Zambia finished

From Stephen:

We've left our post at lifespring. Molly and I are in South Luangwa, a national park in Zambia. It took us three days of traveling to get here, the guide books described it as the overland trip from hell and all sane travelers flew instead.

Since we're on a budget we decided to take public transport, it worked out and wasn't too bad at all. We stocked up on bananas, oranges, bread, peanut butter, and honey so we can save money by breakfast and lunch in. The place here is amazing, we're in a tent right by a lagoon, elephants and hippos come and play in the water right in front of us. Last night apparently they were really close and loud, I slept through it but they kept Molly up all night.

Our time at Lifespring was good, when we first got there I was a bit skeptical of how much of a difference we could make. The people who ran the farm, even though they were musungos (white people) they still operated on what was always referred to, sometimes affectionaly, as "Zambian time". For the maize mill, my goal was to have it up and running by the time I left so I could assist ironing out some of the kinks that you just can't account for before the fact. Unfortunately, that didn't happen as supplies for building were slow to be acquired, our builder almost cut off his hand, and all the other dependencies moved at a snails pace. However, looking back I took them much further than they started. I provided several financial forecasts that allowed them to assess the feasibility of taking the mill in several different directions. We developed a floor plan that was secure and fit the workflow of the mill. We also developed a receipt system that led to easy auditing, and the beginnings of an auditing system. So while the inner American in me wanted to finish the project fully, I'm happy in the progress that was made.

From Molly:

Yes, I am glad that we came to Zambia. The people that we met are unforgettable, so many with such kind hearts wanting to help others (Zambians as well as foreigners). The people are what will be missed the most, including the kids that are just so affectionate and cute. It really has made a difference in our trip to be around them. It was sad to say so many goodbyes.

The Health Assessments were finished about a month and a half ago but follow ups were only started more recently. I was glad to see the follow ups started and I believe they were put in good hands to finish, although it was frustrating that they took so long to start. Of the 96 kids that I did assessments for, about 75% of them needed some kind of follow up, mostly having to do with some kind of skin issue. Many of the kids had skin fungal infections (including ringworm) or some kind of digestive system pain or problem. Over half of them do not eat breakfast. I found out about 75% of the community we are working with is HIV+ but about half of the kids I assessed have not been tested for HIV. I think some of their parents are afraid to have them tested and see the results, and I can't blame them (although medication is very important to start if they are positive). The process for follow up is that all kids have to start at the community clinic and if necessary be referred into the hospital in town, otherwise without the referral it is too expensive for them. The charity does help with some transportation costs when necessary into town. The clinic in the community is very basic though and seems to frequently run out of very basic medications. When this happens, then they write a prescription for be filled at a pharmacy in town, which costs a lot more money (if they had had the prescription then the medication would have been free). Apparently, they can try to come back the next week to see if the medication is then stocked at the clinic. It has also been known that certain clinics will run out of medications that were donated for the people because they have instead sold them to pharmacies in town and pocketed the money. Needless to say, health care here is frustrating and we are much more fortunate in the States. It is just frustrating that that is the best that can be done. The parents of the kids did seem appreciative though, as some of their kids had not had any kind of health check up in years. For the health asssessments (which were done with my friend Paula), we weighed the kids, took their height, pulse, temperature, tested their vision with an eye chart, asked about their family situation and who they lived with, what their daily diet consisted of, allergies, past medical problems, looked at the skin on their whole body and asked if they were having any present troubling symptoms and asked if they had been tested for HIV. For a last note, Malaria here is possibly more troubling than HIV. Many kids miss a lot of school days due to having Malaria. Many people here have chronic Malaria and seem to have frequent bouts of it. Some of it is due to not using mosquito nets and some has to do with not properly taking Malaria medications, some of it has to do with standing water in the community and houses made of mud brick.

Another side note. I really enjoyed working also with the HIV positive adults here. They have a program that teaches adults that are HIV positive information that is relevant to their status. They learn about HIV medications, the types and interactions with other medications and foods. They learn about nutrition, HIV progression to AIDS, side effects of medications, the importance of taking medications and other health related topics. They also have volunteers (most who are doing well on medications that were first clients) that visit newly diagnosed clients and help teach them about the topics they have learned about. So there is one guy who teaches both groups, the clients and volunteers, information each twice a week. He also does home visits with the volunteer to the clients homes. I was fortunate to be able to go with him on quite a few visits. I was also fortunate enough to be able to do some health teaching myself for these groups. I did 5 lessons including STDs/STIs, wounds and burns, knowledge and prevention of Malaria, malnutrition and handing vomiting and diarrhea.