I am getting the hand shake down, you shake once, loosely hook your thumbs together, bring hands up and then drop them. when they laugh they shake, like a high five? when they really want to show appreciation they touch both cheeks like the french but minus the kissing. when they want to show you that they consider you a friend, they hold your hand while you walk and talk. the people are amazing. so friendly. we had an interesting breakfast this morning, tea and toast with long life shelf milk. it tastes like warm milk? my stomach wasn't too much of a fan but I let it know that it better get used to it fast because that's all they have here, haha. That's it for now! I will see you on the other side of Mongu :). Love you all.
Monday 16 January 2012
Arrival in Zambia!
January 16th: I have arrived safely in Lusaka! I didn't encounter any problems getting through immigration, they forgot to stamp my visa though so it was a good thing that my professor checked that. The first thing that I noticed when I got here was the heat and humidity. Even though we have only been here for a few hours, I already feel famous! People stop their cars to stare at you, you can hear them saying 'white man' as we pass and the kids follow us around just to stare at us. Some of them played with us with bubbles and danced, they were adorable and by the time they were done their faces were plastered with stickers. We are staying in a Cheshire House with nuns who are very nice. There are 13 of us in one big room and 7 in another. The poor guy that travelled with us has to stay all alone in a separate room and is banned from coming in our room. We travelled by taxi to the house and that was an experience! They drive very fast. And when a big semi truck crosses the line by accident, the driver isn't too worried about it even though we were a little worried, haha. There are no pedestrian lights and they drive backwards (just like London) so we sprint across the street and hope that we don't get hit. It is very cheap here. It is very strange to use quachas. It is 5000 quachas to one canadian dollar. So i feel like a millionaire getting out 600,000 quachas at one time from the bank machine! A big 3L bottle of water cost one canadian dollar. It is so beautiful here. There are so many different shades of green and so much vegetation. I can see why, it rained today for a few hours and it doesn't just drizzle, it pours. It sure feels nice though after that heat. It is nice, most people speak english here. They say that once we get to Mongu though, that will chance and we will start to learn Lozi. Tomorrow we are going to the shopping mall and touring around Lusaka and then on Wednesday we take the eight hour bus ride to our final destination, Mongu! The food here is very good, I just had a steak and you can tell that they don't put all the additives like they do in Canada. It was a nice change from burgers and fries every night in London.
Until I arrive in Mongu,
Amanda
Until I arrive in Mongu,
Amanda
Saturday 14 January 2012
London!
January 11th, 2012: London is unbelievable. The trip here was long, the bus was granted special permission to get through the cocahala because the roads were so horrible. Then we had to try to operate the tube (like the bus but an underground system) which was hillarious. We each have 3 bags and are carrying roughly 100 pounds and try to fit that on the tube at rush hour! The doors closed to fast, whether you were still in them or not. So a few times, our bags got stuck. You also have to 'mind the gap' between the platform and the train, which is rather large.We will return home with huge muscles that's for sure. It took us 4 hours to get to our hostel! We were surprised to see our cankles once we hit the hostel. After a 6 hour bus ride and a 10 hour flight on a massive 2 floor 747 plane though we weren't too surprised. Its nice here, for a hostel. We are a 20 minute tube ride to central london and in Hendon Central (where we are) there are lots of little cafes and shops around so we don't have to leave Hendon if we dont want to. We are able to walk to most places here. You risk your life trying to cross the road, though! luckily there are 'look right' and 'look left' on the cross walks for tourists. Pedestrians don't have the right of way here though, so we sprint across the road because they drive 30 miles/hour and we can't predict where the cars are coming from because everything is backwards!
January 12th, 2012: Today we woke up at 445 am! We are definetly still running on BC time, haha. Is it ever chilly here! I definetly miss my ski jacket. It is 3 or 4 degrees without the wind chill. Today we spent 12 hours out and about sight seeing. First, we visited Buckingham Palace to witness the changing of the guards. Was that ever cool. There were roughly 600 people that showed up to see it! There was a parade, where the guards played music and marched into the palace where they switched and the old guards marched back out. What impressed me was the gates to the palace. They were gold and black and massive with the British national emblems on either side. The guards wore the typical uniforms on the TV, black furry hats and the red suits with the gold buttons. We didn't get to see the queen, unfortunetly. We did get to see where her chambers were though. On our way to see Big Ben (the big clock by the parliament buildings) we visited the red telephone booths. On our way to see the London Eye, we visited Hygh park and St. James park which were beautiful. There were massive geese, pigeons, swans, fat squirrels that chased one of my friends because they thought she had food and a really pretty black bird with a bright orange beak. We then visted St. Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunetly we couldn't take pictures but I would have loved to it was amazing. In the middle is a huge dome with religious paintings all up the walls and on the ceilings. We learned about the fire in London and that Princess Diana married here when we watched a video on the cathedral in a big circular room where the video played all around us on screens, called the "inner eye of the cathedral". We visited the crypt where we saw tombs of famous people like the Duke of Wellington. We saw a plaque dedicated to Florence Nightengale (the founder the nursing) which we all touched and we think it was a sign that she was wishing us good luck in our journey to Africa. We climbed up 257 circle stairs to get to the Whispering Gallery which was awesome. My friends took at one end of the circle and I walked to 30 metres away to the opposite side of the gallery. It was a little difficult to hear because there was an orchestra playing below, but when we put our ears to the wall and whispered, we could hear eachother from 30 meteres away! From there, we walked across the London Bridge which I had expected to be much more of an ordeal. Turns out it is just a bridge that is famous? Was still cool to walk over it though.
January 13th, 2012: Today we went to the Tower of London! It was worth every pound and pence to go. The first tower we visited was the Great White Tower. We saw the crown jewels which we would have loved to take pictures of but weren't allowed to, at one point while we were talking to one of the guards before we left he noticed a lady taking pictures and threatened her with a HUGE fine if she didn't delete every one of them. The crowns were stunning. One of the septras had a 530 carret diamond that came from a diamond the size of your fist which was broken down into 9 530 carret diamonds and 48 smaller diamonds. We were amazed to learn that the crowns aren't only historical, but are still used today for coronations and such. We learned that King Charles II (the king whose wife couldn't have children but he mysteriously had many children) had ruined the reputation of one of the fonts (baptism basins) so it was now known as the "Bastard Basin". The next queen to rule made a new font (made out of gold, of course) which is still used today. We learned that only once did someone try to steal the jewels. It was a huge scheme and in the end, the guy tried to shove the septra down his pants and was caugh at the Tower of London Bridge (which is amazing by the way). The King was said to have been thought to be in the scheme as well even though he wasn't. We weren't sure how anyone would steal them, the doors were 15 feet thick and if the alarm went off the guard said there were men armed on the floor above ready to go. We learned that King Charles won't be named King Charles the 3rd because of King Charles the 2nd and his 'playboy' behavior as the guard said. Instead he will be named King Charles 7th or something of that sort. On the upper floors we visited the armory and saw the old guns, cannons, swords and lances. One of the lances was 5 metres long and was said to be used for parades not for fighting. There were heads of kings, suits of armour, replications of horses of the kings. There were displays of the gifts that were given to the U.K and we thought it was funny that Canada gave the U.K. a grizzly bear which they named Martin and kept alive at the zoo which used to be in the Tower as well. Out of the windows we could see the mote, the inner and outer walls and the ravens which they kept 6 of. It is said that if the ravens leave the tower, it will crumble. The tiolets were hillarious, little holes on a piece of wood that were up about 10 stairs with no doors. There was one stair case that ran up the entire Tower. No wonder people that lived were in such good shape! We could see the execution post which stood in the middle of the square where they said that 7 kings and queens were executed for many different reasons. One of them was killed because the current king couldn't get ahold of the lady that he wanted to kill, so instead he killed her innocent son. We saw the chapel which held all of the bodies of the people that were executed and many bodies couldn't even be identified when they were found. We saw windows that were shaped to hold a bow and arrow for defense. We visted the Prisoners Chamber which had real carvings from past prisoners there. We then saw the torture chamber which had items such as: an iron circle that was designed to keep prisoners crouched in there for days, a stretching machine that did just that and shackles that would hold the prisoners up for so long that some of them never regained use of their hands after. We learned the story of two brothers (roughly 12 and 9) who were killed and weren't found until 191 years later in the Bloody Tower and then moved to Westminister Abbey. In the Bloody Tower people were hung, quartered, stabbed, beaten and such for such petty crimes we were happy not to be living in that time, that's for sure. We saw the Old Hospital Block and were disappointed when we couldn't go in but it was awesome to see. There was Traitors' Gate and many other towers, some of which still house families of the people that work at the Tower. There was so much history there I wish that I could buy another brain to remember all of it!
January 14th: Today we slept in until 230 pm as we were out until 3 am last night. We went on the Camden Pub Crawl! We visited 3 pubs and 2 night clubs. The night clubs were so much cooler than home, they had live bands and about 7 floors in one of the clubs. We met so many friendly people last night. We met people from Spain (argentina), New Jersey, all parts of England, Australia and many more. One of the people that we met was named Santiego and we were impressed that he was travelling from Beaunos Aides and was roaming the world solo for 6 months. I wore high heels for the first time in my life and that was an experience especially because the streets are cobblestone! The people here amaze me. They are always willing to help and chat. Everyone here reads the newspaper on the tube. They dress very brightly and their fashion is so far ahead of home's that I don't know if we will ever catch up. We felt very underdressed. All the men wear peacoats and scarfs and many have beer bellies (you're lucky to find a seat at a pub, everyone goes there). We aren't sure how they have bellies because they sprint through the tube station. Other than that, there are few overweight people here which is quite different from home! Today is a lazy day, we are doing our laundry for the last time in a machine before we leave for Africa. We aren't looking forward to packing everything up and the10 hour flight to Lusaka before we bus for 11 hours to Mongu that we will be doing tomorrow morning. Luckily we have finally started to adjust to the time difference of 8 hours from home, so the extra 3 hours won't be so bad once we get to Africa. We are all getting nervous and excited and can't believe Africa is finally here! Although these extra few days have cost us extra money, we are so thankful we decided to come it has been worth it.
Until next time, I love all you guys and am missing you. It feels as though I should be coming home now after visiting London, not going to Africa for the next 6 weeks! As they say here, Cheers :).
January 12th, 2012: Today we woke up at 445 am! We are definetly still running on BC time, haha. Is it ever chilly here! I definetly miss my ski jacket. It is 3 or 4 degrees without the wind chill. Today we spent 12 hours out and about sight seeing. First, we visited Buckingham Palace to witness the changing of the guards. Was that ever cool. There were roughly 600 people that showed up to see it! There was a parade, where the guards played music and marched into the palace where they switched and the old guards marched back out. What impressed me was the gates to the palace. They were gold and black and massive with the British national emblems on either side. The guards wore the typical uniforms on the TV, black furry hats and the red suits with the gold buttons. We didn't get to see the queen, unfortunetly. We did get to see where her chambers were though. On our way to see Big Ben (the big clock by the parliament buildings) we visited the red telephone booths. On our way to see the London Eye, we visited Hygh park and St. James park which were beautiful. There were massive geese, pigeons, swans, fat squirrels that chased one of my friends because they thought she had food and a really pretty black bird with a bright orange beak. We then visted St. Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunetly we couldn't take pictures but I would have loved to it was amazing. In the middle is a huge dome with religious paintings all up the walls and on the ceilings. We learned about the fire in London and that Princess Diana married here when we watched a video on the cathedral in a big circular room where the video played all around us on screens, called the "inner eye of the cathedral". We visited the crypt where we saw tombs of famous people like the Duke of Wellington. We saw a plaque dedicated to Florence Nightengale (the founder the nursing) which we all touched and we think it was a sign that she was wishing us good luck in our journey to Africa. We climbed up 257 circle stairs to get to the Whispering Gallery which was awesome. My friends took at one end of the circle and I walked to 30 metres away to the opposite side of the gallery. It was a little difficult to hear because there was an orchestra playing below, but when we put our ears to the wall and whispered, we could hear eachother from 30 meteres away! From there, we walked across the London Bridge which I had expected to be much more of an ordeal. Turns out it is just a bridge that is famous? Was still cool to walk over it though.
January 13th, 2012: Today we went to the Tower of London! It was worth every pound and pence to go. The first tower we visited was the Great White Tower. We saw the crown jewels which we would have loved to take pictures of but weren't allowed to, at one point while we were talking to one of the guards before we left he noticed a lady taking pictures and threatened her with a HUGE fine if she didn't delete every one of them. The crowns were stunning. One of the septras had a 530 carret diamond that came from a diamond the size of your fist which was broken down into 9 530 carret diamonds and 48 smaller diamonds. We were amazed to learn that the crowns aren't only historical, but are still used today for coronations and such. We learned that King Charles II (the king whose wife couldn't have children but he mysteriously had many children) had ruined the reputation of one of the fonts (baptism basins) so it was now known as the "Bastard Basin". The next queen to rule made a new font (made out of gold, of course) which is still used today. We learned that only once did someone try to steal the jewels. It was a huge scheme and in the end, the guy tried to shove the septra down his pants and was caugh at the Tower of London Bridge (which is amazing by the way). The King was said to have been thought to be in the scheme as well even though he wasn't. We weren't sure how anyone would steal them, the doors were 15 feet thick and if the alarm went off the guard said there were men armed on the floor above ready to go. We learned that King Charles won't be named King Charles the 3rd because of King Charles the 2nd and his 'playboy' behavior as the guard said. Instead he will be named King Charles 7th or something of that sort. On the upper floors we visited the armory and saw the old guns, cannons, swords and lances. One of the lances was 5 metres long and was said to be used for parades not for fighting. There were heads of kings, suits of armour, replications of horses of the kings. There were displays of the gifts that were given to the U.K and we thought it was funny that Canada gave the U.K. a grizzly bear which they named Martin and kept alive at the zoo which used to be in the Tower as well. Out of the windows we could see the mote, the inner and outer walls and the ravens which they kept 6 of. It is said that if the ravens leave the tower, it will crumble. The tiolets were hillarious, little holes on a piece of wood that were up about 10 stairs with no doors. There was one stair case that ran up the entire Tower. No wonder people that lived were in such good shape! We could see the execution post which stood in the middle of the square where they said that 7 kings and queens were executed for many different reasons. One of them was killed because the current king couldn't get ahold of the lady that he wanted to kill, so instead he killed her innocent son. We saw the chapel which held all of the bodies of the people that were executed and many bodies couldn't even be identified when they were found. We saw windows that were shaped to hold a bow and arrow for defense. We visted the Prisoners Chamber which had real carvings from past prisoners there. We then saw the torture chamber which had items such as: an iron circle that was designed to keep prisoners crouched in there for days, a stretching machine that did just that and shackles that would hold the prisoners up for so long that some of them never regained use of their hands after. We learned the story of two brothers (roughly 12 and 9) who were killed and weren't found until 191 years later in the Bloody Tower and then moved to Westminister Abbey. In the Bloody Tower people were hung, quartered, stabbed, beaten and such for such petty crimes we were happy not to be living in that time, that's for sure. We saw the Old Hospital Block and were disappointed when we couldn't go in but it was awesome to see. There was Traitors' Gate and many other towers, some of which still house families of the people that work at the Tower. There was so much history there I wish that I could buy another brain to remember all of it!
January 14th: Today we slept in until 230 pm as we were out until 3 am last night. We went on the Camden Pub Crawl! We visited 3 pubs and 2 night clubs. The night clubs were so much cooler than home, they had live bands and about 7 floors in one of the clubs. We met so many friendly people last night. We met people from Spain (argentina), New Jersey, all parts of England, Australia and many more. One of the people that we met was named Santiego and we were impressed that he was travelling from Beaunos Aides and was roaming the world solo for 6 months. I wore high heels for the first time in my life and that was an experience especially because the streets are cobblestone! The people here amaze me. They are always willing to help and chat. Everyone here reads the newspaper on the tube. They dress very brightly and their fashion is so far ahead of home's that I don't know if we will ever catch up. We felt very underdressed. All the men wear peacoats and scarfs and many have beer bellies (you're lucky to find a seat at a pub, everyone goes there). We aren't sure how they have bellies because they sprint through the tube station. Other than that, there are few overweight people here which is quite different from home! Today is a lazy day, we are doing our laundry for the last time in a machine before we leave for Africa. We aren't looking forward to packing everything up and the10 hour flight to Lusaka before we bus for 11 hours to Mongu that we will be doing tomorrow morning. Luckily we have finally started to adjust to the time difference of 8 hours from home, so the extra 3 hours won't be so bad once we get to Africa. We are all getting nervous and excited and can't believe Africa is finally here! Although these extra few days have cost us extra money, we are so thankful we decided to come it has been worth it.
Until next time, I love all you guys and am missing you. It feels as though I should be coming home now after visiting London, not going to Africa for the next 6 weeks! As they say here, Cheers :).
Friday 13 January 2012
Monday 9 January 2012
Packing Day!
Ready, Set, Go!
I can't believe I leave tomorrow! My bags are packed and I'm ready to go. I had an interesting experience packing my medications the other day. I took all the medications in blister pack out of their boxes and put them into little pill bottles thinking I was so smart, they would take up so much less room that way. Recycled all the extra bottles and went on my way. Then I got an email from my professor, telling me that if my luggage is checked at customs and there is any unlabelled medication, it can be seized with no questions asked. So not only did I have to search through my rather nasty recycling bin through a million little paper shreds which my landlord had just dumped in there, I had to go down to the pharmacies that I got the medication from in the big snow fall and get labelled pill bottles. Needless to say, I have learned my lesson, haha. My dog is here with me right now since my mom is out travelling for work and she seems to think she is coming with me. She enjoys lying in my carry on suitcase, trying to stick airdog wherever she can find room. I will miss her alot as well as everyone here in Kelowna, it was sad to say goodbye to everyone here but I will be back so soon to tell everybody about my wonderful adventure! Here I come, London :).
Thursday 5 January 2012
Departure
I am almost ready to leave in only five days! I have yet to try to fit everything in my 60L backpack, it is a rather scary thought. I am using these last few days to say good-bye to everyone and wrap up any last minute things that I forgot to do. I am already starting to realize how lucky I am here in Canada and I am not even in Africa yet! I am looking forward to my trip. I am starting to feel nervous and anxious, but am excited to get there safe and sound with all my belongings and be able to relax and get used to my new home for the next 2 months. I am looking forward to sharing all the little gifts that I bought for the people that I meet while I am there.
I will write once I arrive in London and have access to the internet, I will not have a cell phone until January 16th roughly and will post my number when I have it.
PS: I am having trouble viewing comments that are put on this blog, I believe you have to be a 'follower' of the blog for me to actually see the comments. If anyone knows how to fix this let me know, if not I am always available via facebook and email (ajem@live.ca).
Love,
Amanda
I will write once I arrive in London and have access to the internet, I will not have a cell phone until January 16th roughly and will post my number when I have it.
PS: I am having trouble viewing comments that are put on this blog, I believe you have to be a 'follower' of the blog for me to actually see the comments. If anyone knows how to fix this let me know, if not I am always available via facebook and email (ajem@live.ca).
Love,
Amanda
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