Two Wheels - World of Difference

Day 17: Ups and Downs

2010-01-27T14:32:00.000-08:00

Highlights o Day 17

Delivering bikes to Kalingalinga Clinic
Reality of malnourishment

As promised, we delivered 6 bikes to Kalingalinga volunteers first thing in the morning! We loaded the bikes into a hired truck and made the short drive to the clinic. Mary Kaumba and Leah C from the Ministry of Health accompanied us for the delivery. After getting permission from the Sister-in-charge and the volunteer coordinator, we unloaded the bikes to a collection of volunteers.

Globalbike gave 6 bikes to a collection of 10 volunteers at this clinic. They were very eager to try out the bikes and take pictures with their bicycles! I spent a few minutes talking with each of the volunteers--Emson, Eness, Jennipher, Matthew, Bridget, Christina, Riebeck (I think his name is so cool!), and Maureen. We were making quite the scene, even overshadowing the arrival of medical students from the University of Zambia. People gathered around the parking lot to watch the procession of bikes and attempt to jump into pictures.

As the other partners had decided, Valid International decided the volunteers with the most experience and travel the furthest would be the first to receive the bikes. The volunteers have zone areas surrounding the clinic that they cover. They are asked to make visits for at least two hours a day after the nutrition clinic in the early morning. Majority of them spend many more hours beyond that everyday going to visit defaulters, most of which is spent walking. I may seem as a broken record at this point but these bikes are crucial for making the volunteers' time more effective in serving the community. Think of when you were a kid and wanted to go play at a friend's house--how did you get there? There's no way you would walk to the other side of the neighborhood even if it was your best friend (I say 'you' because I just ran there...). You grabbed your bike and pedaled over there to to make sure you could spend as much time there before it was time to come home for dinner. The same principle works here: the volunteers need to be able to spend as much time with the defaulters they visit to ensure the mothers understand that their attendance along with the child's is important. They need to know someone in the community cares and wants to help their family; this can't be communicated in just a 5 minute visit like we get with our family doctors in the States. Just as a reminder, a 'defaulter' is a mother who has been absent for three consecutive nutrition clinic/workshops. The volunteers go out to visit them to see about the condition of the child and ensure the mother has stopped attending because the child died. In the process of going into the community the volunteer careworkers will also look for other malnourished children that may need to be admitted into the nutrition program. Therefore, the community careworkers are crucial in preventing the death of children in the community.

Then, as I did in Shuko with PCI, I rode a bike for a home visit. This time I accompanied two volunteers to visit a defaulter. Mary, Yvonne, Isaac, and Leah met us there with the car. For the sake of time, we didn't travel far from the clinic for the first visit of the day. The volunteers have zone areas they cover and they are asked to make visits for at least two hours a day after the nutrition clinic in the early morning. Majority of them spend many more hours beyond that everyday going to visit defaulters

Once we got there, I realized that this was not far from Jen's house. Literally a 10 minute run from the lush American style ranch I was living was this cement hut. The income disparity of developing countries like Zambia was never more apparent than this. Mary accompanied us to the house where we sat outside in between clothes lines covered in laundry. I met an 18month old girl Eveylyn and her mother. After a short discussion about the child's health, Mary inquired as to why the mother had defaulted. She said that she attended a funeral one week and then stayed in the village for awhile before returning. And this morning? Well she didn't have laundry powder the other day but had some this morning so she wanted to do the laundry. Mary was quick to chastise her saying that she could have come to the clinic early in the morning and returned to get the wash done.

visit mutendere and walked street market wth yvonne--caterpillars!

lunch with Isaac Bunda, the driver, at Thornpark for my last zambian meal of nshima, ...

talked with him about his family of 12 siblings living in the copper belt; then shift to village or lusaka; only sibling besides brother working; eldest son; worked as security guard at US embassy; security guards not paid much and not have much respect; became driver which are paid significantly better; has 2 kids with another on the way

after lunch joined mary for a visit to Kamyama clinic; has higher defaulter rating; big area with lots and lots of kids; next delivery of bikes will prob go here or George clinic;

saw some children that broke my heart; at Kalingalinga saw a tiny tiny child with diarrhea; literally skin and bones with big eyes that watched my every move from his mothers arms; it made me sick to my stomach to see the harsh reality of malnourishment

didn't get much easier when visit 18month old evelyn who's mother wanted to do the wash rather than take her child to the clinic

at Kamyama saw a 9 yo boy who's malnourishment has stunted his growth so much that I thought he was 6 years old. He barely came up to my hip and had an arm circumference of 10cm---very small; but still smiling

saw a child being taken from the ward to the hurse. The child had died from malnourishment. The child had died while I was talking with another mother about why she hadn't brought her child to the clinic since June. What?!

Then a thirteen year old walked in with her 18 month old child. A thirteen year old girl. 18 month old child. My heart sank. the girl can't read and is too ashamed to go to school anymore. My stomach churned.

Even after that Big Stuff, I didn't feel depressed or disappointed. These images have become the reminder why I must earn my Masters in Public Health and MD. I have to come back to Lusaka. I want those children to be playing with Grassroot Soccer in a few years not leaving a ward with their mother wailing. It was a necessary reminder as my last day in the field in Zambia before I head back to Wofford for my final semester. There is a reason I am in college. There is a purpose beyond the diploma.

Day 16: Chelstone Nutrition Clinic with Valid International

2010-01-26T14:11:00.000-08:00

Highlights o Day 16 (Tuesday Jan 26)

Interviewing over 10 careworkers

Seeing the work of a nutritionist at a community clinic

After a shift in schedule, I started shadowing Valid International today instead of yesterday. Valid International's office in Zambia focuses on Community-based therapeutic care (CTC programs) in all 25 healthcare primary clinics in Lusaka. Many of these clinics are the ones that PCI also works in and therefore PCI and Valid interact and involve the same volunteers. PCI and Valid both have programs targeting Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) under the age of six. However, from what I experienced PCI focuses mainly with the volunteers in the HIV/VCT/ART department of the clinics. Valid International focuses on the Nutrition department specifically. Valid, much like PCI, conducts cooking demonstrations to teach mothers what and how to cook nutritious meals. While PCI and Valid International do not have the same coordinated partnership like Grassroots Soccer and Breakthrough Sports Academy have, their coordinated efforts will allow donations to PCI program volunteers be helpful to Valid International clinic volunteers (and vice versa).

Valid's main efforts in Lusaka pertain to treating malnourished children by providing mothers with Ready-to-Use-Food (RUF) or Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic-Food (RUTF). RUFs are calorie-dense and do not require any prior preparation, dilution, or reconstitution. The closest comparison I can think of is Cliff bar but in a paste-like form for severe acute or moderate malnourished children above the age of 6 months. Valid International in Lusaka is also in the midst of conducting trials on acceptibility effectiveness and cost effectiveness of Soya Maize Sorghum based RUTF; this research is comparing the widely used, popular, but expensive "plumpy nut" RUTF compared to the locally produced soy-maize-sorghum RUTF. The children enjoy plumpy nut, which is currently supplied through the Clinton Foundation, but Valid International would like to know whether this newer, cheaper RUTF is equally "accepted".

I joined Beula, one of the Valid research Staff, for a nutrition clinic at the Chelstone community clinic. They use the word "clinic" in the dual sense of a healthcare center and as a workshop. At Chelstone, there are 31 women (and their child) enrolled in the nutrition study. The "prerequisites" so to say to be enrolled is to have a malnourished child; sometimes the women are referred to the clinic while others attend after hearing about it. The referrals come from the community careworkers that survey their "zones" for children in need. Each week the women come to the clinic to get advice on what foods--that they can afford--provide essential nutrients (sardines, nuts, beans) and ways to cook them. Beula reminds the women that not all "good foods" have to be bought but can be cultivated such as the various common vegetables (pumpkin leaves, ben leaves, tomatoes, onions...). Meat is often too expensive so the nuts and beans are really pushed to get iron into their diet; iron deficiencies have seriously detrimental effects on child development. Mothers offer suggestions for each other and discuss the difficulties they are experiencing.

Then the record keeping and measurements begin. They weigh the babies ages six months to five years that are malnourished. They compare the weight to the baby's birth weight, age, and especially the weight from the previous week. They also measure arm circumference, which is a widely accepted indicator for malnutrition status. Again, each week they are looking for an increase in the arm circumference or at least maintanence of the same measurement. Then the Valid or clinic staff test the feet for edema by simply pressing the feet and looking for a quick return to normal form. They also ask the mother a standard set of questions about the child's habits and health from the past week--i.e. diarrhea, loss of apetite, losing noticable weight in the middle of the week, feet swelling all of which are signs of malnourishment.

The mothers' are then provided with RUTF supply for the week. The supply is free and varies in quantity depending on the needs of the child. It usually ranges from 18 to 30 packets of Plumpy Nut per week. (I love the name of the RUTF brand!) They keep diligent records of how many packets are distributed and even more attention is paid to the absentees.

It it noted when a mother does not attend the weekly nutrition clinic. After three consecutive absences the mother/child is classified as a "defaulter". The community careworkers are asked to visit the mother to find out why they have not attended the clinics and encourage them to continue to come. This is where the globalbikes come into play. As I mentioned earlier with PCI, the homes may be 5 kilometers to 15 kilometers away from the clinic. These bikes make it easier for the volunteers to visit all the defaulters after the nutrition clinic. Depending on the size of the admissions/clinic class, the clinic can last from anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. This puts the conclusion around 4PM meaning there is limited time left in the day for the careworkers to visit families. It's important for the careworkers to find out why the mothers have defaulted--did the child die? is the child doing better so the mother doesn't feel the need to come? is the mother sick?

While we were waiting for the Nutrition room to open up, I was able to interview a group of community care workers of the Chelstone clinic. It started as a group of four but quickly grew to a roup of 10 volunteers interested in talking with me. I know some of them because of the novelty of talking to a mzungu girl with a camera, but they all reiterated the need for transportation. I noticed a a tone of frustration when I asked them to elaborate. It seemed so straightforward to them as to why a bike would be beneficial; granted, I understand the value of a bike in these communities, but I need the video camera to hear them explain it. They were also critical of what good all this talking as going to do anyway.

To be honest, I understood their frustration. Here I am asking them all the things they need but I had not brought them anything. Would talking about their work to me be effective in improving their ability to do the work? I was disappointed to learn that the bike delivery had been delayed yet another day so these community workers would have to wait another day after their seven to ten year dedication to the community. I also knew though that Yvonne, Valid International Zambian country director, was navigating through some bureaucratic hoops at the moment to make it happen.

On the same token, I had reached a point of frustration with the blanket expectation put on every mzungu: I am white, therefore I have money or something to give... so how much 9was I there to give them? While that is a broad generalization it is still a very popular sentiment. In fact that sentiment would cost me my bracelet later in the day when a mother considered it a gift for her because her son liked it.) The conversation started to stray from bikes and requests like a subsidy for their efforts, raincoats for the rainy season, more free trainings. Again, it was insightful for me to hear but there was an obvious disconnect between what they believed I had the power and money to accomplish and my actual purpose for being there.

During the nutrition clinic an hour later, I realized these cultural nuances and the language barrier had officially gotten to me. I have become really good at picking up on gestures and facial expressions in order to determine the jist of what is going on around me, especially when people are talking about me. While the women were waiting to visit with the nutritionist I knew several women were discussing my presence. I just wanted to know what they were saying! Explain why I was there, that I care about their situation, that one day I want to be the nutritionist they were waiting to see. I wanted to play with their adorable children and talk about life in Zambia. Rewind a bit, I wanted to know what Buela had actually said to the group and what they were discussing. I was frustrated that Buela didn't lead the clinic in English so I could follow along more and get more information than I did. I could only sit idle and in silence for the entire clinic.

Me--idle. just watching. not talking. not helping. not fully understanding what was to come next. You all know I don't enjoy any of those sorts of scenarios!

I hate to sound ungrateful or that I did not enjoy today. Today I got to see what a nutritionist does in a primary healthcare clinic a developing country. I talked with a nutritionist while in Zambia. I quasi-heard the concerns of mothers with malnourished children. Cool stuff. Way cool. It only affirmed that yes, yes I want to do this for my profession. It's just that today was the day I had hit the cultural dividing wall...really hard.

Yvonne promised that tomorrow we would deliver bikes. But really this time. Let's hope so!

Day 15: African Cup

2010-01-26T12:38:00.000-08:00

Highlight o Day 15

Watching Zambia play Nigeria in the quarterfinals

The 2010 African Cup of Nations, hosted in Angola, started the day I arrived in Zambia and the final match is a few days after I leave. Naturally, the Zambian national pride is widespread and football is the hottest conversation topic. In fact, I've used the African Cup as an icebreaker with almost every Zambian I've met, especially the drivers that pick me up in the morning.

Honestly, I only became a true soccer fan my freshman year of college when all of my close friends, girls and guys, played soccer for Wofford. I proudly watched my friends win the Men's Southern Conference Championship this past fall. As a result, when I heard about the African Cup I was eager to" get into" another football tournament and support the Zambian team as a way to connect with people here.

I have watched Zambia make their way to the quarterfinals; including a game they lost to Cameroon (that could have cost them the chance to move forward!) that I watched with an international conglomerate in Livingstone. I've become a regular Chipolopolo (Copper bullets) fan, even joining in on the jokes about the French movie-star looking coach Herve Renard.

Tonight, Zambia played Nigeria for a spot in the final four of the African Cup. It was the best I've seen Zambia play the whole tournament! 20 shots on the goal, majority possession in the second half, great defense that won nearly every ball...I had fun watching the game on a huge screen in a pub crowded with Zambians rooting loudly to the point of being obnoxious. Lena, Libby, and the very enthusiastic Emily and I huddled into the bar to cheer. The Nigerian team members are MASSIVE; they're built more like rugby or American football players rather than soccer players!

It was an insanely long game--over two hours with no goals for either team. So it came down to the penalty kicks, which I had already decided was a lame way to win or lose a game. Unfortunately, the Nigerian keeper blocked the 4th penalty kick from the Zambian team. Nigeria made all five of their penalty kicks, which means the Nigerian team won :(

I was really upset! They had played so much better than the Nigerian team! The Zambian team missed the semifinals by a penalty kick?! Come on!

So now Thursday at 11am Nigeria plays Ghana and at 2:30 Algeria plays Egypt. Looking at the final four, everyone is predicting Egypt to take it all and win the African Cup again. I'll be watching the 230 while I'm waiting in the airport to leave I'll be glued to the television to see how Egypt fairs.

Day 13: Saturday with the GRS Interns

2010-01-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

Highlights of Day 13

Going to Adventure City
Going to Alpha Bar

I got invited to join the GRS interns and some of the BSA staff to a day at Adventure City in Lusaka. It's a waterpark, put-put, play place with soccer field and volleyball court....It has everything really. And since they had been planning this trip for six months, it rained for the first few hours we were there. Luckily, there was a shelter so our group of 14 did our own energizers to get introduced.

Determined not to have the rain ruin our Adventure, we headed for the slides. Despite the rain I went running up the cement paths and wooden stairs to the top of the slides. Without lifeguards anywhere around, I went down the slides and into the pool below. And even though the bottom pool was about 4 feet deep, I charged down head first. Despite the thunder and lightning, I continued the rampage on the slides and playing in the pools. You could call it peer pressure, but I prefer to think of it of relying on the local expertise that the lightning does not strike the ground as often as it does in North Carolina. (Lightning strikes the ground more often in NC than any other US State) Nevermind the lifeguard trainings I have because I had fun in the storm anyway! It was great not having to abide by US waterpark rules--going head first down a really long slide is awesome! Brian streamlined as he came down and skidded a solid 25 ft past the slide on the surface of the water.

We came back to warm up (the temperature drastically drops when it rains here) and dry off as we started getting the food ready for the lunch barbeque. I helped peel some potatoes then went to play with Lazarous's son Naditzo. He's such a cute kid! I spent a large part of the day chasing him, kicking the soccer ball with him, dancing with him, teaching him how to blow a raspberry; quality play time!

The only down side is that I only understood "emway", which means "hey you" in the formal sense. Everything else he said beyond that was over my head! Fridah and Lazarous have tons of pictures of me with my new buddy so I hope to get those before I leave!!!

Around 5 we all headed home and crashed. Some of the GRS interns didn't come to Adventure City but joined us that evening to go to Alpha Bar. So Brian, Tommy, Grace, Fridah and boyfriend and friend, Lena and Kennedy and myself all packed into the car. I was so excited that Grace and Fridah was joining the dancing group--those two know how to break it down! We went to Alpha Bar which is a club in Lusaka. Bruce joined us later to dance the night the away. Again, it was just a blast!

Monday I'm slated to start with Valid International. Then I leave on Thursday. I hope the next few days crraaaawwwl by!

Day 12: Chikumbuso

2010-01-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

Highligts o Day 12

Meeting the craftswomen of Chikumbuso
Attending an intervention meeting

After spending a lot of time in the office earlier this week, they all acknowledged that this was a slow week for the staff because of the EOY reports. Everyone I asked said they'd be doing paperwork Friday morning. On top of that, they (and everyone in Lusaka) was having internet difficulties. Supposedly "all of Zambia" had lost their internet connection Thursday. Jen's luckily was up and running late that evening but I knew the GRS office wouldn't be working.

I told Lena that Naomi didn't need to pick me up at 8am Friday morning if there was nothing going on. In all honesty, I had my share of meetings and taking notes and I really really needed to finish my study abroad application for this upcoming fall. I just planned on joining the GRS crew for the afternoon graduation at St. Lawrence.

Lo and behold, the internet wasn't working Friday morning at Jen's. On top of that I later found out that Gesh and Bruce went to TWO graduations in the morning while everyone else was at the office. I just asked the wrong people what the plans were for the next day. I was disappointed that I missed the opportunity to go to more graduations and interventions.

Anyway that afternoon, the staff piled in the car to travel to St. Lawrence for a graduation. This one was much more organized than the one at Kampala ground because it was enclosed within the walls of the community school. Barefeet mentors lead the group in energizers, which are response songs and dances that get the enthusiasm level up. It felt like I was a counselor at Camp O again! During one of the dance offs I was pulled into the middle of the circle. Felix, a nine year old boy, was trying to show off so I whipped out my dancing skills. Of course, it set off laughter to watch the mzungus dancing (Brian was in the middle as well). I know I keep saying "I had fun" but I have no other way to say I thoroughly enjoyed being part of children's laughter and games.

For the graduation portion, a group of girls recited poems. One of them gave quite the theatrical performance for the group of kids and the line of teachers that came to process over the ceremony. David then called the names of the children. They made their way down the line of teachers and some GRS staff shaking hands before they were handed the certificate and I got to hand them a pencil, pen, or crayon. I was kind of a big deal, in case you didn't catch that. haha

It's all running together but I think it was that same afternoon that we all traveled to Chikumbuso to see an intervention. Chikumbuso used to be a bar and run down place that Linda bought and turned into a community center and shop for women's crafts. Linda, wife of Bruce the head of WBR, knows Jen therefore the women I talked with in the shop also knew Jen. For such a big town, it has quite the small town feel! The women here use plastic shopping bags to make purses, bags, and clutches of a variety of colors and sizes. They also make aprons, quilts, bracelets, earrings. The aprons and quilts are made from the chtenge cloth-they looked so awesome! Each woman has a craft speciality so buying goods from their store goes directly to them and their families. Naturally, I bought a bunch of stuff.

Grace started working with the girl's soccer team that was started at Chikumbuso. The team has about twenty girls and this was the first intervention for them this year. Again it started out with energizers (I really got into these!) then transitioned into a meeting-type setting. Again, the intervention is conducted in a local languaged so Fridah and David spoke in Nanja the whole time. I could get the jist of the conversation based on the posters on the wall.

They established that the meetings would always be held in an environment of Respect, Participation, Sharing, and Caring. Agreeing to these terms the girls and staff all signed the poster-sized contract. David then moved into the three Ways to Win. Here the analogy of football came into play for the girls to understand the way life choices are important in being HIV free.

At the end of discussing the three topics, David pointed out that all it boiled down to one thing-- being "Resilient", as he wrote in big letters on the poster. I thought it was so poignant that he used that word. I have already mentioned how resilient these Zambians are. Here it was being ingrained in these girls that being resilient is crucial in a such a tough world. After the girls struggled to pronounce the word in English, David used an illustration to help explain its meeting. He had a ball in one hand and a marker in the other. He dropped the two to the ground saying the ball was resilient. Of course, the ball bounced back up and the marker didn't. "Being resilient means to bounce back," he said, "You can make a mistake and still recover.You may have already had unprotected sex but that doesn't mean you can't bounce back to the right decision. Things make go wrong but you can be resilient to go and accomplish your dreams". If I hadn't already fallen in love with Grassroot Soccer, looking around at the girls who were so intently listening to David I would say that was the defining moment where I wholeheartedly supported Grassroot Soccer's efforts. So much reminded me of the impact and education that Girl Scouts tries to impress on girl's and their life decisions. But more than that these are issues so important and valuable for these girls to understand and act on NOW.

Then they handed out the pre-tests. The tests are printed in English so Gesh took a significant amount of time explaining each question properly. This is hard to do without giving them the answer! David and the other staff took the time to help the girls who could not read. David worked with one gorgeous nineteen year old girl who was in the seventh grade. Her name is Agness, as I saw her sign her name very slowly on the contract earlier, but she could barely read or understand English. She had also never heard of a condom or talked about sex before. As a guy, how do you explain a condom to a shy girl? I have no idea how he did, but kudos to him!

We drove around dropping the staff off at bus stops, houses, or key intersections that were close to their house. In the process we cranked up the volume of the South African musicians and danced until the car shook just as every other afternoon this week had ended. I'm really into Zambian, Malawi, and South African music now!

That evening I had dinner at the the GRS intern house as Jen went to see Avatar with her expat friends. I figured I'd be in the States soon enough to see it and it costs just at much here as it does to see the movie back home. Loads o' fun

Day 10: Staff and Partnerships

2010-01-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

Highlights o Day Ten

Getting to know the GRS staff
Meeting some key people from Breakthrough Sports Academy
Watching a 5 yearold Michael Jackson dancing prodigy at an Intervention Graduation at Garden, Kampala ground

I quickly got to know the different personalities of the young, energetic Grassroot Staff. There are 5 interns from the States and then 6 staff from Zambia. Here's a quick synopsis on the fun staff:

Lena, Emily, Brian, Libby, and Tommy L are all US interns that live in the house next to the GRS office. Lena is on a six month extension as a fellow following her year-long commitment as an intern. The internships run from August to August. All of them but Libby played soccer in college (for Dartmouth, Brown, or U of Vermont).

Izek, Lazarous (who has an adorable 3 year old son), Gesh, Felix, Grace, Fridah, Bruce, and David are all Zambian. I think only Izek, Lazarous, Grace and Fridah have a paid position in the office. The rest are volunteers as coaches and program coordinators. There was a flux of people coming in and out of the office for meeting this past week as people prepare their End of Year narrative and financial reports.

Lena, Lazarous, and Brian are the coordinators for the Nike/UNHCR NineMillion Campaign for the two refugee camps Mayukwayukwa and Meheba. Those three are also working very closely with Breakthrough Sports Academy. Grace and Tommy are the coordinators for the interventions based in Lusaka sponsored by Barclay's bank. These programs are partnered with an organization called Peers Educating Peers, which is again a like-minded organization that works with soccer leagues in Lusaka.

Bruce is a local program coordinator along with David. Those two were quite the sight to watch at the graduations. However the rest of staff can easily match them in enthusiasm!

Today I sat in on a meeting with the UNHCR/GRS project staff and the BSA staff. It was really interesting to listen to how Grassroot Soccer and Breakthrough Sports Academy coordinated their efforts last year to graduate over 1500 children.

Some of the major changes they are looking to make include:

The curriculum is going to focus on "behavioral change"; The prevalence of HIV has not dropped as drastically as everyone expected after the big HIV information push throughout the country. The information is widespread now and the prevalence has dropped from 17% to around 13%, from what I remember from talking with Namonje. However, this drop is not as significant as it "should have" so the push is changing from the scare tactics to how the information should cause them to change their behavior.
Logistically, they have to prepare for the children that will still be in the leagues from last year and have already graduate from the GRS Intervention program. They need to ensure that previously graduated kids do not receive another certification in order to avoid "double counting" them as graduates of 2010. Tracking the number of children they reach is a crucial component of their reporting for the UNHCR NineMillion campaign; it's essentially their success rate.
There was discussion about facilitating communications between partners and even more talk about transportation logistics. Transportation is always a hot topic around here!

It was exciting to hear that according the number of children and the ambitions of having 180 coaches, the GRS goals of reaching all children in the refugee camps in the 11 to 18 age range is very feasible goal for 2010. To learn more about GRS, check out Brian's blog at http://blappasgrassroots.blogspot.com.

The executive director for Breakthrough Sports academy, Owen Mukando, was present for the meeting. I was given a few minutes at the end of the meeting to speak on behalf of globalbike and assure them that we wanted to continue to grow in our capacity and partnerships. Forgive me for being so bold in the meeting, but I promised Owen to increase our communication with BSA and look into a more direct partnership with them. In my opinion, BSA as an additional partner is not far fetched because their volunteers are already receiving globalbikes through GRS as a filter. GRS and BSA work so closely that having a partnership with one is like working with another.

The entire meeting wasn't directly pertinent to thisblog, even though I found many parts interesting and some seemed to drag on, it was helpful to hear how the two organizations work together. I have a much better understanding of Breakthrough Sports Academy and the staff. The same energy that the GRS staff have is just as abundant in the BSA staff too! And besides, I got to network with another NGO executive director! (Curt, I have his contact information and gave him yours)

That afternoon I went with Brian, Gesh, and Bruce to see at graduation at Garden on the Kampala ground. The graduation was held at the Chiyanyang Community school for over 50 kids. I had no idea what I was going to see and there's no way I could be prepared for the entertainment that was to follow!

As we waited for the children to arrive from school, Gesh explained that the Kampala ground is a rough neighborhood for kids to grow up in. HIV is rampant in this area of Lusaka particularly which can create a lot of family isssues. There is a lot of effort put into keeping these kids off the street and at home despite a terminally ill caregiver as well as keeping these keeping them away from vices like alchohol and prostitution. In garden, GRS intervention is done in conjunction with Barefeet, a performing arts group, and PCI. Barefeet was started by a Zambian street kid that got himself through college then came back to Lusaka.(His name is Tobias and I got to meet him briefly the next day).

The graduation was open to the entire lot of kids that were around playing soccer or just hanging out. So as the children arrived from school so did the mass of children from the community. The group of children quickly massed to 150, easily. The Barefeet crew got the drums going followed by some energizers and a dance performance from some girls. I never knew a 7 year old could move her hips like that! The most entertaining part of the whole thing was the dance competition that occured; there was one kid that got to the middle of the circle that broke it down like MJ. No joke, this kid was sick! To watch a 5 year old dance that well was so awesome! That's gonna be the first thing I add to the blog when I can upload stuff. There was even a group of kids that showed up with their drums and played the national anthem for us!

After the drumming and dancing the GRS/Barefeet staff tried to hand out graduation certificates in an orderly fashion but it was just pure chaos with the number of kids that were there. They let me sign a couple of them to make them "official" which made me feel quite special since I know these kids treasure the certificates. The whole process was crazy but I enjoyed being around that many kids again.

After the two hour procession of events, Gesh took me over to sit in on a Peers Education Peers (PEP) and GRS coach's meeting. We arrived during the discussion part of the agenda. Tommy, Grace, and David were leading the meeting because these particular group of coaches are part of the Barclay's sponsored project. Izek was also there to offer some insight and comedic relief. They were discussing the question "Has the introduction and use of condoms brought any harm or good?"

I was getting introduced to yet another partner organization as well as see Zambian twenty-somethings discuss a hot topic and highly debatable issue. I offered my input when it was my turn in the cirlce, but of course I spoke too fast and it was lost on majority of them. By the end of the discussion, it was decided that no matter how they personally feel about birth control, condoms, pre-marital sex, etc, they as coaches, counselors, and peer educators have the responsibility to give the children unaltered, unslanted factual information. The children, no matter their age, in the end cannot be forced into a decision or action. Granted, your opinions will always find a way of being expressed but the effort of being open and unbiased is crucial.

Touche, Grassroot Soccer, Touche.

Day 9 Part B: Suggestions for globalbike

2010-01-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

Highlights of Day 9 Part B

Finally getting hearing some serious analysis of the bike "donating system" in Lusaka
Hearing concrete possibilites for improvement

Lena and Lazarous are the Grassroots Soccer staff overseeing the UNHCR project. (Brian will be taking over for Lena in the next few months as Lena's fellowship ends) This is another topic I can best cover in bullets. Also keep in mind that these suggestions were made in a light of ways to increase globalbike's capacity and continuing relationship with Grassroot Soccer

Repair budget for each bike. Each bike will eventually need repair or replacement no matter how well they are taken care of or high quality simply because of the constant use and rough conditions. The budget doesn't need to be a very large amount and could simply be a form of subsidy for the cost of repairs.
Guidance on where to find reliable, high-quality, reasonably-priced bikes in the local area. (I didn't say these suggestions were totally feasible) GRS spent a significant amount of time talking with people and bike shops trying to evaluate which bikes were the best deal. They were nervous about the budgeting of it all but I think that speaks to their dedication to cost-effective decisions.

In 2010, they would like to donate the bikes to the GRS/BSA coaches not just the local program coordinators. That would be 180 bikes. The value of a bike as a commodity makes the donation of a bike a big deal in the refugee camp; it's like giving them a car. Donating a bike to be shared among the coaches would be a logistical nightmare considering the distances the coaches are from each other and from the meeting places for interventions. Deciding who would get a bike, especially for the GRS coaches, is putting a higher value on some coaches but not others; a scale that really can't be established universally and objectively. That brings me to the next suggestion:

The next donation for GRS needs to cover all 180 coaches. Granted, they can be given in installments to the GRS office but they need to be delivered when the money has mounted to 180 quality bikes.
Transportation supplement. The best value bikes are found in Lusaka which means they must be transported to the settlemet. Getting the 8 previous bikes to the refugee settlements was difficult because the staff normally uses the public bus system and then company cars. Can you imagine a) trying to get 8 bikes into a Subaru forester? b) traveling 12 hours with bikes or even c) trying to find a place to put 8 bikes on a public bus? After my trip on the bus back from Livingstone, I have no idea how they managed to use the bus storage space to get them there. For 180 bikes or even two deliveries of 90 bikes they would have to rent a Fuso truck and driver. To get those 180 bikes to the refugee settlements, it would cost at least 4 million kwacha each trip based on the transport estimations they have experience with. Later on we discussed the possibility of having UNHCR help transport them but there would be a fee with that as well.

Don't be fooled that this conversation was purely based on ambitious goals and idealism. Our conversation quickly reverted to the logistics of how a donation this large could and should be best managed.

Bikes would still be used as an incentive. Only after completing at least one intervention successfully would a bike be offered. The coaches need to prove they are serious about their dedication as a volunteer first.
The recruitment of coaches and the training would never mention the possibility of getting a bike. This tactic is just to ensure the motivation for getting involved is altruistic. Even though the GRS staff were upfront and clear about these coaching positions being nonpaid volunteer only, they still received requests last year for money or subsidies in exchange.
The bikes would remain Grassroot Soccer property; donating a bike to a coach does not mean they own the bike. Once they stop volunteering for GRS, they forfeit the bike as well. While we are not naive or even bothered that they would use the bikes other than to travel to intervention meetings (i.e. going to the market or the ministry offices), the bikes are not for them to keep forever.
The coaches would be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the bike. This is where the suggestion to pay for repairs comes into question--if someone will pay for every flat tire, what's the point in trying to dodge the potholes? Despite the difficultly in financing the repairs, Felix assured me that the benefit of a bike far outweighed the financial costs. I also wondered, what would happen if the coach rendered a bike completely useless because he refused to fix any of the minor problems? Or if he was careless enough to lose it or not lock it up so it was stolen? There's no way the coaches could afford to replace a bike completely.
Contracts. Signing something is a big deal here. The terms of the bike donation would be made clear to each coach and they would have a copy of the signed contract as well as GRS. Even if that means they have to replace a stolen bike, a signed contract has some serious weight to it that is not taken lightly.
Tracking system. The contracts would aid in this process. I mentioned the sheets that PCI uses every time they deliver a bike they get the recepient to sign off that they did receive a bike and they are now responsible for it as a result. Perhaps globalbike could create a universal bike record booklet to send with the financial donations to any partner to help the organization keep track of who, when, and how many received bikes. As a result, this would help globalbike's efforts to maintain a record of the INDIVIDUALS who got the bike along with the pictures we receive.

Obviously a donation this large to a place that far away would have its fair share of logistical hurdles. I thought about how they would even travelin the camps to give the bikes to the coaches--would they go to the coach's homes? intervention meeting sites? That would make for cool pictures if the coaches got a picture taken with the teams/leagues they works with. Or perhaps a common meeting place would be more feasible? Would they deliver them all in one day? Telephones access is only in the ministry zones so how would they know where to be and when? And taking the pictures of each recepient...this plan definitely needs more details. Nonetheless, I think it's great to know where globalbike stands and where we can strive to be.

Tuesday, Jan 19th, Day 9: Grassroot Soccer

2010-01-24T02:04:00.000-08:00

Highlights o Day 9

Intense introduction to the Grassroot Soccer world

2. Meeting Felix, a GRS coach in Maykwayukwa refugee settlement

Grassroot Soccer essentially uses the popularity of soccer among African youth as a way to introduce their "Skillz" HIV prevention curriculum and get community members involved as active role models and supporters mainly for youth between ages of 10 and 20. (For more information check out their website http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/) The GRS office in Lusaka opened in 2005 and has partnered with several local organizations and companies to execute its mission successfully.

One of those partnerships is with Breakthrough Sports Academy (BSA), which is a like-minded organization that has worked to create football leagues in the Mayukwayukwa refugee settlement in Zambia for children ages four to sixteen. Grassroot Soccer partnered with BSA and other local football teams that had already been founded in the settlement to introduce HIV prevention program; they refer to them as "interventions". GRS formalized the clubs and leagues to coordinate the games between teams. Rather than starting from scratch, they used the grassroot system already in place. BSA were the main partners to have already started a league tehre with 12 teams and over 200 participants. They had been keeping registration records of the number of players of each team. Meetings with coaches usually occur with both BSA and GRS coaches present so that the information shared remains consistent. While BSA and GRS have slightly different topics & lessons they aim to cover and the ways they are taught, the messages are complementary and easily co-taught. The interventions are taught before the team practices so the children are asked to arrive early to participate. It hasn't been difficult to get the children to come a little early because the GRS staff are such enthusiastic counselors (evidence of which I would see later).

GRS mentors that lead the interventions and teach the Skillz curriculum to football teams before their practices are called Skillz coaches or just "coaches". (That was a source of confusion for me at first because I had to distinguish between the actual team coach and the GRS mentor coach during conversation!) The GRS coaches are volunteers from the local community who undergo a week long training and promise to hold at least one intervention per week with the leagues they will work with. Each intervention program takes about ten weeks to complete.

The globalbikes donated to Grassroot Soccer (or more specifically the globalbike money donated for them to buy bicycles) have been used to support the Grassroot Soccer project sponsored by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and in partnership with BSA in the Myakwayukwa refugee settlement in the Western Province. The UNHCR/GRS program also includes the Meheba refugee settlement in the Northern Province of Zambia. The bikes were donated to six local program coordinators (four from GRS and two BSA) in the settlements who oversee the GRS coaches. More on why the bikes are needed later...

Grassroot Soccer/UNHCR Recap of 2009 and Projections for 2010

The UNHCR program was slated to start early in 2009 but funding was delayed so the project did not get into full swing until halway through the year. in the first half of the year, GRS trained 40 coaches and BSA trained 60 split between the two refugee camps. From the 60 BSA trained, 11 did not pull through on commitments leaving 21 BSA coaches in Mayukwayukwa and 28 BSA coaches in Meheba. From July to September alone 400 children graduated from the Skillz program and a total of 1,518 children graduated in 2009. Considering their goal for the entire year of 2009 was 1,800 children, graduating 1518 children in just six months or so is a success! Before 2009, the last program conducted in these areas was in 2006. This effort was a revival of previous work thanks to financial support from partners.

For 2010, GRS wants to have 180 coaches (100 from 2009; 40 new BSA coaches, 40 new GRS). Twenty of the new GRS coaches will be specifically trained for catering to the all-girl netball leagues. Again, these netball leagues were already established in the camps and GRS will use their practice schedules as a time to meet with them before they practice. Currently, GRS is updating their curriculum to be gender sensitive because they found that majority of the football leagues were male. The netball leagues enable them to spread their message toward a female audience.

Last year, volunteers were asked to come to a introduction of BSA and GRS. After an upfront description of the demands of being a volunteer the crowd kind of "self-selected" and narrowed the field then split between the two organizations. This year, BSA and GRS expects to have all of the coaches, minus a handful, to return and do a 3 day "refresher" course before the interventions start again.

The eighty new coaches will have to go through a more stringent application process. The popularity of the program in the community naturally leads to quasi-interested people trying to become coaches without serious dedication to the goals.

Settlements

After training the coaches choose the leagues and locations they will work with. Understanding the dynamics of the refugee settlements is crucial in order to understand how this can be a pretty complicated process.

The settlements are broken into Zones; each zone is like a neighborhood and usually have congregations of similiar nationalities within each one. Meheba is the largest of the two and has Zones A to G. It can take over 1.5 hours to walk from Zone A to Zone D, where all the ministry offices are located. Meheba was opened in 1971 for Angolan refugees who were fleeing from the Portugese during the Angolan Revolution. In the 1990s, Meheba started receiving refugees from the DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi.

The different nationalities of course speak different languages--Kenyan or Ugandans speaking Swahili, French and African dialects of Angolese, Congolese, Mozambique speaking Portugese. Even the different areas of Zambia have different dialects: Luvalli in the Northern Province, Bemba in central provinces and Northern, Lodzi in the Western Province, and Nanja in Eastern Province. There are easily 30 nationalities in each refugee camp and the number of languages even more diverse. So the coaches tend to work in the Zone they live because they understand the local language and inherent culture. The interventions and graduations are conducted in the local languages with planning efforts of the local program coordinators. The local program coordinators visit the various zones to oversee the graduations especially. This is also important because it takes so long for the coach to travel just through their own Zone; it takes even longer to travel to another province.

The settlements are in isolated, rural areas isolated from towns and cities. The closest town is about 2 hours by car and Lusaka is another 5-7 hour bus ride from the settlement. The placement of the refugee settlement was quasi-intentional. They wanted to isolate the refugees in order to limit their mobility to town and integrate into the workforce. The thought process being that there are not enough jobs for Zambian citizens so refugees should not take limited job opportunities available. There is also a concern for safety among potentially clashing ethniticies and the stigma & discrimination against refugees in general. In order for refugees to leave the settlement to come into town they must receive a pass from UNHCR and the pass usually lasts for a maximum of 14 days to visit Lusaka at the farthest.

When the GRS team based in Lusaka travels to visit the refugee settlements, it takes all day to get there. They will stay at the camps for at least a week to meet with the local program coordinators, visit as many interventions and graduations as possible. They visit at least once a month. Along with the caravan of staff they find a translator along the way as they travel to the different zones.

The settlements are not only large in size but massive in population as well. Meheba is 720 sq km and can have up to 120,000 people there; right now it's about 15,000. There are about 10,000 refugees in Mayukwayukwa camp. Since Mayukwayukwa opened in 1966, there are complete families that were born and have lived their entire lives in the refugee camp. Often, the grandparents were the original expatriate/refugees while their children and grandchildren were born in the refugee camp. This makes repatriation difficult because these generations have no one and nothing to go to in their "home" country. These people are still considered refugees. The UNHCR has conducted repatriation convoys such as offering free transport, $500 US to every repatriating refugee over the age of 18 and $50 to those under 18yo.

Meheba was supposed to be closed down after many Angolans voluntarily repatriated, but repatriation ended after the Angolan war reignited in 1998. Repatriation of Rwandan and Burundi refugees have still shown to be unsuccessful. THe GRS staff revealed the frank honesty that some of these refugees have expressed. For these refugees, the bitterness of the Rwandan genocide is very real. They know that if they were to return home they would find the people that murdered their family and are honest to say that they would simply flare the ethnic war by trying to kill the "original perpetrator".

I was impressed to hear that the ministry keeps very detailed records of who and how many people are in the camp. According to the GRS staff, there are Road Chairmen that report data on births, deaths, repatriation, etc. to zone committees. The road chairmen are simply citizens that are in charge of reporting what happens to the families on their street. The zone committees keep the ministry offices updated as a result. The numbers of people are the camps are in constant flux when there are convoys in and out.

Skillz Program

Each intervention begins with a "pre-test" which is a 15 question survey assessing how much information the kids now about HIV/AIDS. For instance, one question is "Having sex with an older partner increases my risk of contracting HIV" and the kids have to circle "Agree", "Disagree" or "Not Sure". After the completion of the intervention, the children answer the same questions as the "post-test" to see how much they have learned over the course of the program.

The curriculum is taught through games and discussion. They are in the process of updating the curriculum but the format and overall message of each intervention session essentially will stay the same. (I got a copy of the booklet they distribute to the coaches) They keep the kids engaged through interactive song/activities they call energizers; it reminds me of games at camp that we used to keep the girls moving, active, and excited (and usually to kill some time!). Smaller energizers are incorporated during the discussions to encourage participation and create a supportive atmosphere while covering some heavy stuff. Each intervention has a distinct, specific message the coaches relay using analogies from football; such as "building your team" as a support network to prevent the spread of HIV and knowing how to "make your move" to stay safe.

Felix's Bike

Felix is one of the local program coordinators at Mayukwayukwa that received a globalbike. It was great timing because he was in Lusaka visiting for the week. Because of the transportation and logistic complexities of visiting Mayukwayukwa GRS did not have the money in the budget (as it is the end of their finanical year) to make a trip out there. However, I got a very lengthy video interview with him about the use of the bike.

As a local program coordinator, he needs to travel to the different zones to meet with coaches and conduct graduations. The bikes" cut the travel time in half" and makes it easier to be dedicated in meeting those he should. Since his work with GRS is a volunteer position, he has other daily activities he needs to accomplish after visiting the camps. More specifically, things he needs daylight to do because there are limited security lights in the camp so time is of the essence when racing the sun to get everything done. Visiting the interventions is crucial in order to make sure the curriculum is being well-taught and the program remains effective. Felix is also in charge of seeing IF the coaches are holding their interventions as well.

Another major task of the LPCs are to maintain contact with the Lusaka GRS staff because they cannot be in two places at once. However, those of us in the developed world take telephone access and communication for granted. Telephone lines do not line the streets of the refugee settlement so communication is very limited. Felix used to have a very disconnected relationship with the Lusaka staff only having the time to get to the phones in the ministry zone on rare occassions and usually waiting for their monthly trip to update them on everything. Now Felix is able to quickly pedal to the phone lines and provide short updates or planning discussions with the Lusaka staff.

I inquired about the maintenance of the bike and the GRS quickly admitted to buying cheaper bikes than they had intended. They proposed they needed 4 bikes but ended up needing 8 total for the all the local program coordinators. As a result they bought 6 bikes from money donated by globalbike and 2 from their own budget. They bought the Speciall 5-55 brand bikes from a Lusaka bicycle shop because they heard the bikes in the town near Mayukwayukwa were not high quality. Felix said he hasn't had many problems with the tires like I had heard before. Last year he had to get the pedals fixed a few times for 16,000 kwacha, which isn't too bad. The rain got to the chain so he had to have that replaced once for 25,000 kwacha as well.

GRS had planned on buying the bikes from Cycle Mat for 630,000 kwacha each. I also found out that the Zambikes or the "zambulance" bikes that have an base in Lusaka sell their bikes for about 530,000k.

Felix is a soft spoken man but obviously well experienced on the realities of working in the refugee settlements. The video interview with him was followed by another meeting with the GRS Lusaka staff that are in charge of the UNHCR program. While majority of the day was simply sitting in the office talking, they offered some great insight as to improvements for globalbike. That'll be Day 9 Part B...

Weekend at Livingstone and Victoria Falls

2010-01-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

First off, apologies to friends and Momma for scaring you all into thinking I had drowned or been kidnapped this weekend. Jen's internet wasn't working Thursday or Friday before I left so I couldn't remind everyone that I was leaving...and I wouldn't have internet for the weekend so I wouldn't be updating the blog while I was gone either. So, I'm alive and well! I didn't realize so many people were religiously following the blog!

I started the weekend with a bus ride to Livingstone. I took the 9AM bus on the Mazhundu Family Bus service, which is known for being prompt, reliable, and well run. Evidently the 9am bus is the "luxury" bus; I found it to be quite comfortable but didn't realize how luxurious it was until I rode the 730am bus back to Lusaka today. The 10 or 20pen (or about 5 dollars) difference between the "non-luxury" and the "luxury" was more than worth it the first time around. The luxury bus is exactly like the Greyhound buses in America but without the scratchy carpet material on the seats. The non-luxury bus? Cramped, hot, smushed, sweaty. I was miserable for nearly 7 hours. SEVEN HOURS. That's all I'm gonna say about that...

Upon arrival to Livingstone Friday afternoon, there was a mass of taxi drivers trying to take the backpacker to Jollyboy's. Jollyboys is a two minute walk from the bus terminal so after shifting through the crowd I walked to the very popular hostel around the corner. Enclosed in a cool fence and gate is very well designed hostel with a restuarant/bar area, pool &patio, shaded "chill out" zone with tons of pillows and people reading, the dorm rooms, and tent area. I shared a room with two kayakers from London and an aeronautical engineer from South Africa. I spent the first night getting to know my roommates and a diverse conglomerate of people that were staying there. Throughout the weekend I would get to know

Luke, an investment trader from Australia that spends majority of the year traveling
Trent, a student at a university in Cape Town who has been traveling extensively throughout Africa; I spent a lot of time trying to convince him that not all (some, yes) Americans are dumb and exceedingly arrogant
Neil, the aeronautical engineer and very nice gentleman
Nick and Chris, the two quiet kayakers that were either kayaking Rapids 1 to 7 or reading at Jollyboys
Slovenian Viakaapstad guys Borix, Gamon, and Apa who had rode from Slovenia through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and down the eastern coast of Africa for the past few months on their motor bikes; they had some crazy stories! Borix is the dentist, Gamon worked as a factory manager, Apa is a mechanical engineer
Victoria and Heather: two Norwegian girls who were visiting Victoria's cousin in Livingstone; Victoria lives in Lusaka so I may be meeting up with her sometime later

Saturday I went whitewater rafting with Safari Par Excellence or "SafPar". I joined a group of 5 young Norwegian friends who all had assumed I could speak Norwegian because my name is Norwegian in origin. Eventually I caught on that they were trying to talk to me; thank God they spoke English! There was another raft of 6 people (a mix of Victoria & Heather, a South African couple, and a couple from China) that were also on the trip. Our guide Boyd was enthusiastic, wild, and full of crap just like every other raft guide I've ever known. I called him out on the bull crap lines he used as scare tactics or just random jokes. I wasn't nearly as gullible as the other girls in the boat so Boyd quickly realized I am a raft guide as well!

We started at Rapid #7b because #1 to 7a have too high of water levels for commercial rafting. The trek into Bakota Gorge at the put-in was quite steep. We followed a porter, a guy paid to carry the safety boater kayak down to the river, over the rocks and narrow path. Carrying a kayak is difficult, especially the way he held it, and the path was not easy to navigate and maintain balance either. This guy was really impressive--never once slipping, dropping the boat, hitting the boat against limbs while all of us were struggling to make it over the huge rocks with just our paddles in hand! After getting oriented in the boat we started down the Great Zambezi River with Zimbabwe on the right and Zambia on the left (Zim and Zam).

Our Nor-merican crew was gung-ho and made it clear we wanted to "go big" whenever possible. Boyd made the trip loads of fun, including a purposeful flip at a Rapid named "Gnashing Jaws of Death"--charming name right? No worries, no one was hurt the entire trip. The upper rapids are all Class 5 to 4 (except for Rapid 9/Commercial Suicide which is a Class 6 and we portage around it) but as you continue downstream the rapids become easier to Class 2 and 1. At a flatwater area we jumped off a 6-8m high cliff into the water; there was a large debate about exactly how high it was but whatever height it still hurt my butt when I didn't make the flip all the way around to get my feet down in time! We were able to swim outside of the boat through a lot of the last few rapids because the water is so deep and the rapids are so simple. It felt like we were swimming through the ocean. Occasionally a whirlpool would snag me out of the current and roll me around before I got bored and swam back into the main current.

The gorge is absolutely gorgeous. The river was amazing. The water felt great. The sky was bright and the sun brilliant, which of course ended in a brilliant sunburn! Boyd and the Norwegians had me laughing the whole day. I was reminded why I loved rafting on a natural river. Why I love the mountains. Why I needed to do this trip. For some of you, you'll understand how significant of a moment it was when I realized how happy I was. I fell in love with the Zambezi and was grateful to remember how to be so care free. Beautiful day on so many levels.

That afternoon I went to the local curio market to kill some time and see more of Livingstone. I was so proud of my haggling skills that I learned from my trip to Namibia two years ago. I got a guy to come down from 85,000 kwacha to 25,000 kwacha on a gift for a friend. The exchange rate is about 45000 kwacha to the dollar. In Livingstone and Vic Falls stores and hotels often use the US dollar out of convenience for the tourists and because the inflation makes it ridiculous to be carry around that many notes.

I joined Nick, Chris, Neil, and this Japanese newbie kayaker guy for dinner at Olga's, which is an Italian resturaunt, NGO, community school all in one. The food was authentic and the pizza massive, so naturally I had a "to go" box to put in the fridge at the backpacker hostel. And since I had on a white shirt and a solid 10 minute walk back to Jollyboy's, it was only mandatory that I experience my first rain in Zambia. It is their "rainy season" but they haven't had any of it since I had arrived. Too cheap to pay for a cab, too stubborn to wait for the monsoon to ease up, and too feminist to wait for a guy to give me his jacket---I ran for it! The box and I were completely soaked by the time I made it up the hill, but I beat all the guys back AND the pizza wasn't soggy. Success!

The next morning, Sunday at 6am, I went to Thorntree Lodge and Preserve where orphaned elephants have been trained for tourists to ride. I thoroughly enjoyed riding Lewa who is a 20-25 year old mother of Nande, who is about 2 years old. The South African couple from rafting the day before was there and it was nice to see some familiar friendly faces. The wife and I shared the sentiment that we felt odd exploiting a wild animal for the sake of our enjoyment but felt better about the fact that they had been raised in this semi-captivity way of life. I took a ton of pictures of the 6 elephants, including the two babies. We waded across a part of the Zambezi at one point. Nande had to swim since she wasn't tall enough to walk--so cute! I asked my guide who was directing Lewa a ton of questions too;

Fun fact: the elephants can get drunk off eating the fruits of the Amarula tree. Amarula is a unique Southern Africa liquor that tastes absolutely wonderful; I had a sip or two of it when I visited Namibia with Wofford students in 2007.

Fun fact #2: Elephants don't have bones in their feet. Instead they have a 6inch cushion of tissue that act as a pad for their tibia. Elephants could be very sneaky creatures because their walk is so quiet but the whole knocking down trees thing and large size makes that that possibility difficult one.

Right after the elephant ride, the driver dropped me off at the entrance to the Zambian Victoria Falls National Park. On the way, the van dropped off the other elephant riders at hotels like the Royal Livingstone and Zambezi Sun. After seeing the big production in the lobbies and ridiculous outfits of the hotel employees, I am so so so glad I couldn't afford to go there. It's all staged so I hope people don't come visit there thinking they're getting the "real deal" of authentic African culture. Anyways, I was wandering the paths around the falls and luckily ran into Trent and Neil who had taken the free ride from Jollyboy's to the falls.

Victoria Fall is also called Mosi-oa-tunya which means the smoke that thunders. The smoke refers to the mist from the falls that drenched me like the rainstorm form the night before. The water hasn't risen to the point where the individual cataracts are undefinable but eventually there will be so much water that the entire width of the waterfall is one big overflow of water. During low water season, there's very little water pouring over the edge of the falls. There's even a few places you can swim up to the edge of the falls to look over; unfortunately the water was too high to go swimming in the notorious Devil's Pool which is close to Livingstone Island.

Neil, Trent, and I also took the steep trail that is the put-in for Rapid #1, the Boiling Pot. From here there's a great view of bungee jumpers jumping off the bridge above the water. We spent quite a bit of time watching the water and sitting on the water's edge. Trent told me of his efforts working with BEN bikes in Namibia, Zambulance, and his idea for a bike oriented-NGO of his own as well. It was interesting to here another perspective on the mission of globalbike. There are a lot more we should have discussed but the trail got really hard to climb back up that talking and climbing was difficult!

Ate Zambian lunch at DaFusion, including the staple nshima

slept, read, tanned the rest of the afternoon. realized that unless you're spending an absorbant amount of money on some high adventure activity there isn't much else to do in livingstone

for dinner I ate my leftover pizza and watched Zambia play Cameroon in the African Cup. They lost 3-2 in a tough game but the keeper should have caught that last goal. Zambia is now slated to play against Gabon sometime later this week. Fun to watch football with a bunch of internationals and Zambians cheering at every exchange of the ball!

talked about American pop culture and movies (Slovenians know a lot of movies!); African travels; South African college life; learned SA words like "graft" "wank" (which is actually not a very nice word) "sunnies"--words I plan to use on a regular basis from now on

Tomorrow I start working with Grassroots Soccer. They are an organization founded by professional soccer players in 2002 who leverage the huge football fanbase to educate youth about HIV prevention. They do a lot of work in the refugee camps outside of Lusaka. It will be interesting to see how their organization utilizes the excitement over the African Cup and World Cup to further their mission.

Day 4: St. Joseph HBC

2010-01-18T07:55:00.000-08:00

Highlights o Day 4

1. Meeting the lovely, warm caregivers of St. Joseph;

2. Debrief with PCI

3. Dinner with expats and World Bicycle Relief employee Craig

The original plan was to go to Bwafano today and then visit a few educational centers tomorrow. However, tomorrow I will be traveling to Lusaka and Bwafano had some changes in their availability. Instead, Namonje and I headed to St. Joseph Catholic Church which is the location of one of the newer home-based care centers that have partnered with PCI. As usual the "system" of caregivers visiting congregation members and neighbors had been well established in the community. The caregivers explained that their congregation is so large that both services on Sunday have members pouring out of the sanctuary and into the courtyard. PCI realized this was a large area of Lusaka that did receive care from any caregiver partners. About four years ago PCI partnered with the St. Joseph Catholic Church to formalize their caregiving system.

St. Joseph's has received 5 PCI bikes that they share among the 20+ caregivers. They have a log so the caregivers can check out a bike and they can keep track of the location and maintenance of the bikes. Priority is given to the caregivers who travel the furthest day. These caregivers visit 190 patients and over 300 orphaned or vulnerable children.

I met Rene, Grace, Ester, and a nurse. The nurse told me about her clinical training that was made possible through PCI. She described the difficulty of the course (ie trying to listen to the teacher while writing down the information on the board or the four complex tests). Her expertise is very helpful in evaluating the need for the patient to visit the clinic or provide care that patients would normally have to travel to the clinic to visit. She had a nickname that I couldn't really understand and I got so caught up in trying to learn the nickname that I have forgotten her actual name :(

Since the start of their caregiving program, they have only "retired" two women. The two women were retired for sake of age; they're over 70 years old. They are still involved in the caregiving meetings to advise the other women. Rene refered to the caregivers as all being "elderly women". All of the caregivers are women above the age of 50. They use the term elderly as a word of respect, honor, and acknowledgement that they have been blessed to live that long. They laughed when I told them that my mother would be insulted if I called her "elderly" explaining that Americans often use that word to describe feeble geriatrics. These women are not feeble by any means, especially if they're biking 15km to visit patients.

All of the women are mothers who have older children (a few had children my age) and volunteer their time to work as a caregiver. They have various income-generating projects; Rene crochets and makes other crafts that she sells at the big curio market in Lusaka the last Saturday of the month.

Grace sells produce. *Side note: The only problem with selling produce is that even though she sells a wide variety of produce that I'm sure are very tasty, however, these are the same vegetables and fruit that every woman sells at every street. I didn't ask how successful her business is because it must be enough to support her*

I became very attached to these women. They were very warm and welcoming towards me. Yes, I was still the mzungu but I didn't feel ostrisized. They inquired about my family and hometown. It was fun to tell them about Concord. These women made me feel comfortable enough telling them about my father as well, which is rare. Again, I had a deep sense of appreciation for their dedication and altruism.

The sanctuary of St. Joseph's decorated with murals on the front wall near the alter; bronze impressions of the Stages of the Cross lined the walls, and the floors were covered in marble slabs. Thursday is "cleaning day" so my arrival had interrupted these women from waxing the floors and cleaning the entire sanctuary. Waxing the floors is a very Zambian thing to do; even in the villages having shiny clean floors is a status indication. They joked that they would hand over a towel and a can of Cobra wax for me. After hearing these women's dedication to their community I was ready to "wax on, wax off" the rest of the afternoon. I caught them off guard when I grabbed the towel and put down my bag; laughing they shook their head and motioned for me to follow them out the door.

I followed them around the side of the church to the community school located next door. The school has grades one to seven; grades 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 are combined classrooms with the seventh graders having their separate classroom. The 1& 2nd graders had an math exercise of "3+4" on the board and the 3&4 graders had a math exercise of "3400+616". The 3&4 graders' exercise seemed it was lower on the aptitude scale than Americans are asked to do at that level; I'll leave that judgement call for my elementary education friends though.

At any rate, the teachers were very eager for our entourage to enter the classroom. Each class stood up when we entered and recited a rehearsed greeting of "Hello, Madams, how are you..." I'll put up the video at some point. Of course as we continued into the other classrooms the older students recited less enthusiastically but they were just as courteous. The seventh grade classroom had posters on the wall leftover from a workshop on preventing sexual and gender-based violence. Again, pictures would be helpful here. I thought it was pretty cool that the school provides that kind of practical education as well.

As we left Namonje and I talked with the 3&4th grade teacher. He was not "certified" but he spoke of his keen interest and desire of making teaching children his career. St. Joseph's is all about passion!

For lunch, I went to the local store Melissa's with Mudesta, Jen's maid. I picked up food for me to eat at Jen's and Mudesta got supplies to make zuchini bread for my trip to Livingstone. It was Jen's idea and I was so on board with it! I tried to engage Mudesta in conversation as much as I could on the walk back but she's so so quiet. Really sweet, but quiet.

That afternoon I had a debrief with PCI. It was a meeting with Rajeesh, Pule, and Namonje about the experience I had throughout the week. I'm gonna make that into a bulleted blog entry.

That evening, Jen had coordinated a dinner date with several of her NGO/expat friends. First Jen and I went to a yoga class at "Alliance Francias" with Jen at 6pm. There was some sweet moves and series that I want to remember so I can show my track team. They need to branch out from Rodney Yi and tree poses!

Then we met Jon, Kate, Craig and his fiance Jennifer at Diane's Korean Cusisine. Dave who is the country director for World Bicycle Relief was also supposed to join us for dinner. However, Dave is sick. It's not malaria, thank goodness, but its a severe infection of some sort. Craig works for World Bicycle Relief as a technical advisor. I can't remember his actual title but he works with the their main sponsor Trek to design and test bicycles for caregivers and other NGO partners that receive bikes. Behold, where their quality of bicycles comes from the design expertise of Trek, Shimano, and Cannondale. He also explained that they work very hard to buy high quality parts within the small budget range they allow in order to keep the final costs down. A lot of the parts are bought from the Indian company Tata which is the Johnson & Johnson of everything that can be made (from plastic bottles to bicycle parts). The parts get shipped to Craig and from what I understand his team puts them together. From there they have partners they give these bikes to as well as a stock of bikes they sell to other NGOs, which is where PCI got them- using globalbike donations.

He also talked about their new partnership with Ministry of Education in Zambia. They're working on donating 10,000 bicycles to students who travel really far to get to school. Cutting down the time they spend traveling makes it easier for them to consistently attend school, is the main concept. I didn't get to delve into details with Craig about how their whole system works because, well, it was a dinner party with 5 other people. Jen was really excited about barbequeing the meat and it was fun to hear about the NGO and expat world of Lusaka. I think later this month I will be able to meet with Dave and Craig again so a more indepth discussion will unfold.

Day 3: Shuko

2010-01-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

Highlights o' Day 3

Riding a globalbike to home visits with a caregiver
Conversing (via translation) with HIV+ patients
Reality of HIV has set in
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.

Day 2: Bauleni

2010-01-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

Highlights o Day Dos

Holding a two month old twin girl for a few hours
Learning how traditional, affordable foods are cooked
Improving my tan
Becoming very aware that I am a "mzungu"

Today I was expecting to be picked up at 9am but again time being very relative Musonda showed up at 8:30 just before I returned from my run. I knew it was hot but I realized that 7:30am is too late to start a run here; my face was beet red when I got back. On my run I had gone past the UN High Commission of Refugees, a USAID office, a "Swedish neighborhood" as the sign claimed, two little boys selling eggs, a BP gas station, lots of staring eyes, a Lusaka Disability and Development office, s small market--all within the residential area of Kabulonga. The PCI office is on the same road at the Peace Corps offices where Meg goes in the morning and the Embassy of the State of Palestine with a small flag flapping within the stone fence. Since Musonda had already come and gone I rushed through a cold shower and figured I could manage the two right turns it took to get to the PCI office. It took me about 10 minutes to walk to the PCI office and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to see the neighborhood.

Around 10:30 we headed to Bauleni, another large, successful HBC based out of a Catholic church. I wore a chwenga for the day--a wrap over my trousers. (pants are considered "underpants" here) We spent the day with the HBC director and a few PCI staff leading a cooking demonstration for the mothers. I learned how to peel the fibers off a pumpkin leaf that was later boiled with other vegetables. None of the mothers spoke English so they enjoyed talking about me. I could only smile and nod realizing I was the object of their attention when I was learning tasks that was almost first nature to them.

Majority of the mothers had little babies that were passed around to anyone willing to hold or carry them on their back. Several of the mothers had two or three children under the age of two. I got to hold a little twin girl for awhile. She was fascinated by my appearance and stared at my face for the first half hour I held her. Her attention then transitioned to all the gadgets on my bag and camera grabbing onto anything she could. She would occassionally laugh at me just like all the other women! I never was able to get her name; I was told that since she's a twin they call her mewemba (phonetical spelling of course).

The preparation and cooking for the group lunch took practically all afternoon. The menu included

: chicken in some oil and peanut sauce,
lots of porridge like-white stuff called ndwema?,
a salad of pumpkin leaves, tomatoes, and onions which was boiled and looked like canned spinnach,
more vegatables cooked in peanut butter,
and the most appetizing part of the meal was sardines cooked in peanut butter and tomatoes!

I was often distracted by Patrick during all the cooking. He is a mischevious little three year old who would hit the other children then run away when chastised. He used tatics to get more biscuits than his siblings and of course very resistant to share them. There were several occassions where he found it necessary to pee or poo in the courtyard. At that point the mothers just rolled their eyes and didn't feel like the fight was worth it. Needless to say this little terror was quite entertaining! As the day went on the older children got out of school and it seemed like they were pouring out of the woodworks of the diocese. Many of the older ones were playing in the game rooms next door that serve as an afterschool service of play, education, and "learning the Word of God".

I offered to help stir the ndwema after I had put down the little girl. The instructors said I should learn only on a small pot because it was difficult and they didn't want me to hurt my little wrists. My slight feminism was quite offended but I kept my defenses to myself and became determined to help at some point. My opportunity came when all the dishes were ready and they began to divy up the servings onto plate. I helped carry the pots inside (I had to reinforce that yes, I could manage them) and serve the food onto 27+ plates.

After the mothers had been served, with more porridge given to women with more children, it was our turn to eat. I dodged the sardines saying I was allergic to fish; they were surprised I knew what it was. I'm sorry for not being more daring but their little eyes popping out of the peanut butter? Ugh gross. Everything else was quite alright. The vegetables were very salty for me but I'm always a fan of more veggies! The porridge helped neutralize some of the less enjoyable tastes. I would not advise peanut butter on chicken...ever.

Before we began to eat we washed our hands. For staff being so aware of sanitation needs I was surprised that washing just entailed pouring water over hands and rinsing. I had been touching the ground that a live chicken had been flapping on, holding a baby, sweating. I knew that we would be eating with our hands but I didn't want to be rude and whip out my hand sanitizer in front of all these women. I simply had to ignore all the microbiology knowledge screaming inside of my head.

I had watched the mothers roll the porridge into a ball in their palms then pinch the vegetables and eat it. I attempted the rolling but it was so hot!! How did they just grab it like that? I tried not to wince. My finger tips are peeling from the slight burn. Helen, an Austrian volunteer at the church who joined us late into the demonstratoin, was much more open about how hot it was but the other women kept on trucking like it was nothing.

After we ate Namonje gathered the Bauleni staff and some caregivers so I could ask questions and debrief from the afternoon. Talk about PCI's resources to create an OVC program and mother nutrition education has become a recurring theme. PCI's mission to "save the lives of children and families by preventing disease, providing access to clean water, and nutritious food" was very evident today. Irene the director of Bauleni HBC was very informative. I just hope you can hear her on the video because the children were playing foozball and table hockey quite loudly next door on top of the loud music. In fact, I think you make out Jayz's "New York" song in the background during the video!

I enjoyed talking (via translation) to the caregivers to hear about their passion for others. They got involved because the other clinics are very crowded and the quality of care is therefore limited. They are able to offer more personal care and time to these patients as well as talk with them about Jesus Christ. These women had been doing carework in the rural community since 1997 and received bikes in 2007; some serious dedication to travel as far as they do for that long. The bikes were used as incentives because the more dedicated and furthest traveling caregivers received bikes first.

We didn't drop a bike off for them today. Tomorrow Namonje says I'm going on a home visit where I will be able to ride the bike with a caregiver. I am so excited about that! So I will need to use the bike before handing it over to them tomorrow. When I got back to the PCI office one of the drivers Adrian noted the change of color in my skin. He didn't understand my excitement in the noticeable tan. How do you explain the vanity of being tan?

I had been in the heat all day. When I got back to the cool of the house, the exhausation set in. I sat down to look through pictures and it turned into a four hour nap. If you know me, you know that I am nearly incapable of having a normal "nap" that lasts half an hour or so. When I'm out, I'm dead to the world! I woke up when Jen came back from a tennis match. We talked about cultural differences and how the modesty of Zambians often keeps them from taking initiative or making demands of others. She suggested using the words "lessons learned" or "if you could do things differently" in order to get constructive criticism out of the interviewees because I was having a hard time getting that kind of feedback. She was surprised I was able to get into the community so quickly and get people to talk to me. She said it took her months to get the trust of the staff and it is rare that people arrive and head straight to the communities. I credit the reputation Namonje and PCI has established with people's readiness to speak to me and my camera.

Day 1

2010-01-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

Since I know that I can be longwinded at times I've decided to start the blog with "Highlights o' the day" for those of you who don't have forever and a day to read this.

Highlights o Day 1

Seeing the excitement on Erika's face when she learned she was getting a bike today. She is a caregiver in Matero and one of the last few caregivers without a bike at that clinic.
Learning about the massive amount of community support and volunteers for healthcare in various neighborhoods/townships in Lusaka
Getting my bag from the airport with everything still in it
Running in warm weather

Driving through Lusaka to the different HBC sites was interesting. I couldn't see much last night but quickly noticed how every building was surrounded by brick fences that blocked any view of the building. The access to the buildings is through metal gates that are manned by a security guard. Even Jen has a security guard for her gate. The top of the 10-12 foot high fences is often covered in broken glass bottles purposely positioned with the jagged edges upward and/or a couple lines of electric fencing. In residential areas the division of the lots is evidenced only by a change in paint color on the brick walls. This may make it sound scary but violence and robbery are not really prevalent. It's just how it is in the big cities here. The main roads are lined in long brick walls that are painted with advertisements--everything from paint itself to Aquafresh toothpaste to some weird snack that looks like Fruitloops gone cheezdoodles. People are walking everywhere meaning there are well beaten dirt paths alongside all the roads on both sides. I found this uberconvenient when I went running later in the day. Majority of the intersections are roundabouts (instead of stoplights) with cars whizzing by and merging seamlessly. Each intersection where cars and buses queue men are walking between the cars selling random items like car chargers, belts, sunglasses, button-shirts. I think I saw a guy selling a pack of wrenches too. Namonje and Pule spoke highly of their salesmen-ship and said they charged higher prices because of the convience of purchasing "on the go" so to say. I made the mistake of making eye contact with one of them and thought I wouldn't get out of the intersection without buying a Zambian flag designed towel! The main talk around town was Angola's tie to Mali 4-4 the previous night. Mali came back from 4-0 to tie within the last two minutes of the game, which was quite an upset considering Angola is one of the favored teams. This game is part of the African Cup (football) being held in Angola this week. I heard every guy talking about their projected winner of the cup but very little talk about the attack on Togo's team Friday whereby Angolan "separatists" shot and killed several members of the Togoan team. Everyone else around the world seems concerned projecting the attack as a sign of things to come for the World Cup in South Africa this summer. Zambia qualified for the African Cup (but not for the World Cup) so there is plenty of chest beating going around as well.

All the main roads are paved. The side roads/rural roads through the neighborhoods usually wide with large ruts and random mud speed mounds all over. I thought of the scene in Ace Ventura when he pretends he's on a really bumpy road in the jungle...anyone? As we approach the HBC's the stereoptypical rundown housing appeared with makeshift huts in front offering random goods of eggs, chickens, shoes, or produce. The children were very enthusiastic about waving to me while everyone else spent plenty of time staring at me in the back of the truck cab as we jostled down the road.

Matero HBC is a clinic that serves a large population of people. The medicine and healthcare is free for all Zambians and the Matero clinic offers a wide variety of care and educational programs. I think the clinic grounds were busier than roads just outside of the walls. There was open access to the clinic even though it too was surrounded by a brick barrier. Without an orientation to the clinic, which had several different buildings within the compound, I met some of the staff. Dinesse is the head of the 20 community careworkers that travel to visit patients. There were three of those caregivers present: Tobias, who has had a globalbike for about two years, Christina and Erika. Tobias is actually already featured in the slideshow on the left sidebar! I think Christina and Erika use those names for the sake of pronunciation because their traditional names were practically impossible for me to catch. Each caregiver is a volunteer. I found it so surprising that these people could dedicate majority of every day to serving their community. So far 18 (well now 19) of the caregivers have received a bike from donations of globalbike. The more recently donated bikes have been purchased from World Bicycle Relief because of the hardiness of the tires and resilient qualities of the parts. Tobias's testimony was great to hear; he explained that the bike not only increased the speed in which he can visit families but provides him with enough time to ride back to the clinic with a patient on board or just to get more medicine to deliver that day.

(Side note: My host Jen is close friends with Dan the Zambian Director of World Bicycle Relief. Sometime during my stay here she said I could have the opportunity to speak with him. Jen has loads of connections around Lusaka and with international organizations!)

They explained the zone system the cargivers have in treating patients. Each caregiver is assigned an area to cover each week; some patients require daily visits but most families are seen once a week. The main focus of the visits are on the OVC-orphaned or vulnerable children making sure they have received their medicine or ART (antiretroviral therapy) if they are HIV +. Occassionally the patients, including the parents, are asked to come into the clinic for testing such as measles, TB, or CD4 counts. (Really low count of CD4 T helper cells indicates the patient has made the unfortunate transition from HIV to Autoimmune deficiency syndrome or AIDS). These appointments and treatments are written on a card which serves as the patients mini-medical history record. As far as I understand, the families keep the cards with them and serve as a reference for the caregivers as well as reminder for the families.

This network of caregivers had been well established before PCI came into the picture. In fact, PCI was interested in working with Matero BECAUSE the caregivers already had a solid, working relationship and reputation in the community and wanted to improve their capacities. PCI provided them with resources to improve care and educational opportunities such as teaching mothers how to cook/eat during pregancy and about vitamin/nutrients necessary for infants to grow health. PCI has helped implement a Growth Monitoring Program (GMP) for OVC patients at the clinic as a more systematic way of tracking child development. Mothers are reminded that the first five years of a child's life is crucial to their overall development and they need to bring in their child for vaccinations. The caregivers also serve as a counselors for the childern and families. They spoke of the need to address the psychosocial issues that children face with terminally ill parents. The need for Amy's program "Say and Play" was obvious.

At the end of the conversation we announced that we had brought a bike for Erika. Even through the language barrier, her excitement to receive a bike was obvious. She went from quiet and seeminly disengaged to full of hugs and handshakes for me. There was much chatter in Membe that I couldn't even begin to understand but "Thank you mzungu" was clear! If there is one word I have learned very quickly is "mzungu" which is a slang term for white person-- much like the use of gringo.

Everyone took a short turn riding it in the courtyard. Erika was determined to get as many pictures with me as possible. Tobias and I helped her adjust the seat height then we were on our way.

We arrived back at the PCI office for a late lunch. I met Kurt Henne, the Regional director of PCI, at lunch. PCI has Sami's Catering Service bring lunch for everyone at the office everyday at the cost of 12.5 pen (12500 kwacha). One option was fish--i couldn't get past looking at the scales and eyes so I opted for the chicken instead. Kurt made jokes about wanting to meet Curt; he trusts him on a name basis but everyone at PCI has their own vision of what he looks like. I was jokingly chastised for not showing up with picture flashcards of all the globalbike board members. Hopefully sometime this week I will get a chance to chat with Kurt one-on-one which he seemed eager to do.

After lunch Namonje and I visited the Community Based Tuberculosis Organization in the afternoon. The Muapai sisters were very informative on the growth of their organization from 1997 to now. They have grown from addressing TB to also HIV+ patients since there is a high co-infection. Again there was a reiteration of the need to address of psychosocial issues and how PCI has given resources to start an OVC program and cooking education program for mothers. The World Food Programme has offered meals for the children in the OVC program, which allows the children to be fed a meal during the day during their education. Often this meal is the only one the children receive a day. CBTO Caregivers and PCI staff offer cooking program as well where mothers and child get a meal as part of the instruction.

Talking with the Muapai sisters was helpful in understanding the power and willingness of volunteer caregivers. The caregivers started as women checked on fellow church members and have since been recruited to serve the CBTO patients. They have gained more training in order to continue serving their neighbors effectively. Majority of the caregivers are women.

While CBTO volunteers have not received globalbikes they did receive some from a UNICEF program several years ago. The 35 bikes or so were shared among 280 volunteers so needless to say the bikes did not last long due to that communal mentality where someone else is responsible for the bike maintenance. Margaret was specific about the qualities and qualifications for a good bike in the community: good tires to survive the harsh roads and rainy season; basket for carrying treatment plans and medicines; capacity to carry a patient on the back; and a woman-friendly seat. The She continued to explain that a bike as the best mode of transportation because no extra money is needed in daily transportation (ie no bus fare or money for petrol) and it still enables the caregivers to increase patient capacity. I think this interview will be very helpful in demonstrating the power of a bike in these communities.

I enjoyed interviewing the Muapai sisters because of their openness and humor. Margaret was concerned about her hair before I turned on the camera so there was much situating before I started filming. After all the fuss she was silent for majority of the filming then had much to say after I turned off the camera.Luckily I convinced her to repeat her opinions on bikes for the camera! They also joked that the seat needed to be comfortable for the "fat women of Zambia"; lots of women in Zambia are fat and its hard enough for them to pedal over the rough terrain. Turning to Namonje, they told her she needed to eat more because she's looking more like "you"-referring to me as the skinny white lady. I found it entertaining that they believe majority of American women are skinny and felt that was the appropriate description of me! Driving through town earlier that day I had noted how many young women I thought were skinny; I guess it's all relative!

I'm here!

2010-01-10T23:44:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Lusaka around 8PM Sunday evening--about eight hours later than planned and minus one bag, but arrived safe and sound. It had been a long weekend starting with my 5k race at Clemson Friday evening, which went really well. I owe my friend Kate a huge "thank you" for volunteering to drive me to the airport at 4am the next morning! There was a delay leaving from New York which set off a series of delays from then on out but the flights themselves were fine. I spent some quality time in the Johannesburg airport waiting on a new connection to Lusaka. The flight from Johannesburg to Lusaka was gorgeous; everything was different shades of green and the roads curved to outline the shape of a small mountain range.
Once I arrived at Lusaka I was greeted by Joseph Z, who works for Project Concern International in their Logistics and Transport department. It was a relief to finally arrive and be greeted with such a friendly smile and welcome. The weather felt wonderful: warm and slightly humid with a cool breeze. It felt great to be back in Africa again!
Joseph dropped me off at Jen's house in Kabulonga, who is a friend of a contact at Grassroots Soccer. She was wearing a Steelers tshirt when she greeted me at the door so I immediately thought Coach would be proud! I met her houseguest Meg who works for the Peace Corps and Jen's timid greyhound Millie. Jen works for World Vision and will promoted to Regional Director of the HIV/AIDs and Malaria prevention program in February/March. Jen has been working for World Vision for six years. She earned her Masters in Public Health from Boston University then worked in Eastern Europe for some time before coming to Zambia. She figured she would be helping with politics and policies of public health in her longterm career not necessarily in the healthcare field. Meg is on a third year extension for the Peace Corps and had moved to Lusaka after serving the past two years in a western province of Zambia. It was interesting to hear their progression into the nonprofit world and how they came to live in Lusaka.
Meg says she likes to run at 4:30AM before the neighborhood wakes up and "people start to get into the way". That sounded way too early, even for me who has had practice at 6am for quite some time, but I promised I would get up with her so I could learn the neighborhood. After a much needed shower and tucking in my mosquito net I slept until the sun woke me up at 6AM. (Meg had decided she wanted some sleep and thought I should too). With another two hours to kill until Joseph arrived I watched the British CNN, which I found fascinating and was grateful to be in warm weather instead covered in loads of snow.
I quickly learned that time is very relative around here. At 8:45 Musonda turned up to take me to the Project Concern International office, which was literally a few blocks around the corner. Inside the gate, the PCI office has pretty front yard with picnic tables and a small playset then a small parking lot crammed with PCI trucks. The office itself is two floors. There is a long entrance hallway to the waiting area and reception desk which is manned (literally MANned) by a rotation of the Logistics staff throughout the day. Adjacent to the reception desk is a large whiteboard of listing the names of the 40-something staff members that work out of the Lusaka office which indicators of who was "out" of the building. Just above the whiteboard is a picture of His Excellency Mr. Rupiah B Banda, President of the Republic of Zambia, a formidable looking big man. I have noticed that every building has a framed picture of him somewhere very high on the wall. I later learned that he has six wives. Well four now because he divorced one and another one died. He's engaged to a new wife now. Pule made a few jokes about it on the car ride later in the day. Just beneath the white board are two boxes of "unlabeled, nonbrand condoms". I thought "Welcome to Zambia!"
There is also a large kitchen and copy/mail room adjunct to the waiting area. Majority of the offices are upstairs with each department sharing a big room with separate desk areas for each employee.

Upon arrival I was quickly directed upstairs to meet Amy, Rajeesh, and Pule who have been coordinating plans. Rajeesh is the Country Director for PCI's work in Zambia. Amy is a more recent graduate from Boston University's School of Public Health. She has been working at PCI for two years (I believe) and actually stayed with Jen when she first moved to Zambia as well. Pule also works in the "Belong & Worth" department of PCI alongside Namonje, who has been my main contact during the planning process. Pule has been with PCI just over a year.
No one was surprised to hear I was missing a bag and they all shared their own version of "one time when I flew from Joburg, my bag turned up X days later". Musonda promised he would work on locating my bag but my contact Sydney at the airport didn't seem interested in answering his calls. Pule oriented me to the plans for the week with Project Concern International while we waited for Namonje.

Today I will be headed to Matero, a province of Lusaka, to meet with Home Based Care (HBC) caregivers. However we wouldn't head out until later because the caregivers are volunteers and often take care of personal matters before headed to the HBC sites. THe HBC site in Matero, Pule explained, is based out of a Catholic church and is completely community and volunteer run. I will be delivering one of the globalbikes sometime today to one of the caregivers (I take their time estimations with a grain of salt now; we were supposed to be there at 10am).
In the meantime, I talked with Amy about the Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) program for children under the age of 6. She has worked with a child psychologist in PCI to develop a short curriculum guide for HBC workers called "Say and Play" to help caregivers understand the psychosocial issues those children are experiencing. Often children under six years of age are not counseled, Amy explained, because they have not developed the language and articulation of older children so this program has activities to get the children to open up during games. Just because the children are younger does not mean they are shielded from the harsh realities of a caregiver's death or terminal illness from tuberculosis or AIDS or even from sexual abuse. With such a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Zambia, often young children must take on the responsibilities of cooking and caring for a terminally ill parent. This also means the children have no form of income from their parents. Therefore the children must work during the day or be left at home since their caregiver cannot pay for the minimal school fees/uniforms much less ensure the children have means to get to school. Reading through the curriculum reminded me of the Girl Scout exercises on teamwork, caring for others in need, playing as a form of learning; except this time the exercises were training children to deal with their own family and current life or death situation not to simply to be more considerate of other troop members. A whole new meaning to the words psychosocial issues.

Namonje says it's time to head to Matero! Woohooo

Preparation

2010-01-07T10:49:00.000-08:00

The flights are booked. Plans are finalized. Bags are packed...almost. I am in the midst of reviewing last minute details and frequently checking the weather in hopes that the snow will hold off in Charlotte. I have a indoor track race at Clemson University Friday evening and then fly out of Charlotte Douglass International Airport at 6am Saturday morning. So everyone think warm thoughts so the travel from Clemson to Charlotte to JFK airport goes smoothly!

I am doing this internship with Globalbike as an independently proposed and approved Interim course for class credit during Wofford's January Interim. The basic objectives of this trip include
1. Document first hand the work globalbike is doing with the community care worker and partner organizations in Lusaka, Zambia (Project Concern International, Grassroots Soccer, and Valid International)
2. Evaluate the impact globalbike is having--intentionally or inadvertently--on public health in Lusaka
3. Immerse myself in the culture, hardships, and lifestyles of the everyday Lusaka citizen or refugee to gain a greater of understanding the needs of the community (and what globalbike can do to further fulfill those)

The overall goal of the project is to understand the need for aid to mobilize resources and initiatives at the grassroots level and compare the missions and programs of the various NGO partners in Lusaka working towards a common public health goal. Gaining experience working with international aid organizations and firsthand exposure to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia is a major interest. My role in Zambia is one of a student, ethnographer, volunteer, activist, photographer, critic and supporter.
I hope to return with hard evidence of the impact globalbike is making in Lusaka with ideas for improving their vision for Lusaka and their many other international partnerships.

I plan to post as much detail of the trip with names of people, places, organizations, funny looking animals, indigenous words as a way to share my experience as intimately as possible. I want you to all enjoy this trip vicariously with me!

If you ever have questions or suggestions while I am abroad please email me at harriskn@email.wofford.edu

Wounded Healers at Westminster Presbyterian Church

2010-01-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

This December globalbike signed on to partner with Rwanda Partners. globalbike is working towards raising money for 120 bikes. These bikes will be used by Reconciliation Ambassadors who travel from village to village bringing victims and perpetrators together, healing the deep wounds of the genocide.

Recently Rwanda Partners released Wounded Healers, a documentary of there work. This powerful film shows the power of forgiveness and reconciliation - up close.

We are excited that the film will be shown at Westminster Presbyterian on the 10th. The film comes with a great discussion guide that is a perfect format for Sunday School class or group discussion.

Watch the trailer for Wounded Healers HERE.

Back Online.

2010-01-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

It has been almost 2 years since the last post and globalbike has continue to grow.

Here are some of the highlights -

three more countries - Bolivia,Tanzania, and Rwanda
Winning the Beyond Sport Award
Team Globalbike
New website - www.globalbike.org
three new international partners - Grassroot Soccer, Valid International, Rwanda Partners

So why start back? Actually, there are two main reasons.

1. We continue to get amazing stories from the folks who are using our bikes. These stories are the heart and soul of globalbike and they should be shared. Here is a small example from one of our newest bikes working in Zambia with Grassroot Soccer.

Vasco Boneface is from Angola and left the country in 2000 to come to Zambia. He spent his first six years in Nangweshi Refugee Settlement until it closed where he then was moved to Mayukwayukwa. Mr Boneface is disabled and has no hands. Because of this he has found it to be very difficult to do any hard labor or work such as working in the fields. However, he has learned to adapt so that he can carry on with his life.

He joined Grassroot Soccer and Breakthrough Sports Academy when it started in 2007 in Nangweshi. He decided to be part of it because he felt that it could help him in his life and because he knew that it was important to discuss about HIV/AIDS. He also knew that it would help in physical activity/fitness.

He is working with Breakthrough Sports Academy now where he coaches the younger and older football teams in his club, Palanca Negra. He also coaches traditional dance teams as well as a drumming group and singing group.

Having a bicycle will make his work as a Local Programme Coordinator much easier. Even though he is unable to currently navigate a bicycle himself because of his disability he plans to have his elder son drive the bicycle while he sits behind. He is also working to learn to adapt to riding a bicycle himself. With this bicycle he will now be able travel all over the settlement, including the distant area of Shibanga, much faster than before.

2) In one week, Intern Kari will arrive in Zambia as globalbike's first ever international intern. It will be on this blog that she shares her stories, thoughts and hopefully pictures of her amazing journey.

I hope you will continue to check back - learn more about Kari's trip - and in turn learn more about globalbike.

Two Wheels truly make a World of Difference.

globalbike going to ethiopia

2008-03-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

After spending almost 18 months working in Zambia - globalbike is adding a new country - Ethiopia. The work we are proposing in Ethiopia will be a little different and will open new avenues for the work. We will again be partnering with Project Concern International - but will focus our bikes on older women who are working with orphans and vulnerable children. In addition, these women are also part of a self-help group where they lend money to each other to generate income. globalbike is encouraging the group to develop ideas about how bikes can be used to generate income. Imagine for a second - a bike as transportation, medical and emotional support, and a tool to eliminate poverty - this work is exciting. Check out one of the self help groups waiting on bikes. The bikes we will be using are $160 US - and just now you can donate online through the paypal link on the left.

Peace.

Join our Facebook group

2008-02-24T18:21:00.000-08:00

Recently, we started a globalbike facebook group. I hope you will take the time to visit it and join. We are planning to use it to spread the word about the work we are doing.

Also, globalbike submitted and application to KEEN footwear for their STAND FOR competition. Check our our submittion here.

Lastly, if you are reading this April's Bicycling Magazine - check out the letters to the editor. globalbike pays tribute to the magazine article that got the idea rolling.

Stay tuned more pictures coming next week.

Two Great New Videos

2007-12-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

art show

2007-11-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

It was an amazing event with amazing photos. Gianna's work was incredible and told the globalbike story perfectly. check out the pictures below of the show. Also if you didn't make it stop by Cafe Ishi this month and check it out.

Great News on a great year!

2007-11-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

well it has been a couple of months since the last update and i hope you didn't think we were not doing anything. August marked the end of one full year of globalbike and we are pretty excited about how it turned out. over 160 bikes in operation, over $15,000 raised for bikes and from the sale of coffee and amazing stories regarding the impact that these bikes have had. Over the next few weeks i will be updating regularly and including some of these inspirational quotes and stories. we are excited about the new year and look forward to more success. it is worth noting that globalbike will continue its partnership in Zambia with Project Concern International. we will also start to look for new locations to do our work. we will keep you updated on that as it progresses. also we will have our first art show on November 8th at Cafe Ishi.

learn more about the event from this article.

see and feel the excitement

2007-07-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a while since there was an update, but lots has been happening. globalbike recently purchased 80 more bikes for careworkers in Zambia. The following video is from Zambia and shows a quick reaction to the bike delivery. Enjoy - and stay tuned over the summer.

WE DID IT!

2007-06-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

That is make it to Mt. Mitchell. Kelly, Gordon, Curt and Philip all summited the highest peak east of the Mississippi!

As for the bike challenge we are coming close - we are still receiving checks and donations. I hope to be back later this week with pictures and an accurate count. Check back soon.

Also we have new coffee. A post about it soon.

HUGE announcement

2007-05-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the Spartanburg Day School presented globalbike with a check for 31 bikes. "this is the largest donation to day for globalbike," says curt mcphail. The bikes will go to the town of Mongu in Western Zambia. Mongu is a rural area that has an extremely high poverty rate 83% and an HIV prevelance rate of 13%.

Read the article here.

cycling team becomes "official" places high in first event

2007-05-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Official in the sense that we now have uniforms or kits as the cycling world refers to them. Team members will wear them in events around the country. Two members, Nick Flemming and Gordon Sherard, participated in the Big Sur Marathon this past weekend. While we are still waiting for pictures they had huge results. Nick finished 12th overall and won his age division. Gordon finished 29th in his age group. This is an impressive first event for globalbike.

Our sponsors are the ones who make this possible - thanks to:

Little River Roasting Company
Roebuck Family Dentistry
Yogalicous
MTH Informations Solutions
Mary Black Hospital
Citigroup SmithBarney
Wise Chiropractic
Johnson, Smith, Hibbard, and Wildman
Bike Worx

keeping track of progress

2007-04-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

So we are a fifth of the way there. I hope to keep posting as the bikes come in. We are bringing on a great new partner - The Spartanburg Day School - and I hear they are working hard to make a huge difference! Stay tuned for more information about the bike team and our events. Coming next week.

curt

102 bikes - 102 miles

2007-04-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since the last post, and things have been moving along really well for globalbike. We currently have 93 bikes on the ground and are working on a new goal 102 more. This equals the number of miles several members of the cycling team will ride on the Assault on Mt. Mitchell. This bike ride starts in Spartanburg and ends at the top of the highest point east of the Mississippi, Mt. Mitchell. The ride has been labeled by Bicycling Magazine as one of the ten toughest rides in the United States.

This along with the struggle of care workers in Zambia will be motivation for the 4 members aiming to complete the ride. As motivation globalbike is trying to raise the funds for 102 bikes. The bikes are $85 and come with a tax donation letter and a picture and story. For more information email globalbike@bellsouth.net. Stay tuned for the progress.

More reading here.

worth a thousand words

2007-03-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

the power of a bike!

why we think we are different

2007-02-26T18:31:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks globalbike has seen lots of changes. We became an official corporation in the state of SC and we collected lots of bike sponsorships. I have never doubted this project and its potential to be successful but I have been contemplating; why do people choose to give money to us? There are tons of great causes but why us?

I think there are several answers to this questions.

1) Personal Contact - AIDS is a huge issue, and one that sometimes is so haunting we choose to do nothing. By making connections, globalbike makes the issue seem a little smaller.

2) Simplicity - We buy locally sourced bikes, use an established International partner, and strategically model smart organizational practices because we want this to be simple. We collect money for bikes, care workers ride them. Plain and simple.

3) Practical - This is the best word that I think describes the work that we do. Bikes make sense and are a real solution to the thousands who suffer and need the love and support of care workers.

A very different way to study AIDS

2007-02-07T11:24:00.000-08:00

In the December issue of Esquire magazine, there was a fascinating article about Emily Oster, an economist from the University of Chicago. Her research on HIV/AIDs took a different angle and as an economics major I was very interested with her methodology and findings. In the Esquire article, there are three major findings that are highlighted about AIDs. - It's the wrong disease to fight, It's not going to improve until poverty improves, the estimated numbers are way high but the disease is spreading like crazy. If the article is as intriguing to you as it was to me check out more of Emily's work here.

the kid in the red jumpsuit

2007-01-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend I presented at Talk20 in Spartanburg. I shared a story that was very special about why I am so passionate about globalbike. I met the kid in the red jumpsuit 11 years ago in the Hartsell orphanage in Mutare, Zimbabwe. I was 21 years old. I was immediately drawn to this kid when we arrived at the orphanage and we played together all day, even took a nap in the sun together. The picture shown here was taken on that afternoon. When I was leaving we were asking the workers at the orphanage about the kids. Most of them had been left there, all of them were HIV positive. As a 21 year old college student I hadn't really ever thought about kids and death in the same sentence. It was a complete shock to me. That day I made a promise to me and the kid in the red jumpsuit. I promised that given the opportunity - I would work to make live better in Africa. For me globalbike is working to fulfill this promise.

globalbike speaker at Talk20

2007-01-29T17:17:00.000-08:00

Saturday night saw a first for Spartanburg. The first Talk20 program was held at the Showroom, a new arts venue in Spartanburg. Talk20 is a program whose format is simple. Featured speakers have to show and talk about 20 slides. The key is you only have 20 seconds each. The first Spartanburg Talk20 featured 11 presentations on a wide variety of topics. The globalbike presentation was last. I honestly haven't seen 6 minutes and 40 seconds go by so fast. The presentation featured some personal background on why I got involved with globalbike and why supporting community care workers is so important. Check out what the Spartanburg Herald Journal had to say about Talk20.

one million trees

2007-01-15T17:33:00.000-08:00

I did some interesting reading this weekend. I am always facinated with exciting projects that combine two of my passions - Africa and cycling. The One Million Trees projects in sponsored by the Saunier Duval Pro Cycling team. They have decided to celebrate their 100th aniversary by planting 1 million trees in Mali. These trees represent each kilometer that the team will ride this year. That's one million km's!!! Regardless they kicked off the project this past week as several of the pro's went to Mali to race against the country's best racers. Velonews did a great series of stories on the event. To read more click here. (the first parts of the story are linked at the bottom) Also check out the great photos of the event.

look out race fans

2007-01-09T18:17:00.000-08:00

Well it's a new year and my goal to write more is getting taxed early. Regardless, things are still moving along here with globalbike. More sponsors are coming in, especially from York, thanks again dad. Also, we are in the process of creating yet another marketing vehicle: a race team. Several of the founders of globalbike are recreational cyclist who enjoy the competition of pushing the limits with others. For years we have dreamt of having a team. Today I made the initial inquiries for jerseys and all of the team gear. Stay tuned here to get an update on how that all plays out. We are hoping to debut the team gear at the Spartanburg Downtown Crit on the first weekend in May. Wish us luck!

51 bikes!!! happy new year.

2006-12-31T17:33:00.000-08:00

What a year. globalbike has gone from a series of conversations at Cafe Ishi in Spartanburg, SC to a project that has purchased 51 bikes for community care workers in Zambia.

I can't say enough for the US based globalbike team, Jean, Kelly, Thomas, Monica, and Eric, the entire team has spread the word, sold coffee, and bounced an enormous amount of ideas off of each other. The Zambian based team from Project Concern International is with out a doubt full of all stars Charles, Tom, and Yvonne, have been the most helpful, appreciative and responsive team I have worked with. globalbike wouldn't be so successful so quickly without these two teams.

so it has been a wild 6 months. from idea to implementation - and 51 BIKES!!!

A good friend of mine told me that New Year's wasn't a time for resolutions but for goals - they are easier to keep. So my goals for globalbike in 2007 -

1. sell out of the pecan flavored coffee - and get our own blend!

2. provide online donations.

3. solidify globalbike organizationally.

4. keep buying BIKES!!!!

5. celebrate the heros that spend their days riding globalbikes.

Happy new year and thanks for reading.

globalbike takes show to York, SC

2006-12-28T18:02:00.000-08:00

Well today was the first globalbike presentation outside of Spartanburg. My father asked me to speak at his Rotary club in York, SC. How could you pass up on that offer!!!

It was a great crowd that ask really good questions. Some wanted to know about the medicines that care workers helped hand out, others ask about the maintenance on the bike, and others still commented on what I think is one of the best parts of globalbike: it's practicality!

bikes make sense - and the are the right thing to do. care workers travel long distances and bikes are the best most efficient mode of transport to help out.

Thanks Dad for the invite and thanks to the York Rotary Club for getting involved.

globalbike featured at World AIDS day gathering

2006-12-07T11:36:00.000-08:00

December 1st marked World AIDS day and Curt McPhail and globalbike were the featured topics at the event held in Spartanburg hosted by Peidmont Care. The event was held at Spartanburg Methodist and had a crowd of about 80 people. This was the final event of a week full of wonderful events all coordinated by Peidmont Care. In addition to spreading the word about globalbike and "peddaling" coffee to support the effort it was great to work with a new partner. Peidmont Care is a wonderful organization that does so much in Spartanburg. If you have a second please check out their website and make sure to visit the information about their book and CD Hidden Voices, a great holiday gift idea for anyone. I hope their will be more events to share with Peidmont care in the future.

globalbike team selling coffee at dickens of a christmas

2006-11-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

the globalbike team, jean crow, monica foster, kelly lowry, curt mcphail, eric turner and thomas webster, will be selling the new globalbike coffee - at dickens of a christmas in downtown spartanburg, tomorrow, tuesday november 28th from 6-8pm. we will be in front of the sandwich factory. please come by and see us, learn about globalbike and pick up some great coffee for yourself or for holiday presents. hope to see you there.

heroes

2006-11-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

the next few posts will be about the true heroes. those folks using globalbikes to care for those who need it the most.

tomaida ailesi banda has been a community care worker for 12 years. she was introduced to the work by a catholic nun. the volunteer work she was doing with the nun made her feel the need to help tuberculosis and hiv/aids patients within the community. she also works with patients who are homeless. she uses her globalbike to travel between 1km to 15km. the areas she works in are considered low costs. my friend yvonne mulenga who works at pci says this about low costs areas:

"Households in Zambia are clustered into low cost, medium cost and high cost
areas/communities. The characteristics of low cost households are; no
electricity, source of drinking water is open public well or communal tap,
sanitation facilities are mainly pit latrines and the flooring material is
usually made of earth/mud. Basically these are poor households and at the bottom of the social stratum. They cannot afford to send children to school and mainly
send them to community ‘free’ schools."

two interesting articles

2006-11-25T14:32:00.000-08:00

here are two interesting articles that provide some context for globalbike's work...

Former Zambian President Speaks in CA

Community Care workers are "lifeline"

zambia - true partnership

2006-11-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

globalbike decided to work in zambia first because of two reasons. first, while visiting the country a couple of years ago the staff of Project Concern International, showed incredible kindness to me. Yvonne was especially helpful as she helped me find the locations I was suppose to visit and navigate a country that I was traveling in alone. Through the years Yvonne and I have maintained contact and we knew that these personal connections could help the project take off. Secondly, we knew we were looking for established organizations to work with. PCI has an over 40 year history working throughout the world. These two reasons were critical to why we started in Zambia. PCI works in Zambia to ease the impact of the AIDS pandemic. (About PCI's work in Zambia) Currently, PCI has approximately 350 community health workers that work with children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic, assist with the delivery of anti-retroviral drugs, and directly assist those affected by AIDS. Currently, globalbike has 22 bikes in operation by community care workers who use them daily to see patients at distances ranging averaging from 2 km to 20 km (1.2 miles to 12.4 miles).

PCI Zambia photo gallery

why bikes?

2006-11-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

bikes make good sense. they enable caregivers to go farther and carry more supplies in less time and with less effort. traditionally, community care workers walk to see their patients. globalbike provides workers with unparalleled efficiency - what used to take a full day may now be accomplished in a half. these bikes save lives.

furthermore, globalbike use bikes produced in recipient countries, infusing their local economy with resources. these bikes can be worked on locally. the bikes we are using in Zambia are made by luangwa industries. according to a post on the internet this is a description of luangwa -

"Luangwa Industries Limited's main plant is located in the industrial area of Chipata. The facilities at Chipata incorporate machinery to manufacture bicycle frames, forks, mudguards, spokes and bicycle carriers. The bicycle product range include Standard gents, Standard ladies' Sporster, Balloon in black, coloured and Mountain, in addition to children's bicycles in various colours. Bicycle parts for the Standard gents and Standard ladies are manufactured in Chipata and brought to Lusaka to be assembled at the warehouse in Ben Bella Road.
Luangwa Industries Limited is the sole manufacturer of bicycles in Zambia. The Company sells its products to private and state owned institutions and individuals throughout Zambia."

Click here to see a picture of one of these great bikes!

what is globalbike?

2006-11-25T13:42:00.000-08:00

Started by six friends, globalbike is a Spartanburg based project with the sole mission of providing community workers in the developing world with locally made bicycles. globalbike works with established international aid organizations that maintain local partnerships. These organizations provide accountability, credibility and the ability quickly get bikes to those who need them most.

to check out an article from the spartanburg herald journal about globalbike, click here.

getting started...

2006-11-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

this is my first experience with a blog so we will see how it goes. the idea behind two wheels... is to provide another place to tell the globalbike story.

globalbike is a spartanburg, sc based project that purchases bikes for community care workers in developing countries. these bikes are made in the country they are being used. globalbike currently has 22 bikes in operation in Zambia.

these bikes are allowing community care workers to see more patients - carry more supplies - and most importantly do their volunteer work more effectively.

more later...