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