Lusaka! :)

For the next few days we toured the capital city of Lusaka! I never thought I would say this...but it was kind of nice to get stuck in traffic and to see stop lights! We toured a few of the government building while we were there and we took a driving tour of the buildings which we were not allowed to enter. Marianna and I got one of the biggest rooms at the hotel and all of the rooms had air conditioning and a bath tub! :) We had everyone over to our room for a movie night the first night, which was a lot of fun!
We worked at a Hospital for a few hours, weighing the infants and charting their growth, as well as giving them any vaccines that they needed. We also worked with the pediatric patients, which was really neat. Later that evening we visited Mother Theresa's Hospice, which was one of the greatest opportunities which we have had so far. The male and female wards each sang us songs as we arrived and formed a greeting line, so that we could shake all of their hands. The sisters did such an awesome job of loving their clients and giving them hope even if they knew that their life on this earth was not going to last much longer. I can not describe the feelings that came over me as we entered the Hospice. The feelings are indescribable....you would have to have witnessed the Hospice in order to be able to fully understand what I mean.
On Sunday we drove back to Choma and prepared to wake up early the next morning for a village visit. It was nice having a day off in Lusaka just to hang out and enjoy being in Africa!

Zimba....***The best day so far!***

On Monday and Tuesday of the following week a group of 8 of us went back to the hospital in Zimba. Rachel, Lisa and I began our day in the pharmacy sorting and counting pain medications into small plastic bags. After we were finished with the pharmacy Rachel and I left and shadowed one of the doctor's in the ART clinic. We learned a lot about the different kinds of medications used for HIV and the combinations of medications used when the patient has an opportunisitc infection along with HIV. We took a lunch break and then helped the techs in the lab with finishing many urine analysis, Hgb, Hct, blood type, and creatinine tests. I also had two more opportunities to draw blood, which went really well! :)
On Tuesday Rachel, Marianna, Alicia and I went to the OR all day! There were 2 hernia repairs, 1 ovarian cyst removal and a few cosmetic surgeries and dressing changes. There was a surgical team from a church in Memphis, TN there for 2 weeks and they let us do everything! It was such an amazing day! :) On the first surgery they said that one of us could scrub in as the surgical nurse!!! I volunteered and I was able to scrub in for the time ever! :) I aided the surgeon with a hernia repair and helped him sew up the incision. I got to stick my hand near right iliac crest of the pelvic bone and feel for a pulse! :) It was so neat!
During the ovarian cyst removal Alicia was able to scrub in. The cyst was the largest cyst that I have ever seen. The cyst itself was wider than I was and I had to 'catch' it from the surgeon as he cut it out. It weighed nearly the same as a large turkey. It was hard to believe that a person could carry around that much weight for such a long time. Since there were no diagnostic services provided to test whether the tumor was benign or metastatic, the surgeon let the four of us dissect the tumor. It was one of the most exciting days of my life!
God really spoke to me through all of the experiences in the OT and confirmed my calling as a nurse! He also confirmed and spoke to me about some other dreams that He had given me earlier in life. God is such a wonderful God! I am amazed by His power and His faithfulness everyday. Even though I am still awaiting God's plans and still continuing to grow spiritually in Him I am so very thankful for the direction and the love that He has shown me already in life! I hope and pray that you ask God to reveal His direction and purpose for your life, because He has something better than you could possibly imagine waiting for you! All you have to do is give Him the chance to intervene! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

God Bless!

Chabbobboma

On Friday the 30'th we were able to visit the Chabbobboma Banana Trust Plantation with World Hope. Our driver astonished me with how he knew exactly where to go...when there were no signs, no marked roadways and no significant land marks. We always drive so far out into the bush and he always knows where we are going! It is amazing!
We arrived at Chabbobboma and were greeted by a group of about 30 plantation workers who sang us songs of thanks, because we came to visit them. The Zambian culture is extremely hospitable in every area of life! They make you feel like family even if you have never met before. After the song, we took a tour of the Plantation and walked along the bank of Lake Kariba, which is the main water source for the Bananas. Our guide showed us the elaborate irrigation system which he had helped to build. The irrigation pumps were powered by solar panels which were an excellent source of power since there is so much sun. It had to be nearly 120 degrees that day! That is the hottest weather we have experienced since we have been here!
After the tour, we went down to a harbor by Lake Kariba and took pictures and enjoyed the scenery until lunch was ready. We ate lunch with the village workers. The women made nshima and chicken. After lunch we drove back, because the drive took a significant amount of time. The roads were crazy on the way home! The four of us, who sat in the back of the land rover, caught air a minimum of 15-20 times on the way back. But the ride was a lot of fun....we tried to make it a game and see who could keep from touching the car the longest with their hands. It was a full day and such a blessing from God to have had a day to spend with the plantation workers.

Mochipapa, weddings and kitchen parties....

In the next few days following Independence Day, we went back to Dr. Jain's to shadow him and his wife! He told us a couple more incredible stories where he had saved patient's lives from infection caused by traumatic events, without having to amputate any limbs. It was incredible....he is an amazing doctor! We also visited the Hospice, however there were only 2 patients present on that particular day, so we read to the primary school children in the day care next door. After reading for about 45 minutes the kid's attention span was quickly decreasing.....so we decided to take them outside and play Land Rover, which is one of their favorite games! Our American version is Red Rover, but the children here say Land Rover. We thought it was so funny! The children are taught to speak very proper English, so instead of saying Red Rover, Red Rover, send Charles on over....they said Land Rover, Land Rover, We want Charles to pass over here. It was too cute!
The following day we had a meeting with some of the women staff and talked about marriages, weddings, and kitchen parties. A kitchen party is a party which can last anywhere from a couple weeks to 3 months and it prepares the men and women for marriage. It was extremely interesting! There are many cultural differences in preparing for marriage and it was really neat to be able to see how much preparation is involved in entering a marriage here. The family is extremely involved and there is a tremendous variety in cultural practices between many marriage partners as well.
On Thursday of this week we left for a Trust, through World Hope, and taught the villagers about nutrition and health promotion for their children. There were many different spiritual beliefs associated with health care practices, which made the teaching a little bit difficult. Many of the practices were related to newborns and the manifestations caused by a lack of adequate nutrition. Diarrhea was also considered a complex problem with children, because if a child got diarrhea there were many assumptions made about the parents and their commitments to each other. We had to clarify that diarrhea comes from bacterial and viral pathogens and that the child's diarrhea had nothing to do with the parent's marriage. It was a wonderful opportunity to use our knowledge as nurses to prepare the villagers to practice preventative health care measures.

Zambian Independence Day! :)

The 24'th was Zambian Independence Day! Our director of the guest house, where we are staying, is also the president of the Rotary Club down the street. The Rotary Club held a fashion show in order to raise money for school uniforms for the entire school of the child who won the pageant. We went to the pageant and were surprised! Almost all of the music was American music. It was a lot of fun and the pageant raised a lot of money for the school systems and road repairs in Choma.

The following day, we left early for a park near downtown Choma. The District Commissioner gave a commencement speech and the festivities began. A group of children from each school in the community performed either a skit, poem, or a dance for the crowd. The DC made a closing speech and the crowd left. It was extremely hot that day! A few of us got a little sun though, which was nice! :)

We came back to the compound and Mrs. B, the cook, made us a feast for Independence Day! We ate lunch and finished writing papers and tried to catch up on some sleep!

Chikali...

It has taken me quite a while to update the blog since we just returned from Lusaka, where there was no internet! But, hopefully by tonight, it will be updated all the way up until the present date! :)

A couple weeks ago we drove two hours away and visited a mission hospital in Chikali, Zambia. The Hospital appeared out of nowhere....after driving along a bumpy, dirt road for approximately 1 hour, small houses and huts began to appear. The Hospital was directly around the corner from the small houses. The hospital in Chikali was one of the nicest hospitals that I have seen so far in Zambia. We all took a quick tour and then left the hospital to meet a traditional healer in a nearby village. We took a small bus to the village and the roads became extremely narrow. The road was tremendously bumpy and the trees screeched as their branches scraped alongside the windows of our bus. It was a lot of fun to witness the bus driver's ability to maneuver through the narrow and winding path!

We talked for about an hour with the traditional healer and learned about all of the types of healers and the physical treatment that they provide for the villagers. The traditional healer let us take turns and ask him questions, so I asked him how many traditional healers live in Zambia. He said that there are nearly 465 traditional healers within the southern province only! That number was extremely hard to comprehend, especially because there is such a shortage of orthodox doctors in the southern province. The traditional healer shared some of his experiences with us and then showed us his hut, which was full of various herbs and medicines. Since there was a long drive home, we left immediately after our question and answer session and boarded the bus to drive back to the compound.

Dentistry anyone? :)

Rachel and I were paired again at Zimba Hospital this past week. We met the dentist, who also serves as the hospital chaplain, on Tuesday. We met him early in the morning and helped him open up the dental office to prepare for his clients. He was such a neat man! We talked about how he got started doing dentistry. He studied for 6 months in India and begin his practice as a dentist after God told him that he needed to put physical actions behind his teaching. He preaches to all of the clients in the hospital about staying healthy spiritually and he considers it his calling to be able to help his clients with their physical problems as well. He does not get paid for any of the dentistry work, he only gets paid for being a chaplain. He was an incredible man!
We got to help him prepare the anesthesia for teeth extractions and assist him in extracting three client's teeth. We also helped him with taking out an old filling and putting a temporary filling back in to a client's tooth. It was such a fun day!!! :)
After the dentistry we went to the pharmacy and helped cut pain killers and distribute them into appropriate dosages in small plastic bags, so that the clients could just pick them up upon discharge. I have loved this time of getting to know my classmates! Rachel and I have been paired together a lot in the last few weeks! She is such a wonderful woman! I am so glad to have gotten to know her better! God has truly been faithful to our team through many prayers! He has provided so many opportunities for us and it has truly been a blessing to be here! Although, I know I will love seeing my family back home and my new niece!!!! :) .....it is going to be harder than I thought to leave here. I know that God will be faithful through the transition back home as well.....Thank you God for your many, many blessings and your love and faithfulness for this group of girls!

Blessings....