Metoya Camp!

Feb. 12-17th 2012: This week I spent the week at Metoya Camp. It is about 25 minutes from my home in Melengwa where I usually live. My first impression of Metoya was that it is beautiful. It sits right on the flood plains, which are now starting to fill with so much rain that you can see it coming down the plains. Soon, in April, the whole plains will have flooded! Our house was about a five minute walk from the Health Clinic and the Feeding Clinic. There were about 2 rather steep sand hills and some stairs to go up and down so needless to say I got my exercise there, haha. My feet got so dirty from all the sand it was really funny. A day later I am still trying to scrub them clean!

Each day, the three of us would rotate places. So I started at the Health Clinic. It was very strange diagnosing and prescribing medications to patients. Granted, I didn't see any very serious conditions, but it was still very weird because in Canada as a nurse you can suggest what you think the patient has to a doctor but obviously we don't prescribe. I saw a lot of lung infections, malaria and skin conditions. I used a lot of books that were there and my friends and I worked together on the harder cases to figure out what was going on.

I then moved on to the Feeding Clinic, which is attached to the Health Clinic. Every four hours I supervised the child's guardian as they fed their child. Yes, even during the night we would wake up at 2 am and go up all the stairs and hills to make sure they ate! That was a really funny experience. I never fully appreciated a full nights uninterrupted sleep before that point! The whole point of the program is to teach the caretakers how to care for the child, so that when they go home, they can keep the child healthy! The program also helps the parents get on their feet and start little businesses so that when they leave the program they can afford to feed their child. We fed the kids a special recipe of milk, oil, sugar and water. They also got eggs, fruit and food from home if they could tolerate it. There were two children. One of the children was older and had a special kind of malnutrition where their skin pales (sometimes they can be as white as me) and their hair pales. Their bodies literally are using up everything they have to keep them going! This little child amazed me. The grandmother had stepped in to care for the child as the mother was not fit to care for the child, the reason the child was brought to the clinic in the first place. The child had already improved so much and gained so much weight while we were there :). This kid gave the best hugs I have ever received. I would come in the morning and get bulldozed by a running child who would wrap her legs around you and squeeze until I couldn't even breathe! The smile always made me smile, it was so big and so brave. The second child was younger and had been born blind. Because of the blindness the mother abandoned the child so other members of the family stepped in to care for the child. Each day we had to do physio with this child as on admission, the limbs were so stiff that the kid could not even open the hand (due to the lack of nutrition, including calcium, the muscles couldn't work properly). This little kid was so brave. On admission the child couldn't swallow and wouldn't smile. Now, the child is laughing and smiling like crazy. Especially when we put on Disney music and when the family communicates with the kid. The child can now stretch out all limbs and is moving voluntarily!! Even during the five days that we were there, I saw a HUGE improvement. The lady in charge of everything said that within 6 months, this child will be walking out of here. The family is learning how to help their child grow up in a world without sight in this program as well. My only wish is that I could see these kids years from now and see how they have grown up. The program is truly amazing. 3 people started this program from nothing and now they help around 30 children each month. Mothers from the community come once a week with their children to get them weighed and get their food as well. It is run purely on donations and it costs $75.00 a month to feed these kids. To sponser, you commit to 6 months worth of food. This is something that when I actually have money, I will sponser. Because I have been there and I have seen how it saves lives. If anyone is looking for something to put their money towards, this would be it in my opinion!

The other thing that I did while at the camp is work with the Community Health Care Workers. There were 9 students and each one of them was so friendly and were so wonderful. They are all volunteers which amazed me, considering many of them had at least 7 children to look after at home as well as their other jobs. I went out into nearby villages with these women and one man and it was the most interesting experience yet for me. These villages were truly African villages. Every person clapped and shook hands when you met. The houses were made of  'rib' or branch like sticks from the river. Some were made out of mud and bricks. Some of the houses were run down and others were nice enough that I would live in them! Just like in Canada, it depends on your financial situation. The all 10 of us would squish into these little houses and the workers would assess their patients, letting them know whether they think they should go to the hospital or not. It was funny because my job was to make sure that they were recommending the right thing. This task became really difficult though, because none of the patients spoke english! Luckily a few of the workers spoke really good english and translated for me. But sometimes they would all stop and look at me like I should be saying something and it would be a really awkward moment before I would laugh and say, "um, excuse me, remember, I don't know much Lozi.....". We would care for all these women's children at the Feeding Clinic while they were out in the field which was a blast. They were all so cute I wanted to take them all home. On the last day that we were at the camp, they graduated! We threw them a big party, printed them off certificates and gave them little gifts from Canada. I made them a little story book of their journey in their program which they thought was really funny.

I learned many things at this camp. The workers taught me how to make nshima! This is the staple food here in Zambia. It is so hard to make. I broke a sweat 5 minutes in! You start with a powder and add water and boil it, stirring constantly until it becomes like a hard paste which you eat. Kind of like a potatoe? They also taught me how to pound Kasava leaves. They thought it was so funny because I tried so hard but this task was also really hard! You really have to pound them. They then boil the leaves with salt and oil and eat them with nshima. I took some funny pictures which I will post when I get home :). I learned that they also eat pumpkin leaves. They thought it was really funny that we carved pumpkins on Halloween. Talking to a lady that worked there I learned a lot I didn't know about the culture here. Things that aren't exactly advertised. I learned that marraige here is something that women really have to think about. Culturally, it is more acceptable for a man to have many wives. They are not expected to help with house work or they are ridiculed by other men. So the women do all the housework and care for the children. This may be how the culture is, but it is not how all the families work. There are people here who want to change this. Like this one lady, they realize that they have rights and that a marraige should be a partnership. She said that one day she saw a pregnant lady carrying a child on her back and a huge box on her head while the husband carried his briefcase walking beside her. This lady approached the couple, offering to help the lady and this request was not smiled upon. Even so, she walked a half an hour out of her way to help this woman. It is really nice to see that there are people here who see that some things need to change. That they can be different. And they are trying to change it, even if it is hard and seems impossible.

This camp was a wonderful way to end my nursing experience here in Zambia. So much hope here. I am so thankful that I came to this camp and had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. I will never forget those people or any one that I have met here. After I got home from the camp we had a retirement party for my professor who came here with us. It was a lot of fun! They had a traditional Lozi 'missis' made for her which was beautiful. It is a huge honor to be given one so my professor was overjoyed and wore it with pride.

Today I am going to visit the museum and go for a walk in Lumilinga, the first placement that I had here in Zambia. I am sad that my time here in Mongu is coming to an end. It is very hard to explain, but going home seems like such a strange dream to me. I have adapted to this way of life, with no running water and power some days, riding the mini bus and taking public transit all the time and living with little material things. I am excited to come home, though. I am excited to see my family and friends, to drink fresh dairy milk (not long-life shelf milk), have power all the time, have my cell phone back, my computer that always has internet, eat my regular foods, drive my own car and most of all (sadly), eat Tim Hortons!!! I will miss much here though. I will miss the Mongu rice which is to die for, the welcoming and friendly people, the markets, the music and most of all the relaxed way of life here. I am so happy that I have come here. It has truly changed my life :).