The People We Meet

Throughout this trip, I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with many different people from many different places. I have gotten to know my classmates better. I have met other Americans visiting Namwianga. I met a guy from Ethiopia who is about 22 years old on the flight from Washington, DC to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I have met Zambians, young, old, and in between. Because Livingstone is host to Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, as well as a prime location for safaris, it is a vacation spot for people from many different nations. While there, we shared a bus with two Japanese women from Tokyo and two South African couples from Johannesburg. I also met a guy from London, who is around my age, while doing the zip line in Livingstone this morning.

One thing I learned from all of this is that I should probably pay more attention to the political happenings in my own nation. The world’s eyes are on the United States, and everyone was full of questions about American healthcare, finances, education, and Obama in general. What do I think about Obama? Do I think he will be re-elected next year? Do I think Obama’s healthcare proposal will become a reality? Are all American children confident, or are there still self-esteem issues in the States like there are in other places? How has the recession affected life in the U.S.? Is there a huge gap between the rich and the poor now? These are some of the questions I have been asked on multiple occasions by the people I have met along my journey. I try to answer the best I can, but I typically do not feel adequately prepared to answer these questions. I also do not always have enough knowledge to ask about current events in their respective countries. This makes me want to spend more time updating myself on the news.

On the other hand, I also feel that my relative lack of large-scale information frees me to ask more personal questions and learn more about the individual stories of the people I meet; it allows me to appreciate the beauty of the trees instead of only seeing the forest as a whole. There would be no forest without the individual trees that make it up, after all. Just as all Americans are different, and even different parts of the country have unique cultures, other nations are made up of many different groups or tribes, and I enjoy receiving a first-hand snapshot of each culture represented by the people I meet. The thing that always strikes me the most, though, is that we are all more alike than different, despite the vast differences between our customs and cultures.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

Well, it finally happened. My LENA (the recording device) was washed in a washing machine. When I went to look for it, the aunties said they washed the vest with the LENA in it and I couldn't get it until the next day. I immediately got Dr. Tullos to help me find it. When I did, it had water in it and wouldn't turn on. Time will tell whether it is ruined for good or just temporarily. Then, I was so frazzled as I ran out to the Land Rover as they were about to leave for the day that I tripped and my chin landed on the corner of a brick (in front of everyone). Nice. On the ride back, people were talking about how little time we have left, and so then I cried during my entire shower before dinner because I don't want to leave. I especially don't want to leave Mary. After all that, I was so tired that I basically went straight to bed after dinner.

Mary has really come alive over the past few weeks. She went from a kid who never smiled or talked to a happy, loving, talking two-and-a-half-year-old. I think it is because of a combination of three things. 1: She is getting used to us. I have been spending my weekends at the Havens, especially Haven 3, which is where Mary lives, so I spend quite a bit of time with her. I love it so much there that I have even skipped meals a few times because I wasn't ready to leave. The first time I saw Mary smile or talk was on a Saturday, and I have made a special effort with her. 2: All the boys from Haven 2 went to Eric's House, and the girls went to Haven 3 because they are cleaning and things for a few weeks. Because of this, Mary has some of the bigger girls from Haven 2 (Linny, Katy, and Emma) to look up to as role models. She watches them talking, laughing, and interacting and follows their example. 3: Meagan is back. Meagan lived here for several years and just moved back to the States recently, but is visiting for the summer. It's absolutely incredible to watch her with the kids because she is so good with them and they really respond to her. She helps to bring out the best in all of the children, including Mary.

Today, Mary was wearing my flip-flops. Then, she unzipped my purse and found a chitenge (1 meter cotton fabric that is used to carry babies, worn as a skirt, and made into other things). She then wanted to be tied onto my back, so I carried her like that for a while. When I put her down because I had to leave, she threw a fit. I wanted to bring her with me, but I was afraid I would get into trouble. I think, however, that I have just enough room in my suitcase to bring Mary and Ruth back home with me.

Baby Ellen seems to be doing much better. Her eyes are much brighter, she is eating better, and she has gained nearly a pound. Now the aunties are wanting to spend more time with her (she has been with Meagan around the clock since she arrived). She is blessed to have so many people here who love her and are working hard to make sure she thrives. Thank you for all your prayers!

Also, I had my first African snake experience last week. We were all walking back from the Havens and were nearly back to our house. I was walking slightly behind Ben, and Tessa was next to me. They had just cut the grass in field across the street from the row of houses that lines the left side of the dirt road, so there were small piles of brown grass along the road. I heard a rustling sound and looked down just as a large golden snake was lunging at my foot. Luckily it missed. Tessa and I screamed and started running, and the snake disappeared back into the pile of grass. That was scary.

We leave for Livingstone tomorrow. This is bitter-sweet because I'm excited about all the fun things we'll do (lunar rainbow, high tea, Victoria Falls, safari, etc.) but I will miss the babies at the Havens. We have two more days to work there after we return to Namwianga, but it is not enough! I'm not sure I can take being away from here for two years like I did before this trip. I feel like I'm meant to be here, like it is home. I wonder if I could find a job that would let me start after July next year so I could come again....

CSD in Zambia Post

Here is my post from CSD in Zambia:
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This weekend, a new baby named Ellen came to the Haven. We have Saturday and Sunday off, but I like to spend my weekends there anyway, so I got to meet her on Saturday. She is a month and a half old and very undernourished. The first time I saw her, she had an IV port in the side of her head because she had diarrhea and was vomiting all her food, so she was dehydrated and needed fluids via IV. She is eating well at night, but during the day she is uninterested in eating, and leaks or spits up everything she does eat. She also tends to fall asleep during feeding time. She is not doing well. We hope something can be done to save her, but she needs lots of prayers.

For my research project, I’m doing a phonetic inventory (looking at what speech sounds they can make) on children between the ages of 18 and 30 months old. In order to do so, I’m using a small recording device called a LENA. It goes in the pocket of a special vest, right at the child’s chest. Once you complete the recording, you plug it into the computer and a program will interpret the data to tell you the number of child vocalizations, conversational turns, and adult words, as well as the audio environment (meaningful speech, distant speech, TV, noise, and silence). You can listen to the recording and view the data by days, hours, or five-minute intervals. All you have to do is press record on the LENA, put it in the vest, put the vest on the child, and take it back when you’re done. That sounds simple enough.

The first day I put a LENA on a child, I returned after lunch to find the child wearing a different outfit and the LENA was nowhere in sight. When I asked the auntie in the room about the vest I put on Bennett, it took three times to get her to understand what I was saying because her English is not great. She handed me the recording device, but said the vest was in the washing machine. I still haven’t found it, so I will have to go through the closets in Haven 3 soon. Luckily we have four vests. The next day, the LENA stayed on the child all day. On the third day, I forgot to take the LENA off the child before bath time, and it turned up missing again once the child returned from his bath. Luckily, I was there, so I could ask the auntie where it was and I found it in the dirty clothes pile in the bathroom before it ended up in the wash again. The language barrier has definitely made this project much more difficult than I had anticipated.

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Also, there is a picture of me from today at Dr. Tullos' blog.

Baby Ruth

I’m in love 100 times over. These babies steal my heart on a daily basis. I’ve already taken 500 pictures and we still have about four weeks left. I think, though, that I’ve (unintentionally) chosen a favorite: Ruth. As I mentioned in the last blog post, she is eight months old and one of the TB babies. She made a lot of improvement last week in feeding class. She isn’t leaking as much when she takes her bottle, is starting to lift her head up when she is on her tummy, and is beginning to put some weight on her legs when she stands. Ruthie loves to hear her name and to be told she’s beautiful; she smiles, laughs, and coos when I talk to her. She almost always cries when I put her down because, like all the children at the Havens, she craves the touch and attention. Today she sat by herself for a few seconds for the first time ever! She’s still not babbling, but we’re working on it. 

What breaks my heart the most about the babies at Haven 3 (the sick babies) is that many of them are suffering because of the mistakes of their parents: the babies, like Andrew, who painful skin conditions caused by syphilis; the babies who will struggle with HIV for the rest of their lives; the TB babies who have been so sick that they are developmentally delayed. That’s where we come in: we can help with development and, more importantly, give these sweet babies the love and attention they need. It’s so special when we walk in and little Andrew comes up to me, grabs my hand, leads me to the couch, indicates for me to sit, then curls up in my lap, and snuggles for as long as I will allow him. He cried all day today, though, and wouldn’t participate in language group because he wanted to be held the whole time, so Dr. Tullos had to put him in time out until he calmed down.

Three girls from Abilene came to Namwianga tonight and will be staying for seven weeks as interns at the Havens. I think they will be partnering some with us, as well. They seem sweet, and I’m excited to get to know them better in the next few weeks.

 Be sure to check CSD in Zambia daily for updates from all of us. We will take turns updating that blog.

Kulweela - Sweet

We have been at Namwianga for five days, and it still feels like home. It’s amazing to come back and see some of the same kids I cared for two years ago. There’s Seth and Dow, who were so tiny we didn’t know whether they would survive, and are now sweet, hilarious troublemakers. There’s also Mary, who we have nicknamed Mary Mary Quite Contrary, because she never smiles. I think I saw her smile maybe two or three times when I was here before, but we still love the little cutie anyway, and she enjoys being held. And then there’s five-year-old Jonathan, who is one of my favorites. We think he may have a combination of autism and cerebral palsy; he loves tickle games and just learned to walk this year, and he has the most adorable laugh I have ever heard.

I also love getting to know the new babies. I love the itty bitty room at Haven 1 (the yellow room). That room houses giggly Dennis, and Caleb, who has casts on his legs to correct clubbed feet. There are also Nicole, who is my favorite and fighting for her life, and precious Shannon (they were both born on March 27 of this year, and I’m taking them home with me). There’s also Louise, Wilma, Leah, Russell, and Layla.

I love the TB room at Haven 2, which houses the babies who either have or have been exposed to tuberculosis. Today, BWeave, Charissa, Lauren, Naiveen, and I conducted the first of our three feeding groups with the babies in this room. There’s Baby Ruth, who is absolutely beautiful and another of my favorites. Marcus, Joel, Sibajene, and Heath also share the room. It’s heartbreaking to see the effects of TB on these precious, happy little children. They are on average around eight months old, and several of them cannot hold up their heads during tummy time, cannot sit up alone, and have feeding problems.

We started the feeding groups by doing a developmental and feeding assessment on each of the children in the group. We evaluated trunk support, ability to hold their heads up and put weight on their legs, nutritive and non-nutritive suck, and speed of feeding with a bottle. We did some stretches and exercises on their faces and bodies, gave them some tummy time, and sang and read books with them. We also made contracts with each of the children in the group, saying that we will work hard but they have to work as well, and shook on it. We ended our class with a song and sat the children in their little seats so they faced one another in a circle and could look at one another.

We come back and enjoy Leonard’s cooking on the Veranda of the Hamby house at around 5 pm every day. Then, some local girls come over to play each day, so we play games, color, or play soccer with them (Pamela, Misozi, Chipo, and Brenda – I have a pictures of Brenda and Miso from 2009 that are hanging on my bedroom wall in the States). We sit and talk or play games in the evening. We are already having so much fun, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead in the weeks to come, although I know 6 weeks will not be nearly enough time!

Ino tusike lili? ~ When are we going to arrive?

We are leaving the United States tomorrow at 12 noon! Here's the itinerary:

May 18, 2011: Depart Washington, DC at 12:00 pm
May 19, 2011: Arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 7:45 am, depart at 9:30 am
                        Arrive in Harare, Zimbabwe at 12:45 pm, depart at 1:30 pm
                        Arrive in Lusaka, Zambia at 2:35 pm, check into hotel
May 20, 2011: Depart Lusaka, Zambia at 8:30 am, arrive in Kalomo, Zambia in the afternoon

Lots of stuff I will blog about later!

May 22, 2011: Depart Kalomo at 8:30 am, arrive in Lusaka, Zambia in the afternoon, check into Hotel
May 23, 2011: Depart Lusaka, Zambia at 3:25 pm
                        Arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 8:25 pm, depart at 10:15 pm
May 24, 2011: Arrive in Rome, Italy at 3:25 am, depart at 4:25 am
                        Arrive in Washington, DC at 8:40 am
                       
Here's a video I took of some of the kids in 2009. Enjoy!

Mwabonwa

Only one week left until we leave for Zambia! I've been waiting for this for two years, and I'm beyond ready. Still, I can't help but be a little bit nervous. Will I still love Zambia as much as I did the first time? Will readjustment to the U.S. be as difficult as it was in 2009? I sure hope not because that was very emotional and it took me a long time to reintegrate to life in this busy, noisy, superficial society. I was downright angry when I  landed in Detroit, was stuck in the airport alone for 23 hours, and was bombarded with the news of Michael Jackson's then-recent death. This man who was hated and accused by many was being worshipped and mourned by millions of people across the globe; meanwhile, I was mourning the loss of sweet baby Judah (the little guy on the right side of the top center picture in my header). Judah died when he was just shy of two months old; he never made any mistakes or hurt anyone, but only a handful of people attended his funeral and nobody was allowed to cry during the ceremony. This stark contrast felt like a slap in the face to me, and is not something I will ever be able to forget.


I think over the last two years I have slowly been able to accept life in the States by strategically surrounding myself with wonderful people who remind me daily how wonderful people can be in any country. On the other hand, I'm constantly at battle with myself over what is an appropriate use of my finances and what is superfluous. I'm also more prone to getting caught up in my personal "catastrophes" and have begun to lose the perspective I gained in Zambia about what constitutes a crisis and what I should let go. I've gradually become more lax on my thinking in these areas, especially over the past year, and I wonder what my perspective will be when I return home this time. Stay tuned to find out....


To end on a more positive note, I will introduce some basic phrases in the native language of southern Zambia:

Chitonga (Tonga) Greetings:
Good morning~ Mwabuka Buti
Good afternoon~ Mwayusa
Good night~ Kwasiya
Cheers~ Twalumba
How are you?~ Mwapona
Fine ~ Kabotu
Welcome~ Mwabonwa
Kwiiya ~ Learning

Namwianga (Kalomo, Southern Province, Zambia, Africa): http://www.zambiamission.org/
Chitonga Dictionary: http://bit.ly/m72pe4