Tuesday, Jan 19th, Day 9: Grassroot Soccer

Highlights o Day 9

1. 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

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

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

Highlights o' Day 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The rest of the afternoon and evening:

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

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

Day 2: Bauleni

Highlights o Day Dos

1. Holding a two month old twin girl for a few hours
2. Learning how traditional, affordable foods are cooked
3. Improving my tan
4. 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

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

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.
2. Learning about the massive amount of community support and volunteers for healthcare in various neighborhoods/townships in Lusaka
3. Getting my bag from the airport with everything still in it
4. 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!

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