BIG Meetings, Bike Gear, Weddings and Home Improvements

Ah, where to begin... it's been awhile. I thought I was posting so much so I wanted to give some time to the slow readers to catch up and some suspense to the fast readers who can't wait for the next entry.

So if you remember the BIG Meeting I was telling you about, it went very well. I only had about 120 people there it was very productive. It took place on September 9th. There was a few reasons why I identify it as a successful meeting. One, there were people represented from each zone, some which travelled very far. Two, I was able to mobilize the DHMT (District Health Management Team, a town entity that I am supposed to partner with working on health issues in the village, but their very busy and understaffed so it's hard to get them to come to things, but they sent one person to my meeting) and get free transport support to my meeting which was about a 45 minute - an hour drive from the town we were in. The meeting ran very smoothly, we even arrived within an hour of the scheduled time (which is a miracle since everything in Zambia starts an hour to two hours late!) It was also successful because people stepped up to the plate and served their parts that we had discussed in the planning meeting so it was a community run event which is always the goal, to have full participation. After the gathering where we discussed current health problems in all 5 zones, activities that were already being done in the community, and prioritizing health issues they wanted to address 1st 2nd and 3rd, then they split into zones and developed action plans. This was another success that they were able to think up activities to address health problems, timelines, and people responsible. I thought that would be the greatest challenge but they did very well.

So in October I will be meeting with all the Neighborhood Health Committees and refining and fine tuning their action plans so we can begin working. I will also start training them to do health education door to door and facilitate HIV/AIDS workshops in the village. Then in November I am linking up with other volunteers to help organize this an AIDS Awareness Walk in Southern Province, it should be fun. It ends with a big celebration on AIDS Awareness Day Dec. 1st.

I told you I would provide a picture of me on my "ncinga" (bicycle) so hopefully I can upload that very soon. It also portrays my new skill of riding a bike in a skirt, it''s quite the challenging feat.

I attended one of my first weddings where they asked me to be Guest of Honor which I didn't want to do because I thought it should go to another elder in the village, and because weddings go all night and I wanted to leave during daylight to lower my chances of being bitten by another dog. I swear I get way too many privileges as an American in the village. Both the bride and groom were 20 years old. It made me feel like I'm way behind the game still not married at age 24! But I'll be alright, I'm not too worried.

The weddings in the village are quite interesting. By interesting I mean different. The bride has to be in hiding until it's time to march. And they don't really march they more dance to a beat.

Next they fed each other tiny pieces of cake, no smiling, no laughing, a very serious activity. When I say serious I mean the bride and the groom were not smiling or appearing to enjoy themselves throughout the entire ceremony. I've been to the tail end of another wedding and witnessed again no smiling. Now that doesn't mean they weren't happy or weren't enjoying themselves, but for some reason that I don't yet know nor understand I believe it's a cultural difference that makes it appropriate not to smile at their wedding. I'll research that one and get back to you.



The bride and groom didn't smile for any of the wedding actually, I don't know if it was nervousness or what. The most difficult part for me to see was that the bride had to keep her head down for the entire event and she couldn't smile, laugh or even see what was going on. Maybe it's something about humility, I'm not sure why it was so serious, but it's just cultural differences I guess. Then came the gift giving. Now this one was very differnet because in Zambian weddings the gift giving seems to be the biggest part and they announce each gift and monetary amount. I gave two tupperware bowls, chewing gum, chocolate and a small amount of money to each the bride and the groom.

It's kind of embarrassing giving money though because everyone knows how much you gave. When the parents gave money it was like a comepetition of who would give the most, but the brides side gave more since I think the groom had to pay a dowry for the bride so they probably already chipped in a bunch on that, sometimes they give a cow. Anyway it was quite the experience.

There was also a funeral on the same day that I wasn't able to attend but I could hear the wailing from two villages away. Mourning is a very important part of Zambian culture, the family stay up the entire night crying and wailing for their lost ones. It's very sad. They also sit with the body for the entire night before burial, sometimes it's a few days.

I also took a trip to a village where I saw where they kept bees to produce honey...

I also saw my first man-made dam. It was quite impressive, it takes so much manpower to build something like that. The unfortunate thing is, as you can see in the picture, is that because of no rain for the last 5 years, the water has dried up so all that labor is no longer benefiting the people. People are finding less and less ways to earn income without water because they can't farm on land nor farm fish in the water as they did in this dam when there was water. Therefore they can't buy food to eat, it's a never-ending battle down here but we're trying to make a difference in any small way that we can to improve at least the health life of the people.



On the home improvement front, I've been painting and sealing my roof. This past weekend a gentleman was helping me reinforce my grass thatch roof with plastic before rainy season to prevent the potential leaks and also to keep out the mbeba (rats/mice) that have been rattling in my roof for the past few weeks waking me up in the middle of the night. It was fascinating to watch them build a village latter our of wood branches, check it out...









and how high he climbed to be in my roof to put the plastic in...










It was quite the experience.

Oh and just for fun, cause I LOVE THA KIDS! Here's a picture of some of the little ones in my village playing with a bright orange stuffed basketball someone left behind in our Peace Corps House in the town.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. Hopefully I'll have more interesting things to mention soon.

Until then, stay blessed.

Moving Right Along

Before I talk about how work is going, I feel it very important to mention that my kitty caught its first mouse (to my knowledge) on Monday. I was so proud! Someone else in the village had to call my attention to it, needless to say, kitty ate very well Monday. So I know I didn’t bring him all the way to my home in vain, he is doing the job intended for him.

Now onto work: it’s moving right along. I completed all the Zone meetings on Tuesday. The catchment area that I serve has a total of 5 zones. The population is a bit over 6400 people. Each Zone is composed of at least 5 villages. I have been meeting with zones to sensitize to Peace Corps and to explain my problem. I’ve also been doing problem identification in each zone where they discuss all the health problems they feel that their communities are facing. Now that that is over, I have planned a BIG meeting of all the zones, in that meeting the goal is to prioritize health problems and discuss which ones communities want to attack first. Then the community will try to come up with ideas for activities, projects, or resources they feel will help alleviate the problem. I will facilitate some of this and try to lead them into thinking about utilizing resources inside first before right now so all the NGOs are here digging boreholes, giving out food, and other things at the moment, but there isn’t enough capacity building going on. The handouts are not sustainable. So I am trying to take the sustainable approach and help the communities come up with their own solutions to health issues whether it’s preventative solutions or curative. Mostly without external resources it will be preventative but that is still very important to the future of these villages. I want them to come up with their own solutions so they will begin to acknowledge the fact that they can accomplish much through their own efforts and if the unify and put their resources together it can be enough to help entire villages.

Now this big meeting, at first I thought about planning it all myself, chairing it myself, and doing all the work. Then I received a better idea from someone in the Peace Corps staff named Mizhi, he said why not form a planning committee. It made perfect sense because it follows my own efforts of trying to empower community members and having them do things for themselves. I invited the District Commissioner and the District Health Management Team who both are supposed to work on addressing the health and general needs for the entire Choma district of which my Simakutu catchment is only a small part of. And I think both of them will be in attendance because I’ve built good relationships with both groups. The committee idea worked perfectly! I called a meeting and 12 people attended and we came up with the meeting agenda together. Someone else will be chairing the meeting and each member of the committee will have a part to facilitate. It’s very exciting. Out of this meeting I hope to develop work plans or action plans for each zone identifying 3 activities or projects that each want me to assist them with. This will determine where I work and how I work, and it will all be decided based on the needs of the people. So that’s where I am now, I’m making good progress, these are just the beginning stages but I feel like I’m moving right along.

Any questions feel free to ask away.

Still Busy

Man, I thought being in Zambia, I wouldn’t be so busy anymore. It’s like I’m always on the move even here. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have more free time than a little bit, but still not as much as I thought. It’s amazing how easy it is to meet people and connect with people here on every level of the government. And it’s even more amazing the privileges being “American” affords me. I think people give me much more credit than I’m do, or assume I’m a dignitary because I’m a foreigner, but if that’s what it takes to get the job done than so be it, I’ll play that role as long as people work together to accomplish the health goals of their community. Yesterday, there was a big sports tournament HIV/AIDS awareness day at the primary school that is nearest to me so I attended. And they sat me with the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Member of Parliament and District Commissioner so I chatted them up. They also introduced me to the group of a few hundred people students and the like, and I very culturally inappropriately stood VERY briefly waved and sat back down. Then they introduced the next person, he got up and walked to the front and went through this protocol I had no knowledge of previously addressing, “To the Minister of Sports, Member of Parliament, District Commissioner, Committee Members of this event Good Morning” and then he proceeded in a speech that was at least 5 minutes. I was quite embarrassed, because they announced me first so I didn’t know the protocol I had no one to mirror. So I asked the MC if he could introduce me again and I would share a few words, so later I got up and mimicked the style and the people were much more receptive… phew! Anyway as I chatted them up, I asked the Minister how to go about connecting with former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda and his HIV/AIDS work and organization that he has formed, and the Minister gave me his card and said, you just call or email me and I’ll set up an appointment for you to meet with Mr. Kaunda. It was just that easy, meeting a former president, can you imagine me asking Dianne Wilkerson how to meet up with Bill Clinton? I wonder how far that would get me. Anyway, so I think I’ll follow up on that as soon as I educate myself some more about his programs. I haven’t talked too much about my new family. I’m surrounded by houses; the headmen, his three wives, his nephews, and grandchildren. Everyone has their own family house, and most of them look like mine although mine is the only one with a porch, or “veranda” as they call it. The headman has to be in his 80s but he’s very energetic, strong and kind. He is very supportive of my work and always helping me find anything I need to live in the village. I’m closest to his third wife, probably because she speaks a little English, and she’s got spunk! She has 8 children and tons of energy. She is a traditional birth attendant, so she helps to deliver babies in the village. She takes care of 3 orphan children, my favorite is Lista, I’ll make sure to get a picture of her to you soon. Then there is China Bonzo, he was delivered by a doctor who was Chinese so they named him China, anyway, he is a former Community Health Worker and has been the most helpful person since I’ve been here. He’s only one year older than me but he is married with 3 children. Don’t worry that doesn’t make me feel like I have to be married any faster. Unfortunately for me but fortunately for him, he’ll be leaving to go to boarding school to complete grade 12 which is a wonderful accomplishment since most young men do not get past grade 7 , 8 or 9 because of lack of school fees. Then there is Aunety, the closest I’ll have to a daughter in a while. She is 15 and in grade 8 and she is helping me around the house while I host meetings and all that good stuff, she is very bright and I will be helping her with her school fees and learning English as she helps me with the house and learning Tonga. All in all, my village family is wonderful and I look forward to getting to know the rest of my community as the days go on. Now, since I’ve been away for quite sometimes, a bit over 3 months, 99 days to be exact, (yes I am counting, not in a bad way, but because I’m a person that enjoys making lists and countdowns and countups maybe I’ll have a mini-party on day 100) so I thought it would be okay for me to talk about the things I miss about USA: - Most of all I miss my family and friends (obviously) - Perforated sheets (man we take easy tearing for granted in America, it’s a pain without it here) - 8’11 sized papers (here it is A4 size which is longer but still shorter than legal, I began cutting papers down to fit in the binders that I bought with me, but why fight the power, if you can’t beat em’ join em’) - 3 hole punches (here it’s two hole punch which with longer paper makes inner dog ears) - Flush Toilets (although my quadriceps and hamstrings are becoming quite strong from squatting in the cimbuzi (pit latrine), I still like a good toilet seat every now and then and they can be found in the cities of Zambia) - Quiet nights sleep (although I love animals, sort of, the howling of dogs in heat every night and roosters crowing at obscene hours of the morning can get to a sistah, but I’m learning how to sleep through it) - Microwaves (cooking on an open fire burns the eyes and makes them red, I don’t know how the women here do it so often, they are so strong) - Running Water (the art of balancing a 20liter Jerry Can full of water with my leg while I try to position it over my hands to pour and wash them has not yet been perfected) - Paved Roads (particularly when I’m in the back of a minibus or vehicle and I either bump my head or come quite close to my head meeting the sandy and rocky road) - Toilet paper in public bathrooms (now in the states, it’s not always available, but most of the time you can find some, here it just doesn’t happen, although you often see newspaper in the corner of the toilet, so I never leave home without my roll of TP) - Night Club Life (although I always complained about it in Boston, I find myself missing it, because I haven’t found a place near my village where people like to dance, but I’ll keep looking) - People walking by you trying to avoid eye contact and not speaking (now I really disliked this in the states, but here people walk by you and stare at you without speaking until spoken to, not as many people as in the states, but it’s just different. But for the most part people talk to one another, everyone knows their neighbors that’s how we feel safe) - Being able to go somewhere secretly or with few people knowing (here when I leave my village I have almost a 2km walk to the road to catch the vehicle and I meet at least 10 – 15 people on the way who ask me where I’m going so I tell them and when I come back at least 20 – 30 people ask me how was my trip to wherever) After a little laughter comes the sad part. I'd like to take this time to farewell Spring who has left Peace Corps and me to return to America. She will be surely missed by all of us in Zambia. Here is our last bye-bye photo together: Ok, that’s all for now, I’ll think of something else to list later. Please don’t forget to write, slug mail and email are distinctly different, you’ll see if you WRITE ME A LETTER. HUGS! Natalie