Day 3: Shuko

Highlights o' Day 3

1. Riding a globalbike to home visits with a caregiver
2. Conversing (via translation) with HIV+ patients
3. Reality of HIV has set in
4. My morning contrasted to my evening

I have also been pleased to find that everyone has the same Southern charm in their greetings. Every conversation starts with "Hi How are you?" and of course the typical response is "Fine. And how are you?" Now if only the Yankees could catch on to these conversational skills! In the villages people greet with a handshake or clasp their hands together and curtsy saying something in Membe along the lines of "Hello good to see you". I just know I'm supposed to respond with "muibeno". I have also noticed that Zambians like to repeat phrases; for example, if I were to trip they would say "Sorry sorry sorry". And yesterday Adrian got a kick when I said "white white white" referring to how pale I get in the winter.

Today we stopped by Bueleni again to drop off the bike. One of the ladies from yesterday was there to receive the bike. I took a video of one of the caregivers riding it around the compound. In the distance I could see the Austrian volunteers playing a game with some teenagers in a circle. There weren't many children around as it was in the morning and most of them were at school.
Then we were off to Shuko HBC, which is not too far from Bueleni. There I saw Mary who was the main instructor at the the cooking demonstration yesterday, Christopher and Meshinko. Christopher has been a caregiver since 2000 and received a bike last year from globalbike. He impressed me with his dedication to serving his community as a full time volunteer caregiver and head teacher at the Shuko Community school. He is a very jovial man and again the excitement was obvious when he learned we were there to drop off a bike! Of course he will not get the bike as he already has one but I got a video of him trying out the bike as well.
We were going to make three home visits before lunch. Christopher would ride his bike and I would ride the new one. The new one had the seat positioned higher than his and since I am a solid 4 inches taller than him I would ride the new bike. So off we went Christopher on his bike, me on the new one, and a PCI truck following us with Adrian driving and Namonje, Mary, and Meshinko as passengers. Very quickly Christopher and I got too far ahead of the jostling truck and got a call on his cell phone telling him to wait up.
I wasn't sure if the truck could get through some of the narrow streets we were riding or how it was going to bulldoze over some of these trench-like potholes. It was less bumpy ride on the bicycle but I understood why they need such resilient bikes. You can navigate around the big holes (or nearly fall in one as I did) but there divets everywhere that you bounce over. I sat really high on the bike towering over the little kids that came running by to see the mzungu. Since the truck was with us I knew we wouldn't be traveling too far in out of the community. However Christopher said that it takes nearly an hour to bike to the client furthest away. Each caregiver at the Shuko HBC has anywhere from 5 to 10 clients they try to see daily. They usually do not work on weekends but will go visit clients if they know they are especially sick.

Case in point was the first client we visited. I followed Christopher through some tall bushes to a small collection of houses just off the road. I had to lift my bike over a small water pipe that was running through the courtyard area to get to the client's house. Around us were some teenage girls handwashing some laundry and next door was a family of small children playing. All the pictures and stories I had heard of the third world and are so prevalent in the States became real. The client was an HIV+ man who had lost both of his children to AIDS. He met us outside of his mud house with a thatched roof. Not too long ago this man was bedridden because he was so weak from his infection and malnourished. The caregivers who visited him fed him "Go Power" which is a dense calorie and high protein biscuit as well as gave him his ART. They also fetched water from the pump that is somewhere down the pipeline that ran in front of his house. They cleaned his house and soiled bedding. The caregiver that normally visits is a old woman and he referred to her as a grandmother who cared for him. He has no other family and I took his quiet nature as an indicator of depression or fear of death. However that is not the case. Now he has gained enough strength to not only walk but had dug this massive hole next to his house. He then sold the dirt to construction company/people that use it to make the walls of the huts. Impressive.

Christopher checked his Patient Care card and medicines to see if he had been to the clinic lately. He encouraged the man to go to the clinic soon because he was running low on medication. Christopher also encouraged him to go to the clinic at any sign of feeling sick so that he could get help and recover quickly. Emphasis was placed on taking medicine daily and Christopher inquired as to what the man had been able to eat today. Christopher and Namonje assured the man that they/PCI would continue to care for him and that he should remain hopeful for his future. As I left the man was willing to take a picture with Christopher in front of his house. It was then I realized just how small his house was; probably the size of my dorm room. This was the face of a man infected with HIV. While some of the women yesterday were HIV+, this was the first man I had talked to about having the disease, seeing the effect on his life, and the effect of the caregivers. This was just the first client of the day!

We traveled on down the road to visit an OVC household. We passed several mini markets and lots of people in the street. Christopher and I traveled slowly so the truck could keep up. When we arrived to the house several children came out--one of which enthusiastically yelled "MZUNGU!" and smiled brilliantly. This time all five of us filed into the tiny house. Inside the 10x10 room a TV was on, a single lightbulb lit the room, a curtain covered the entrance to the sleeping quarters which could not have been much bigger than the area we were sitting in. We sat on red velvet loveseats that were next to plastic bins and a wooden shelf that contained dishes and other random items. Mary informed me that this woman was also HIV+ and is caring for six children. One of the six is her sister's daughter however her sister died from HIV and so she took on the responsibility of caring for that child as well. Christopher called the children in to say hello and her sister's daughter very eagerly shook my hand first. The little boy was the one who asked me to take a picture of him (by pointing to my camera then to himself) when we first pulled in. They were all smiling as they rotated around to shake everyone's hand. Christopher then shoo-ed them out. I respected him for asking the children to leave so he could talk about serious matters with their mother.
Again Christopher asked for the patient care card and drugs to check that she was taking them. Being a teacher, he asked about the children's education and wanted to make sure all of them were attending school. She confirmed that they were. She could not afford the school fees that her sister's daughter had been attending so now she attends the Shuko community school. We talked about how she is able to check that they go to school because all children try to play hookie! She checks their books and assignments when they get home from school.
Christopher also reminded her of proper hygiene the children needed to be taking before handling food and going to the restroom (which is communal and not very much detail was offered).
While the children are at school she sells produce at the small market just across the street. Her house is located on some family land and her husband built the house across the courtyard before he died. She rents out that 2 bedroom house made of stone for about $50 a month. It even has electricity she added. Christopher encouraged her to have something written down that the children would inherit this small plot of land and the other land she has in a different part of the township so that no one could take the land from them should something happen to her. At the end of the conversation I told her that she was a very brave and strong woman to care for her children and her sisters. I can't imagine caring for one child while caring for your own terminal illness. I did not take any pictures inside her house a) because it was really close quarters but b) mostly because I wanted to respect her and home and not turn it into a journalist's object. That scene of sitting next to an HIV+ woman, turning off her TV when Christopher asked, and facing the door covered by a thin sheet waving in the wind...that scene will forever be in my memory. People living in this type of home with mud walls and cramped conditions is real. But don't take that as a devastating condition because these people are optimistic, resilient, and the children are just as giddy.

We biked over to the third site which is next door to the Shuko community school. We found a woman on a straw mat under a big tree bundling pumpkin leaves for sale. She stood to greet us all as Christopher introduced all five of us. She then sat back down with her legs outstretched from under the chwenga. All of the women we had seen around the Shuko community had been wearing one but Mary, Namonje, and I just had on trousers. I wondered why we didn't wear them today? This was a short visit and not much was translated for me. I did learn that her income from selling the pumpkin leaves and other things from her garden is her only source of income because her husband is not working right now. I saw several children in a hut covered by a plastic sheet at the front of the yard but I was unsure as to how many of them were her children or her neighbor's. She was very grateful for Christopher visiting and thanked Namonje for her efforts--or at least that's what I was getting from the smiles and bowing and such.
Next door we could her a 9yearold or so boy wailing. He was crying with such vehemence and monotonous cry you couldn't help but hear him. Evidently when the porridge had been distributed the children were fighting over it and someone else got his portion. He wouldn't go without his portion of course but all of us chuckled at his intense commotion he was making. Christopher ensured he could get some and Namonje tried to get him to stop crying. There were children all around staring at him as much as they did me. It was quite a scene, poor guy! He was given his porridge and children were apologizing but there was no consoling him at this point.

We had a debrief in the Shuko office where Christopher expressed his gratitude to me several times. Unfortunately my memory card was full and the recording on my camera stopped before I could film that. He had received training from World Vision before PCI came in and started offering more trainings. Again I learned that his reason for becoming a volunteer, and a very busy one at that, was purely out of compassion for his fellow Zambians and the desire to improve the quality of life for others in the community. His dedication was obvious from the many people that knew him as we rode and from the gratitude the clients were eager to share. I thanked him for his efforts as well. The sincerity with which he spoke was really compelling and touching. Christopher is such a positive force in the community and I am so happy to be a part of something that has helped his efforts.

Phew so I've typed for about an hour now. I have the rest of the afternoon off so I think I'm going to go to the post office, grocery store, and find out how to get a bus ticket for my trip to Livingstone and Victoria Falls this weekend.

The rest of the afternoon and evening:

Jen attends a spinning class every Wednesday evening at 6pm. Since my legs were still feeling rough I asked if I could join her. I went with her to a local gym and asked the dwarf white Zimbabwe owner (I don't know the politically correct way to say he is severely height challenged) if I could try out the class because I was thinking about joining the gym. It was just like a spinning class at my YMCA except I had to concentrate really hard to understand the Zambian instructor and the room was blazing hot. Afterwards I did our team's circuit workout during which the owner interrupted me saying I should slow down in order to make sure I didn't hurt my back doing burpies. I was baffled to have someone tell me to "slow down" and would've never heard my coach make that request! So here I was six hours after sitting in a women's mud hut talking about her HIV medicine doing burpies next to a line of treadmills and weights just like the ones in the Richardson building on campus. There were a bunch of Lebanese guys attempting to be body builders (one had a shirt on that read FBI: Female Body Investigator--classy) and some white women running on the treadmills (I think some were Italian).

The stark contrast between the two scenarios depicted the huge economic disparities present in Zambia and all developing nations, really. And I was with an American expatriot who works to improve the conditions of those in the lowest income bracket then goes to her modern gym. I don't want to sound like I am judging her lifestyle in the slightest because as Meg and I discussed later that night: you can work to help others and live in their country but to a certain degree you cannot deny that this is not your home culture and to keep yourself sane there must be some indulgences you allow yourself to keep yourself sane. Those indulgences are different for everyone and to different extents. Meg and I would be okay with living in a local compound or village but perhaps Jen does not. It doesn't necessarily make Jen less effective in her work; in fact its obvious she knows what she is doing and works very hard in making lasting improvements through World Vision. It's the little things I notice here that fascinate me the most.