Good-Bye Mongu!

Our time here in Mongu is drawing to a close, we only have two days left! Saturday we leave Mongu for Lusaka, and from there we will hop on the bus to Namibia, where we will be spending Christmas. It is hard to believe that 6 months has already gone by.

Reflecting on our time here, we both realize how much we have grown. This journey has been extremely challenging at times, but in the end has allowed us to encounter things we would have never otherwise had the chance to experience. From Ghana, to Nicaragua and now Zambia, every trip has had such a profound impact in our lives.

Staff from the School of Nursing all dressed up for the Thank-You dinner we hosted!

Now the challenging piece will be to reintegrate ourselves back home in Canada. Professionally we feel uncertain where our careers will take us, or where we even belong right now because we have grown so much. Here in Zambia we have been working way beyond the scope of practice for a Canadian nurse. This will make it hard to return to work at Kelowna General. But needless to say we certainly are looking forward to heading back to work with familiar faces!!

Jess and two students, Simon and Kamota, outside of Lewanika General Hospital

Personally, we look back at our photos from when we first arrived in June and we don’t recognise ourselves. How did we get to this point? Zambia already feels like such a dream. I think we need to give ourselves a pat on the back for not killing each other on this trip. So many other expat workers here go home early or end up hating their experience, we think it is because they don’t have anyone to relate to. It takes a special person to get through a trip like this and we are a nice couple (insert joke here). No seriously, we have decided we should probably just become business partners, because we got a good thing going here. What can we say, we both just want to change the world!!

Lianne and one of our very favorite teachers, Mr. Kazunga

So, farewell Mongu, Zambia, and our extended blogging family….We will be in need of some TLC when we get back. We love you and wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!

Ni itumezi Shangwe,

Lianne and Jessica

We are gonna miss you Mongu!

I think we have both finally realized what true connections we have made with the people here. These past couple weeks word has gotten out that we are leaving town, and we have had so many people come up to us to say how much they will miss us. It has really made us realise how large our Mongu family has grown.

Things we will miss about Mongu:

- Our nursing students welcoming each morning with a song

- Walking anywhere in town, and having every second person say hi to us

- Mrs. Kababa’s (our librarian) laugh

- Suntanning in convent garden (while the nuns are at chuch!), and having the gardener standing on guard to announce when the nuns get home

- Going to Oasis (the only restaurant in town) and scoping out the other white people (very rare)

- Doing our grocery shopping in the markets, on the side of the road, outside the minibus, outside a taxi..you can pretty much find someone selling fresh fruits and vegetables anywhere..and cheap!

- Sister Christina giving us advice on everything and anything to do with Zambia

- Our best friends here: cell phones

- Mr. Mumbuwa yelling Wenaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

- Cheese boats, scones, and fritters everywhere!

- Listening to people tell us what they learned about Canada in social studies (do you know that every student here has to learn about Zambia, Malawi, and Canada….that’s it)

- The little children running out from their huts when they see us, and yelling out Makuwa, Makuwa!

- Random early morning texts

- Men falling in love with us after one look

- People buying 50 loaves of bread at a time at the local grocery store, only to bring them to the markets and sell them later on that day

- Nightly power outages, which gave us A LOT of time to think.. probably too much time

- Sounds while we are trying to sleep: dogs barking, cats mating, funerals, and the odd gunshot

- The beautiful flood plains

- Random phone calls….for example Lianne got called at exactly 9 pm EVERY night for 3 months straight (she never picked up once, that’s commitment)

- Cell Tel, Zain, MTN craziness (the phone companies here)

- Being asked to be someone’s friend, sister, or mother

- People asking us about our “facial rashes” (i.e. sunburns, acne, mossy bites)

- Jessica being asked if she wears a wig and people touching her hair constantly

- The smell of fish on our backpacks after every bus ride

- PROFUSE sweating

- Being called Mommie (i.e. yes mommie?)

- The traditional Zambian dishes: Nshima, relishes, soups, fish….ok maybe we won’t miss those

Don't worry Mongu...We'll be back!

Jessica and Lianne

World AIDS Day: Dec 1st, 2008

The number of people living with HIV is continuing to rise in every part of the world . There are now 33 million people living with HIV worldwide, 2 million of them are children. Twenty-one years ago, a summit of health ministers realized that a united global effort was required to halt the spread of HIV. As a result, World AIDS Day emerged as the first international health day in December 1988.

The aim of World AIDS Day is to bring to people's attention the worldwide challenges and consequences of the epidemic - ultimately halting the spread of HIV and improving the lives of people living with the virus. Each year the campaign is an opportunity for organizations throughout the world to highlight the HIV pandemic in order to raise awareness and bring about change.

Leadership is the theme for World AIDS Day 2008, promoted with the campaigning slogan, “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.” Leadership encourages leaders at all levels to stop AIDS. Leadership highlights the discrepancy between the commitments that have been made to halt the spread of AIDS, and actions taken to follow them through. Leadership empowers everyone – individuals, organisations, governments – to be accountable and lead in the response to AIDS.

Why is 2008 important?

2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Since 1988, the face and response to AIDS has greatly changed. While many of these changes are positive, this anniversary offers us an opportunity to highlight how much more still needs to be done.

For example:

• Leaders in most countries from around the world now acknowledge the threat of AIDS, and many have committed to do something about it. As of 2007, nearly all countries have national policies on HIV. However, despite these policies, most have not been fully implemented and many lack funding allocations.
• While treatment for HIV and AIDS has improved and become more widespread since 1988, many still do not have access to it – in 2007 only 31% of those in low- to middle-income countries who need treatment received it.
• Despite HIV awareness now reaching nearly all areas of the globe, infection rates are still happening 2.7 times faster than the increase in number of people receiving treatment.
• While the number of countries protecting people living with HIV continue to increase, one third of countries still lack legal protections and stigma and discrimination continues to be a major threat to universal access.
• More broadly, real action on HIV and AIDS and human rights remains lacking. Legal barriers to HIV services still exist for groups such as women, adolescents, sex workers, people who use drugs, and men having sex with men, and programmatic responses promoting HIV-related human rights have yet to be prioritised.

To achieve this goal, leadership and action is needed now. Governments must deliver on the promises they have made. Communities must encourage leadership of its members. Individuals must feel empowered to access treatment, to know their rights and take action against stigma and discrimination, and to know and use methods of prevention against receiving and transmitting HIV.

Now, more than ever is the time to lead – empower – deliver.

Marching in Mongu for AIDS

Our 1st Year nursing students marching to the stadium

Zambia is the epicenter of this worldwide pandemic. We were privileged to be able to spend World AIDS Day in one of the countries where the it has hit..hard. We were very encouraged to see involvement from many faith and community-based organizations in town. The HIV rate continues to rise in Zambia, and with a prevalence rate hovering around 20% in this country there is still so much work to be done.

Candle-Light Vigil

World AIDS Day celebrations in Mongu began on the eve of December 1^st. The churches all organized a candle-light vigil at the big Catholic Church in town. It began with a night mass, lead by different pastors. There were also choirs from the different churches. On an interesting note once the sun went down all the bats decided to come in and fly around the church. Then a huge white owl decided he wanted to support World AIDS Day and hung around for a bit. They handed out candles to all those who came, which probably turned out to be about 500 people! We all light our candles and began our walk outside together. It was magestical. As in usual Zambian style there was lots of singing. You could also hear people chanting ‘Stop AIDS, Keep The Promise!’. We all marched from one area of town to the other. Many of our students and nurses from the hospital came for the gathering. It was quite the social event.

On Monday was the official parade to celebrate World AIDS Day. We brought along 20 first year nursing students and a big huge banner to represent Lewanika School of Nursing. Together, with the other faith and community-based AIDS organizations, we marched from Mongu’s brand new traffic circle all the way to the stadium. All of our students had matching shirts made just for the occasion. We stood out quite a bit because there were not enough shirts for us. Not that we didn’t stand out before just by being the ONLY white people in the parade..but now we really stood out!!

The entire parade made its way to the stadium where we marched in a big circle and all gathered on the field. It felt like we were representing our elementary school on sports day…Jess and I kept on getting in trouble for not marching properly. We just couldn’t keep up with the students! There was even a marching band and baton twirlers that performed. They kept marching, making it look like they were leaving… then they would march back to the center of the field. The announcer had a really hard time getting them off the field. There were speeches, plays, and poetry to express different aspects of HIV/AIDS.

With our students

It has been an eye-opening experience being in Zambia for World AIDS Day. If we can just pick one thing to talk about that has completely shaped our experience here, it is AIDS. You can bet that once we get back home, every year we will be celebrating World AIDS Day.

Jess and Lianne

Christmas came early to Paediatrics!

Clown noses...always a hit!

On Friday we decided to spend the day on the paediatric ward playing with the patients and family members. They had just moved into their newly renovated ward so we thought it was a perfect time to help decorate for Christmas. Now we know that most children here have never seen snowflakes, but we had limited supplies to make decorations, so we made paper snowflakes. We had to explain to them what snowflakes actually are since nobody here has seen snow! The children, and their family members, were amazed to see how a piece of paper could turn into something so beautiful!! Then we had the children color paper and one of the family members cut the paper into strips….Yes you guessed it, we made a huge paper chain to string across the ward. Truthfully it reminded Lianne of Candy Cane Lane in Prince George!

Lianne teaching the families to make chains, and blowing bubbles for the kids...

We also busted out the bubbles and clown noses, and as usual they were a hit and brought huge smiles to the faces of all the children and their families. Seeing those smiles is the most rewarding part about working here. Knowing that for even just in that moment you are helping them to forget about their troubles, and allow them to be children and parents. It was truly amazing to see how a few hours of fun can make a child forget about the pain and suffering they are enduring. This was the message that we wanted to show our nursing students. They took part in decorating and playing with the kids and we wanted them to see how therapeutic playing can be. This is the essence of paediatric nursing!!

Jess with one of the cutest patients (actually they are all cute)

Thanksgiving-American Style

As many of you know American Thanksgiving was last Thursday. Sister Christina is an American citizen so she invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner…We gladly accepted and even bought pumpkins so we could make pie (which Sister Anne did!). All the sister’s from the surrounding villages came, as well as the Bishop. The meal was wonderful and it reminded us so much of the holiday season back home. Jessica even had her most very favorite dish…mashed potatoes. Yes it was glorious and reminded her of home. She asked what their secret was…and the sister replied ‘All it takes is a little elbow grease’. That reminded her of Grandma Barker, since that is something she would say! It made us appreciate how thankful we are to be here celebrating with those that matter to us.

Thanksgiving was actually our last night at the convent, so it was nice way to say goodbye. The next morning we madly cleaned the guest house, packed all our stuff and unloaded into our new digs. We are getting pretty good at moving! So now we are living in with our American friend, Tyler…. Tyler was living with 2 of our other friends Dan and John , but they left about a month ago. The place is huge, and closer to the school (about 15 minute walk). However, it was definitely a bachelor pad. We attacked it full force with bleach and scrubbers. We re-organised a few things and threw out the empty bottles that had been collecting in random cupboards. We had very peaceful sleeps in the new house and new beds!! Lianne had actually been sleeping in a single bed with her feet hanging over the edge…and for the first time in 5 months she fit in her bed! It is also nice to be living in another area of Mongu. Moving to another area always give you a different perspective, feels like we are living in a different city! This place is also located really close to the majestic Mongu Flood Plains. You can bet we will be heading down there to watch a few more sunsets before we leave…