Getting To Know Lusaka...

We arrived back to Lusaka after the best 6 days in Livingstone….I didn’t want to leave! For the last couple days we have been hanging out in Lusaka at the University Teaching Hospital. The plan is to head up to Mongu (the town where we will actually be teaching) in the next few days. The plan was to leave on Saturday, but now here we are..and it is Sunday..and we are still in Lusaka. But no worries…This Is Africa right?? The beauty of this continent is that once you step foot on it…a thing called ‘rubber time’ begins. So we will get there when we get there! For now we have been using our time in Lusaka wisely….making all the important connections that need to be made.

Gene Krupa (one of the facilitators of the Zambia Health Initiative) came a few days ago to strengthen our relations in Zambia. It was good to see another Canadian face. He is also staying with us in the nursing residences. The residences have become quite the busy place these days; we also have medical students from Slovenia and Holland staying in the residences. The University Teaching Hospital seems to have lots of medical students from all over the world..I think it is time we bring students from UBCO. Why don’t we start with the nursing students??? We’ll come back and be an instructor…no problem.

The first connection we made was with an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) called Women For Change. They are a great organization working to advocate for rural and remote people, using a grass-roots approach. The leader of this team is Emily Sikazwe, she is quite an amazing woman…and now one of my new heroes (I have met a few new heroes over the past couple days) She has been fighting for the marginalized people of Zambia for over 15 years. Unfortunately this had created many enemies for her within the Zambian government, because she sure doesn’t hold back in speaking her mind. In fact she was supposed to visit Canada a few months ago, but the government took away her passport so that she wouldn’t be able to travel. (Yes here is a moment to be thankful that all of us in Canada are easily able to travel all around the world without approval from our own government first) The reason she made it to my hero list is because even with all these forces working against her, she continues (without fail!) to advocate for marginalized people.

Women For Change

The next person who we connected with was the ‘Professor’. His real name is actually Chifumbe Chintu, he is a Zambian doctor working at UTH in paediatrics and haematology. I was very excited to meet him, as we’ve heard many tales of ‘The Professor’ from Bill. Chifumbe came to Canada to complete his medical training. He was a classmate of Bill’s at the University of Toronto when they were medical students. We were invited over to dinner to Prof Chintu’s beautiful home…located on 35 sprawling acres..where he grows all sorts of fruit and vegetables..and even raises pigs. This is on top of working 24/7 at the hospital, sitting on various medical and research boards, and being a dedicated father and grandfather. So now Chifumbe has also has made my list of heros. Dinner at Chifumbe’s meant that we were able to try local Zambian dishes. Not as spicy as West African cuisine, so I do like it much better. Chifumbe had also invited over a few of his local friends, the Chief Justice for Zambia even showed up!! The Mosi and Castle beer were flowing..as were the conversations. It was yet another great night.

Last night we met with Vic Neufeld, he is a member of the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research. This organization is aiming to increase Zambian medical research, and then in turn apply the knowledge to future health practices. He was a great person to connect with. Since our organization (Zambian Health Initiative) and theirs are following many of the same principles…we all want to develop the capacity of the Zambian people.

So the next stop for us is Mongu! Every time we mention to people that we are heading up to nurse in the western province they keep warning us ‘to be ready’…. Now what does that mean??? Sounds like we need to prep for more poverty, which will in turn mean increased illness. They also said to be ready to deliver many babies..I’m not ready for that! The interesting thing is that we are actually only supposed to be teaching nursing, but once everyone knows that there are nurses in town..they may just be showing up at our doorsteps with various ailments. So I guess it is time to be prepared for anything!

Jessica

PS For all those reading my last blog in West Africa this you may remember how all the Africans called me Jessssseeeeeeeeka. Well it is happening again. For some reason they just love my name here, and just like saying it over and over..Jesssssssssseeeeeeeeka, Jessseeeeeeeka!

Sunset Cruise

Vic Falls

Here is the bridge where we bungeed from....can you spot the bungee jumper in this photo?

Life changing..

Oh so wet..just soaked

It was coming from EVERY angle..please note that Vic falls is right behind us

Nervous stretch

Pictures of the Trilogy.....

Gorge Swing

The First Jump

Pics!

Here we are at a local drinking hole in Lusaka- The Brown Frog

See Dad we did register at the Canadian High Commission! The best part about it was taking pics with the guards..except they weren't really allowed to..so we had to walk one foot from the gate to get this pic

Yes Bill, we did meet your brother! This is us 'networking' at the University Teaching Hopsital, meeting with Chifumbe Chintu

More networking again..us with Donald Kalolo with his wife Mousa...at Adventure Land!

The most amazing Cancer Center

The Jamaican Grass! (Lianne loves it)

The Trilogy of Terror

In the last post we talked about Zimbabwe....and I have to admit, Jess and I did go to Zimbabwe....Don’t worry mom, we only stepped foot on the other side after our Zip Trek, we didn’t actually go into the country, but I am still going to count it! So, the three of us embarked on the trilogy of terror... bungee, gorge swing, and zip trekking. I had been almost dreading it as I have bungee jumped before and I get nightmares thinking about it sometimes. Tensions were high on the walk to the jumping area. Cam and Jess shut down and said nothing the whole walk. I on the other hand seized the moment and nervously talked the WHOLE time, about nothing in particular, just nervous chatting......So scared.

Oh Lianne and her nervous chatter! I am surprised she wasn’t doing her other nervous habit..stretching. So we had originally decided that Cam would jump first since he is deathly afraid of heights. But then all of a sudden I was strapped up and before I knew it they were walking me to the edge..then someone started counting five, four, three, two, one...jump!! And I flew myself off a 110 meter high bridge, into a massive gorge containing the churning Zambezi river. Pretty crazy stuff, I know.

Jess had great form too...I did the gorge swing first. I’m not going to lie, I actually had no clue what this was. So I got strapped into a harness (like a big diaper almost) and was told to run and jump off the bridge. That was it, just run and jump, easy right? I was playing it cool at this point, but after the jump I think I had a mini anxiety attack know that I had to jump again, head first this time with the bungee which was a lot more nerve racking for me!

Ok for me this whole gorge swing was actually even more scary for me. I think because you literally run and then jump off the bridge, then you are pretty much free falling for 11 seconds before the ropes finally kick in. They keep you suspended in the gorge for quite a long time (again with that churning Zambezi beneath you), I think at this point I may have even had a chat with God..that is how beautiful the scenery is. You also have quite the spectacular view of Vic Falls at this point too!

And lastly, we spent a glorious evening on a sunset boat cruise on the Zambezi river (ok, the boat was more like floating pontoons). There was a BBQ and a few drinks, along with sightings of hippos, crocs, and elephants. For the record, these eagle eyes were the first to spot the animals. I made an embarrassing announcement about the animals because I was so excited..."Everybody, look, Hippos!!!!" We spent the rest of the evening with some of our new found friends from Ireland and Britain. This has been a great trip so far with copious amounts of networking and friendship building. There is one little downfall so far...those darn red itchy spots are back...I hope it’s not bedbugs again!!!! I will keep you posted.

Yes the sunset boat cruise was amazing..why?? because the sunset was soooooooooo beautiful. There is something about these African sunsets. I have never seen so many colours in one sunset before, breathtaking. I can’t wait to put up those pics to show you guys. Now on that note we only have a couple days left in Livingstone. I am having so much fun that I don’t want to leave!! But we do need to get back to Lusaka and do some work. But I already can’t wait to come back to Livingstone...

Victoria Falls

First things first..we have been trying very very hard to upload our pictures, but due to slow internet connections we have been unsuccessful. We will keep trying though....
After our few days in Lusaka we decided to head off for a little adventure to Livingstone. The first shocking thing was how the bus for Livinsgstone actually left ON TIME..and there were no chickens or masses of people in the aisles. The best part about the whole bus ride was a free Fanta and vanilla wafer cookies. It was a glorious way to begin..We arrived in Livingstone and checked into the greatest hostel called Jolly Boys. Thank-you Joseph Landry for telling us to stay here..it is awesome.

Stop hogging the computer Jessica...Yes, it is an amazing hostel with a pool and lawn chairs, great food, and a bar. Everything you need , this place has it. Livingstone is a touristy town with lots of activities for adrenaline junkies and for those wanting to relax as well. It is located 12 minutes from Victoria Falls and borders with Zimbabwe. Let me tell you about the experiences so far: I have never in my lifetime seen something so majestical as Victoria Falls. It is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and I agree, it is a wonder. The three of us walked around the entire park and were completely drenched from the spray coming off the falls. Water was coming at you from every direction. As we were walking around we went upstream to dry off. There was a group of school children washing their face in the water. Jessica and I were noticing how there was no rails or fences that blocked people from getting close to the water...In fact, people could swim in the water, just feet from the edge of the falls. Safety is a different concern here!! We also got to experience a once a month phenomenon...a lunar rainbow. Who even knew these existed. The full moon was shining so bright that the mist from the falls created an amazing rainbow...at night! What an experience.

I agree with Lianne, Victoria Falls was one of the most beautiful things I have seen. It doesn’t even compare to Niagara Falls! It was neat to be able to walk all round the park, we got soooo close to the falls. We also walked downstream to the Zambezi river, this is where they run rafting trips from..note: Jessica and Lianne will be back in about 3 months time to raft this river...it looks intense! Speaking of intense things....right at this point we were also looking at the huge bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe. This bridge also contains the Bungee jump. Which we just so happened to be planning to do the very next day.

Bungee jumping is pretty scary, so I think we should change the subject JB. While we were drying off by the river, I decided to take a little wander. I came across the water intake for the hydroelectric dam and found a group of locals sitting nearby...so I decided to pick their brains. They told me that the dam supplied almost all the energy for all of Zambia right up to the Copper Belt region. This is the reason why there have been no power outages so far...Zambia has a great source for power. I asked why the Zimbabwe side didn’t use the falls as a source of power and the response was, "I do not know." I was told that there is a dam further down the Zambezi on lake Kariba, but the energy is not as sufficient as the Zambian power supply. The potential for power from the falls is there, but with the corruption in Zimbabwe, natural resources are not used to their potential.

On that note, I have more troubling news about Zimbabwe.. Since we are so close to the Zimbabwe border we noticed at the border crossing there are SO many Zimbabwe people fleeing their country into Zambia. The border crossing has huge line ups, we heard that 600 people cross into Zambia each day right now. This is due to huge political tensions that are occurring in their country, due to a certain dictator called Robert Mugabe. The next elections are supposed to be running on June 27th.Good thing we will be outta here by then, you can just feel it even in Livingstone that something bad is about to go down. We have UN Peacekeepers staying at our hostel from the Democratic Republic of Congo. We did hear rumours that the UN has their people stationed around here in time for the elections..just in case.

Hospital tours

It is amazing to see how much can occur in such little time…..This entry will focus mainly on our hospital tour. Jessica and I have split the information and will talk about different things.

Where to start. I have to start with the basics. I have been waking up almost every day at 0530!!! It feels really good to be up and get the day started. Actually I have been running or doing some kind of activity; it’s a great way to see the place. Now waking up at 0530 means going to bed at 2030 (8:30 PM!). I don’t know if it is jet lag, or if it is the exhaustion from the day. I can literally sleep through party happening just feet from my room. It is cold at night. So cold. We can’t seem to put our finger on it. It’s not damp cold or temperature cold (only 7 degrees) but we just are having trouble adapting to the temperature…. We have heard that Mongu is warmer though.

Ok, now for the tour. UTH is huge, it took over 2 hours to walk through the hospital and that wasn’t every ward or building either. There is a large focus on pediatric and maternal health, which I found fascinating. There is an entire building focused on pediatric HIV/AIDS. Unfortunately we didn’t visit it, but saw many other amazing things. There is a building specifically for pediatric diarrhea, and another building focused on infectious diseases. This area was split into the different diseases: measles, meningitis, TB, chickenpox, and then an acute area for severe infections. The head nurse was very educated and looked at the larger picture. It was her job to keep statistics of outbreaks and report them to the Ministry of Health. She discussed with us the many different strategies that Zambia had taken to reduce infectious diseases such as multiple immunization campaigns. On this ward I saw my first heart-wrenching patient. A small child with uncontrollable tremors and perfuse sweating. She had contracted TB and was being treated for multiple illnesses such as chickenpox, viral meningitis, and HIV. However, her family refused ARV treatment and she looked as if there was already brain damage from a multitude of illnesses. It was horrible to see, but it is a reality of nursing.

The next ward I was fascinated with was the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It was huge! There must have been close to 30 babies there. Words can not express how shocked I am by Mother Nature. We saw 24-week babies, with no interventions such as IV or feeding tubes, in incubators acting very vigorously. 900 gram babies acting the same way. Now, whether time will tell the fate of these babies, it is amazing to see how they can survive and act with no interventions. In a developed hospital these babies would have a multitude of tubes and wires, where these babies had none. There was a section specifically for twins, as well as an area for term babies with sepsis. There was equipment! Not much, but we did see one baby on a corometrics monitor, and other babies receiving oxygen from tubing taped to their upper lip (pointed at the nare). In comparison to Canada, the lack of equipment was alarming, but in contrast to the hospital in Tamale, Ghana it was amazing.

We also visited the morgue. Getting to the morgue was like walking through a horror film. The hall was dark, long, and had a dank smell to it. As we continued walking we passed doorways to rooms where the roof had collapsed. It set the mood in an eerie way. The morgue was huge. There were two large fridges that held over 100 people (as well as an over flow area holding up to 64 bodies). The mortician said that the morgue was almost always full, as there are high death rates in the area. One of the larger fridges was specifically for community deaths such as police cases, deaths at home, or patients who died on route to the hospital. When asked the major causes of death the mortician replied, “murders for community deaths and congestive heart failure for hospital deaths.” When we dug deeper we found that there is a high rate of shootings that occur in the city. As well, motor vehicle accidents occur almost daily. As far as congestive heart failure, it goes to say that it is almost a normal condition in the elderly, but we were told that a large amount of young people die from CHF due to poisonings.

I am feeling more settled and excited to be here. When we went to the mall I was relieved to see that you can really buy almost anything here. At the same time I was disappointed that there were franchises here. I think when we get to Mongu it won’t be as commercial or urban and will feel like more of a challenge. We haven’t eaten local dishes yet, but have tried the local brew. It was interesting to see what an influence South Africa has on this country. From staff going abroad to receive education, or malls based on South African stores, the presence is all around.

Tomorrow we are going to Livingstone/Victoria falls….I can’t wait. Talk to you soon,

Lianne

ps - I can't tell you how much your beautiful words of encouragement mean!!

There's something about Donald

Wow these past couple days have been quite the whirlwind of making contacts and networking. On Sunday our morning began after all of us getting up at 6am..because we had all been up since 2am from the whole jet lag thing. We are staying in a great location at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), which is really central to many things in Lusaka. So we decided to head out and walk around, past all the embassies, high commissions and big money hotels.

We had strict instructions from Bill to start making connections as soon as we arrived in Lusaka, we have a whole list of people, but at this point no phone. We passed a phone booth (but really it was a man sitting in a booth with a phone) so we decided to give Donald Kalolo a call. Here is a little background on the guy: He is currently a pharmacist at the Cancer Center located at UTH. He is not pursuing a Master’s Degree, and his thesis will revolve around palliative care delivery in Zambia. He hopes to implement a national palliative care program here, something that is very needed. (especially with the high HIV/AIDS rates) He is quite the famous man in Kelowna and heard what a nice man he was. It is all true!

So we rang up Donald, and in true African style he said ‘ah no worries I am just driving with my family so we will come and pick you up’ So true to his word he arrived 10 mininutes later, and welcomed us with big hugs. (We have noticed here you hug twice, almost like you are kissing each other on both cheeks). And our wild day with Donald and his wife Mousa began.

First we stopped to visit one of the shopping malls in town called Manda Hill. This complex pretty much has everything from home, lots of different restaurants, huge grocery store, even department stores. Here we got our Zambian cell phones, which cost us $20 each..not too bad hey? Then we all had lunch at Subway…haha yes they even have Subways in Africa.

Donald then gave us the tour of his Cancer Center. It blew my mind!! This facility was built in 2007, and it is beautiful. They design was well thought out, they even picked a soft green colour for the paint as it is more soothing to the patients. In the middle of the building they have the craziest grass growing, it is from Jamaica..I think I may need to get some to bring home. At this clinic they do both radiation and chemotherapy. They even have a simulator machine to plan out the radiation, and three types of machines to deliver the radiation to the patients. They also have quite a large chemo room, and are delivering many of the same chemo therapies as we do at home. They will soon be even getting a CT machine!

I would love to work at this facility, and it also makes me think that when I return maybe I need to pursue this further….and look into perhaps a speciality in oncology and palliative care. The need for cancer care here is huge, they often see lots of cervical cancer and a skin cancer called Kaposi’s sarcoma. These are both cancers that do not have such high rates back home. But here because of the high rates of HIV (which in turn weakens the body’s immune system), these cancers take over. This was yet another eye-opening experience for me…
After our little tour we headed off…tooo Adventure Land! This place is crazy, they have huge beautiful tropical gardens, peacocks running around, trampolines, paintball, and waterslides! Too bad it is too cold here right now to swim, otherwise I would of hit up those slides. We were introduced to the Zambian beer here. Very good and cheap! Then it was off for dinner at Manda Hill again, where we had pizza. Then we headed to the ice cream shop for dessert. Now this ice cream shop made Dairy Queen look juvenile. They had ice cream waffles and crepes and more sundaes than you could imagine. It was impressive.

Ok so Donald went out of his way to show us a great time. We are so appreciative of him and Mousa, they gave us a great tour of Lusaka. It just so happens that Donald is on his way to Kelowna…so we are counting on you guys to show him an even better time in Kelowna. We know you will!

Jessica

Arrived Alive

Well, as you can see we have made it. It definitely feels like we have worked 5 nightshifts in a row. Good thing we have learned to sleep in awkward positions for copious amounts of time, it came in handy on the plane. All that said, we had a great flight and no problems with immigration/customs.

Wait there is a story here Lianne..we might have had to wait in line at immigration for an hour and a half! Only to find that the 6 month visa we had previously arranged in Canada, was not even valid. So they only granted us a one month visa for now. Good thing we waited soooo anxiously to get our visa from the Zambian High Commission in Ottawa.

Right, but TIA Jessica, TIA (THIS IS AFRICA). We did meet some nice people in the line that will be praying for us. *wink* We met Margaret and her husband….So nice, I enjoy them both immensely.

As soon as we saw Margaret it was big hugs all around. That is why I miss the African people. She also said to us ‘Welcome Home!’. Another moment that made me appreciate that I was back in Africa was…the group of people singing right outside the airport as soon as we stepped outside. Feels good to be home.

So we exchanged our money and now have Kwachas. We are staying at the nursing residences at UTH (the University Teaching Hospital) and it is great. Jess and I are sharing a bed and Cam has his own room. Immediately we dropped our stuff off and headed out to explore and get groceries. How experienced are we getting…..Let me tell you, we located the bakery, market, internet, candy store, bank, and eateries all before 1030 am!!

Right then this jet lag thing started to come into play. It was only 11:30am when we all started to get very very sleepy…so decided to put ourselves down for a nap. We did wake up at 3:30pm, but then for some reason decided to keep on sleeping until 5:30. The rest of the night we were all like zombies trying to keep ourselves awake…we only managed until 9pm. I was out like a light….. even slept through the Bob Marley playing until all hours of the night.

One thing we didn’t mention is the cold….It feels like Prince George over here. Yesterday I was walking around in 4 shirts, and you know me I wear flip flops in winter. Ok, I guess it isn’t that cold (high of 23 low of 7) but for some reason I didn’t believe an African winter would be cold…Luckily I have packed well. For instance, I was wearing long johns to bed last night accompanied by the British Airways socks that I got from the plane.

Ok Lianne I am not finished with the topic of ‘jet lag’. Why don’t you tell everyone how I caught you staring at me at 2 o’clock in the morning!!! Yes but the funny thing is..I was awake too..wide awake!! Wait so was our buddy Cam. So all three of us got up at that point and decided to be productive (I chose to journal) until about 4:30. Then it was back to bed…but didn’t really sleep. This jet lag thing is fun..real fun.

I think we bonded last night over it Jess. We made a song about being up at 4 am….BFF’s. I woke up went for a jog, and then decided that I need to do that more than once a month cause I was tired. But my rational was to be hot and sweaty in order to face the COLD shower. It worked, but I was still cold, and I got my first mosquito bite in there. This might mean you have to put up with a smelly Lianne, cause it was not a great experience.

So now it is Sunday morning here, and we are all about to head out on the town of Lusaka to do some exploring..and hopefully get some cell phones! We are planning to be in Lusaka for a few days, and then head down to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls.

You stay classy Canada…

'YOU Must Be The Change You Wish To See In The World'

Ok and more thank-you’s… A big one goes out to the nursing faculty at UBCO. Although we have been working as ‘real nurses’ for the past year, we have still received so much support from the UBCO nursing faculty. Many instructors have donated their time to mentor us, and pull together supplies and curriculum for Lianne and me to take over to Zambia. I feel lucky to have such great role models..and not just teachers, but as great nurses too.

I also want to say a big thank-you to my fellow co-workers on 4 East at Kelowna General Hospital. You guys are an amazing bunch. I feel so fortunate to have been able to work on 4 East floor as a new graduate nurse. You have honestly made it such a great learning experience for me, the whole team is so supportive. But the best part is how much fun we have together…even doing some of the crazy things we do as nurses! I know that sometimes we are all so stressed with working short staffed and at overcapacity all the time..but somehow you do it all. Keep it up! I can’t wait to come back and share my stories.

Yes I know it seems like I am writing a speech to accept an academy award or something since I am saying thank-you to everyone in my life...but I really do mean all these thank-yous.

So here we go just less than a week and a half left before the big departure to Zambia. Am I feeling ready? Not at all! Now that we are all moved out of the apartment..it is time to concentrate on what to pack. How do you pack for a 6 month trip to Africa..I have no clue. But one thing you can be certain of is we have packed lots of medications to treat any condition we could possibly think of getting! (and the thing about Africa is you WILL get something) Once a nurse..always a nurse,…even when you are on your days off I guess.

As Lianne was saying this is such a strange time for both us right now. So much change has happened in the past few weeks, and we are about to hit a whole lotta change. I have been through so many emotions lately. Nervous..then excited..then scared..back on to excited..then ecstatic!! But I won’t lie, because I have definitely had a few ‘What am I doing with my life????’ moments too. All I know is that this is an experience that is going to change my life.

You may have noticed that the title of my blog entry is ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world’ Ok I know I copied Lianne with another Gandhi quote, but then again he is one of my heroes… so I am allowed. But the quote has been a favourite of mine for a while now. It is something I chose to live my life by. Which is why I am a nurse today.. and why I need to go back and nurse in Africa. Everyone keeps saying to me ‘that is so wonderful of you to be going over there to help the people of Africa’. And I am grateful for their praise, but I just feel that it isn’t something heroic, it is something that I have to do so that I can make this world a better place.

Jess