It has been a long time since my last post, as I have been so busy in the village. The work has been exhausting, yet incredibly fulfilling. As I get further and further into my service, it becomes increasingly difficult to describe the ups and downs of daily life. My village is home, my host family has become an extension of my American family, and my house is feeling as close to "home" as possible for living in a mud hut. I sit with my host brother and the guys shelling beans, handwash my clothes and make my fire in no time, and paint sunflowers on my new house.
The first exciting news is that our handpump is finished! It took so much work and coordination, but we did it... thanks to a donation from close friends of two of my professors at UCLA, who happened to be in Zambia and visited my village. I am beyond grateful for their generosity, and as I sat down with my host sister (with whom I had been tirelessly going door to door to try and raise money to fix our water source) and told her the news, we both teared up. We did it! My hands are newly calloused from fetching water by myself again, but every time I pump the water into my containers, I feel happy and proud.
I have been working with a few new communities recently, and the momentum in my village work has sped up tremendously. I had called a community development meeting for all surrounding villages three different times, and only one man showed up. By the third meeting, I told this man that I wanted to visit his village, because he was the only one showing commitment. I visited his village a few days later, met his headman, and we called a meeting right there with 6 men and 6 women sitting under a big mango tree. There was a funeral going on at the time, which usually means all business as usual is called off for up to a week, but the headman respected my visit and took a couple hours out of the gathering for our meeting. I will be going back after provincial meetings and PEPFAR training (this and next week), for they will have already called a village meeting to discuss their top priorities and proposed projects for the future.
The most exciting new project has been in Ndondi village, an hour and a half bike ride each way, up and down huge hills. But the hills are beautiful (especially because most of our province is flat), and listening to my music (a mixture of pump up jams like 90s pop, John Mellencamp, and 50 Cent) helps keep me going. I was invited to this community by a man who is friends with my host family, and I met with him at the tiny Ndondi health post. This three-roomed health post serves a community of 2,800 villagers, with one nurse and a number of community health workers. One room serves as both a delivery room and an HIV counseling and testing room, so when mothers come in to give birth, patients who want to get an HIV test must be turned away. After holding multiple successful meetings at the clinic, and after feeling so inspired by this hard-working community, I decided to propose a grant to help Ndondi build a two-room extension onto their health post. The village is elated, because this extension has been in the works for over a year, but funding has yet to be provided by the government.
One room will serve as a mother's shelter, for expectant mothers and their families to wait before and after giving birth. Hopefully this shelter will decrease maternal and new-born mortality, for mothers will be able to travel the far distances from their villages in the hills to the clinic up to two weeks before giving birth. Patients will be attended to by trained medical staff instead of giving birth at home, thus allowing any emergencies or complications to be identified before it is too late to reach a hospital or a larger health clinic with a doctor. The second, smaller room will be used for VCT (Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing). Hopefully more villagers will come for VCT, for they will not have to worry about getting turned away because there is no private space for testing.
I have been working non-stop with our newly created project committee (clinic staff and passionate community members and leaders) to complete the grant for our health post extension. When our grant is approved, I will provide a link for family and friends to donate through the Peace Corps website. With support from family and friends, we can raise funds quickly and get our project underway before hot and rainy season! Sending love to you all, more updates to come.
