Zambia

Life's Little Miracles.....

2011-08-22T16:02:00.000-07:00

Did I ever think I would see her again? Never in a million years!

It has been almost 3 years now since I started working in Zambia. In 2008 Jessica and I arrived in Zambia with no idea that our passion for international development would guide us to where we are today. Three years later and we are now board members of a growing non-governmental organization that has thick roots in the heart of Mongu. If you asked me back then if I would be dedicating a large part of my life to this type of work, I don’t know if I could have imagined what we have become today. I am extremely proud of the hard work and energy that we have created as group and this next story is the reality of the outcomes of our love and passion.

In 2008 Jessica and I taught at Lewanika School of Nursing for 7 months. During that time I focused my lectures and clinical practice in Maternity and Pediatrics. Whilst on the labor ward my students notified me of a baby that had been born at 28 weeks gestation...This beautiful child had been dealt an unfavorable hand of cards. She was premature at 28 weeks (normal is 40), she weighed only 900 grams (about 2 lbs), her mother had passed away during labor of a post partum hemorrhage, and she was born near a hospital that didn’t have the equipment needed to sustain such a fragile life.

When I first spotted this little child all I felt was gut rotting guilt knowing that the chances of survival were next to none. I told myself to create space; don’t become attached because the outcome of the situation had a poor prognosis. The baby’s survival rates in a first world country would be slim let alone a hospital where almost no interventions took place.

It is obvious as to where this story is going. With daily visits to the maternity ward and creating an action plan with the maternity nurses the baby, my baby, ended up surviving and thriving. I would come to the ward with the students and Bertha the friendly midwife would say, “Limpo how is your baby today?” As my 7 months came to an end in Mongu it was time to say goodbye to baby Limpo as we called her. By this time she was over 2000 grams and feeding quite well. I often wondered what would come of her and what fate had in store for her down the road.

Since 2007 Jessica and I have both been back to work in Mongu 5 times! Cumulative we have spent over a year in Zambia....which goes to show you how passionate we are aboue our second home! Together with members of OkaZHI we have taught over 3 nursing courses, 3 surgical courses, 1 medical course and a handful of seminars, medical rounds, and mentorships. As well, we have helped UBCO bring nursing students to Mongu as part of their 4th year practical placement. This was a vision that Jess and I had when we first went to Zambia and she made it happen in 2009! Currently Jessica has accepted a position at UBCO working as a clinical instructor and would love to see UBCO nursing students in Mongu for the 3rd year in a row! I am extremely proud of all the hard work and dedication she has put into this project.

In July of this year (2011) I went to Zambia as part of an Evaluation team. The team consisted of Dr. Bill Nelems and Cameron Jones. We traveled to all the rural communities surround Mongu in Western Province to visit our Zambian medical and nursing colleagues who took part in OkaZHI courses since 2007. It was such a privilege and honor to be welcomed by so many into their communities and places of work. The entire trip was a huge success and illustrated our dedication to have Zambian voices have a say as to how our organization should operate within Western Province.

The most rewarding experience in the entire 3 years I have worked in Zambia occurred on the 2^nd day of that trip. It brings tears to my eyes thinking about the rush of emotion that overtook me. The three of us had traveled via Shalom Bus to Kaoma about 2 hours East of Mongu. We were planning on meeting Dr. Silumesii there and conduct a few interviews. While staying with the Chesire Home Sisters I found a few children who stuck to me like glue…Before I knew it I had 5 curious faces in my room looking at pictures and listening to music on my bed. I showed them a picture of Baby Limpo and asked if she was at the orphanage that was attached to our lodging. I grabbed Bill and Cam and we went to talk to the Sister in charge. She looked at the picture I had and I explained her story. A few shared words in Lozi between the Sister and a younger girl occurred then the Sister looked at me and said, “her name is Masualeti.” I felt this surge of energy and joy but also a sense of despair and sadness. The small girl comes over to me and hands me Masualeti who was sleeping at the time. She grabbed my arms and continued to sleep in my grasp. Tears start to pour down my cheeks as I was holding this little miracle that I had the privilege to take part in her care in her most fragile state.

Above: a group from the orphanage look at the picture of Masualeti as an infant

Masualeti sleeping, I'm a bit teary!

That day I thought over and over to myself how our actions, however minute they may be, can have a larger impact than we may ever know. I would like to think that I helped Masualeti become the beautiful 3 year old child she is today. In all likelihood, I think it is more probably that Masualeti is the one who has impacted and helped me become the woman I want to be.

Lianne

Evaluation Trip 2011

2011-08-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

To Find out more about our latest evaluation trip have a peek at Bill's blog!! His words are inspiring and well constructed in this beautiful piece!

http://billnelems.hubpages.com/hub/-Do-you-mean-that-you-came-all-the-way-from-Canada-to-do-this-evaluation-in-Kalabo-Justin-Theatre-Nurse

Lianne

OkaZHI - A Friend In Deed!

2010-10-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

Dr. Andrew Silumesii, Executive Director of Lewanika Hospital shares his experience working with OkaZI….

A common adage goes ‘a friend in need is a friend indeed’. The wis

dom therein underscores the gratitude we owe the people that come our way to give a helping hand in times when we need help the most (and perhaps when we least expect it). Such is our gratitude to the Okanagan-Zambia Health Initiative (Oka

ZHI)!

It goes without saying that the health care system in Zambia, l

ike in many other countries in Africa, faces many challenges. Prominent among these are shortages of human resources, inadequate financial resources and infrastructure and an increasing disease burden. Granted, human resources constraints are alarming and have reached crisis proportions in terms of the staf

f-patient ratios, but there is also growing recognition of the need to build capacity in the current health workforce, that is, enhancing their knowledge and skills so that they are able to provide health care more efficiently, effectively, safely, competently and confidently. This is what OkaZHI is already helping to achieve in Western Province, Zambia.

Here is how it all started:

One morning in April 2008, a tall and slender gentleman, presumably in his mid-60s walked into my office unannounced. Aside his strikingly smart looks – clad in a navy blue tie, white shirt with a variegated neck-tie and neat grey trousers – I was intrigued by his warm personality; his sense of humour was conta

gious. His name was Bill Nelems, a thoracic surgeon from Canada. ‘What on earth has brought him here?’ I wondered.

Bill began his discourse by tracing his roots back to Africa, his birthplace, and e

xplained that he spent part of his childhood in Zambia where his father worked in the mines. He went on to say that Profesor Chifumbe Chintu (fondly known as the ‘father of Paediatrics in Zambia’ by the Zambian medical fraternity), was an old classmate of his at the University of Toronto’s School of Medicine.

This time Bill was back in Africa, because he and his colleagues back in Canada felt the need to contribute to the improvement of healthcare in Zambia. And I came to learn that Bill was directed to Western Province by Dr Margaret Maimbolwa, assistant dean at the University of Zambia’s School of Medicine, because she felt the need was greatest there.

That first encounter with Dr Nelems set the stage for the collaboration that was to develop between us and our Canadian counterparts. This is a partnership that we have come to cherish greatly, and one that has added so much value to our work as we strive to provide health care to the people of Western Province. Space may fail me to chronicle all that has so far transpired in our collaboration, but I must hasten to state that the main story really begins a little later in 2008 with the coming to Lewanika School of Nursing of two registered nurses, Jessica and Lianne, to come to teach there for six months. Accompanying them was Cameron, a science graduate who came to help the stud

ents with computers. Jessica and Lianne made a great contribution to the training of our nurses during that time, but more importantly they established the strong bonds of friendship between us and our Canadian counterparts that will last a lifetime.

Another major milestone in our collaboration was the bringing to W

Dr. Andrew Silumesii with Bill Nelems and Gary O'Connor from OkaZHI

Western Province of the Essential Surgical Skills (ESS) course in October 2009, in partnership with the Canadian Network for International Surgery (CNIS). This was a program in which over 20 health staff from around Western Province comprising mainly of doctors, Medical Licentiates and Clinical Officers were trained. Alongside the surgical training, a nursing component was also offered to our nursing staff.

The ESS course proved to be of great benefit to our doctors and Clinical Officers serving in some of the remotest parts of the province. In this light, we envision Lewanika General Hospital becoming an epicentre of continuing medical education in Western Province. All these courses have been based on the locally identified needs.

In March 2010, OkaZHI facilitated the placement of nine nursing students from the University of British Columbia-Okanagan School of Nursing at Lewanika General Hospital, where they worked alongside our staff for 4 weeks during which there was a rich exchange of knowledge, skills and experiences. Their time at Lewanika was very positive and it is hoped that each year we will continue to have a placement of students for several years to come. During this visit, a Collective Review of Practice at Lewanika General Hospital and Lewanika School of Nursing was undertaken and its recommendations have formally been adopted as a plan of action aimed at improving clinical practice and standards of care.

Our experiences with OkaZHI have been very positive. We see great opportunities for the improvement of health care in Western province through this partnership. We value the unwavering commitment of OkaZHI to this cause and the mutual trust and respect exhibited in this collaboration. OkaZHI is proving to be a friend indeed!

By: Dr. Andrew Silumesii

Team Work on So Many Levels!

2010-10-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

After reading Jessica’s last blog I got a little teary. It is so true; we are travel mates for life! As in any dynamic duo we have our ups and downs our quarrels and our successes. When it comes down to it, we have a beautiful relationship that I am so grateful....it’s hard to find a good friend, travel partner, and business colleague in one!

This summer I worked in Inuvik, NWT right near Santa’s house in the Arctic Circle. While I was there I did a few road trips and travels. My friends that I traveled with were a lot of fun, but they weren’t Jessica. They were patient, but they weren’t Jessica. They let me have my music loud, but they weren’t Jessica. Finding a good travel partner is like having a great dancing partner....they flow and bend together, and that’s the great relationship that we have! I am so very thankful for you Black Mamba! (Jessica’s snake name....we all need a snake name right?).

Last night was an OkaZHI fundraiser and social event at UBCO. I have to give my team so much credit for pulling it off and it was a great success! Currently we are planning our next trip to Zambia which is in approximately 2 weeks....The amount of planning, preparation, and course development that is going on right now is enough for everyone to be working full time just on OkaZHI work alone! In spite of this we were able to pull off a very successful event with over 100 participants. I am so grateful for our braai’ing team, our fantastic servers and volunteers from UBCO nursing school, and our OkaZHI members for their incredible social skills!

It was neat for me to have 2 special members in the audience. My Mom and Dad came from Prince George and were able to attend their first OkaZHI event. I have to admit that I was a little nervous to present in front of them, even though I have presented many times before. I was glad they were finally able to meet members of our team that have been such a huge support!

On that note, let me talk about the OkaZHI team. How is it that we have found a group that works so well together? We all have a very strong work ethic that is paired quite nicely with our sense of laughter. I love that we are able to work together to brain storm solutions to a problem...I love that we are able to meet 5, 6, 7 times a month and not be sick of each other....I love that we are able to exuberate that same sense of laughter that I see in our Zambian colleagues. I love our passion. We have all given so much of ourselves in so many ways but all for a common goal. Can you imagine if the rest of the world had the same sense of collegiality; it would be a different world!

Two weeks....Can you believe we are back at it again? I cannot wait to see our friends and family in Lusaka, Mongu, and surrounding areas. We have been blessed to have a fantastic hardworking team on the ground in Zambia as well! This will be our biggest team to go to Mongu which means 15 times the fun....So watch out Mongu here we come!

Reflections from Home...

2010-08-11T01:05:00.000-07:00

The Dynamic Duo enjoying life out on the road

Now that I have had some down time at home in Canada, I have been able to take the time to read through our old blogs. WOW have we ever come a long way, and WOW have we ever been on a wild ride. Coming back home gives me the chance to take a step back and truly reflect on the affects that my African journey has had on my life. Just to think it was only two short years ago we began our work in Zambia. And it was really only just over 3 years ago that I touched down on African soil for the very first time.

There is just something about being on the road and experiencing new things that charges me on life. I’ve been able to experience history, soak up the culture, and see some of the most beautiful places in the world. I’ve have had to nurse and teach in some of the most extreme conditions and push myself to my so called ‘limits’. Through those times I have experienced my own personal lows, yet also have felt my own personal highs. When I get home and it comes time to describe my latest trip to family and friends, I can never quite seem to explain everything I saw, the people I met, or how I felt at the time. I know all my travels are something I won't ever properly be able to explain. There are words and then there are life experiences, and sometimes those words can never quite do justice to the feeling you had inside while you were there experiencing it for yourself.

With each trip back I feel myself growing further and further away from my old life. Traveling really is all about finding yourself and gaining new perspectives. Personally I’ve grown as much in the past 3 years than I did in my first 24 years on this planet. Sometimes it is hard for people to understand why I travel and choose to work abroad. In my travels I’ve had amazing experiences with people and landscapes. This is what keeps me motivated to travel and nurse abroad, and it is what keeps me out on the road. I miss the road, and I constantly miss the adventure. I need this continuous new outlook on life that traveling brings.

With one of our mentors Fay Karp

I know I won’t be able to keep up this pace for the rest of my life. But for now this means seizing whatever opportunity comes my way and altering my decisions so that I can be out on the road a few months of the year. If fully believe if you really want something bad enough, you will make the proper sacrifices to get there. Lianne and I are the perfect example. For this traveling duo ‘sacrifices’ have meant giving up houses, cars, an income, and potential long-term relationships. While we are away everyone’s life back home still moves forward and we do miss out on our friends and family members’ own life changing events…babies don’t seem to wait for Auntie Jessica and Auntie Lianne to get home! We have been continuously supported by our colleagues, families and friends, and without them would never have been able to achieve a quarter of what we have already.

As our adventures continue, I count myself very lucky to have found the perfect travel mate. Being out on the road with Lianne just makes my trips that much better. When it comes down to it we couldn't be more opposite, but do we ever work well together. In the end we really do balance each other out. I don't know how many times we have been lost, stuck on the side of the road, or huddled in our near flooded tent… in these situations she always has the ability to make me laugh. Life out on the road can be stressful at times....say when you are lost driving around the streets of Maputo!...or say after the chain has fallen off your bike 10 times in one day! We most certainly have taken that frustration out on each other. But the best part is always about thirty minutes later we laugh at how silly that was and how sorry we are to have let it get to us. Now that is an important quality in a travel partner.

Stuck on the side of the road with a flat in Botswana

After 4X4ing (in a rental car) through the mud in Mozambique

Really these past couple of years have only been a launchpad for the future, just prepping us for what is to come. Our organization, Okanagan –Zambia Health Initiative is growing fast, and I have never been more proud of the work we are doing in Western Province. I count my Zambian colleagues as some of my closest friends, and I can’t wait to head back ‘home’ to see them in October. Together we will improve health for the people of Western Province, I have no doubt.

Home Sweet Home in Mongu

With our good friend-Dr. Francis Liywalii

Our greatest challenge will always be how do we top this? How is it that each adventure just keeps getting better and better? One day I know I will probably be tired of the road, but one thing is for certain..I haven’t had that feeling yet. Traveling isn't like a light switch that you can just flick off, it's in you..it becomes part of you. One day I hope to say that ‘I’ve seen the world’, but that day isn’t here yet. In fact, I think it is only just beginning.

Just another African sunset...

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

Thank-you Africa for opening my eyes and shaping me into the person I am today.

-JESSICA

Why I Heart ZAMBIA (April 16th, 2010)

2010-06-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last two weeks navigating our way through Zambia, and biking my way through has given me a whole new appreciation for this country. Although I have in the past driven all of the roads we have biked across, doing this trip has allowed me to see, hear and feel the heart of Zambia just that much more. Biking allows you the freedom to stop along the way and to integrate with the people. Again, I find myself continually appreciating how friendly the Zambians are…they are the reason why I am here. I have also been able to appreciate the different terrain this country has to offer. In Mongu we are immersed by the Zambezi flood plain and the sand of Western Province…in Eastern Province we got to see the lush, forest filled hills, and in the south it is the farms and sugar plantations that line the route where we cycled. What a beautiful place. Now ok back to cycling those hills of eastern province, they are really hilly! Most times the muscles in my legs sure didn’t appreciate those hills, but sure was a great way to train!

I have enjoyed my time with the other 60 riders on the Tour D’Afrique. Even though we have only been with them 2 weeks it already feels like we are one big family. There is nothing like 60 people all camping together in a bush camp…on the side of the road in Africa…with no running water…no bathrooms…to unite us together! The TDA riders are an eclectic bunch, from many different countries and all walks of life. But it doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from because ALL of our bike shorts smell bad. If that doesn’t bring you together, than what does in life..right?!

I will never forget our last day of riding as we cruised into Livingstone. We had just spent the last 20 kms on pretty terrible gravel roads. I was having a hard time trying to navigate the dirt and gravel with my small road bike tires. My arms were sore from trying to keep myself stable on my bike, and my hands were cramping from clutching my handle bars so tight and trying not to fall off my bike. I kept thinking to myself ‘Why haven’t paved this road already! Then we came to the crest of the hill, and all of a sudden we are overlooking the town of Livingstone. I look up to see the beautiful mist of Victoria Falls, my motivation to just keep going! There is a reason why Vic Falls is called in the local language ‘The Smoke That Thunders’…the smoke is really thundering right now. Right now in Zambia the rainy season has just peaked, which means the waters of Vic Falls are the highest they are going to be all year. What a perfect way to finish off our bike trip, I will never forget that sight. Also yet another bonus was we hit the smooth pavement, no more gravel roads to navigate through!

Overall I am so proud of myself and my other two musketeers, Lianne and Bill. We have biked long and hard, and done better than we all could have ever expected. (especially after not having been on a bike until last year). Overall my personal lesson learned is that I can really do whatever I put my mind to. Out there on the road I had a few down times when I didn’t think my legs muscles could push myself along anymore. I just kept telling myself to keep going…and I did! The other, more overlying motivation to do this bike ride was for one thing, the Lozi people of Western Province. The more time I spend in Mongu and in Western Province, the more I feel at home. I love being able to nurse in a hospital filled with doctors and nurses with whom I respect. Nothing makes me more proud than to do this bike ride for them. In honour of our tribe living in Western Province, I wore my white Lozi bracelet the whole time while biking. Whenever I had a tough time out on the road, I looked down at my Lozi bracelet and said to myself ‘this is the reason why I am here, these are the people for why I am riding my bike across Zambia..keep pedaling!’ And I did.

Jessica

Oh The Places You'll Go (April 16th, 2010)

2010-06-20T22:28:00.001-07:00

I think our experience as a part of Tour D’Afrique has been described by my two friends who have a beautiful vernacular, and therefore I will try to describe the experience from a humorous standpoint.

Firstly I would like to ask who thought I would be able to ride over 1000km in the African Sun??? Exactly…I didn’t either! But we all did it, and we did it gracefully. This time in Africa I have learned many things, but one of the most inspirational being the power of believing in oneself. The three of us really really wanted this bike ride and we trained and we rode hard….and the payout was the completion of a very difficult event. It goes to show that you really can do anything if you put your mind to it.

Secondly, I would love to express my passion for nursing. How we linked nursing with riding your bike across an African country is still mind boggling, but it has been done! I’ve enjoyed spending my time with the two nurses on the tour and learning the art of fluid replacement, rash management, and sadle soreology…..which I may or may not have been a patient of the later ailment.

Looking back it is hard to believe it is over. What is even more surprising is how much I am going to miss it. Who in their right mind would miss waking up at 5 am, packing up the tent again, and applying cream to a very sore bottom only to get on your bicycle to ride over 150km in the hot African sun? I do…and it makes me want to do it over again!

One of the finer memories from this trip was the noises you would hear at night…they were pretty much the typical African sounds, dogs barking, people dancing and playing music, and those darn roosters crowing all night. But wait….don’t those roosters belong to the tour staff?? On a few occasions the local staff who drove the support vehicles bought roosters to eat. However, they often took a few days to prepare the meals and riders patience would slowly be pushed as the roosters kept us up at all hours of the night.

Another favorite memory of mine was day 3 without running water…Not that bad, I know. But 3 days of riding your bike and producing more sweat than you ever have in your life and knowing you have to share a tent, that is a little more challenging. We were quite good at using the sun to “sterilize” your clothes and baby wipes to shower with. But on day 3 we stayed at a camp with a water pump. I will never forget the sheer joy on peoples face as people took turns inching themselves under the water pump for a shot of fresh skin sans salt!

On a serious note, I will truly miss the amazing food. Who would not love 4 solid meals a day with the portion sizes enough to feed a mother pregnant with triplets? The best part was the guilt free feeling that was accompanied by a hard day of riding. I am currently working on shrinking my stomach back down for my return home.

So in closing I want to express how much I have enjoyed the members of Tour D’Afrique, my fellow riders, and my two closest friends Bill and Jessica. I feel quite sad to know that this trip has come to an end, but on the positive side I am left with new outdoor enthusiast friends, stronger relations with my existing colleagues, and a deeper love for Zambia and it’s beautiful people.

I love biking. I love Zambia. I love these times of my life!

Kilimanjaro next year team?

Lianne

The Beginning (April 12th, 2010)

2010-06-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I have to ask myself why I decide to do the things I do. In the months and weeks spent getting ready for this bike ride, I most certainly have had the ‘What was I thinking?!!” thought more than just a few times. Probably one of the main reasons for this thought is because until a year ago, I had not been on a bike in over 15 years. Now here we are riding over 1000 kms in just only 8 days, across Zambia. Although we were training in Mongu during the two months leading up to this bike ride, I don’t think anything can really prepare you for a bike ride like this. The days of riding are long, averaging about 150 kms/day, this is a pretty intimidating number for someone like me who has never ridden more than 30-40 kms in one day. (Never mind 5 consecutive days in a row!) Also yet another challenge is the fact that we are after all in Africa, which just in itself can be a challenging experience.

To decide to ride your bike across Zambia is certainly not something I would ever have guessed that I would be doing in my life! But here I am. It is certainly not something that I would ever have done on my own, so thank goodness for my other halves in this, Lianne and Bill. Over the past couple years I have been so proud of all the accomplishments we have been able to achieve with our work in Zambia. I am also amazed at all the things I have been able to do and see all over this continent. There is no way that I would have been able to achieve these wonderful things without Lianne and Bill, we really are like the ‘Three Musketeers’. I couldn’t ask for any two better people to be embarking on such a challenging journey. The best part about the three of us is that you just never know what we are going to do next….and now here we are at it again, with the ‘Three Musketeers’ riding our bikes across Zambia!

In the days leading up to joining the Tour D’Afrique in Malawi my feelings of nervousness and apprehension began to increase as the reality set in that I would soon be riding my bike across Zambia. The same thought just kept rolling in my head…. ‘Can I really can do this?!’ As we hopped on our bikes the first morning and rode out of Lilongwe, I was excited and feeling positive. Then we hit the first hill just outside of town, and my legs were already hurting! That was just the beginning of the mental game I had to play with myself on this trip. I just kept telling myself over and over to push it, and keep pedalling. Positive thoughts and words of wisdom from family and friends back home also helped too!

It didn’t take us long to get into the biking routine out on the road. By this time the Tour D’Afrique and all the riders (who have been here since Cairo, Egypt) are a well oiled machine. The day starts early at 0500, waking up and getting yourself and your tent all packed up. The sun is still not up at that point, so as you look across to the fields, schools, or churches where we are camping along the way, all you see is a dance of headlamps as everyone is packing up for the day. I call them the Tour D’Afrique fireflies! Now normally I am not a morning person, but being on the TDA makes you a morning person. The faster you get out on your bike, the faster you get to the next camp. It also means you get to escape the burning afternoon African sun.
There is no better way to experience a country by riding your bike through it. The TDA offers that chance, and has been the best part to joining this tour. Ok to tell you the truth some of my favourite memories have come from the times when take a rest on the road during our day of cycling. The ‘Three Musketeers’ have been known to stop once or twice at a ‘coke stop’. A coke stop is a TDA created term, by definition it is a local pub or rest stop in one of the villages along the way. Sometimes the cokes are cold, other times not so much…but this is Africa right?! Sometimes it just feels like I am just trying to pedal myself from one coke stop to the other….but I’m ok with it! We have even been known to take a few minutes on the side of the road for an afternoon nap. Together we share our energy bars, and remind each other to keep up on our H2O intake. We take off our sweaty helmets, lie down in the grass and give our bums much needed rest. (those saddle sores don’t take long to develop!) Although I do enjoy the days on the bike, nothing is more satisfying than seeing the orange flagging tape that signifies we have reached the next camp. Another of cycling done! The routine continues when we reach camp, and out comes the tent to be set-up…again. Dinner comes courtesy of our wonderful cook, James and then it is off to bed. Our early mornings mean that when the day of riding is done, we are all in bed at 7pm. I fall asleep so fast, barely even noticing the fact that I have no pillow. This is the time when I reminded how I don’t need much more than a backpack, a tent, and a bike to be happy in this world!

Jessica

Thoughts from Mongu...Written March 15th, 2010

2010-06-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

This time around I have been in Mongu since February and have been continuing my training for the bike ride on the ground here. I am glad to have had some time to acclimatize…it is hot! Biking in Africa has been an experience. But I would not have expected anything less! From my time spent living and travelling here, I have realized that doing anything in Africa is always an experience. That is the beauty of this continent.

Six weeks ago I came with fellow teachers, Fay and Lianne, and with nine nursing students from the University of British Columbia-Okanagan, and helped guide them through a clinical placement at Lewanika General Hospital, our local hospital here in Mongu. With funds raised by the students they were all able to purchase ZamBikes to use around town. I will never forget the first day we all went down to the bus station to pick up our ZamBikes. The bikes are quite flashy looking compared to any other bike you usually see on the road here. First, they are brand new (compared to most of the other rickety bikes you see on the roads here) and the other is that they are painted a very bright yellow! We were quite the talk of the town riding those bikes home from the bus station that day. I don’t think Mongu had ever seen a sight quite like it…imagine ten Makuwa’s (the Lozi name for white person) riding through the streets of Mongu all together on bright yellow bikes! It is uncommon in Mongu to see even just ten young female Makuwa’s all standing together, never mind them all riding bright yellow bikes together.

ZamBikes in the Lusaka bus station..on their way to Mongu!

Biking through the roads in Mongu can be a bit dangerous at times (sorry Mom!). The taxis and minibuses drive so fast, barely paying attention to the mass amount of people walking and biking up and down the roads. The roads are also slowly falling away, leaving jagged edges and potholes in the pavement. This means you have to avoid these dangers all at once! The other thing about Mongu is the sand.
Any Zambian can tell you that Mongu is famous for three things…fish…rice…and the sand! This is a very sandy place, and riding or driving around in it reminds me a lot of navigating through snow. You can see how this would be an added challenge; because you are constantly having to swerve your bike tires around so you don’t get stuck!

Lianne and I have been working in Mongu since 2008, and from the beginning we were one of the few female ‘Makuwas’ in town. This means we usually always have people coming up to us to introduce themselves; we can’t help but stand out! But the beauty of it all is even if we’ve met someone just once…they always seem to remember it and now us means we are friends for life! (Just yet another reason why I love Africa) I am constantly amazed at how many people remember my name; even I only shook their hand once. This has also been reflected in my biking experiences here. It seems that every time I hop on my bike and start biking anywhere in town, I have multiple people coming up and saying hello or wanting to carry on full conversations! I can be biking on any road, and will often hear Jezzzzzzzka! Jezzzzka! (That is how they pronounce my name here). Each time I hear my name being called I never know who it is going to be…. maybe it is one of my taxi drivers, maybe it is a lady from the market, or maybe it is a patient’s family member, who knows who it will be next time?

I think my favourite thing about biking in Mongu is that it brings you so much closer to the people and their lives here in this town. You can see the sights, hear the sounds and smell the smells just that much more. My favourite time to bike is around 6pm, when I am out on the road alongside everyone heading home from work. (Most are usually walking or biking home since they can‘t afford vehicles). This is always good time for conversation with the locals, and they are often shouting out a Hello! Or Kimanzibwani! (Lozi saying for Good Evening).
Dusk comes as the sun begins to set; the women are setting the fires in preparation for bathing the children and cooking nshima (the local dish). There is an air of peace and calm, and I get to soak it all in.

This is only just the beginning!

Jessica

bicycle diaries

2010-03-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I enjoyed going for strolls around the block on my banana seated Strawberry Shortcake bike. It was a way for me to occupy my time and spend quality time with my friends and neighbours.

Now that I am almost 25 years old the face of biking has changed for me…or has it? I enjoy taking my bicycle for a stroll down by the river having the air whip at my hair and the beautiful scenery all around me as I take my bike down a new path on the search for a new adventure. When I look back and relate my experience of biking as a child on the banana seat to me on my much smaller seat now, I see the same excitement and joy, the same yearning to find a new adventure!

The beautiful thing about biking is how practical yet versatile it can be. It can fit almost any lifestyle. I enjoy biking to work – it is economic, cuts down on transmissions, and fits with my hippy side of life. I enjoy the exercise – it creates endorphins after a stressful day and helps with the guilty feelings you may feel after eating those Timbits. I enjoy the rush – downhill biking allows me to feel the rush as I manoeuvre my bike through trees and up and down ramps. I enjoy the challenge – pushing myself to bike from Lilongwe, Malawi to Victoria Falls is something I never doubted biking could do, but something I never saw myself caring out. Once again, biking is taking me on a new adventure.

I was recently training for this bike ride in Inuvik, NWT. The one gym in town was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After a shift I would head to the gym and ride for 1-3 hours. I would sit there and watch the gym community at large “climbing Kilimanjaro” on my bike. A month ago I arrived in Mongu, Zambia. Awaiting me was 9 Canadian nursing students, two instructors, and 13 yellow Zambikes. I must admit in the first few weeks the bikese didn’t see much of me. However in the last 3 weeks I have been biking almost daily and remember the pure joy of biking. It has also reminded me how HOT it is in Africa! Nonetheless, I am ecstatic to embark on this journey with my good friends Jessica and Bill. It won’t be easy, but we will do our best to have as much fun and as many adventures as possible!

The Story So Far:

2010-03-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

I was picked up from the airport by one of our good friends at Zambikes. As we were driving to their farm house we are passing many people on the road with bikes with loads of charcoal, chickens and dogs racing into the streets, and the craziest traffic. The entire time I was chatting away catching up and it dawned on me that this all seemed perfectly normal and not surreal at all. I knew I was home.

At the Zambike farm I had a chance to try welding. It has been something I have wanted to try for awhile, but Zesco that pesky power company has prevented me from carrying out this bucket list activity. However, this time I was fortunate enough to stick weld and make a zambike….Ok, you caught me, I welded two pieces of metal together and then sanded them which is not quite a bike. I did get a chance to see my bamboo frame and instantly fell in love!

The next day I loaded into a bus and set off for Mongu. It was so good to see Jessica, Fay, and my home! I can not believe it has only been 2 and a bit months since I was here last. To be completely honest I was a little nervous to meet all the students as I didn’t really know them and was coming into the program half way through. I was not surprised to learn that all the ladies are amazing nurses!

My first week started off getting to know everyone and the routines. It was great to see how well everything ran. I feel like I live in a commune with 11 other wives who all cook and clean! It was great to be back at the hospital and work with the midwives. I have to tell you one of my proudest moments in my life. I’ve delivered babies here in Zambia before, but this trip was focused on teaching the students. We would discuss how to deliver a baby, possible complications, and cultural sensitivity in nursing practices. It was the most rewarding moment when one of my students delivered her first baby. I remember how it felt for me, and to see the joy on her face made my heart melt. Teaching truly is one of the most exciting things I’ve done in my career!

In saying that….maternity has not been a happy place the entire time. There have been many deaths, complications, and difficult times for the students and myself. We have had many debriefing moments where we have to end the day with a fanta or mosi (soft drink or beer). Overall, the students have been extraordinarily resilient and try to take each moment as a teaching opportunity.

The third trip to Zambia....

2010-02-14T08:18:00.000-08:00

Most of our followers are aware that Jess and I are on our way to Zambia again...As usual it has been hectic getting everything together before anothe busy trip. I am writing from London, Heathrow Airport on route to Zambia as we speak!

Jessica has been in Zambia since the end of January. She is accompanied by 9 UBCO nursing students and Fay Karp a proffessor at UBCO. The girls are completing their 4th year practicum and have classmates who are in Ghana completing theirs. We are extremely excited to see the students in Zambia as it was something Jess and I envisioned from the beggining. Naturally it would make sense we would be there to see them on the ground. For the next 6 weeks we will be working alongside Fay and guiding the girls through their practicum. I am arriving a little late, but in time to help out with Obstetrics and maternity while Jess will focus on HIV/AIDS clinic and med/surg.

After our 6 weeks we plan to develop a Post opeative nursing manual for one of our future trips. The manual will be developed with the guidance and support of our Zambian nuse colleagues.

And to finish the 3 month trip off, why not a charity bike ride? Jess, myself, and Bill will be riding our bamboo bikes as part of tour d'afrique. Bill will ride 4500km from Lilongwe to Cape Town. Jess and I, being younger and smarter, will ride 1100 km from Lilongwe to Victoria Falls.

This is just a brief synopsis of our future plans....stay tuned. Check out the new links to OKAZHI, Tour d'afrique, and the UBCO nursing students blog!!

Lianne

Essential Surgical Skills

2009-12-01T15:34:00.000-08:00

One of the main objectives of our trip was to help facilitate a week long Essential Surgical Skills (ESS) course. This course focused on essential surgical skills such as knot-tying and suturing, chest tube insertion, colostomies, obstetric emergencies, cast application, and many other surgical procedures. These skills are basic, but given the right application of all these skills...they are LIFE-SAVING! The course was developed by Canadian Network for International Surgery (CNIS) and have been delivered in 7 African countries; Zambia now the eighth country on this list. (http://www.cnis.ca/). We are the first team to bring this course to Zambia, which was very exciting. But this is also the first time CNIS has brought the ESS course to a rural facility, which is our very own Lewanika General Hospital!

Bob and Bill pointing out Zambia on a CNIS poster

Two of our surgeons, Dr. Bill Nelems and Dr. Gary O’Connor, spent a week in Calgary last year taking the training that was required to teach the ESS course. They were joined by Dr. Bob Taylor from CNIS and Dr. Glynn Jones who is an general practicioner, with a speciality in anesthesia.

We had a total of 23 doctors, clinical officers, physician liciensciates, and a registered nurse complete the training. There were 10 doctors from Mongu (all the doctors who work at the hospital) and 13 others from surrounding rural towns in Western Province. The group gathered everyday around 9 o’clock (think 'African time')and finished the day around 5 pm. The group completed hands on teaching done in 4 stations each day.The strongest piece to the ESS course was how it required the students to learn by doing hands on practical skills. This is a concept that is very different to the traditional lecture-stlye teaching that most Zambians are used to, but very well received by all of our participants. There was a break for coffee and a catered lunch by the best caterer in Mongu, Rueben.

Bob teaching the art of 'knot-tying'

Gary teaching venous cut-downs

By the end of the week the health professionals were laughing and enjoying themselves while basking in a wealth of knowledge. Bill’s blog describes the recipients reactions beautifully.

What was our roll in all of this? Jessica and I helped facilitate the course. What does this mean…we really didn’t know what to expect at first. We knew we had a pretty good idea of where most things could be found in town and if we were unsure we knew who to ask. This skill was very useful. Part of our duties as facilitators included:

-getting pig legs, pig chest walls, intestines, and beef hearts from the local butcher (to use as teaching tools for the course)

-ensuring the caterer had all the food he needed for the next day (usually a trip to the market, harbour, and daily Shoprite runs)
- making budgets
- attending dance lessons from our nursing students

- to get 80+ liters of fuel in the 4 hour petrol line-up...when they are only handing out 10 Liters at a time
- ordering a tire from Lusaka for the vehicle
- making sure each team member had an I Heart Zambia Shirt

- serving lunch
- making sure all of the men ate (that even meant buying groceries for our doctor’s for dinner)
- looking after extra-curricular activities such as road trips to Senanga, and play dates with the children at the orphanage
- planning a thank-you dinner for 200 people
- reconnecting with all of our old friends and colleagues in Mongu, and making new friends

These and many more activities were part of the role as facilitator. We also joined in every morning and took part in the learning and teaching. In the afternoons we ran a 2 hour in-service for the matrons/sisters in charge of the wards at Lewanika Hospital. We discussed topics such as chest tubes (thank goodness for the fish spear accident), catheter care, NG tubes, post operative care, peri-operative care, cast care, and surgical wound management. After the discussion we brought the nurses to the ward where we would do a “case study” with one of the patient’s and discuss the appropriate nursing care for that patient. In total 10 nurses were educated with the hopes that the information would be disseminated to the rest of the ward nurses. We distributed handouts and posters to all the wards and included nursing students in our ward discussions.

The 'Fish Spear' patient allowed for great teaching on the ward

Jess and Lianne with all the charge nurses who attended our in-services

Overall, both the nursing and medical components were extremely effective. It was very rewarding to see the changes that had occurred in such a short timeframe. There was widespread acceptance of knowledge and practice. The course was very rewarding as we saw professional growth as well as intersectoral collaboration. One day we even brought the our nurses to the CNIS course, and had them observe a chest tube insertion. It was fantastic to see the nurses and doctors alongside each other, and also promoting OkaZHI's philosophy of intersectoral collaboration. This was the first time a CNIS course has ever had a nursing component complement its content. The general consensus was how very important it was to have nursing education delivered, that would compliment the surgical skills the doctors learned.

Good work team!

Something old and something new.....

2009-11-03T09:46:00.000-08:00

Our time back in Mongu has confirmed a few things for us. Some things are new, but other things always just stay the same….and we are very thankful for that!

Things that have not changed:
•The children yelling “Makuwa” as we pass by
•People asking Jessica if her hair is real
•People asking Lianne if she is the older sister because she is taller
•The village children waiting by the gate every morning for us….and are still there when we get back!
Oasis, the only restaurant/club/meeting spot for all expats
•Lewanika School of Nursing continues to have no internet (who keeps forgetting to pay those bills!)
•Sister Christina still taking charge at the convent
•We get the royal treatment while staying at the convent…fresh fruit, home made jam, fresh bread etc.
•Falling asleep at night to the familiar sound of barking dogs, cats in heat, African drumming, and the occasional Shoprite alarm
•Glorious sunsets over the Zambezi floodplains at Lyambai Hotel

•Our students can still shake those African hips
•A minibus to Shoprite is still two-five
•Power outages….Zesco!!! Need we say more?
•Mosi is still very refreshing….and truly Zambian
•We are still so comfortable driving on the left side of the road, we not afraid to use our hazards, and say a friendly hello when we honk our horn!

Things that are new:

The Mongu Shopping Center has a couple of new additions!! Barbershop...AND Bar!

•I-spot Internet Café….fast and only 9 000K per hour!!
•Road to Senanga…..used to take 3 hours with many potholes and now only 1 hour of smooth sailing
•A presence of police in and around Mongu…including photo radar and ticketing for talking on cell phones….What?!!? I thought this was Africa?
•Shoprite having vegetarian ground round, wieners, sausages, and burgers!
•Jessica and Lianne now best friends with the Shoprite Assistant Manager (he even asked us to deliver his baby) and are now masters of the fruit and veggie scale
•Lianne and Jessica’s “muscle memory” and ability to shake their hips (our students even said we were better than some of the 1st years!!)
•We have discovered a different Zambian beer…Eagle (it is made of Sorgum and gluten free – shout outs to Ma Barker)
•New additions to certain shops around town (including a Humble Sheep 2 Barber Shop)

Gone Fishing

2009-10-29T09:27:00.001-07:00

Monday Morning….The Course is about to start. There is anxiety and uncertainty wafting in the air. We, the foreigners who came to share our knowledge and learn from our colleagues are ready to teach Essential Surgical Skills. “Where is Bill?” Bill comes running into the room sputtering words that sound similar to a word salad…. “There is a man with a fishing spear in his back and I think he has a pneumo and I am going to operate……Glynn you are coming to intubate, Lianne you are scrubbing.”

That was it. It was decided. The man would have surgery to remove the spear and insert a chest tube to relieve the pressure caused by the pneumothorax (air trapped in his chest that compresses his lung).

We left the course, not quite sure what to expect. Bill, chest tube in hand was determined to do this…This would be Mongu’s first official chest tube insertion.

Bill, Glynn, and myself got ready. We discussed with the team what we would do and what everyone’s roll was. We prepared a water seal container with a suction canister, ringer’s lactate, and tape…pretty much a pleurovac right? (sorry for those non-medical people, just imagine a really home made system).

Bill and I scrubbed in for surgery. Bill ready to insert the tube took a long time to explain every action to the doctors and nurses. He is a fantastic teacher! The tube goes in and a large amount of air is released….The patient goes under and we remove the spear….

Let’s talk about this spear for a minute. This man comes from a town an hour away from Mongu. He had a few drinks with his friends and decided to play fight…The fight got out of control and he over powered his mate. The “friend” was so mad he went home and got a fishing spear. Needless to say we have a patient with a 5 prong, barbed fishing spear in his back.

Having a good look at the spear

The patient turned out to be an incredible opportunity to teach both doctors and nurses. Normally the patient would not have had a tube inserted and may have died from respiratory distress. With the new skills the doctors and nurses have learned we are certain we will be seeing more chest tubes in Mongu!

First Day Back in Mongu

2009-10-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Lianne, Jess, and Mr. Mumbuwa

First morning back in Mongu just started like any other day, waking to the sounds of Sister Christina already out in the garden. Man did I ever miss that woman! Our house feels like we never left it, Lianne and I even get to sleep in our old rooms.
The weather is hot, even at night! Thank goodness for our fans.....

I will never EVER forget our first day back in Mongu. Never in my life have I had a reunion like this before! Everywhere we went; from the hospital, to the school, to the only restaurant in town (Oasis) it was just one big reunion!! All of our old friends and acquaintances came to greet us....word is out that the 'Two Canadian Nurses" are back in town. Now a Zambian greeting isn't like a typical Canadian one. Zambians are full of big hugs and squeals of delight, excitement and always lots of laughter!

Just to walk around the hospital and School of Nursing felt like I was in a parade. I think the greatest feeling was to see our nursing students that we taught last year who have since gone on to graduate, and are now finally working in the hospital as real nurses!

With our nursing students

In one day I think we managed to reconnect with pretty much everyone we had met in the time we spent living in Mongu. From Max (our old taxi driver), to Prince Angola (the gardener), to Mr. Mumbuwa (our teaching colleague and closest friend)…it was just so exciting to see every single one of them. I don’t think we fully had realized the impact we made on the people here, until we returned. Everyone just kept saying how much they had missed us and were so excited that we came back.

Lianne, Dr. Liywalii, Jessica

I have realized the importance of returning to a place where you begin a project. It says to the people here that we are serious and committed to them. In Africa, many groups or NGO’s will start work in an area only to end up pulling out shortly after. It is so wonderful that OkaZHI has chosen to remain working in Western Province, and area that is often forgotten by even their own government. I feel so lucky that our team is back again this year, and will continue to come again and again!!!!

The Road to Mongu

2009-10-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

There has got to be a word that is bigger than nostalgia. That is what we felt when we rented our car and took off from the airport. We were jetlagged, exhausted, but exhilarated by the familiar surrounding and sounds on Zambia. I took off from the airport in our Toyota Condor loaded to the max with surgical equipment, luggage, and a team of enthusiastic Canadians. The left hand side of the road felt all too comfortable.

We had very thorough meetings Tuesday followed by fabulous Indian food in Lusaka. On Wednesday we loaded our car with even more luggage, equipment and people (6 people and approximately 900lbs of gear). As we hit the road we made sure to stop by Game and Shoprite for the necessary picnic gear. We left a little late, not a surprise. The team made an executive decision that we didn’t need to worry about filling up the car as ¾ of a tank of petrol would most likely get us to Mongu…..right? Besides, Zambia has a petrol shortage right now and it would take over 4 hours at a pump to get even 10 Liters of fuel. Many cars have parked in a line and will stay that way for a week or so until more petrol comes…

We passed the only gas station en route to Kaoma, the next town on the way to Mongu. Kaoma is about 2/3 of the way from Lusaka on the way to Mongu. We stopped for a picnic in the park….did Mubita say to stop on the other side of the river after the park? Probably, as we were swarmed by hundreds of tse tse flies!! Either way the picnic was grand. We enjoyed avocado, tomato, biltong, cheese, bread, olives, chips and of course wine. Driving through the park we saw warthogs, marabou storks, puku, impala, and monkeys. Not bad for a Wednesday drive.

Jessica behind the wheel we are about 5 km from Kaoma…Everyone is a little tired, and the Jones’s keep falling asleep. Bam Bang…..and the car is on the other side of the road. We hit the mother of all potholes and have not 1, but 2 flat tires. Everyone works in a calm manner and action happens immediately. Cam and I hitch to Kaoma to find a new tire while Bill and the gang replace one of the tires with a spare ( ironically enough we hitch with an empty jerry can to get more fuel but barely have room in the back of the pickup as we are sitting on

2 barrels of petrol).

One of two busted tires!!

The first tire shop didn’t have our size, the second shop was being run by a drunk…things weren’t looking good. We had about 30 minutes of daylight left. I called our friend in Mongu asking him to see if he could ship a tire to us. Then I thought maybe I could take the bus to Mongu and cab back……Luckily mama Africa always pulls through. A bystander watching the white girl had called his friend to help. Two guys pull up in a van and start asking questions. It sounded like they knew what they were talking about so I stuffed them into their van and made them drive out to our car to look at the tire.

When we arrived the police were there as well as a group of village children. We got the measurements and headed back to find a tire. Fate would have it that we had to go back to that drunk tire dealer to find one. We get the rim on and now we need to pump it with air. The tire was not making a seal so the mechanic decided to put toilet paper around the edges of the rim with water to create a seal….I’m not a mechanic but I don’t know how trusty TP is? Regardless the power went out and there was no way to pump the tire. I grabbed popcorn, Cam and I watched in disbelief as the mechanics attempted to get our tire together. Finally we put a tube in and inflated it with the compressor attached to the engine of a truck nearby….

Meanwhile, Bill was keeping guard on our van by doing perimeter circles with a tire iron in hand. The children had helped him remove the bolts of the tire and were rewarded with our leftover fruit from lunch. If anything this experience was a good ice breaker in team building skills.

Bill and Glynn changing the tire

Back in Kaoma, Cam and I had a tire! We decided to push it a little further and ask our mechanic (who was quite sick of us and all the questions by this point) if it was possible to get petrol. The first “backyard shed filling station” was too expensive. The next place we went we ended up buying 10 L as it was getting quite late. We paid 35 dollars for 10L of petrol….yes $3.50 dollar per liter!! And thank goodness, because we later learned we would not have made it without it!

3 hours later we had a tire and were on the road again. When we saw the “welcome to Mongu” sign we were beyond relieved. We had made it back home!

Bliss with 2 flat tires

Back in Zambia...and it Feels SO Good!

2009-10-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

Lianne, Bill, Joan and Jess at Heathrow Airport

Well we are back on Zambian soil and it doesn't even feel like we left! Right now it is 5 AM of Day 2...and I am wide awake. I am never up at this time, but thanks to jet lag here I am this morning. Our plane ride to Zam was looong, except we did end up meeting two guys in the middle of Heathrow airport who will be working in Mongu. They are from Seattle and it just so happens that they will be taking over Tyler's construction project out in Limulunga. What a small world to actually meet them in one of the world's biggest airports, but these Zambian connections just continue.

I don't think I have ever been so excited for a trip in my whole life! But it really is because I get to return back to a place that I love and miss so so much. And now we are coming back with Dr. Bill Nelems, who is truly the reason why we are back in Zambia. This time we are also bringing with us Joan Bassett-Smith, who is the former Director of Nursing at UBCO. She was also a professor of ours when we were wee little nursing students and has spent over 10 years working on nursing education projects in Ghana. She really gets Africa. Which is why it is so exciting to bring her with us back to Zambia!

We arrive after 24 hrs of sleepless travel at 0600 to Lusaka Airport. The rains have come already this year..so to our surprise it is quite cool! I know once we head to Mongu it will be much hotter. Bill has planned quite the full day for us already. We give Margaret a call at University Teaching Hospital and she is already waiting for us in her office. So off we get our rental car, Lianne starts the drive (good thing she is used to working night shifts and can go off little sleep..cause pretty sure she hadn't slept in about 2 days). Lusaka traffic sure hasn't changed much, expcept right now in Zambia there is a HUGE petrol shortage..the lineups for gas are unreal!!!!!! We are already making backup plans with jerry cans for our trip to Mongu. (don't worry Dad)

We set off to meet with Margaret, the Assistant Dean for the School of Medicine at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka (the biggest and only tertiary hospital in the whole country) I know we have talked about her before on the blog but she truly in an amazing women. Began her career as a nurse, married the best Lozi (our friend Mubita), had 4 children...and somewhere in there managed to get her Master's and PhD. She has really been a driving force for improving nursing education here in this country. We are honoured to be able to call her a friend and colleague. It was neat to connect her with Joan Bassett-Smith..hopefully this is the start of us writing grants to help fund a nursing skills lab here at UTH. While we are at UTH we are approached by the Director of Surgery, Dr. Labib..and then Dean Mula stops by to say hello. Word is out that we are doing a surgical skills course in Mongu!!!! They all request us to run the surgical skills course at UTH. Feels good to know we get to deliver this course first in Mongu, but it is huge that the biggest hospital in the country is already asking us to come and work with them!

Mobita, Lianne, Cam, Glynn, Dr. Chifumbe Chintu (Bill's classmate at U of T)

Looks like we have a lot of work to do, I don't need to come home...right????? :)

Jessica

Viva Mongu!

2009-10-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

Jessica, Bill, and Lianne at World of Hearts Charity Dinner

Since our return to Canada we have constantly been thinking about Zambia. How do we get back? What can be doing from here to help over there? How can we raise awareness within our own community? ANSWER: OkaZHI (Okanagan Zambia Health Initiative). This is a group creating an action plan with strategies for improving the health of Zambians. Our founding member Dr. Bill Nelems has truly been an inspiration to us, and has pulled together an amazing team of people.

OkaZHI Foundation Advisory and Management Committee:
• Nicole Arnt, President-Global Nursing Citizens
• Jessica Barker, RN
• Joan Bassett- Smith, PhD, RN, Associate Professor UBC-O
• Felour Behrouzi, RN
• Prof. Joan Bottorff, PhD, RN, FCAHS
• Dr. Linda Hawker, Family Practice
• Dr. Glynn Jones, Family Practice
• Lianne Jones, RN
• Fay Karp, RN, Associate Professor UBC-O
• Dr. Tom Kinahan, Urology
• Muriel Kranabetter, RN, Associate Professor UBC-O
• Gene Krupa, PhD
• Dr. Kim Lefevre, Neurosurgery
• Dr. Tim Murphy, Family Practice
• Dr. Bill Nelems, General and Thoracic Surgery
• Rebeccah Nelems, Chair
• Dr. Gary O’Connor, Orthopaedic Surgery
• Carole Robinson, RN, PhD, Associate Professor UBC-O

Ok looking at this …we often wonder how did we make the cut? That is quite the impressive list! We are a dynamic group that is dedicated and passionate about improving the health of the people of Western Province, Zambia.
It is funny to look back on our blog entries…and realize how much we have grown since last year. Our last entry even says ‘Don’t worry Mongu, We’ll be back.’ It turns out we really are!!! Never in a million years would we have guess that we would be back in Mongu in 9 short months!

The up coming journey starts on October 18th as we fly to Zambia with Joan and Bill. We will be meeting Glynn and his son Cameron in Lusaka prior to our departure to Mongu. Joining us at a later date will be Gary and Dr. Bob Taylor from the Canadian Network for International Surgery (www.cnis.ca). Together we will run the Essential Surgical Skills (ESS) course for our Zambian colleagues at Lewanika General Hospital in Mongu! This is a week long course designed for clinicians in low-income regions of the world and teaches a standard set of life saving surgical skills for medical urgencies that such clinicians face on a frequent basis. This course has been taught in Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Mali, Rwanda…and now Zambia!

Lozi girls in the traditional outfit for Western Province

Words can’t even describe how exciting it is for us to return to a place where we once called home. We get to see our Mongu family once again! The most amazing thing is that we are going back to help build and empower the health care professionals at Lewanika General Hospital. It is a way to give back to the people of Mongu and Western Province for taking such good care of us for those 6 months we lived there.

Mongu get ready, Lianne and Jessica are back!

Good-Bye Mongu!

2008-12-18T05:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-18T04:52:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-02T03:10:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-02T02:52:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-01T02:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-01T02:33:00.000-08:00

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…

Will You Welcome Us With Open Arms???

2008-11-19T03:15:00.000-08:00

Our time here in Zambia is slowly starting to come to an end. We only have 5 weeks left to wrap things up and say our good-byes. It was so nice to have the Barker crew, Fay, Bill, and Gary out to show them all what we have been up to. They prepped us for coming home, gave us a taste of North America, and really made us start to think about what to do next….

The reality is starting to sink in..we are leaving! That reality just got a bit of a turbo boost the other day.. We were outside doing yoga on the front porch of our little house in the convent. Sister Christina strolls by and we start chatting (Sister is a great little chatter, we have learned so much from her. Yesterday she even taught us how to make Mumbole Jam. Mumbole’s are little fruit here in Zambia that taste like plums) To make a long story short we discover that we are supposed to be out of our house at the end of this month! What! We start racking our brains of who we can stay with for the month of December…maybe our nursing students will let us stay with them in their hostels??? But all is well, we solved our little housing issue and are now going to live with another ‘Makuwa’ friend. His name is Tyler, he just so happens to have a huge house all to himself in Mongu, and doesn’t seem to mind two nurses shacking up with him for the next few weeks. Did we mention the house has AC and the security guard cleans and does laundry (Ok they have had a few break-ins, but don’t worry moms we will be safe!)…This will be very nice for the last few weeks. Plus it is closer to the school.

Now that everyone has left we have had the chance to think about what it will be like to come back home. To be honest: it scares us a bit! Ok, maybe a lot. In fact we have both been having nightmares about work…Remember when you were a new grad and had dreams about not knowing what to do on the ward…we are there…..again!! We can say that the first thing we are going to do when we get home is have sushi. We have been missing it... a lot. How will we reintegrate ourselves back into Canadian society? We are now Zambians after all! What will it be like to go back and work in the hospital again? Where will our career paths take us now? Ohhh so many questions. Good thing we have 2 more months to figure it all out. Society, be gentle on us….

Jess and Lianne

Thank-You! Thank-You!

2008-11-19T02:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,
First off we want to say a HUGE thank-you to everyone (especially those who came to visit). We honestly would not be here without your guidance, support and generous gifts. We have recently started to disperse all those wonderful donations throughout the School of Nursing, the hospital and Mongu. It was so much fun to go to the orphanage. We had over 150 children show up! They are still talking about the ‘Makuwas’ who came! All the school supplies, stickers, paper, etc.. that were donated have been distributed with the help of Sister Christina. They know many schools in the area, and are supporting over 100 children to go to school. They will ensure the supplies go to good use. We will be distributing all the donated medical supplies on Friday, it will be like Christmas at Lewanika General Hospital that day! All the donated textbooks are now in the library at the school. The students and tutors were so excited to receive them. Again, we keep hearing how we are ‘like angels’ because of all the things that are being donated, but really it is all of you that are the angels!

Little Guys with pipe cleaner glasses from Mama Barker

Thank-You!

Jessica and Lianne

Bill's Journey

2008-11-09T10:39:00.001-08:00

Bill, Gary, Jessica, Lianne, Fay, Dr. Sitali, and other health officials in Mongu

Hello, this is Bill Nelems reporting live from Mongu, Zambia.

It’s November 9, 2008, and I’m here with Fay Karp, Gary O’Connor, Diana and Mike Barker. We have come here to offer support to Lianne, Jessica and Cameron for their outstanding contributions to Western Province, and, in particular to the students who are enrolled in the Lewanika Nursing School. We have also come to evaluate their contributions, to meet with senior Ministry of Health officials and with the Deputy Permanent Secretary to evaluate and plan our next steps.

Let me start by telling you what you already know from following their blogs – Lianne, Jess and Cameron are magnificent human beings. They bring with them their inherent humanity and their intense compassion. They have changed forever the life of faculty and students here in rural Mongu, because with them they bring hope and courage to a part of the world ravaged by a disease pandemic not seen since the great plague of the middle ages. They bring with them their communication skills, their ability to understand and to teach their own nursing students how to care for their people.

As Fay Karp told Lianne and Jessica’s students; “You are most important resource that Zambia has to keep your families healthy. You are it! What you need to know is that we are here to support you.” I completely agree with Fay.

Thanks to an invaluable letter written by Dr Linda Hawker, Family Physician in Kelowna to Dr Andrew Silumesii, Executive Director of the Lewanika Hospital in Mongu, we will make a multi year commitment to support a Clinical Teaching Unit here. We received major support for this concept from every level within Western Province. This will be lead by Nursing and Family Medicine. This unit will support not only the hospital but also the nursing education initiated by Lianne, Jessica and Cameron. Through this unit will flow surgical teams, specialists in Ophthalmology, Obstetrics, Paediatrics, male circumcision programs and whatever else this community directs as core needs. It is through this unit that Gene Krupa could develop his community health workers, his e-learning programs and telehealth. Of course, it will take time and it will be directed through our Zambia working committee in Kelowna. It will take time to line up funders, support persons, and the like.

Bill's new career as the official camera man!

One very senior medical administrator, paraphrasing and adapting a biblical parable, said that living in Western Province is like the old woman who was barren. But then, an angel appeared and she bore children. He went on to say that Lianne, Jessica and Cameron are the angels who have arrived in Mongu!

Having visited Mongu twice, I can see why life in Mongu is like the old infertile woman. It is the poorest region in Zambia, and most likely the most challenged by illness. Because of its remoteness, no one, either internally or external to Zambia, makes this region a priority.
Our angels will return here some day, flanked by more nurses, physicians, therapists and technicians. This has become our passion and we will always remember that it was Lianne, Jessica and Cameron who began this journey.

Bill with the children at the orphanage

Thanks to the three of you for making this epic journey.

Bill

A snapshot of events

2008-11-09T10:16:00.001-08:00

Lianne, Fay, and Jessica with Lewanika's new bus

I am a lucky woman. It is not often that teachers have the privilege of witnessing the goals of curriculum displayed in the work of former students. I’ve had the pleasure of being included in a trip to Zambia to visit Lianne Jones; Jessica Barker in Mongu, Western Province. All of our faculty would be so proud to see them living the concepts of humanism, community development, advocacy and caring. Their work with health care providers and nursing students will provide the grounding for future collaboration between UBCO students, faculty, Kelowna health care professionals, and Zambian health care professionals. They embody these concepts and in the doing, make us proud. They are true global citizens.

Fay giving out tattoos with a group of children at the orphanage

Our time in Zambia seems like a series of snapshots:

Smiling faces and hugs at the airport
A herd of zebras on the way to Mongu
A hospital too full, too many sick, not enough staff, training or equipment
Faces of Zambian nurses, tired, overworked, but smiling
A baby with obvious signs of HIV smiling in a cot on the paediatric ward
Playing games with a hundred smiles at the orphanage
The “hair standing” singing from student nurses
Two young white Canadian women surrounded by Zambian friends and students
A small premature baby surviving against odds
The face of HIV on co-workers and client
The sound of the animals in the game park
A beautiful carmine bee catcher flashing
The brave faces, both black and white who deliver health care and hope
All of us, Jessica’s family (Mike and Diana), Gary O’Connor, Cam O’Connor, Bill Nelems, Jessica, Lianne and myself – laughing as we watch a sunset, lightning and a hippo in a game park...toasting our work and the work to follow

Zambia, you are beautiful and brave,

Fay Karp

Lives Forever Changed…

2008-11-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

the barker - Jones Family on the Sunset Cruise in Livingstone

It’s easy to understand why Jessica and Lianne’s hearts have been drawn back to Africa. The people we have met and observed, the cultural aspects we have experienced and the wilderness environments we have been able to be a part of during our short time here has truly been amazing. Our lives have been enriched by this incredible experience. I have witnessed and listened to how Jessica and Lianne have embraced the people and this country, but even more moving has been how the people and their country have embraced and accepted them… to each, lives have ever changed.

For me, this trip has been filled with emotion. I am humbled by the beautiful and proud Zambian people. I am fascinated by their culture, moved by their music, and I marvel at how they adapt to their environments.

The outlying villages are so simplistic in their living arrangements. Their life is hard and health care difficult to deliver. The villagers daily chores of survival are daunting, yet everyday the sun sets and a new dawn rises. The incredible pink, blue, and indigo colours of the sunrise can’t help but shout out a powerful sign of hope and a message that every day brings a chance to start over… and so they do.

For those back home, I know you too would be proud to see how Jessica and Lianne have been respectfully received and professionally advocating with government officials, heads of Universities, NGO’s and teaching schools. They have and are committed to continue to make a difference in the hospital and in the community settings of Mongu and Western Province. I can’t wait for them to come home and share their stories and experiences. You will be very very proud.

It has been a privilege to be accompanied on our trip by Bill, Fay and Gary. Their guidance and support to the girls has been unconditional. It is because of the dream and generosity of Dr. Bill Nelems that they have come here to help this country from whence he lived and loved as a young boy. It is through Fay, their much loved professor, now colleague, who has been an excellent role model of her work with students and colleagues in Ghana. She has proved that through commitment and caring you really can make a difference. You are both an inspiration to Jessica and Lianne (and to so many others), not only by so generously giving of yourselves and sharing your knowledge and passion, but by proving that ordinary people with the right combination of character and determination really can make positive change…no matter how big or small they might be. Even Mother Theresa would be proud!

Sunrise at the Safari Camp

Gary, your questions, answers and sincere sense of caring brings comfort to us all. Knowing your and Linda’s teams of professionals will soon be returning to Mongu and the surrounding villages. And that is through your work you will be helping to improve the health care of these incredible and deserving people of Zambia’s Western Province.

To the sisters in the convent, the students and staff at Lewanika School of Nursing and the hospital in Mongu and to the caring support given by their colleagues in Lusaka, we give thanks to you for embracing our children and for caring and loving them in our absence.

We will never forget shopping in the many markets, the majestic Victoria Falls, or the river rafting on the Zambezi. We are forever indebted to the village of Mongu and the Norman Carr safari staff for their incredible adventures and attention they provided to us.

As we bid farewell to Zambia, the real Africa, we give thanks for the blessings of this experience and for the opportunities you have bestowed upon us and our girls. Please continue to keep them safe and know all of our lives have been both touched and enriched by our being here. We pray you will have continued hope for a brighter future and remember what you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for.
Our Lives are Forever Changed.

Thank-you,

Diana and Mike Barker

A Day to Celebrate Children

2008-10-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

This child was born at 28 weeks gestation (normal is 40). It has survived 5 weeks with no medical intervention and being fed by a syringe. The mother died in childbirth, but this child shows how miraculous life can be.

At the beginning of this journey Jessica and I were given Angel Cards (Oracle Cards) by our friend Sandy that we met at a non-violent communication workshop. These cards have different messages and answers on them that are suppose to guide you and your feelings. Everyday Jessica and I pulled a card from the deck to boost our moral for the day. So many times the cards would ring true about how we were feeling or to what we have discussed the previous day. The week before we went to Malawi both of us pulled the “ocean” card multiple times…I know Malawi is not on the Ocean, but Lake Malawi was the closest thing to an ocean we had been near in a long time. We have not pulled a card for almost a month because we have been away. Yesterday we decided to pull one. It was the day that I was supposed to go to the pediatric ward. I have to admit I was feeling apprehensive because I am new to pediatrics and had never been to this ward before. That day I pulled the “child” card. The card read, “You care deeply about children, and they readily respond to your love. All children, including your inner child, require love, affection, and attention. Clear and open your heart and schedule so that you can give more time and energy to the children that need you.” If that was not a sign that I needed to go to the pediatric ward I don’t know what is!!

So our main focus right now is to be clinical instructors to the students. I found first year students on the floor, green and ready to learn. I orientated myself and said hello to the family and children and student nurses. I quizzed them on a few things and we started the day.

The first sad case of the day: a one month old baby in severe respiratory distress, has not had a bowel movement in 3 weeks, and has tested positive for Malaria. 3 doctors come in, each one saying the condition is something different. Either way, one suggests the family should go to Lusaka to be treated in the intensive care unit. I plead with the other doctors to let the family go as well (as I know the outcome at Lewanika due to the lack of resources will probably be fatal). The doctors agree, however, they needed much convincing.

Case number 2: protein energy malnutrition (lack of protein or all nutrients from the diet). Almost every child in the ward was being treated for malnutrition. There was one boy who stole my heart. This child was under 3 years of age with severe Kwashiorkor, a type of protein deficiency. He had puffy cheeks, belly, and feet from the lack of protein in his diet. When I sat down with the mother to ask what the child eats on a normal day she responded, “we don’t have money for breakfast, when we can he eats nshima (a carbohydrate) sometimes with cabbage if we have it). Almost no protein in his diet and very little of other nutrients as well. He is 1 of 5 children in this family. I taught the mother simple affordable ways to include protein in her children’s diet. I hope it was something that she could incorporate into her children’s diet….

Note the round face and belly. Despite the malnutrition, he was a typical 3 year old, flirting and playing with the nurse!

The next case was heartbreaking. There was a small child that had marasmus (malnutrition where the child is lacking all nutrients) resting with his grandmother. The child was crying and crying, so I picked the child up and tried to console it. The grandmother looked at me and said something in Lozi. When I asked someone who spoke English what she had said they replied, “she says you are an angel sent from heaven.” Wow, I almost broke down and cried right then and there. The child, who weighed less than 8 kg, looked to be about 3 months old. It was very shocking when I saw the child had teeth, which indicated that it was much older. The grandmother told me that the mother had a mental illness and she would often find the child laying in the dirt with no one else around. So the grandmother started to take care of the baby feeding it milk when she could. I wish I could describe how vivacious this grandmother was, she had to be a mother again and she was smiling and dancing with no worries in her mind.

It is hard to believe this child is 8 months old. I think we all need to appreciate grandmothers more after seeing this picture!

My experience here has really taught me to be an advocate for the patient. I have also learned to question things and really use my creative cap. There was a 13 year old child (HIV positive) with pneumonia. She had difficulty breathing so we propped her bed up with a piece of Styrofoam we found on the ward. This is one of the many tools that I have learned in Africa. I can not begin to express how grateful I am for my time here. Yes it is difficult to deal with emotionally, but it has made us much stronger individuals. So please don’t worry about us, we are doing fine here, and will be home shortly!!

Lianne

Meet “Big Boss” Max

2008-10-13T02:53:00.000-07:00

Occupation: taxi driver
Favourite Colour: Green (after being told that Lianne’s favourite color was green)
Marital Status: Single
Age: 29

We first met Max in a maze of at least 30 other cab drivers. What made us choose Max? Probably the huge sticker across his windshield that said, “Big Boss.” We thought it was funny. After driving for a total of 1 minute, we heard Backstreet Boys Blaring from his tape deck. We knew instantly that this was our cab driver in Mongu.

There is a bit of a language barrier with Max, so it is usually a one way conversation with Max adding, “sure sure,” every now and then. However, he is a great driver and very trustworthy. We usually see him everyday when we are out and about and will hear the familiar sound of his horn as he drives by.

He is now our official taxi driver and we call him whenever we need him. We wanted to choose one cab driver that we could help out financially while we are here in Mongu. Max’s physical appearance gives us the impression that he is struggling with his health, although we have never asked him about it.

Max’s tape deck was broken for almost 2 months. It broke our hearts not being able to hear Backstreet Boys. However, the other day he gave us a ride and his tape deck was fixed. We gave him Kenny Rogers, Christmas Classics, and The Real Nitty Gritty tape cassettes that Lianne’s mom was holding on to for some reason and she graciously donated them to a good cause. Max will always be our “big boss.”

Nursing at Mayukwayukwa

2008-10-03T01:27:00.000-07:00

Patients waiting to see us in the Out-Patient Department of one of the clinics

With our students we worked in 4 different rural health centers around Mayukwayukwa. Almost all of them are staffed by members of the community who have minimal training in health care. The whole time we were there, we did not see one doctor, they simply don't exist there. At the main clinic there is one enrolled nurse who works night and day. When she is not at the clinic, the housekeepers and other support staff are delivering the babies. Seriously. In our experience here we have witnessed a lot of disease and death due to the lack of proper health care. In fact while we were here, one day we ended up running a clinic..on our own! Seriously…it was just Jessica and Lianne running this thing. We were diagnosing and prescribing treatment for about 50 patients. Conditions we treated included malaria, mastitis, gastroenteritis, diarrhoea, threatened abortion, dysentery, ophthalmologic conditions, splenomegally, dysentery..and many more. We diagnosed and treated patients of all ages (although mainly pediatric patients) with no diagnositic tests or laboratory tests, we didn’t even have a thermometer!

Jess drawing up a tetanus immunization

Working as clinical instructors with our students at the Mayukwayukwa health centers involved teaching our students to operate clinics. The running of a primary health care facility is not just seeing patients in the outpatient department (similar to the emergency department). A rural clinic usually focuses on maternal child health. This means that they run programs on certain days each month to monitor the health of children and women at different stages. With our students we ran clinics for children under the age of five where we monitored the growth of the child, gave immunisations, and health talks on nutrition and common childhood ailments. The students also ran antenatal clinics where the progress of the mother and baby is monitored. The mother also receives a tetnus immunisation, malaria prophylaxis treatment, and teaching regarding healthy pregnancies. These are the three main areas in a rural setting, but anything can happen at anytime as in any health care setting!

Lianne getting ready to weigh the 200 children who came to one of our child health clinics

Our students giving a health talk to pupils at one of the schools (1000 children attend this school!)

Our role was to train our nursing students so that they will one day be able to run clinics of their own. We noticed that there is a lack of critical thinking from our students and we are working to teach them to make judgement calls on their own. It is a tough job, half the time we feel like we don’t know what the right thing to do is because we don’t work in sub-saharan Africa! However, we do know how to ask questions, and the importance of reference books as well. We are shocked by how much we actually do know and have learned just by working and teaching at Lewanika. We are thankful for the training we have had at UBCO as we feel that they really did prepare us for working in all situations, anywhere in the world.

The Fate of Mayukwayukwa....

2008-10-03T01:07:00.000-07:00

We have met other workers here, one group is working for the Zambian government regarding Land Mine Awareness. To be honest we never really considered that Zambia would have landmines, as this country does have a history of peace. But as we have learned from these government workers, there was fighting before the post-colonial days between Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) and Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia). Landmines are also all over the Zambian borders near Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Namibia. Some of these countries are actively in conflict, others have not seen conflict in a while. There have been an estimated 400 deaths from Landmines in Zambia. They even said one month ago someone in our Southern Province from accidentally stepping on a landmine. Angola has the second highest amount of landlines in the world (second to Cambodia). There are new landmines still being laid in areas of fighting such as Angola, Sudan, and Niger. We have noticed many people with amputations around the camps and can only assume that many of these injuries are due to land mines or as a result of fighting.

Children collecting water at a local bore hole

We have been talking with many staff members at the refugee camp. Here are some things we have learned. UNHCR, the United Nations organization that is funding this camp, will be pulling out of here at the end of this year. The UN has deemed the country of Angola as ‘no longer in conflict’. Therefore Angolans can no longer consider themselves refugees. To be classified as a ‘refugee’, you must meet a list of critieria, and one of those criteria is that you are fleeing a country that is considered in conflict. Unfortunately the Angolans at Mayukwayukwa refugee camp are being told they have to go back to Angola. Many of them say they will be killed as they belong to the opposite party that is currently in government. Angola is also right in the middle of elections right now. Mayukwayukwa also has refugees from DRC, and Burundi, these refugees must also leave. But they cannot go back to their countries either, as they are still in conflict. Therefore these refugees must be resettled into another refugee camp, or they can be resettled in another country…such as Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, USA etc. Imagine the cost it would take to move a person or family to a new country (resettlement). Not to mention how difficult it would be for those refugees to integrate themselves into a “Western” society where they come from living a very different lifestyle. Where will they work? How will they afford to live? How do they deal with the cultural differences?

At this time Mayukwayukwa has over 10, 000 refugees. There is no way they will be able to clear all of these people out of here. Realistically what will happen is the UNHCR will pull out of here in December, leaving so many of these refugees behind. While the UNHCR pulls out, so do all the other NGO’s working here (e.g. Red Cross, African Humanitarian Association). There used to be many NGO’s working here at Mayukwayukwa, but once they heard word that UNHCR was pulling out, so did they. The World Food Programme (WFP) currently supplies food (and by food I mean maize meal) to the majority of the people here. Some of the refugees are able to supplement this by farming, but not all are capable. The WFP had a meeting last week in Lusaka and made the decision to pull out at the end of October. I asked one of the workers here what are all the people going to do that depend on this food for survival? He said to me ‘They will starve’.

Here is a tent containing food from the World Food Programme...looking very empty

To sum it up, most Angolans will be “voluntarily” repatriated back to Angola. A few, maybe 100 if they are lucky, will be resettled overseas to developed countries. The rest are going to be without food by the end of this month. The remaining refugees will be staying at the camp while all the developmental and humanitarian aid pulls out leaving them helpless.

The Life of a Refugee

2008-10-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

Children of the camp

Mayukwayukwa was established in the 1970’s and has over 10, 000 refugees from Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Angola. The camp is divided into 53 Sectors, with most refugees living with people from their own country. An interesting fact is that not only have we had to deal with multiple tribal languages, but most of these countries don’t even speak English. Rwanda, Burundi and DRC all speak French as their first language, whereas Angola speaks Portuguese. Jessica is loving that she can once again practice her once fluent Francais, and Lianne is in love with the Portuguese as it is so similar to Spanish. We have come with 12 of our nursing students, and two other instructors (Mr. Mumbuwa and Mrs. Ngwila). The purpose of this experience is so that the students really get to learn what nursing in a rural setting really means. Therefore they have had to plan and cook all of their meals on charcoal stoves, and sleep all together in two tiny rooms. Not to mention they have to cook for very demanding instructors! (NOT us by the way….we have been eating the food like good little girls) Jessica and Lianne have really had to ‘go with the flow’…and eat truly Zambian dishes. This means eating the Zambian staple food ‘Nshima’ (a maize porridge) twice a day! The students have had a hard time dealing with Lianne’s vegetarianism, so she pretty much gets 4 eggs a day. We have the hugest portion sizes, because they worry we don’t eat enough. One lump of Nshima has the caloric intake of two big macs, how do these people eat it everyday????

Over 80% of the refugees are women and children in refugee camps all over the world. That is because it is often the men who are left behind to fight, or end up dying in war.
It has been interesting talking to the refugees; the women have really opened up to us. The one topic that comes up when we talk to the refugees is ‘suffering’. Everyone expresses how much they have suffered, they feel trapped in this whole cycle of poverty. For them they don’t see hope to escape the refugee camp, and make a new life for themselves. Many of the refugees have been here for years. They can’t go back to their own countries for various reasons, some belong to the opposition party and will be killed if they return, others have no family or homes left to return to. The sad truth is that these refugees don’t have access to proper health care, food security, safe water…all the basic things for life. But this is better than what they had in their home countries. So what are they to do?

A woman and her cute baby at one of our clinics

Many refugees also left their jobs when they left their countries. But in Mayuwayukwa there is little opportunity for work. So many refugees have skills, and were once working professionals..they want to work, they need money for their families to survive! But yet again in the refugee camp there is no opportunity,. And then if they get the chance to get into a town in Zambia, they have a hard time integrating into the Zambian society. Meaning some the locals do not want refugees, or people of another nationality coming to live in their country. It must be hard to feel like an outsider wherever you go. Again comes the question ‘What do these people do?’. They are stuck in this vicious cycle of poverty.

This is Abdul, he is a refugee from Burundi. Jessica was able to practice her French with him..lots

2008-09-19T00:04:00.000-07:00

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the organization that deals with refugees on the ground. It was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 6,300 people in more than 110 countries continues to help 32.9 million persons.

Zambia is one of the top ten host countries in the world for refugees. Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola are three of the countries that border Zambia, and considering the state that all three of these countries are in right now..you can see why people would be feeling these countries. Zambia currently hosts 113,000 refugees, with the majority from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The area where we will be going receives refugees from DRC, Angola and Rwanda. The name of the camp is Mayukwayukwa, it is located within the Kaoma district of the western province of Zambia. We will be taking our nursing students to this refugee camp for two weeks, there they will completing the community outreach part of their nursing programme.

We will post more upon our return!

Jessica and Lianne

More experiences from the HIV clinic....

2008-09-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

A few of the countries surrounding Zambia and their HIV rate

The topic of HIV is continually on my mind. After traveling to another HIV ravaged country, Malawi, it just makes me realize how big the problem of HIV is all over Sub-Saharan Africa. The life expectancy of a Zambina is 39 years, there are many reasons why this number is so low…and one of them is HIV. It is interesting to note that you really don’t see much of it if you were just a tourist traveling through sub-saharan. It is once you start integrating yourself into the culture and seeing the everyday reality of a Zambian, does the shock of the reality of HIV really hit. The Zambians go to funerals ALL the time here. We always see groups of vehicles around town carrying friends and families to funerals. At night as I am going to sleep, I can hear the people living around us singing funeral songs and wailing. This has truly been a wake-up call for me.
This ‘wakeup call’ has just driven me to continue working at the HIV clinic. There is so much to know about HIV care, it is so complex! I have taken my usual attitude of just throwing myself into the madness at the clinic and asking as many questions as possible...so I can learn as much as possible about HIV care. And I am telling you that once the clinic opens its doors on Monday morning….it is overwhelmed with people each and every day. It is truly organized chaos in there, and so full of people that there is no room to even move. The clinic is constantly overcapacity, and just further emphasizes the epidemic this country is facing.

I often see babies such as this HIV positive baby...

I have had a many memorable moments and then again some really sad ones too. Today I was looking at the lab results for one of my patients. They use what is called a CD4 count to monitor the level of HIV in the blood, and to see if the HIV medication is working properly. I could tell she was nervous about the results, and wondering if her CD4 count had increased. (The CD4 count should be increasing once a patient is started on medication) So I looked at the results, and told her that they had increased. She was so happy that she gave me the biggest hug right in front of the whole clinic. These are the moments that I enjoy most.
There have been many heartbreaking moments as well. Today I had to tell someone they were HIV positive for the first time. It is very much like delivering someone the news that they have cancer. Except here we know without a doubt that this disease will kill them, and much sooner than if they lived in Canada. It is so unfair. I looked at the test results and said to her, ‘you are positive’. Those few words just completely changed the course of her life. I saw it in her eyes..and it was a look I will never forget.
I will also never forget having a mom and young son come in who where both HIV positive. The mother had been non-compliant with her medication for various reasons. After three months of being non-compliant with HIV medications, patients have to be completely taken off the medication and are not allowed to return back to taking them. This is not to be cruel, but it is actually because the HIV virus has already had a chance to mutate and now the medications will no longer be effective in stopping the HIV virus from multiplying in their body. If someone stops taking their medications properly they are ‘just putting another nail in their coffin’ as a nurse at the clinic so bluntly put it. This situation occurred with the mother and son. Because the mother had not been taking her medications properly, she was not given anymore meds. Unfortunately so was her young son because she had not been giving him his medications properly. The nurses told me he had only been off his medications for one month, and they could already tell he was deteriorating. To me he looked so sick, and it was heartbreaking knowing that his quality of life could be improved with just these simple meds, but it was too late. So unfair that he really had no choice in the matter. It was hard for me to watch as a bystander, and not be able to jump in there and fix things…like I am so used to doing as a nurse!

Prevention messages like this can be seen all over Zambia

At times it is hard not to be overwhelmed by this disease. I always knew that HIV was a problem in the world, but to be honest it was never truly until nursing in Zambia that I realized…they aren’t lying when they say that millions of people are dying of AIDS in this world. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I don’t think I truly grasped the reality of HIV until it was staring me in the face. It was when I started physically touching these patients and caring for them that it hit me. Now it is my job to make everyone in the world gets it like I just got it.
Anyone want to help?

Jessica

Malawi: The warm heart of Africa

2008-09-11T04:09:00.000-07:00

Don’t worry everyone..we are alive and well. Here is some information to introduce you to Malawi, the beautiful country where we spent the last two weeks!

Landlocked Malawi ranks among the world's most densely populated and least developed countries. Like many African countries, Malawi was once a British colony called Nyasaland. It became the independent nation of Malawi in 1964. When translated, the name Malawi means Lake of Stars. It is bordered by Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia, and it is slightly smaller than Pennsylvania.

Fishermen on Lake Malawi

The economy of Malawi is predominately agricultural with about 85% of the population living in rural areas. Major agriculture products are tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, corn, potatoes, cassava (tapioca), sorghum, pulses, groundnuts, Macadamia nuts; cattle, and goats. Agriculture accounts for more than one-third of GDP and 90% of export revenues. The performance of the tobacco sector is key to short-term growth as tobacco accounts for more than half of exports. The economy depends on substantial inflows of economic assistance from the IMF, the World Bank, and individual donor nations.

Tea Harvesting

Tobacco Harvesting

The government faces many challenges including developing a market economy, improving educational facilities, facing up to environmental problems, dealing with the rapidly growing problem of HIV/AIDS, and satisfying foreign donors that fiscal discipline is being tightened. The life expectancy of a Malawian is 43 years, which is comparable to Zambia. Estimates take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS (the AIDS rate in Malawi is 14%, which is also quite comparable to Zambia….and really high!!); this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.

Wowee Malawi

2008-09-11T01:22:00.000-07:00

Sunset over Lake Malawi

Our students were on a two week break as we have finished the lecture portion of their semester. We thought we would take this break to do some travelling and get to know more of Southern Africa. Many people have told us about how amazing Malawi was so we decided to go and see how beautiful it was for ourselves.
We first had to bus from Mongu to Lusaka. Our high priority was to try a veggie burger at Steers, the local fastfood joint (seriously there is no where to eat in Mongu). We were excited to be in the big city and be able to blend in a bit more. Then we took another looooooong bus ride to Chipata in Eastern Province, Zambia. This bus ride was suppose to be 5 hours as promised by the bus operator. However it took us 15 hours! The bus left 2 hours late, broke down for 3 hours and we had to wait on the side of the road in the blistering sun for someone to drive the part to us from Lusaka. Then while we were driving, someone threw a rock at the window and smashed a window two seats up from us. It was like being in a war and a shot was fired and everyone hit the ground. But don’t worry moms, we are ok. The plan was to get to the capital of Malawi that day, but we spent the night in Chipata to avoid travelling at night.
The next trek was from Chipata to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. It goes as follows: cab to border, change money illegally inside cab, flirt with border guards, stamp passports, cab to the nearest town, grab a minibus, and finally off to Lilongwe…In the capital things were a little hectic as always. Jessica luckily made a friend on the bus who “helped” us get a cab to our hostel. He was a little upset when she wouldn’t kiss him, but what did he expect, they just met right? Ohhhhh Africa.
We spent two nights at a great hostel where we met some fun people and lounged by the pool. Our favorite ones were two guys from Israel, they would make us their traditional coffee at their campsite..on their little campstove. Has anyone ever had Israeli coffee before?? It is strong stuff! This was just the beginning of the many Israeli’s we would run into during this trip. We learned that the reason for meeting so many young Israeli’s is that they all must put in 3 years of Army service once they turn 18 (both men and women). Once they are out…they all just want to see the world and travel!
We took another bus to get to Mzuzu where we spent one night to avoid traveling in the dark. The next morning we mini bused to Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi where, after 5 days of travelling long hours, we decided to spend an entire week just relaxing.
Our resort was beautiful. There was no room in the hostels when we got there, but the owner let us stay in a chalet for two nights at dorm price (4$). The chalet was so amazing that we ended up staying there all week (10$ a night thereafter). We had a private little beach, and the view of the lake was outstanding.

The chalets where we stayed on Lake Malawi

We met so many fun travelers from all over the world. We ate at unreal buffets where our plates were heaping with both comfort food and local dishes as well. The majority of our days were filled with swimming and sun bathing. However, we did frequent the markets in town and a few boat trips as well. It was free to borrow snorkel gear from the hostel so every morning we snorkeled and saw the glorious cichlids (over 850 species of cichlids in Lake Malawi) which is the fish found in the lake. Lianne went scuba diving and saw mama cichlids fight off predators and then all the babies would hide in her mouth when she felt threatened (up to 40 fish in her mouth!!).

Chiclid Fish we saw while snorkeling

The feel of Nkhata bay was extremely laid back. The place was filled with Rastafarians and mostly every night the place had live music. One thing we did notice was almost everyone smoked, which is quite different from Zambia as no one there does! This is probably because Malawi’s primary export is tobacco..so that means supply is plentiful for the locals.
We were very sad to leave Lake Malawi as we knew that we were leaving behind such a beautiful place. We also knew we had to make that loooooooooooong trek all the way back to Mongu.

Well we made it back, no break downs on the way back ..or rocks thrown at our bus! We stayed an extra day in Lusaka, to stock up on a few things from the big city that we can’t get in Mongu. We were so excited to go grocery shopping and get items that we are unable to find at our local grocery store (which I must say is lacking in many things!!) Our most exciting finds were hair conditioner, mustard, salad dressing, salsa and taco shells. In the big city we went out with friends who took us bowling and for sushi. Yes we had sushi in Africa, it was actually pretty good..but really expensive.
The last leg of our journey was the bus ride back to Mongu. Pretty cool that to get to Mongu we have to drive through one of the biggest game parks in Zambia. On this trip we saw zebras on the side of the road! (as well as the usual elephants, antelope, impalas, warthogs, etc) It was so nice to be in familiar territory again. We got off the bus station and instead of being hassled and ripped off by all the cab drivers just waiting for the tourist mizungus (white people)…we had our local trusty cab driver Max waiting for us! It feels so good to be home. It got HOT in Mongu in those two weeks that we were gone. We are worried because everyone keeps telling us that October is the hottest month. We are both already sleeping with no covers, and fans on continuously. We are going to be in big trouble once October hits!
We were also very excited to return back to Mongu because Cam had just returned from a trip back to Canada. He was waiting for us with so many care packages from home. It was really Christmas in September!!! Cam was also able to bring back much needed textbooks, and computer software that will go to help the school of nursing. Thank-you to everyone who sent stuff with Cam, it was the best Christmas ever.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa dies at 59

2008-08-21T04:32:00.000-07:00

We learned yesterday that the Zambian president died. Here is an article we found on-line from the Globe and Mail to update you on the situation:

LUSAKA — Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who broke the African tradition of silence and solidarity among leaders to denounce neighboring Zimbabwe's economic ruin, died in a French military hospital Tuesday. He was 59. Mr. Mwanawasa had suffered a stroke and collapsed at an African Union summit in Egypt in June, losing Zimbabweans the voice of one of their few champions on the continent. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Mr. Mwanawasa's death “a great loss for the African continent” and for democracy.

Mr. Mwanawasa was airlifted from Egypt to France's Percy Military Hospital, where he remained until he had an urgent operation on Monday and died on Tuesday, according to Vice President Rupiah Banda. Mr. Banda made the televised announcement “with great grief and deep sorrow.”Mr. Mwanawasa's illness precipitated power struggles within and between Zambia's political parties and his death leaves a power vacuum. Mr. Mwanawasa did not groom a successor, and Mr. Banda was expected to continue as acting president until an election that must be held within in 90 days.

Widely regarded as a man of integrity, he won praise for breaking the traditional silence of African leaders to criticize his autocratic neighbour, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, which encouraged a few other African presidents to show their displeasure.
Speaking earlier this year of Zimbabwe and the exodus of millions of its citizens, Mr. Mwanawasa said the country “has sunk into such economic difficulties that it may be likened to a sinking Titanic whose passengers are jumping out in a bid to save their lives.” Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was one of the first to pay tribute to a “good friend and comrade” who stood up for democracy in southern Africa.“His passing-on is a sad day to the Zimbabwean people,” said Mr. Tsvangirai, who had repeatedly asked that Mr. Mwanawasa replace South African President Thabo Mbeki in mediating the Zimbabwean crisis.

Mr. Mugabe was long revered as an African independence hero, but the softly spoken Mr. Mwanawasa — Zambia's third president since independence from Britain in 1964 — was not bound by the liberation movement ties of older African leaders.
Mr. Mwanawasa was equally outspoken about Western criticism of the unconditional aid that China is pouring into Africa, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars China has invested in mining Zambian copper.“You people in the West redeem yourself before you begin attacking China,” Mr. Mwanawasa told an audience in the United States last year. At home and abroad, Mr. Mwanawasa won praise for fighting corruption and modernizing Zambia's economy.
But he admitted that he had failed to lift the nation of 12 million people out of crushing poverty.

Mr. Mwanawasa tamed inflation, from 21.7 per cent when he became president to an estimated 6.6 per cent. His economic austerity and market-opening policies drew support from Western donors who in 2005 canceled nearly all of Zambia's $7.2 billion foreign debt.
He is survived by his wife Maureen and six children. Funeral plans were not immediately announced.

Meet Silumbu (AKA: The Team Leader)

2008-08-21T03:35:00.001-07:00

Favorite colours: green and grey (we would like to note when we ask this question, they answer with the color of the clothing we are wearing at the time)
Marital Status: Married with 4 children
Can be heard saying: “wow” and “wennnnnnna (you in Losi)”
Future Goals: to pursue his masters in public health
Favorite Past times: reading and watching movies
Morning Rituals: waking up at 4 am to do “press ups and things like that”

We first sae a picture of Silumbu when Dr. Nelems brought it back for us from his trip to Zambia in March. When we first saw the picture we thought he looked nice and we were excited to start working with him. We had exchanged a few emails back and forth and he was excited about us coming to share our enthusiasm and knowledge.

Silumbu is a bachelors prepared Registered Nurse who completed his training in Lusaka at University Teaching Hospital. After graduating he worked in Kalabo, a rural town in Western Zambia. In Kalabo, Silumbu met his wife who just so happens to be a nurse as well. From there he took the job at Lewanika Nursing College as one of 2 tutors.

After meeting Silumbu we instantly fell in love with his charisma and charm. Our favorite memory of Silumbu was on our trip to Botswana. He gave himself the title of “team leader” and took charge in many situations. He takes a leadership role at the Nursing College as well.

Silumbu has been in charge of Jessica and Lianne’s extra curricular activities while in Mongu. He likes to make sure that we are entertained and wants to ensure that we do not over work ourselves. In fact, last weekend he organised a braii (bbq) for us with a couple of his friends down by the Zambezi. One of Silumbu’s other past times is trying to set Lianne and Jessica up with his many friends.....

All in all, Silumbu is our go to guy when we are feeling down and need a good laugh. He has a heart of solid gold!

More realities of AIDS...

2008-08-18T01:32:00.001-07:00

Today I worked in the outpatient HIV clinic at Lewanika Hospital. I have been doing so much reading about HIV because I have been feeling like I know nothing about the disease, nevermind how to care for patients with this condition. In the most topics that I have taught my students the one underlying condition is AIDS. It really has completely changed how a nurse practices here. So I thought it would be a good experience to come to the HIV clinic here in Mongu, and see how they manage HIV patients.

The total population of Zambia is approximately 10.9 million. As of 2003 it was found that 1.1 million Zambians were living with HIV/AIDS. So basically that means about 10% of the population is HIV positive, but the scary thing about this statistic is that it is wrong. For many reasons, we know there are way more people with the disease that have not been counted in this statistic.

I walked in to the clinic at about 8am to find it absolutely packed with people, there was no room to even move. They put me immediately to work. My role was to be the first contact with the HIV patients, and begin their assessment with the usual vital signs (Temp, Blood Pressure, Pulse, Respirations and Weight). I did this for 75 patients…75!! I was processing people of all ages with HIV, from small babies, to children, teenagers, young adults, and the middle aged. Most people I screened seemed to be quite healthy, but did pick up on a few seriously ill patients. It only took me a few minutes to get a routine going, reminded me of my West Africa nursing days when we screened patients in prenatal clinics. In my usual nursing style I was multitasking to the extreme. At one point I had about three kids going, and then a line of prisoners (from our local jail) came in all handcuffed together that I needed to see. Nurses are masters of efficiency. I was also holding all the babies so their mothers could be weighed to monitor weight loss. As usual all the babies would play with my hair! My ears hurt at the end of the day from having the stethoscope stuck in them all morning.

As I was seeing all these patients, again the reality of AIDS here in Zambia struck me. I just never seem to get used to the idea that all these people are dying needlessly. This disease is 100% preventable, at if properly controlled with medication can become a chronic illness. Even with my experience here in Africa I still feel like someone with HIV in Canada is somehow different. In Canada they all can access medications that allow them to live 10 to 20 years. Here all I see on the medical floor is person after person dying in their 20’s and 30’s. At some point I found myself thinking, all of the people in this room will be dead in less than 10 years. Then I looked at women who were there with their babies and thought who is going to care for their children when they die? Another thing that just broke my heart was seeing the pediatric HIV patients. These children are so innocent, how is it fair that they have to deal with the burden of this disease?

At the end of the day I was beat. I asked the nurses who work at the clinic how often they run the clinic here..thinking in my head that they probably just do it once a week. Nope I was wrong, they do this everyday. Everyday this clinic is FULL of people coming for HIV care. All the nurses kept asking if I would start working here because they are short staffed, and overworked with the amount of patients. Can’t promise anything but you know I will be back next week. Ok time to end it on a good note, here is a quote from a book I am reading about AIDS.

‘The images and descriptions of AIDS are too often morbid and extremely bleak, and while we should never underestimate the seriousness and potential devastation of this disease, we must also not forget the human side. The aspect of HIV/AIDS has brought out the very best in people, and there are many courageous stories about people affected by the disease, and the relationship that have been deepened and enriched through caring, understanding and compassion’

Jessica

i delivered my first baby!!

2008-08-18T01:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Diary,

Yes that is what this blog has turned into for me, a place where I can relay my thoughts and feelings. So back to that emotional roller coaster, these past few days have been all right. The frustration remains, but my outlook has changed.

Yesterday I got a package from my family. WOW! I can not tell you how good a “fruit to go snack” tastes. In saying that we have been eating really well, but home will always be home (and when I return all I will want in Nshima). It took almost 2 months to get the package, but it made my whole week! Thanks mom and dad.

Yesterday was one of my favourite days in Africa. Right up there with my visits to the orphanage. I worked on the labour and delivery ward while Jessica went to the HIV clinic. Right off the bat a women was set up to go to the operating room for a Caesarean Section. She had a previous section for having a big baby that wouldn’t fit through her pelvis (CPD) and was not progressing with this baby, so she was sent to the OR. In the OR, the General Practice doctor scrubbed in (remember they have no surgeons) and the woman was put under general anaesthetics (usually in Canada we would use an epidural as it is less of a risk for the mom and baby). The baby was born pretty blue….so the midwife held the baby up by the feet and started to rub the baby to get it to cry….The methods used to stimulate the baby’s first breath were different than ours (I’ve never seen a baby held upside down from it’s feet!!) but regardless, the baby was fine and we welcomed a baby girl into the world.

As I got back to the ward, there was a first time mom who was starting to push. I popped into the labour room and the midwife says, “do you want to deliver this one” as she was cleaning up after the last delivery (which was right beside this bed only 1 foot away). I thought, well I taught all the students the theory on how to deliver babies, and I’ve seen lots before, and she is only right there. So I did it! I delivered my first baby all on my own. It was so amazing, this mom did really well, and the baby was a little premature (34 weeks) which I was kind of glad because it slipped out of there real nice and was very vigorous too. The midwifes were so supportive all day and it was one of my favourite hospital experiences. Plus, it reminded me of home and how amazing my job is. I am so lucky to be a nurse, I get to teach and be with patients….It is the best of both worlds here.

A few things I need to note so you can get the full experience. Women who have babies here are often quite young and usually have many many children. The first time being pregnant, as we all know, can be a scary experience. In Canada the support of a labouring patient is unreal. There is the husband/boyfriend, the nurses, the doctor/midwife, the extended family, a few friends, maybe a doula….lots of people. Women here are not allowed to have anyone in the room while they deliver except the midwife. Imagine being 16 and having your first child while a stranger is yelling at you to push. I think this is why I felt so humble that I could be part of this experience for this amazingly stoic woman. However, once the baby is delivered, the extended family does EVERYTHING. From watching the IV rate (mainly to see if it stops dripping) to bathing the baby and mother. Things are not better or worse here, they are just different and it is so important to keep this in mind when seeing a new culture in play.

When I called my mom to thank her for the package she made a really good point. “You are making a difference Lianne, you helped bring a new life into the world today.” This is the taken for granted little things that I am able to do everyday to make a difference. I am so grateful that this was pointed out because it makes me realise how much the little things in life do count. It doesn’t matter if you are in Africa, Canada, or China (at the Olympics), one person has the ability to make a difference in someone’s life. Think about it, whether you are working with palliative patients, delivering babies, caring for new families, shaping the young minds of the world, or just being a good friend you are touching the lives around you in some way. I have just listed a few of the roles that come to my mind. You guys reading this blog and sending your words of encouragement, funny stories, or even just stories about what you made for dinner last night really make a difference in my life, and I never ever want you to forget about it.

love Lianne

attention UBCO

2008-08-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

To All of the nursing faculty at UBCO,

First off we need to say how sorry we are. Here are the following reasons why we are sorry:

- That we didn’t pay more attention in class
- That we complained about the amount of notes
- That we asked the question ‘what is going to be on the exam??’
- That we talked in class, passed notes and pretty much acted like children
- That we complained about having to buy textbooks
- We may have ‘put our heads down to rest’ a few times in class
- That we got frustrated when you couldn’t answer our questions
- That we kept asking you ‘why do we need to know this??’
- That we laughed when you had ‘technical difficulties’ with your computers

We did not appreciate how much prep work you put into all of your classes, the extra time spent meeting with us after hours, and taking the time to listen to our concerns. Sometimes all we want to do is shake our students and say ‘what more do want from me??’ What we have realized is that as a teacher ALL you want to do is make your students succeed. We get it. We finally get it!
So what we are trying to say is how truly grateful we are for EVERYTHING you have done to help us to succeed and lead us to this point. You shaped us into the nurses and teachers that we are today.

Love
Lianne "laughing in class" Jones and
Jessica "just started studying, the exam is tommorow" Barker

we are in a glass cage of emotionssssssssssssssss

2008-08-14T02:09:00.001-07:00

Today is our two month anniversary. Emotions are high. Our only Canadian friend here has left this week..and we are lost. Everyone told us that once you hit the two month mark, the reality of what you are doing sinks in. The reality is: we don’t feel like we are making a difference!!!

Here is what we are feeling:
Sad
Lonely
Wanting to come home to Canada
Worried and scared to come back home
To know what is going on at home
Frustrated
Useless
Lost
Confused
Grateful to have each other so we can talk

Ok I know everyone is starting to get really worried after reading these emotions, but this blog is turning into therapy for us. We do have a few reasons why we have been feeling this way. The first is that we have been working hard to prep our lectures and then to deliver them. It takes a long time to prepare for a lecture. At the beginning of our lectures, the students requested that we elaborate in more detail with our notes because they have no textbooks. Now, the students are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of content in the notes and are unsure of what to study (next week is the final exams). On that note, we don’t really know what they are suppose to study either, as there is no nation-wide specific curriculum and we are lacking guidance from our colleagues!

We are stressed because there is only one more week of lectures left for our 2nd year students. We still have so much content to cover, for various reasons. For the past two weeks none of the lecturers have been here, except for us. One day we walked into our class to find the students all sitting there with no teacher, not one teacher had shown up all day to any of the 3 lectures. When we went away, and assigned topics for substitute teachers, none of the topics were covered. Sometimes the teachers will just leave notes for the students and leave it to them to teach themselves. Since no one has been here, we have not had anyone to give us direction. Often we don’t know if the content we are covering is actually what the students really need to know!

We just found out that the results of last year’s licensing exam (equivalent to our nationwide RN exam)..the failure rate was 50% for Lewanika School of Nursing. How does that even happen? This is why we are feeling so frustrated and useless; we just don’t feel like we have enough time here to make a big impact. The problems are so much bigger than just going in and teaching, we see problems with attitudes, motivation and communication. All of these will take time.

Let’s address why we are feeling sad and lonely. First off we just miss the connection of our friends and family back home. We are going to be sad when people are talking about summer of 2008 (Pemberton Festival, the new music, all the new movies/TV shows that came out) and we are so disconnected from it all. So we feel like outsiders. We are also outsiders here as well, as we haven’t grown up in this culture and are feeling disengaged. Sometimes we wish that we could just be black and fit in so we can avoid being a spectacle all the time. It is not always in a negative sense, but when you walk down the street, you know that you are different from everyone around you. Don’t get us wrong, we have met some amazing people that have gone above and beyond welcoming us here. But we miss being able to relate to good ol’ Canadian sarcasm. So what we are trying to express is.. we know that when we get home we won’t feel like we fit in, and we don’t fit in here either, so if someone could just tell us where we belong we would appreciate it!!!!!

We are truly grateful for this experience, and we know we are being just a little bit irrational but that is how the progression of Expat emotion goes. All I can say is thank god for daily power outages that allow for time of reflection. Also, we would be lost without each other and don’t know how someone could do something like this on their own.

love jessica and lianne

Good Quotes..

2008-08-13T03:48:00.000-07:00

"For mine is a generation that circles the globe in search of something we haven't tried before, so never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite, and never outstay your welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience.... and if it hurts you know what - it's probably worth it."

This is a quote that our friend Joe sent us. He recently returned from a life changing experience in Tanzania, where he spent that last year educating about HIV/AIDS..among many other things! This explains how we all feel...

Jessica

Free The Children

2008-08-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to a website about a Canadian run foundation called Free The Children. When you get to this website check out the link that says 'Click here to check out additional videos'. Watch the one on Kenya...and you will understand why we love Africa so much.

http://www.freethechildren.com/aboutus/index.php

Meet Mubanga

2008-08-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

Name: Mubanga
Age: 30
Status: Very Single
Occupation: Driver for the Lewanika School of Nursing
Favourite Color: Yellow
Time in Western Province: His whole life
Favourite type of music: Gospel
The only thought running through our heads when he is driving us: We are going to die

Mubanga is our driver at Lewanika School of Nursing. He is responsible for picking up all the staff members in the morning, takes us all home for lunch, and then drives us home from school each day. We live quite far out of town compared to the other staff members, so we very much appreciate what he does for us.

When we first met Mubanga, we were ready to ask for a new driver. Because of his erratic driving, we really did think we might die…or we would hit someone else on the road. At first we didn’t think he really liked us (come on everybody likes us!) because he barely ever said two words to us. But then we realized we had quite the language barrier on our hands..as he answered Yes to every single question we asked.

Our bonding with Mubanga began with our ‘professional development’ trip to Livingstone. He enjoyed the music that we played (we busted out the ITrip), and our dance moves. He was also impressed with the fact that Lianne could drive the Land Cruiser.

Now every morning at 8am he picks us up with a smile on his face. He always says ‘Hello, Hello…and gooooooood morning!’ Every time we see him our little hearts just light up, and he now even talks to us each time we are together. We are still concerned for our lives due to his excessive speeding around town, but at least he cranks the music up loud when we get in the truck.

The Reality of AIDS

2008-08-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

Friday was our first day working in the hospital. It was weird to put on our scrubs again, we both feel like we don’t remember how to be nurses. We decided to go to the Female medical/surgical ward to try out our skills. Now normally in Canada the wards are split into medical and surgical each with their own specialties, but here due to lack of funding, staffing etc.. all the patients are on one ward. The ward we were on today had 40 patients…with only two nurses. The patients are so sick, I have no clue how the nurses are even coping. Another thing we noticed was how it is all young people that are dying. Those that are dying are between the ages of 20-40, no wonder the life expectancy of a Zambian is only 38 years.

We came onto the ward and began to shadow the two nurses on for that day. Our first duty was…dusting. Yes our Ghana Sisters, we were dusting again. Only this time people were dying all around us and we just kept spreading that dirt around. We were both at a loss as to what we were supposed to be doing. At home I would have been right at that person’s bedside, calling the doctor, giving medications..doing something! But we had to keep in mind that this was our first day, and we are here to learn from the nurses and support them. Part of the problem for nurses here is that they just don’t have the tools, supplies or resources to nurse their patients.
We attended rounds with the doctors, reviewing each patient. Here’s the shocking truth, 90% of the people are HIV positive. 90%! And they were all admitted due to secondary complications associated with AIDS. AIDS has completely changed the face of health care here. To be a nurse or doctor here in Zambia, you have to become a specialist in dealing with AIDS. Here is a list of conditions we saw today, most of which we have never seen at home:

Kaposi’s Sarcoma (secondary to AIDS)
Congestive Heart Failure (secondary to AIDS)
Cervical Cancer (secondary to AIDS)
Encephalitis (secondary to AIDS)
Herpes Zoster (secondary to AIDS)
Tuberculosis (secondary to AIDS)
Pneumocystis Carinii (secondary to AIDS)
Gastroenteritis (secondary to AIDS)
Snake Bites
2nd and 3rd degree burns

A heartbreaking thing for both of us is when the Zambian nurses ask how we treat our HIV positive patients. It is so hard to say that we barely ever see it in Canada. In our six years of nursing, collectively we have only had 2 patients with HIV. Then they ask us why we don’t have HIV. We don’t even know how to respond.

At home the majority of our patients come to the hospital; they get better and go home. Here people come to the hospital and they die. The whole hospital is basically palliative care, but they don’t even have the means to provide proper palliative care. It is a very disheartening experience for both of us, but it just makes us that much more thankful for what we have at home. Even though this is extremely hard, we know these are invaluable experiences that are shaping us into stronger and more well-rounded individuals.

Meet Sister Christina:

2008-07-31T03:31:00.000-07:00

Nationality: Irish
Favourite Colour: Green
Time in Zambia: over 20 years
Favourite drink: Johnny Walker Whiskey

Sister Christina was one of the first people we met when we first came to Mongu. We had only been corresponding with emails and text messages prior to our arrival. We thought for sure that she was a young local girl from the funky way she wrote her text messages, but upon meeting her we realized she was an experienced Irish Nun!!

The Moya O Kenile house (meaning Holy Spirit in Losi, a local tribal language), was built 5 years ago with Sister Christina’s Magic. She first went and asked the traditional king for the land. This is something that most locals would never do, let alone a foreigner. Next she designed the compound and houses, down to the type of nails used for construction. There are fruit trees and vegetable gardens that supply most of the food for the convent. Sister Christina ensures that the compound is self sustaining and chooses to be economically friendly and global minded. They recycle and use a compost, which many Africans fail to do.

She is literally a jack of all trades. She can be found doing yard work, painting, mixing cement, and baking scones. Her guava jam is a staple in our household and we often find fruit and vegetables on our doorstep from our little angel. She is familiar with the cultures and traditions of Zambia, and more specifically the Losi people. We often go to her for advice ranging from how to wrap a chintenge (a traditional Zambian wrap skirt) to how to clap properly when meeting the Losi King.

So whether it is advice or just a cup of tea, Sister Christina is our girl. She makes our house feel like a home.

African Hip Shakin’….A.K.A pop locking

2008-07-31T03:26:00.000-07:00

Lianne showin off her moves..see how they wrap cloth around your hips?? It's so you can shake em' good

Wowzas….On Tuesday night we were invited to a dance practice that the students hold. It is an opportunity for the Juniors to learn the traditional Losi songs and dances that they will perform at the graduation ceremony for the Senior students. As usually, we both took part in the dancing by showing off our amazing dance moves….However, we can not seem to perfect the gyrating hip movements those Africans can so well. We have never seen so many hips twist, bend, and pop, it looks like the hips are dislocating and then popping back into place. At first we were looking around the room, thinking to ourselves, “where will the music come from, I don’t see an electrical outlet.” Then we remembered we were in Africa, and all the music is created by the people. So the music was provided by two drummers, a man with a stick hitting a beer bottle, and the “choreographer” who had a whistle in her mouth. On top of all of this, the entire group (close to 100 students) all sang, clapped their hands, and created sweet sweet music.

The feel of the place went from a dark, dingy, dining hall to a vibrant African dance floor. Can you imagine what these people are capable. They can take something that seems worthless and turn it into solid gold! It is something that the developed world needs to learn to do.

We think it is important to note that this is what the students do every week, twice a week. They are a very close knit community, all living on campus. They spend most of their extra curricular time together either in dance, prayer, or sports. They must remain on campus, even on weekends, with very little time each semester to go to their homes. In fact, many of them are married with families and children and only get to see them a few times a year. They literally eat and breathe nursing. School is in session 5 days a week from 0800-1600 with an hour break from lunch. After these hours they spend the remainder of their free time writing out lecture notes and studying. Keep in mind that there are almost no textbooks, and they share the 1 copy of our lecture notes between all 50 of them (which they write out by hand).

Jess teaching about SCABIES....

We are really appreciative of all of our students, as it seems they have taken us under their wing. They invite to church, dance practice, and really seem to want to teach us about their culture. At lunch hour they show us how they cook their food and teach us the names of the local fruit and vegetables we don’t recognise. When we are in our office, they come and visit and want to see pictures of our home and families. They also enjoy hearing about nursing in Canada, and show a real eagerness to create change in their own country.

Our Senior nursing students

All in all, we are both learning from each other a great deal. And by the time we come back home we will be able to shake our hips and cook you a big pot of Nshima (the staple food here in Zambia)!

Jessica “These hips don’t lie” Barker and Lianne “you ain’t got nothing on me Britney” Jones

Crossing Borders

2008-07-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

So we are still on our professional development roadtrip at this point, but this blog was getting to be quite long so we thought we might break it up. It out well because on this professional development roadtrip we decided to check out a few of the neighbouring countries! Why not right? The next morning the group ended up deciding to go to Zimbabwe, since it is really close to Livingstone. Ok I know as soon as everyone reads that we went to Zimbabwe you are going to be worried. But we made it back safe and sound, and I was so glad the opportunity to see the country first hand. As usual we had to work our magic at the border crossing with the Immigration officials. They did not want to grant us visas because we could only pay in Zambian dollars. So to work our way around this little conundrum Lianne and I turned on the charm, and bribed them! The best part about it was we didn’t even need to use money but we gave them our pens, which by the way were a frog and butterfly that light up when you turned them on…it blew their socks off! Another interesting story about this side trip was when we tried to get our Zambian dollars changed over into Zimabwean dollars. We traded 20,000 Zambian dollars (which is worth about 7 US dollars ) for 60 BILLION Zimbabwean dollars. That’s right I said Billion..that is how much inflation is going on in the country right now. Here is the best part to this story…and shows how much we got duped! So after getting into Zimbabwe we learn that the actual exhange rate is 3500 (about 1 US dollar) Zambian dollars to 50 Billion Zimbabean dollars. So not only does that show how much we got ripped off….but it clearly shows how little the Zimbabwean dollar is actually worth. here is Mr.K with his 25 billion Zimbabwe Dollars. Worth 50 cents.....

At first I was really excited to go to Zimbabwe. I’m not going to lie, I wanted to be able to add it to my list of countries that I have visited on Facebook… I think this was one of the most valuable experiences I have encountered in my life so far. Reading about hardship in the news is nothing like witnessing it with your own eyes...not to mention what the people must endure on a daily basis. When we are in Livingstone there is always a larger lineup outside the grocery stores…why?? THERE IS NO FOOD IN ZIMBABWE. I have never, NEVER, walked into a grocery store with only 3 loaves of bread on the shelf. That’s it. 3 loaves of bread. The main shopping centre has entire rows of empty shelves. Men outside the store ask us to buy statues for 5 times what we would pay in Zambia, do you blame them? This is the small glimpse of what has happened in part of our world…A tiny taste of the monstrosities endured by millions of people living in a nation of crisis. I can not even explain the feelings that arouse from this priceless experience less than 100 kilometres from the border of Zambia.
Imagine walking into a Save On Foods, Safeway, or another major super makrket and finding this...
Just to add to what Lianne has said, it is so frustrating to watch how the government has shaped the country to what it is today. All the Zambians talk about how beautiful Zimbabwe used to be. It still is, yet nobody goes to visit anymore because of the political unrest. The town we visited was a ghost town, with absolutely nothing going on. We passed by huge beautiful lodges that are deserted, there is so much potential that is just going to waste…

Our trip to Botswana the following day was an uplifting experience. It was similar to a shopping trip to the US. We were able to get different foods and other tidbits that are unavailable in Zambia. Our first stop was at an African Costco…It was amazing!! Everything was in big bulk packages. We couldn't buy just one bag of rice, it had to be 10. Everyone went crazy buying boxes of food and so forth. We splurged and bought salad dressing (no more mayo dressing!!) olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a 4 foot long bag of cheezi’s, and much much more. Next we stopped by a chain of stores that imported goods from Asia. The women we were with can shop!! They bought 11 comforters…11. I was thinking how the heck are we going to get home with the boxes of food and 11 comforters. The packing begins, how many comforters are left?
I didn’t think we were going to be able to fit all of it in the Land Cruiser, but one thing everyone needs to know about Africans is that they sure know how to pack. Somehow it all fit and we started out for the border crossing back into Zambia. By this time it was already pushing close to 4pm, and the border crossing closes when it gets dark. So we were hoping for a short line up…but to my dismay as we drove up to the border crossing, there was the longest line-up of vehicles waiting for the ferry. I had the sinking feeling in my stomach that we would be spending the night at the border crossing, not something I was looking forward to!! BUT our fearless self-appointed Team Leader- Mr. Silumbu Mumbuwa (one of our teaching colleagues) decided he had a solution to this little problem. His plan was to be the ‘director of traffic’ and then just conveniently direct our vehicle ahead of everyone else’s so that we would make it on the ferry. Guess what…it actually worked! I can still see Silumbu in the midst of all these vehicles (I also need to add that he had a beer in his hand this whole time) saying ‘You…go over here…You drive this way..Stop..Stop…you must go this way!’ Somehow we made it back to Zambia that night. Thanks to our man Silumbu. All those bags plus all those people, wait someone is missing...

So needless to say, we didn’t leave for Lusaka that day as we had planned. The following morning the plan was to make the trek back to Mongu, leaving at 8 am. After we pack all the food, comforters, luggage, and 12 people into the Land Cruiser..we finally leave at 11 am. (remember nothing ever happens as planned here). We are exhausted and have pressure ulcers from the ride when we drive into Lusaka (the half way point of our trip home) By this time it is now 8pm, but we decide to press on to Mongu. The driver is very tired, but agrees to drive us home..we all just want to be home by now. At about 1 am I wasn’t sleeping, and noticed that the driver was swerving off the road a litte, because he was falling asleep at the wheel. He pulled over to take a 3 minute “rest” so I offered to drive. So here I was, 1 am in the morning driving on the left hand side of the road through Kafue National Park. I enlisted Jessica as my eyes….We passed one elephant, multiple hyenas, bush deer, and one water buffalo on the side of the road. But nonetheless we arrived alive. TIA!!! After a 19 hour car ride we arrived safe in Mongu and hit the sack!

I just need to add that this was my personal record for the longest drive of my life. 19 hours!!! I am so glad that it is over. Also, just when you think me and Lianne can’t get any closer..we find ourselves sleeping on each other..while racing through the cold African night. Now that is a whole new level of friendship.

Clarification: we were spooning.

A new Type of Nursing

2008-07-22T05:07:00.001-07:00

Ok so we really only taught one class each, then we actually peaced outta Mongu for the next week! Now I know everyone is thinking that it sounds like all we do is go on these little ‘roadtrips’, but this one was also related to school. Let’s just say it was for our professional development, because we headed off with our fellow teaching colleagues to research other schools of nursing in Zambia.
But first to give you a little more information, Lewanika School of Nursing has decided to apply to the General Nursing Council of Zambia to bring the registered nurse program to their facility (currently they only have a diploma course being offered over 2 years). So that is the reason the school decided to travel to Chikankata and Livingstone school’s of nursing to see how they have made the transition from certificate to diploma nursing programs. So on Tuesday the plan was to leave early at 5 am. Oh but wait..we are in Africa and nothing goes to plan here! So then we were told 10 am would be better. So we go to the school with our bags ready to go….and we waited. As we keep clock watching, 3pm roles around and we still aren’t gone. We discover they are fixing our vehicle, so it is decided that it would be best to leave at midnight …so at 10pm we leave. TIA (this is Africa my friends)!

So at first the ride is fun, all 11 of us plus the fish and baby are all crammed in together. This was good timing for us to be going on this trip since all of the instructors at Lewanika School of Nursing came. This was the perfect chance to get to know each other better. As we leave Mongu we are all having fun.singing and laughing..but then it starts to get cold, really cold. Yes it is shocking, but in Zambia right now it is so cold here at night. As usual I did not prepare for the cold..and begin to freeze…with only about an hour into the trip. This was the beginning of the longest trip of my life!!! So here we are driving through the african night…I am trying to sleep but have nowhere to put my head. But again I improvised and used my purse as my pillow (although fish juice leaked on it and it sure didn’t smell very nice) So now I am shivering with my head resting on my fishy purse. There is really no room to move, so I end up staying in that one position for hours on end. My butt is still recovering ..I may have developed a pressure sore from this trip from the lack of movement. The best part was when the baby was lying on me, because she kept me warm!

It really is that cold...And of course we did not pack right again, but we kept warm with the help of our friends, Jessica give me some of that blanket!

Jessica missed a few details…At first we shared the purse as a pillow. It was very cute and I think the others were talking about us. It seemed like we were the only ones in need of sleep. Those Zambians just went on for hours. I’m not going to lie, we both felt like we were going to die and we wanted to go home at this point (we mean home to Canada). But we pulled through and arrived at Chikankata in the morning. We had 30 minutes to freshen up and have a QUICK nap before the hospital/school tour. Our colleagues were very concerned about whether we were comfortable. They are very considerate and cared for us unbelievably well throughout this trip. The hospital and school tour was amazing. Chikankata is town that seems to be located in the middle of no where, yet it has surpassed the resources and training of Lewanika. This doesn’t make sense as Lewanika is located in the capital of Western Province, therefore should have more resources than a smaller, more rural town. Chikankata had new equipment, newer buildings, and the infrastructure wasn’t falling apart or broken. (Like most of Lewanika)
Chikankata Hospital with the help of Salvation Army.

One of the things I noticed was how the Chikankata Hospital and the School of Nursing are also funded by the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is a large supporter…which is why they are doing much better than Lewanika. Our school is funded strictly by the government, and that is just not enough right now. I guess the lesson I learned was the Government = no money, while Internationally Funded Groups = lots of money. Ok back to the story… So in the morning after a looooooooooong and wonderful sleep we headed off to Livingstone! I was so excited because I do really love this city. This drive only took 8 hours, and the road was only terrible for about 2 of those hours. On the way we saw about 3 car accidents, all large trucks that crashed because they were overloaded with too many materials. No one was hurt thank goodness, but they were all very lucky. Once we got to Livingstone we went straight to work and toured the nursing school there. Again this school is much further ahead than Lewanika. There are many areas in training, human resources, and infrastructure where Lewanika has to be improved. My opinion on gaining funding from non-governmental sources was further strengthened when we toured Livingstone, as they have received funding from the Clinton Foundation and African Debt Bank for improvements in their school and hospital.

I am so worried, look at my face, it is a wonder no one was hurt.

My heart raced every time I saw one of those semi trucks laying on its side. Everytime I thought, ‘this is it Lianne you could see some bad stuff here.’ Luckily no one was injured, but I hated the thought about what was going to happen to the poor driver who was now either out of a job or in debt to the South African Company shipping goods to Congo. Regardless it was good to be back in Livingstone. I though right on; we were finally in a town that was familiar to us. After visiting a few guest houses we “found one” that was safe enough for us to stay in (I was not lying when I said they were protective). We easily could have stayed in a cheaper hostel with no complaints, but our hosts wanted us to be comfortable. We dined out one night at our favorite restaurant, a little vegetarian place on the main street. It is run by this sweet old man and the place has a “Nelson” feel to it. There is a library and a gift shop inside, and we sat on cushions around an African table. The food is phenomenal. When we finished we went next door to a restaurant where there was a local performance happening. We had just sat down when we were grabbed by two of the dancers to go dancing on stage with a large group of other Mizungu’s (white people). Jessica and I were the first two picked to dance. I feel bad for everyone else that had to follow our awesome dance moves!

tweaked nipples

2008-07-22T04:51:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello our faithful followers…. This is a very exciting blog filled with many many events! We taught our first classes! It was very exciting, but felt very natural. The students seemed to enjoy the classes, but gave us a few pointers on the format they were used to receiving so we can adjust our next lectures. We were sitting in our office (yes it is true, we have an office!) and one of the students came in and said “we are very lucky to have you as tutors.” It was one of those moments where everything felt right in life, and it helped to alleviate some uncertainty about whether we were well received.

Now as usual you have to be ready for everything here in Africa. We came to Lewanika thinking that we would be delivering most of our lectures using Power Points (since that is what we are used to in Canada). So we both come prepared for the first lecture with our computers and LCD projector, only to have the power go out about 8 times during the lectures. But you know Lianne and me, we can improvise anything! So we did, and delivered our lectures in style, with a little laughter thrown in there. One of our lectures was on nursing management pertaining to disorders of the Nervous system. I was describing how to assess and unconscious patient, so I had pretended to be unconscious and asked one of the students to come up and practice their assessment skills. Now in Canada we would first try to rouse the patient by rubbing their sternum…but again here is a whole other story.. One I wasn’t quite expecting! So here I am lying down pretending to be unconscious (keep in mind this is in front of 50 students). And the student comes up and tweaks my nipple! Yes apparently that is how they do it here in Zambia. Needless to say we all laughed pretty loud when I reacted to this…

Yes, Jessica’s nipple pinch was one of my favourite moments. One of my least favourite moments so far was the 10 hour night ride in the back of a land cruiser with 11 people, fish, a baby, in the freezing cold! This is a whole other story we will get too… Now back to teaching. When we arrive into the class all the students stand up. Then they won’t leave the class until we do. We have told them many times that they do not need to stand when we arrive, but they insist. It is very humbling to be treated with so much respect. Jessica and I have decided to attend courses as well such as opthamology, tropical disease, and so on. It will be like free schooling!

I do need to attend a few other courses the students have to take. Subjects such as opthamology, tropical disease, and HIV are not really taught back home…because we often don’t see these diseases in Canada. But here in Africa they are seen so much and it nice to be able to broaden my knowlededge. So if any of you get malaria, tuberculosis or a worm at home, you know who to call. One of my favourite parts of teaching here happens before class even starts. The students always start out the morning with a song. It seems like every African man and woman was blessed with the gift of song, they all have such beautiful voices! And in the morning, the whole class sings. It is something I wish everyone could experience..it sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it. I will try to get a video and put it up on the blog…

Introducing...

2008-07-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Well I think that it’s about time for me to introduce myself: my name is Cameron O’Connor and that’s me in the middle down there.

Note: I'm going to be posting more or less random images of me from here on out

Now, because my lovely compatriots have decided to put up blogs updating all of you on what we’ve actually been doing, I am in the enviable position of having to write about pretty much anything I want. Thus I have decided to spend the next ten pages detailing the use of sepharose-glutathione columns in the purification of GST-fusion proteins expressed via E.Coli transfected with the pGEX6P-1 plasmid.

Did I scare everyone off yet? That was essentially a long winded way of letting you all know that I’m a biochemist by training. In fact I got my degree at the good ‘ol University of Alberta just before heading off on this fantastical adventure in Zambia. When I’m not threatening to bore people to death with technical explanations of standard modern biochemical techniques, I’m busy being a 22 year old guy that was born in Kingston Ontario before moving to Mississauga and then Kelowna where I went to school from kindergarten to grade 12 before leaving it all behind to go to the aforementioned institution of heavy drinking/higher learning.

Instead of ripping off a bunch of boring lists detailing my likes/dislikes/top ten X/most underappreciated cheeses/etc., I’ll jump right to talking about my personal thoughts about the trip thus far, leaving you, good reader, to parse out exactly what kind of a person I am, not by how I would describe myself, but how I describe my surroundings. Now, without further ado...

The setup sounds like what would happen if the Discovery channel decided to start a sitcom: three single young people, two female nurses and a male biochemist, go to Zambia to teach at a nursing college. Wackiness ensues! As it turns out, that description may be somewhat apt. I came into this project without ever having met Jess or Lianne, my only prior contact with them being a few short phone calls and a handful of e-mails, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. As it turns out, I think that we make a pretty good team. The vibe has been good and we have yet to hit any real snags, so it’s pretty hard to complain. In fact this trip has been pretty great thus far, and I’ve been extremely lucky to have two people with some travelling experience with me. Since this is the first time I’ve ever done any travelling without either my family or a large group of people, where pretty much everything was taken care of, it’s been great to have some people around that can let me know when I’m about to do something wrong/life threatening (just kidding mom, relax). Looking back on it, I must have been at least half cracked to agree to go on this trip: I had never met my companions, whom already knew each other quite well, had no clue where I would be staying or how I would be eating, had no experience whatsoever in teaching, barely even knew where Zambia was and could very well have been going in way over my head in pretty much any area that I could end up working in that you care to name.

What I’m really trying to say is that I really should have had more reservations than I did.

Regardless of what I “should have done”, I agreed to come and I haven’t looked back since. One of the big reasons I decided to do this trip was to learn some things, and I can most certainly tell you that I have done exactly that, possibly too much of that actually. It feels good to be doing some travelling, but I must admit that I’m anxious to get to work. All of this fun stuff has been, uh, fun, but it’s definitely time to do something constructive.

Still, it’s hard to not look at this next picture without wanting to go back to Victoria Falls.

I don’t want this to go on for too long, as I have a tendency to ramble, so I’ll finish up here. To all of Jess and Lianne’s family and friends: we’re staying safe, getting along swimmingly and I’m doing my best to watch out for them (although most of the time it seems like it’s them watching out for me as I get the hang of travelling). To my family and friends: I’ll be in Kelowna soon, but I’m seriously thinking about taking out a loan and coming back after spending a week or so at home.

We’ll see.

Well, it’s way past my bedtime. Good night!

Kalabo

2008-07-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

These past few days have been a great introduction and reminder of the rural population in Zambia…and very representative of the rural way of life for so many people in Africa. The estimation is that 65% of the Zambian population lives in a rural area. Now when we hear the word rural back home in Canada….life doesn’t even compare to here. The rural way of life has a whole other meaning in Africa. Rural often means extreme poverty, and it is poverty like I have never seen. It is shocking to see that so many people in this world are living this way.

Gene Krupa (one of our colleagues with the Zambia Health Initiative) has been sponsoring children with World Vision for about 20 years. Now I will admit that many times I have seen those ‘World Vision commercials’ on TV..with malnourished children and flies all in their eyes. You also see how far they have to walk to get water, and how little they live off for food. You also see how the whole family (and that includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers..etc) live in one small mud hut, and all sleep in the same bed. Well it is all true, but don’t let that be the only thing we know about them.
This past weekend we had the privilege of visiting a village sponsored by World Vision.
The area we visited was around the very small town of Kalabo, World Vision uses this town as a base. One thing I learned about World Vision is that they choose their communities very wisely, based on needs. They plan to be in the community for 10 years, and have a 3 year plan to phase out. The one thing I like about World Vision’s philosophy is how they work to improve the whole community, including areas in agriculture, education, health, water and sanitation, infrastructure development and capacity building. They also keep in mind that all these projects have to be sustainable, so that means when World Vision pulls out..the people of the village are still able to carry on with all the projects on their own. Makes sense..doesn’t it?

Now Kalabo is a village that is only accessible by water. Currently there is no road access, for reasons I don’t quite understand. So that means we had to go by boat…but not any boat…we got to take the World Vision Speedboat!

The boat ride took about 2 hours along the Zambezi River. On the way we passed scattered straw homes along the banks of the river. It was great insight into how the river people live. I felt like the Queen the whole time because every single child we passed waved to us. That is why I love Africa.
We stayed the night at a guest home in Kalabo, then the next day took a few 4X4 LandCruisers to Namatendi. A small village within the catchment area of World Vision’s Kalbo project. It also happens to be where Gene’s sponsor children live. It isn’t often that outsiders come to visit this village..so we were quite the spectacle!
As soon as we arrived the whole village was out in the village square ..there was drumming and dancing to welcome us. Lianne and I even got in on a little dancing…

Then we toured around to the homes of Gene’s children. It was very special to see the difference he is making in their lives. The fact that these kids can go to school..is huge! I think my favourite part of this whole trip was walking around the village. Everywhere we went we had a HUGE trail of children following us.

Now both me and Lianne always have to have fun with the children. Lianne even brought a fake microphone so we were all singing. Even a rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston was busted out! There is just something about the kids here in Africa..so happy all the time...i just love em. I really hope that we can get back here to visit. People were so gracious and thankful that we would come all the way out to Namatendi to visit their village..as no one every comes due to the lack of transport.

All in all it was a very special visit, something that I will never forget.

Jessica

Senanga (aka senannnnnnnnngahh)

2008-07-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is for my mama, cause she likes to give out Canadian tattoos as well. There was a lot of laughter from the location of this tattoo!!

Western Province feels like home to me. Not literally, but we are finally settled in with some familiarities of home. For instance, we have a garbage for compost, recycling (ok you caught me, we burn the paper products), and then a garbage for plastics that we bury. We had our first family meal in the new house and organized the pantry. It feels good to be moved in. I have to say that the Sisters we are staying with are the craftiest ladies I know. They have literally recycled almost everything into something. For example, the loofah in our shower is an old onion bag (you know the orange kind) and it is amazing next to the rock that doubles as a pumice stone!
Our first week at the school was filled with meetings and getting to know the staff. We sat in on a lecture the other day, and I finally feel that I can do this. The classrooms are smaller so it is an intimate setting with the students, which I like better than larger lecture theatres. I have to get me one of those nursing hats that all the students wear! It is the ultimate souvenir. Next week is the projected start date of our lectures, however, all of our teaching tools are in Lusaka awaiting a trip to Mongu (they were suppose to be here last week, need I say doing laundry is a must with only a few pairs of underwear!). There was a glitch in communication and we are still waiting for the remainder of our luggage.
The class we sat in on started off with a prayer (as almost event/task does in this country) and the most beautiful song I have ever heard. The spirituality and faith here is portrayed with a multitude of songs and dances. It is unreal how harmonious a group can sound at such an early hour of the morning.
Last week was a long weekend, so Monday and Tuesday were holidays (I am not sure which ones, I am sure Jess will mention it though). We spent the weekend travelling around Western Province with Gene and Mubita (Margaret’s husband). Before I get into the details, I have to say that everyone has been commenting on how much I look like a Losi. The other day two guards at the visa office said I look Losi and gave me a Losi name, Limpo (meaning “gift”). My Losi is coming along nicely too I must add, I know at least 7 words now….
Ok, back to the trip. We travelled for just over an hour South West from Mongu. A company from Japan was paving the road. When Gene travelled to Senanga last year, he said it took close to 3 hours. Thanks to the new road, the trip took us just over an hour. When we first arrived in Senanga we fell in love. It is a quaint, cosy little town, and…there was a fishing derby! Dad this is where you need to pay attention. There were teams that each had a boat and over 60 people in total. The fishermen consisted mainly of South Africans, and other mukwas (white people) from the surrounding areas. The two main fish in the Zambezi are Bream and Tiger fish. Bream are very tasty. In fact while we were visiting Mubita’s village, Tamoona, we had the local dish nshima (buhobe in this area) and bream.

Tasty looking aint it!!

The fishing derby attracted many locals that would drink and watch the fishermen come in. Tragically, one of the boats lost control and hit a local fishing boat (like a canoe). The fishing derby boats are speedboats, so when they collided, a small local boy was killed. In Canada the fishing derby would have stopped, but the fishing derby went on, as did the celebrations.

Lianne

MONGU!!

2008-07-04T04:59:00.000-07:00

here is one of my many rashes!! OK just joking, it is an attack from the mosquitos in Livingstone...No Malaria yet.

I can’t even begin to tell you how I feel being in Mongu. It finally feels like a place to call home. We can start to get settled, get to know the area and start to learn Losi, the local language. I already have 4 words down and it has only been 24 hours. Here is your first word to learn….mulumele ( pronounced mooloomelly) which is the local greeting.

As we were driving closer to Mongu I started to get more excited as things started to lose their urban feel. I am trying not to compare….but it was definitely like moving from Accra (Ghana’s capital) to Tamale. You start seeing less development and a trend towards simple living such as ox drawn carts and so forth. However, with a lack of development you also see a trend towards poverty. Children were everywhere walking without shoes and torn shirts. At the same time they smiled more and yelled out mukuwa which means white person. The children stole my heart at once. I will tell you more about this later down the page….

The flood plains in Mongu. The picture just doesn't capture the 50km span that is flooded in the rainy season!

So we get into Mongu, its dark, and we had just watched the most amazing sunset ever. We find living arrangements for Gene and Mubita at the Cheshire House for Physically disabled children (they stayed in the visitors residence), then continued on to Moya O Kenile House which will be our home for the next 6 months. I have to admit, I was frightened at first not know what to expect. The electric fence followed by the voice of Sister Christina was a little worrisome at first. Within the first 30 minutes or so following the introduction I could not have asked for a better place to stay. Sister Christina is Irish and a bucket of fun. She has a sarcastic sense of humour and a very effect take charge personality. The place is spotless and just gorgeous. Jessica and I are staying in the Convent with the Sisters right now (2 of them) and then will move into the guest house later this week when Brian (another Irish man working on building schools and their education system) moves out. The two Irish folks are the funniest people ever!! On top of it all, the sisters have been cooking our meals while we are staying in the convent and it is delicious. Get this….we had spaghetti last night with soya product rather than meat and EVERYONE had a beer. I love Irish nuns!!! They make the best baking as well. I have snooped around and the guest house is great too. It is close to the convent and has a sink in each room. The kitchen comes with 2 pantries and there is a large sitting area. I am sure we will post pictures later.

Lianne, Sister Mary, Jessica, Brian, Sister Cathy, and Cam.....Our favorite Nuns.

So the first few days is filled with networking as usual. It is still intimidating to walk to Lewanika College and know that people`s education relies on you! Here is what we have learned about Mongu so far…. Mongu district has a population of approximately 200 000 people, with on 60 000 living in the town of Mongu. It is part of the Western Province, the least developed province in the Country. Lewanika Nursing School has only 2 tutors (professors) for close to 100 students!!! There is a great demand for nurses as there is world wide, so the ministry has recommended an increase in uptake numbers for new nursing students. However, the demand on the teaching staff is already stretched, proving a need for human resource in all sectors (nurses, students, and staff).

In the health sector, we have learned that HIV/AIDS is the number one killer in this region, followed by TB, malaria, then pneumonia. Interestingly enough, Malaria was the highest on the mortality list 3 years ago until a malaria campaign was introduced. This included introducing a new line of drug (coartem), distribution of mosquito nets, staff training, and introduction of rapid diagnostic test. In addition the HIV/AIDS rate has increased. www.lewanikageneralhospital.org

Here we are meeting with the Permanent Secretary (equivalent to the Premier) of Western Province.

Back to the children....I can’t even tell you how much they bring joy to my day. Every day as we leave the convent, there is a line of 5-8 children waiting to say “hello, how are you” to the truck of white people driving by. This is some of the only English they know as most children in this region cannot afford the school fees. Then there is the Chesire House....This is a place where children with physical disability go after surgery for rehabilitation. I was in the vehicle waiting for Gene and I watched a small child crawl for a couple hundred meters with two casts on his legs. I wanted so badly to pick the child up and carry him to his room, but we were on our way. The home is doing amazing work and had some volunteers there as well. This may be a good opportunity for me to volunteer in the future!

This trip is such a learning experience. I bought some textbooks from the bookstore in Lusaka and have been learning so much about tropical medicine. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to work abroad to do it. It is so rewarding to work with the people of developing countries as well. It can definitely be trying at time, but in the end teaches you to be a more patient person. I just finished reading this book called “Hope in Hell.” It is about expats working with MSF (Doctors without Borders), it describes many of the feelings that I feel. One point in particular I enjoy is the aspect of how it is difficult to relate to expat work. It is a great read if anyone is interested, I would be glad to hear what you think!!

Lianne

The Road to Mongu

2008-07-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, the day finally arrived..we left for Mongu! Yes it was a long time coming, but really it all worked out. We were graciously escorted by Mubita Maimbolwa. He is the husband of Margaret Maimbolwa, a Zambian whom with we have been working with very closely over the past 6 months. She is currently the Assistant Dean of the School of Medicine at UTH. She is another amazing women, and has been added to my growing list of heros. She makes the list because she has accomplished so much (including becoming a midwife, plus gaining a Master’s and a PhD, on top of writing research papers, and advocating for the rural people of Zambia)..and somehow in there she managed to have 5 kids!! See why she made it to my hero list?

Ok now that I have properly introduced Margaret, I will next introduce her husband Mubita Maimbolwa-our personal escort to Mongu! He also has quite the resume too. He was the former Permanent Secretary of the Western Province (which is where Mongu just so happens to be located) This is more or less equivalent to being Premier of British Columbia! He also worked for a few different ministries within the government, and still has strong political ties. He was also born and raised in Western province so that makes him the perfect person to introduce us to the Western province. (Since this is where we will be spending the next six months)

Another bonus piece to Mubita driving us was we got to ride in his government vehicle..which just so happens to be a brand new Land Cruiser. It just gets better and better..I know! The drive to Mongu takes about 6 hours, the road is very very straight so makes for easy driving. The one hazard is wild animals, because we actually drive through Kafue National Park (Which is one of the largest parks in Africa). We heard rumours of elephants along this road….and it is true! We spotted lots of animals including elephants, impala, antelope, seble, cranes, stork, warthogs. Not bad hey?

So now here we are in Mongu, I will stop now because Lianne will blog about our first couple days here. Just know that life is good here in Mongu. Indeed we are living with nuns. But wait here is the best part…they are Irish, and they drink beer and whiskey. (they also do yoga!) This should be an interesting few months.

Jessica

What It Means To Be Canadian

2008-07-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

This is how Canada Day should be...

The three musketeers all ready for Canada Day

Today we celebrated Canada Day in the capital city of Zambia, Lusaka. See we are still trying to make it to Mongu..and we were supposed to leave on Tuesday, but since that was Canada Day the executive decision was made to celebrate our nation’s birthday in Lusaka.

We were invited to a party thrown by the Canadian High Commission. It was held at the house of the development coordinator at the High Commission called Laurie Rogers. Man was it ever fun. They had a good old traditional BBQ, hot dogs..hamburgers, kebabs, and lots of salad. Now for someone back in Canada this may not seem that out of the ordinary…but for us…it was exactly what we needed to remind us of home. Did I mention that there was also an open bar??
So the beer was again flowing (seems like we have been drinking quite a bit at all these social dinners, they never let your glass go empty here!). We weren’t drinking any Pilsner though Dad… It was local beer, (Mosi or Castle are the brands here) but still good enough for me. So with all that beer flowing so were the conversations. Since pretty much every Canadian here in Zambia is working on one development project or another.. this was again another perfect networking opportunity.

Being away from the country on Canada Day only strengthened for me how proud I am to be a Canadian. In the development world, Canada continues to be a leader in affecting positive change in so many developing countries. The presence of Canadians is very much appreciated by the Zambian people. As Mr. Maimbolwa put it’Canadians are held in very high regard’. Around Zambia we have been introduced to many projects that Canadians are contributing to..you name it and they are doing it.So just know….all those other Canadians out there around the world really are doing a good job to represent our country..so be proud to be a Canadian!

Jessica

Getting To Know Lusaka...

2008-06-29T07:25:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

Vic Falls

2008-06-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

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.....

2008-06-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

Gorge Swing

The First Jump

Pics!

2008-06-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-17T03:18:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-17T03:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

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'

2008-06-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

A Humbling Experience….

First off I have to say how truly grateful I am for all the generosity, support, and words of encouragement over the last month or two. We have had nothing but positive input. I can not even describe how awestruck I am by the good nature of our community. Whether it is by making a donation, offering further contacts for support, or storing our stuff, this town has pulled together. Not only has the outlying community helped, but close family and friends have been recruited to help with our biddings. Right now my former household items are split into 6 piles in 6 different houses. I can not express enough - thank you thank you thank you!

The big move has taken place and I am now living with Jessica’s parents for two weeks before departure….Countdown is on. Jessica and I were lying in our new rooms thinking, “this isn’t right, it’s different.” How is it going to feel in a few weeks where we will make multiple moves and live in many different VERY foreign places. Can I make a mud hut cozy? Will I have a hot shower on a day where the monsoon rains come? Will Jessica’s mom make me a hot meal in Africa? I better get used to cozy living while I have it.

The attention generated from this trip is immaculate. Everywhere I go I hear, “I saw you on TV today,” or “my mom heard you on the radio yesterday.” Jessica and I have become mini celebrities in Kelowna. I have to say I thought I would enjoy the attention, but it can be trying at times as well. Two days ago I called scheduling to change my contact information and the scheduler on the other line knew of me, the trip, and Jessica’s name. I can’t even begin to express the feelings involved in the process thus far……..

For starters, to hear how “wonderful, courageous, and selfless I am” is extremely humbling. I feel extremely honoured to be the one to teach nurses to be better nurses. By any means I do not feel qualified and feel as though I have been frantically asking myself “how do you nurse again?” “You know this Lianne, you know this,” I keep repeating. What I am trying to say is that I feel that we are doing what we believe in, helping others in need, helping others be better at who they are, and thus helping us become better people as well. Nursing to me has always been about caring for others and wanting to make a difference, what a perfect opportunity!

In Conclusion I want to say that I am honoured to receive as much praise as we have in the last few months. However, I believe that if given the opportunity, anyone would take the chance to make a difference. “A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, Nothing else,” Ghandi….

Lianne

2008-05-23T12:13:00.001-07:00

Where we will be spending the next 6 months

Just look at how professional these students look! We are hoping for nursing caps too..

...soon to be our fellow co-workers

Here are their only 'teaching tools'

See..this is why we need to bring projectors and a screen. Also Lianne is lefthanded and does not do very well writing on the chalkboard.

2008-05-20T03:58:00.001-07:00

Capital News May 16th

2008-05-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

Nurses heading to Zambia to share expertise

May 16, 2008

Nurses Lianne Jones and Jessica Barker, with some of the supplies they will be taking with them to Zambia. They will be living and working in the African country for six months.

Adrian Nieoczym/Capital News

The month before.....

2008-05-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

I have to say that Jessica and I inspire to write as magnificently as many of our other travel friends, and I think she did a pretty good job. I’m always writing second, which means most of what I wanted to say has been said for me. Therefore, I will write my personal thoughts with a spin of Liannism and sense of humor.

Africa….I have been dreaming of you for years. A true story: when I was coming home from Ghana I had a lay over in Frankfurt airport. I was alone, depressed to be leaving, and feeling like an outsider with my waist-long twisted hair. Over the PA system I heard the familiar announcer calling yet another destination, but this time it was “last boarding call for Accra report to gate 21.” I got off the bench I was trying to sleep on and literally ran to gate 21. What I would accomplish when I got there was uncertain; I only knew that I needed to get to that gate to help the feeling of despair in my gut. When I arrived I saw two African businessmen chatting. I don’t know what it was about them or me, but when they saw me they gave me that warm Ghanaian smile and hug. Was this weird to be embracing complete strangers in an airport? In Western Societies possibly, but it felt natural and welcoming. We introduced ourselves and I found that they were heading back to Accra from business abroad. Of course they gave me their contact information for “when I returned to Ghana (as there was no possibility to them that I would not return, and I have to admit I feel that I will return).”

That simple embrace in the airport made up my mind. I was returning to Africa no matter what it would take. I longed to walk down the street and greet every person that walked by. Africa had become my second home, if not the homiest of homes.

When we returned, we immediately looked into any possibilities that would allow us to nurse abroad. Many of the avenues we tried wanted two years of nursing experience. We did not have that qualification, so we looked harder and talked to every connection we had. What came from the networking? A beautiful trip to Zambia.

Zambia, what do I have to say about our upcoming trip to Zambia. I feel: scared, sad, happy, excited, worried, amazed, relieved, contentment, jubilance, radiant, bewildered, overwhelmed….and the list can go on and on. In all the literature that I read I keep coming across, “Zambia, the real Africa.” What does this mean? Was I not in Africa prior to being in Zambia? I will have to elaborate on this thought from the ground level when I arrive.

Overall, I look forward to this trip immensely. I must keep reminding myself of the good that can be accomplished and the reciprocity of learning that will take place. In my experience the month leading to a big trip can be chaotic. Let me tell you, the month leading to a trip where you move to one of the poorest countries in the world is agonizing, but the light is at the end of the tunnel.

I look forward to all of your support and thoughts throughout our adventures. Thank-you from the bottom of my heart.

Jessica's Random Thoughts: One month before Zam

2008-05-06T22:13:00.001-07:00

So one month till I return back to Africa! I find it interesting to think of where I was just one year ago. I had just returned from nursing in Ghana, West Africa. I remember the exact moment that I left Ghana, and as we were flying over Accra (the capital)..I said to myself ‘I just know I will come back to Africa’ So many people who have been to Africa talk about the impression the continent leaves on you..and it’s so true. Among many things, it is stunning, with so many neat places to explore and travel. The best part though..has to be the people! I have never met people so happy, so beautiful and so gracious and grateful for everything they have...even if they have very little. We have so much to learn from them.

Nursing in Ghana was definitely the beginning of something special. It gave me the courage to try other international nursing opportunities. When the opportunity arose this year to head off to Nicaragua, Central America with a surgical team from KGH, I jumped at it knowing it would be yet another life changing experience. And yes it does seem like I have the travel bug- baaaaaad! But it is just so perfect that I get to combine two things that are important to me – travel and nursing. I get to meet the most amazing people everywhere I go, and the best part of it all is how much I learn. Not only do I learn about other cultures and nursing in their environments, but I sure do learn a lot about myself.

Now it is time for Zambia. Lianne and I have been working towards this goal ever since we graduated. Why? Because as soon as we came back fom Ghana, we needed to find a way to nurse back in Africa. As it stands now, we will be teaching at Lewanika Nursing College in the rural town of Mongu, Zambia. But really without a couple key people none of this would have happened…..

The first is Gene Krupa, an professor within UBCO. Gene went to Zambia last year to initiate a partnership between our city Kelowna and a town in Zambia called Senanga. He was also there to begin a partnership between UBCO and the University of Zambia (UNZA). Once we found out Gene was going to Zambia we added another mission to his list..find nursing projects for Jessica and Lianne!! It is interesting because Gene was our instructor a few years ago..and he even taught us the Community Development piece to our nursing degree. The neat thing is now we are applying everything that he taught us in lecture. At the time I don’t think he ever thought we would be collaborating with us on these kind of projects!! And now look where we are….:)

Another important person with whom we have been working closely is Dr. Bill Nelems, a thoracic surgeon at KGH. His heart also lies in Africa, as he lived in Zambia as a boy. He was also very influential in establishing the connection between UBCO and UNZA. His vision is to improve the health of the Zambian people and has created a plan with his ‘Zambian Health Initiatives’. Me and Lianne teaching in Mongu is one of the first of these initiatives. The next will involve putting medical and surgical teams in North-western Zambia starting next year. Maybe we will just have to join in on that as well!

So as I see it right now..this is just the beginning of something very exciting. In the past couple of months things seem to be falling into place. There are partnerships and opportunities springing up all over the place for Zambia. I feel like we still have so much to learn. The great thing is that we have great mentors around us, all of whom can teach us so much. This really is the opportunity of a lifetime…can’t wait to see where it all leads...