Updates All Around!

So what's new in the last month or so?

Well first of all when I got back from Lake Tanganyika, Bagheera decided to go off on some wild adventures. My counterpart, who was taking care of feeding Bagheera while I was gone said that he had eaten his food the night before I returned, but no one had seen him since. While I hosted 2^nd site visit I heard nothing about him until I brought it up at my fish farmers meeting. One of my neighbors said he had seen Bagheera near his house for the past few nights. So for the next few evenings I went to his house to call for Bagheera (he knows his name). But I didn't have any success. Then I hear that guy's neighbor started hearing him in the night. So I went over to his house after dark to look for him. Still nothing. So I opened it up to anyone in the village who could either come get me when they found him, or bring him to me, I'd pay them. Still nothing, though people still talked about seeing and hearing him. I don't get it.

Just before this was going on, I was looking for puppies. I have wanted to get a dog but since I travel so much I wanted to make sure I had a neighbor who would “own” the dog, and I'd help pay to feed it. I did have a neighbor lined up, now I needed to find the right puppy. I was going to get a puppy from one of my nearest volunteer neighbors, but she got relocated due to some safety concerns at her site (nothing too serious). So getting those puppies fell through. But I did find a puppy being sold in the next village over, so I decided to go take a look. The one who hadn't been sold yet cost 5 kwacha, about a dollar, but was still too young, so I'd have to keep checking back and wait.

While this was going on I went to visit another neighbor, Diana, and while at her site, while she was doing laundry on her porch, right in front of the door, a tiny kitten walks straight into her house. So now I'm catless, unsure about a puppy, and my friend now has 2 cats, and the big one has a problem with the small one. One thing led to another and we named it Mama, after her cat, Papa. And I took it home on my bike in a basket, 26 miles of bush paths and bumpy dirt roads.

Mama is completely different from Bagheera, but it's more her attitude. For instance, she likes to climb trees like Bagheera did when he was young. Mama though, climbs them, cries for hours because she can't turn around, gets tired, and passes out on the branch. Sometimes I have to go save her. She also didn't come home one night because she climbed up on the not finished structure of my chicken house and couldn't get down.

Oh yeah, I finally finished my chicken house. I know some of you were wondering how people build houses here. I've documented the whole process other than making the bricks (which I should have soon soon). Making my chicken house is similar to how they build their houses, so you'll get the idea.

With the leftover bricks from the chicken house, I made a few additions to my land. I'm fed up with dealing with goats eating all of my vegetables, I tore down my first nursery garden, and the living fence for my big garden isn't living so well. So, The main thing I built is a raised circular herb garden. It's a lot smaller, but since it's smaller and closer to my porch, I can care for it easier. Hopefully I can eat some peppers soon. I made a few smaller flower and herb beds, as well as put some bricks around some trees I'm desperately trying to make live.

In other news, due to some scheduling conflicts, I was given the choice of where I wanted to do PEPFAR training. PEPFAR, I forget what it stands for, is an initiative to help spread awareness and education about HIV/AIDS. So, in June I'll be heading to Northwest province for a week long training with a counterpart so that we can take the information back to the village and host workshops, etc. Turns out on the day we leave PEPFAR training, Chipolopolo is playing in Ndola. So I'll be able to fulfill my dream of being a soccer hooligan for an evening. Chipolopolo (meaning “Copper bullets” because of the Copperbelt (which made Zambia, Zambia))) won the African Cup a few years ago. Saying you aren't a Chipolopolo fan in Zambia is about as insulting as saying you don't take (eat) nshima (their main dish).

I was supposed to get a fingerling delivery a few months ago, but the night before they were supposed to deliver the fingerling production plant found out they didn't have plastic bags for delivery or oxygen to put in the bags to help the fish survive longer. So, last week I went and bothered anyone I could about when I'd get the fingerlings. I talked with just about every person who could get the job done, and as far as everyone says, I'll be getting fish in my ponds later this week. I also bothered the Department of Livestock and should be getting a Newcastle's vaccination in July to vaccinate as many chickens in the villages as I can. Newcastle's is probably the #1 killer of chickens in these parts. Plus, by that time I'll have my own chickens so I'll get them vaccinated as well.

(Side note: I'm posting this blog a day after I wrote it, and I was just informed that the fingerlings won't be coming this week, but maybe next week. Again.)

I also got my first case of Malaria. Luckily I was at the provincial house at the time, so I had friends and things readily available to help me out. It began with horrible headaches one morning, which I helped treat with some Tylenol, but by the evening I was in bed rolling over with cold sweats, which continued throughout the night. The next morning I called medical to explain my symptoms and they started me on Coartem, the malaria treatment medication. You take 4 pills twice a day for 3 days. I've taken 5 of the doses and I'm feeling much better. The second day I had to keep a steady input of Tylenol to keep the headaches and cold sweats down. Today I feel I can probably make it without any other meds. The good news, I'm instructed by medical staff to eat a high calorie diet, because Coatrem does a number on your liver. So this morning, with my appetite back, I had 2 buttered pieces of toast, 3 scrambled eggs, and a bowl of ice cream!

(Again, since I'm posting this a day later, I'm feeling very well and haven't had Tylenol for some time.)

I also caught another goat. Ate it this time.

Sorry no pictures this time, internet has been awful around here.

Stomping Out Malaria in Africa

Blog About Malaria Month

Malaria is the #1 killer in Africa.

April is malaria month, and I, along with over 3,000 other volunteers in 25 African countries are helping raise awareness around the world about malaria. Each Peace Corps country in Africa is in a competition against each other, scoring points for holding workshops, playing games, teaching songs, posting pictures and blogs, etc. So far I've heard Zambia is in the lead, so I'll do my part to keep us on the winning track.

I've mentioned in another post, I'm working as a research assistant in a net study looking at how nets are used in the village that will help to build better strategies in net distributions and prevention methods. Many of those nets do help decrease the spread of malaria, but malaria still plagues this part of the world. Luapula Province has the highest rates in Zambia. Although nets are given out, and even have descriptions of how to use, clean, and hang them (even in several different languages), many go unused, or used for other purposes (like fishing). Not only that, there are many misconceptions about malaria and it's deadliness in rural places like where I live.

During my first site visit when I spent a few days with an agriculture volunteer in Central province, I was talking with another volunteer who came to stay with us and help us cook and keep us company. We were talking about how some people will take any signs of sickness and associate them with malaria. I thought that although this is a bad way to go about it, it was nice to know that they weren't just blaming everything on juju (think witchcraft). Though it is nice to think that way, the most likely thing that happens is someone “put the juju” (think cursed) on another person to get malaria. So we're no further than we were before.

A few weeks ago I was talking through the next village with one of my counterparts when 3 villagers were escorting a frantic woman. She was being led by the arms by her family, a look of terror in her eyes, she couldn't focus on anything, her eyes darting around, and her whole body shaking. I asked Martin, my health counterpart, where they were taking her and what would happen. He said they were taking her to a traditional doctor. I asked what would he could do. Luckily, Martin is well educated, his response, “Probably nothing”. He asked me what I thought about it. I said that I wasn't a doctor and am not qualified to really help anyone, but that it appeared she could either be dehydrated, where all she needs is some water and rest, she'd be fine in a few hours. Or, we could be looking at another extreme, where she could have malaria, she's suffering from shakes that are associated with this type of malaria, and without treatment with medication specifically for malaria, she could be in serious trouble.

Many times I hear people finally make it to a clinic, sometimes dozens of miles away, where they can get proper treatment, and though they may get a test and test positive for malaria, the clinic is out of medicine like Coartem, and just prescribes Tylenol. But most of the time people will not seek the  treatment they need. Other times villagers may just assume any sick feelings must be malaria, so they buy Coartem to treat something that may just be a cold.

Around the villages tons of myths originate around malaria, and working against these myths to promote the truth is difficult to say the least. Most villagers believe:

·                     Getting wet in the rain will give you malaria

·                     Eating sugarcane can give you malaria

·                     Eating raw mangoes can give you malaria

·                     All mosquitoes can transmit malaria

·                     Drinking water from certain wells gives you malaria

·                     Any headache, body ache, cold or flu must be malaria

·                     Rest alone will cure malaria

·                     Using mosquito nets to catch fish is more worthwhile than sleeping under them

·                     If a pregnant woman has malaria, she’ll know it because her symptoms will be much worse

·                     Mosquitoes live in grass

·                     You can get malaria at any time of the day, therefore its senseless to sleep under a net only at night

The truth? Malaria in this area is of the world is caused by a bite from a female Anopheles mosquitoes, only when they are hunting from the hours of about 11pm – 4am, and only if they are infected with Plasmodium falciparum. In the daytime they rest on the inside walls of buildings. The best and cheapest prevention method is the widespread use of mosquito nets, especially from vulnerable groups like children under 5, pregnant women, and those suffering from HIV/AIDS. The best primary medical treatment is Coartem.

There are some other challenges that face Zambians besides misunderstandings. Making it to a clinic is time consuming and expensive. Hiring a taxi is out of the question, I've never taken a taxi to my hut because it's too expensive. I know my neighbors can't afford it. Then the only other options are walking all day with a sick person, or paying someone to bike, riding on the bike rack. And like I said, sometimes the clinics themselves are out of medicine. The World Health Organization recommends you begin treatment within 24 hours of symptoms. If I wasn't already supplied with a malaria test kit and Coartem provided by Peace Corps, I'd even have difficulties getting treatment within 24 hours. In more developed areas they spray the insides of walls (a method that has been incredibly effective where they keep it up), but I don't think they've ever made it near my village.

But there is hope. The misconceptions are getting more sparse, education about the real cause of malaria and it's treatment and prevention is everywhere. Being as how widespread and damaging malaria is in a place like Zambia is, the Zambian government, NGO's, and aid agencies around the world are pumping money and resources into decreasing the devastation malaria has brought, which may some day allow poorer countries like Zambia to benefit from one less debilitating disease and focus on development uninhibited.

What am I doing? I'll be working soon with Martin on a workshop for my surrounding villages. We want to focus on building tippy taps (handwashing station with a bucket of water and pedal to “tip” the water into your hands) to help with hygiene, SoDis (solar disinfection) to clean water without chopping down more trees to burn and boil water, and simple things people can do to decrease chances of getting malaria. What I'm hoping to do is find a few community members that I can teach with Martin to be “community experts”, if you will. They will be the ones holding the workshop, I'll be in the sidelines. My opinion is people coming in and teaching workshops, though helpful, are not as sustainable as they could be. I'm trying to work myself out of a job. If they have the power to hold their own hygiene workshop without me, I've done my job. For the malaria prevention I'm hoping to get higher up village members to show everyone their own mosquito nets, so all community members see that even the headmen or headwomen sleep under nets just like they should. Something I've seen is that many people don't try to fix holes in their nets, so I'll focus on 3 ways to fix holes, stitching, patching, and the easiest, a knot. I'll let you know how things go.

How will you Stomp Out Malaria in 2013?

Stomp Out Malaria

Stomp Out Malaria - Facebook

Lake Tanganyika Pictures

Bird playing around in the grass.

David explaining how the car won't fit over the hole in the bridge.

Kalambo Falls and Gorge.

Kalambo Falls.

Kalambo Falls.

Lake Tanganyika.

Sailing back to port with sail made of old mealie meal sacks.

Lake Tanganyika

Made it back safely from my Easter vacation to Lake Tanganyika. The way up to Northern Province was quite a day of hitching. A group of us headed out around 6am, took 3 hitches down to Central Province, through Mpika, and finally made it to Kasama just after sunset. This was the first day I've spent the entire day in the sun. I even slept a bit on a canter. Luckily I didn't get as sun burnt as I would have imagined. The next day we headed up to Mpulungu to a lodge. It should have only taken about 3 hours to get there but we decided to flag down a cool looking truck which ended up being 1 of 10 mobile hospital trucks. They move slowly. We got there in 6 hours. But, it was neat to be in such a huge truck. Finally we made it to the lake for a few days of relaxation, beers, fresh grilled catfish, leftover banana bread, more beers, swimming, sleeping, and more relaxing.

The second day we decided to go to Kalambo Falls. Another group of PCV's had done the trip the day we got in, and hired a boat to take them across the lake a bit, then they hiked 10 km to get to the falls. We would have loved to do that, but didn't have the numbers to drop the price of the boat, so we took a minibus to Mbala, then hired a taxi for the afternoon. The falls are beautiful (see pictures), so far the best place I've seen in Zambia (even though I was looking into Tanzania). I wish we could have stayed longer, but our driver started getting impatient after a while about a storm coming.

The ride back we decided we'd try to take a more direct route to Mansa (home). We got a nice hitch into Kasama and started asking about the road that goes between Northern Province and Luapula Province. He said he would help us but needed to get diesel first. While at the petrol station, he poked his head out of the window, yelled across to another car asking if they were going to Mansa, and as luck would have it, they were. This is like stopping at a random gas station in Chicago and asking the nearest car if they are headed to Oklahoma City. Bizarre.

But it worked. We headed out shortly thereafter on our way across a road that pretty much closes down in the rainy season. Half the trip was pavement, half was gravel/potholes. Luckily it wasn't wet that day. We headed out about 10:30 and they said we'd make it by 16:00. Around 14:30 we picked up a lady on the road with a ridiculous amount of peanuts she was taking across the country, ended up filling the trunk so we were now smashed in the car with our bags on our laps. But we're only an hour and a half away, right? I thought I was uncomfortable about an hour after that, on the bumpy road, where my knees didn't fit, there was no arm rest, it was getting too dark and bumpy to read, my headphones weren't loud enough to drown out the blaring, incomprehensible Zambian songs on repeat, a woman was squishing me, my legs couldn't move, and my head was hitting the ceiling. We arrived in Mansa at 18:30. I have to say that was the most uncomfortable experience I've had in Zambia thus far. As we got back to the house for fried chicken, as our luck would have it again, we were told how amazing it was that we made that trip in the rainy season. Apparently it hasn't really been done before. Although it was a horrible ride, we made it back a day ahead of time, and saved a bit of money, so I can't complain too much.

Next week I'll be hosting second site visit for the new RAP intake, who arrived in country in the middle of February. The first site visit was the first week they were in Zambia, just like I did in one of my first posts. The second site visit is to go to their new province, stay with a current volunteer for several days, learning how to get around, shop, greet people, cook, ask questions, hold meetings, etc., then head to their individual sites for a few days to see their new homes. The new LIFE volunteers came through here on their second site visit and we got a change to meet them. It feels neat watching a new generation of volunteers come in as another prepares to leave. They seem like a great group, and we hear the RAP group is great as well.

Here's a map I made of my hut, I need to clean up a bit before I take real pictures, but this will give you an idea of how I live. 

Pictures worth up to 3000 words!

Cool guy sitting on power line.

Pretty bird on top of maize.

African Pied Wagtail.

Fish Ponds in Mabote.

1st Fish Harvest.

Near the river in Kasuba village.

Looking out at the river in Kasuba village. The horizon is Northern Province.

Mabote village at sunset.

Mabote village at sunset.

Mabote village at sunset.

Sometimes You Have to Catch a Kid by the Throat

So what's been going on with me for the last few months?

New Bed

So my old bed was a ¾ size, but I bought a double size mattress. That's been working out for a while, but my back has been bothering me enough with biking so much, so I decided to go ahead and buy a new bed frame. So I went to the carpenter and ordered one, including that it is much higher from the ground to allow for more storage space in my tiny hut. It cost $60 plus a $8 delivery, and only took out part of a clay wall in the installation. It's quite nice.

Bagheera's New Bed

The day before the new bed was delivered, I broke down the old bed and managed to create a functional but not so pretty shelf to hold clothes and other random things I've collected here. So it's been 7 months, but I'm finally not living out of bags, except now, but that's cause I'm in Mansa.

Bagheera has been sleeping on a chair seat next to the bed since I got him (since he's not allowed on my bed), but since the new bed is bigger and my hut is so small, the chair seat doesn't fit anymore. So I broke that down too and rigged up a new bedside table, complete with new fabric for him to sleep on. He loves it.

To Catch A Goat

I've been complaining about goats in my yard eating my plants for quite some time. Every time I mention it they tell me they are going to encourage their friends to tie up their animals (and it's the law). And when the goats come again I complain again and they tell me next time it happens to go to the headman. At the last fish farmers meeting I brought it up again and asked what happens if I catch a goat in my yard. They debate and argue for a while and finally don't come to a conclusion for me. I ask if it's mine, if I can kill it, if I can eat it, etc. But nothing. So after the meeting I'm sitting under my porch cooking spaghetti and a mother goat and a kid walk right past me. I put down my book slowly, and take off chasing them around my cimbusu then through my hammock area, under some thorn bushes, where the kid gets caught on a vine. It's mine. Tied it up with a rope, then carried it to the headman's house, where he continued to laugh at me. I told him I'd catch one. So we headed out to find the owner. Some other neighbors stopped by to see the goat I caught, and tried to help with ideas to help me out, such as building a fence around my whole yard (dozens of stakes when they only need 1, ugh). I ended up giving the kid back, but I told them next time I'm having goat for dinner. Now I kinda hope I do.

Trip to Tang

A group of us are planning a trip for Easter weekend up to Lake Tanganyika near the town of Mpulungu. After, we're headed to some hot springs south of Kasama. Looking forward to some relaxation, I'll add some pictures when I'm back.

Compost Contest

Most of the farmers in my fish farming group have been having trouble taking their compost cribs seriously and adding lots of compost. So, I held a competition, anyone who could stand on their compost crib by the end of the week, I'd take their picture. We've heard that Zambian farmers are very jealous and competitive, so if we can find a way to use this constructively, give it a try. I had 12 out of 12 winners.

Pepper Paradise

I've finally got pepper plants growing. So far I have to go to Mansa or bike 2 ½ hours to Samfya boma to get peppers, so I'm quite exited for the possibility of some peppers in my garden.

Bike Wreck

Headed back from a boma 20 km from my site one evening, hoping to get in before sunset. Heading across a large dambo I heard a crunch beneath me, looked down to see my front tire heading behind me. I guess the wheel wasn't put together well and I never thought to check it. I kind of blacked out for the fall, and “woke up” sliding across the gravel on my back just in time to kick my bike away from falling on me. I picked myself up, seeing stars, and began picking up pieces of my bike. I had 3 cuts across my right elbow, a burn on my right wrist, 4 cuts on the back of my left hand and 1 on my palm, my big toe was gashed, my belly was scraped, as well as my back, and my helmet had a scrape. My basket broke and my new odometer destroyed. I have no idea how all of this happened. I was 10 km from 2 friends heading the opposite direction without network connection, 10 km from my nearest neighbor, and 10 km from my site.

I managed to put my wheel back on my bike, reattach my basket (sort of), and headed home. Throughout the week bruises showed up on both sides of both my knees, and thighs, as well as my left shin. My shoulder still hurts, I think I landed on it.

Broken Tooth

And of course when all my cuts and bruises had healed up well, I ate some rice and beans and chipped one of my molars. Zambia wins again.

1^st Fish Harvest

While looking over the ponds, some of the group members saw some nests created by a big fish in one of the ponds. We decided we could drain that pond and harvest the fish, fill the pond a few days later, and still be on schedule to get fingerlings with all the other ponds. It took about an hour all together, with several of the group members and I running around in the mud chasing one fish. Patrick, my counterpart ended up catching the fish. We spent a while longer picking out pests from the ponds like frogs and other types of fish, as well as collecting fingerlings they eat as relish.

Snake n Shed

While cleaning out my shed I ran across a snake hiding underneath my cement mix and lime. Managed to take it's head off with a shovel, grilled the body and fed it to the cat. Turned out to be some kind of viper, not deadly, but would have packed a punch.