“manga” and “nswa” season...

manga = mango
nswa = swarming nocturnal termites that are pervasive this time of year.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season. It looks to be a hot and rainy Christmas here.

As for us, we have mixed in a few good vacations over the past months. The time off was well deserved for Kimberly. She has progressively gotten busier, doing her thing all over Zambia. I go with her to some of the rural clinics and I’m always amazed.

On one of the more recent trips, I had a proud moment watching Kimberly in action. She was training a group on how to test babies for HIV. The subject matter was technical and a bit beyond me but that wasn’t the interesting part. What was interesting was how the women and girls of this village took to Kim. At the start, Kim had the full attention of room full of hospital staff and had even more people, mainly women, looking in through the windows. Throughout her talk, many interesetd schoolgirls stopped to catch a peak and ended up staying for the duration. While I’m sure the lecture hit its target, these girls and women were plainly more inspired by how Kim commanded respect than they were interested in the details of HIV testing. There are still some real challenges for women here so it is rare to see a woman in a position of respect, especially in villages. I think the may soon appoint her queen.

I am still pushing a couple projects: bio-diesel, legal aid, a children’s library, golfing... On the bio-diesel front, we have now made some small high quality batches of diesel, nevertheless, the project has kind of stalled for a variety of reasons (the main one being lack of cheap feedstock). In other bio-diesel news, we’ve recently planted some Jatropha trees on a friend’s farm and I met a ridiculously energetic Dutch guy that I’m trying to help grow some Jatropha. I’ve also been spending more time at Lubuto Children’s Library lately – it’s a great project, check out their website (http://www.lubuto.org/).

As for living and traveling in Africa, it seems like the adventures keep coming.
On our most recent trip, we drove to neighboring Malawi to check out the supposedly famed Mount Mulanje (I’d never heard of it before.) On our way, we had to make a rest stop in the capital city Lilongwe. We found a great little backpacker’s hotel and luckily got the last room. The room was downstairs next to the kitchen and we were told it could get loud in the morning when breakfast started up. Well at around 2am things got loud. We were awoken by a guy banging on our door yelling “fire, fire, fire”. I roll out of bed in my undees and sleepily open the door. This guy barges in, continues to yell “fire” and frantically starts to grab our stuff; as I blearily watch him take our stuff, I’m thinking: is he a thief, do I have to punch this guy in the head?! He notices I’m not really moving and says, “REALLY, fire!” I finally come awake, look out the window and see the glow of fire and some dark smoke. I’m now a believer, Kim is now up, and soon all three of us are muttering “fire, fire, fire” as we collect our stuff. We are standing half-clothed outside in the middle of the street in less than a minute. Luckily no-one was injured. The fire was accidentally started next door at the restaurant and we are eternally grateful to that security guard that remembered to wake us…there are no fire alarms.


Anyhow, we finally made it to Mount Mulanje and it was worth it. The pics say it best (http://dave-n-kim.smugmug.com/gallery/4019982/2/233973323#P-1-12). On top of this massif there are large rolling plains, waterfalls, streams, and just awesome views. Kim was ecstatic that the hut that we stayed at up top had resident serval cats – think small leopards. Supposedly this species is rarely seen but a Welsh guy doing some conservation work up there had come upon some kittens and had raised them. The cats (Princess and Trouble) had been reintroduced to the wild but they were still used to humans. By the end of the evening Kim had made friends.


We’ll try to post more over the holidays. Miss you all.

Efridah & Naomi

Hello again –

Dave and I were talking about some of our most memorable encounters since we’ve been here and decided that we should catalogue a few stories to look back on once this experience is over. So – that said, here’s one from 2 weeks ago…

I had the opportunity to visit western province, 7 hours from Lusaka, and sit with a nurse in clinic as she saw her patients. At St. Francis Mission Hospital as a solution to the lack of providers and the overwhelming number of patients, we have trained the nurses to function as prescribers for the HIV clinic. I want to share one of our patients - the story of Efridah and Naomi.

Efridah is an older woman that came in with an infant (Naomi) wrapped on her back and quietly sat down in front of us. In Nyanja, the local language, she explained that her daughter had just been buried that morning, and now there would be no milk to feed her orphaned granddaughter. Naomi was just 3 months old. The nurse calmly wrote an order for 4 tins of formula and informed the grandmother that St Francis would provide the replacement milk until the child turned 5 months, and then they could not continue. Efridah was grateful and rushed to retrieve the formula with the instruction that she should return with the tins. She was back in a few minutes and proceeded to feed Naomi from a dirty green cup, which Naomi slurped down as fast as she could.

We learned that Efridah stayed in a village that was more than 50 kms from the hospital and had no money for transport back home. By this time, it was late afternoon, so Efridah was asked to lodge in the ward with Naomi overnight and return in the morning to discuss transport. Since a colleague and I had finished our chart reviews, we planned to venture out to one of the satellite clinics in the same direction as Efridah’s village; so we offered to drive her home. Without saying much, the offer was accepted and we started off early this morning. After 2 hours of driving, over boulders and ditches, past mud huts with straw roofs, through the hills of Katete and Msoro, we arrived at her home. She had been holding the baby tight on her lap the entire way. She was greeted by her 2 daughters and 1 son (siblings to the deceased) who were wailing, just realizing the fate of their sister. Efridah began crying and retreated inside her hut with her family as we unloaded her belongings. We needed to be sure the family was clear how the formula should be prepared since it is very rare that a child is not breastfed. It is really important that the water is boiled and the cup is clean to protect Naomi from diarrheal illnesses that could be fatal. We were set to leave when Efridah came out of the hut. She kneeled down in the dirt and looked up at us, uttering through tears her first words in English since we had met. She said, “Thank you very much.” And I decided, that today, that experience felt like enough of a reason to be here.

There are many times I wonder why we came and if we should just come home to the comforts and the company of our family and friends… and then there are days like that day… that I feel like we are where we need to be.

We love you all and hope to connect soon on email or skype. We’ve finally put some (random) pictures on smugmug.com. http://dave-n-kim.smugmug.com We'll keep adding... and hope to also attach our wedding picture link soon too.

Love,

Kim & Dave

PS - Dave assures me he is going to add his comments soon!

It's getting hot

Hello!

It has been a busy few weeks since our last blog entry. I hope reading our thoughts helps you all as much as it helps me to write! We're heading into October now, and it's officially HOT here - daily temperatures are 90-95 degrees F, without much relief into the evening. Luckily, we bought a fan that has made a big difference!

We’re starting to settle in a bit more. I still enjoy my time in the “bush” the most. Chilonga in Northern province was awesome. Dave came with me and we were able to visit the Shiwa House (from the book, Africa House) and Kapisha Hot Springs. We lounged on white sand enjoying the 'jacuzzi-like' hot natural springs. The work at the mission hospital was really rewarding too. We trained 7 rural health center nurses to provide follow-up and monitoring of patients stable on HIV medicines. It will allow patients that would normally walk 80-100kms to get to the hospital for follow-up and refills the ability to go to a clinic much closer to their homes. It feels like we’re making small steps forward.

More good news is that it looks like we are finally getting our own car… after a long search, Dave found an affordable Toyota Prado from Japan that will be coming up through Durban, Zimbabwe, and eventually to Zambia. We qualify to get a car duty free, which means we save nearly 50% on the price. I’m excited for Dave to keep working on his biodiesel since gas here is extremely expensive at close to $7/gallon.

We actually had a little scare the other night when Dave decided to have a chemistry experiment in our backyard. He was working with methanol and costic soda to make sodium methoxide as a first step in his project. He noticed his gloves were not heavy-duty enough and started feeling tingling in his fingertips. He washed his hands, but later that night, he had a headache and felt a bit dizzy. Of course, we looked online, only to find that some signs of methanol poisoning (which can happen through absorption through the skin) are headache and dizziness. The anecdote to methanol poisoning is ethanol, so Dave proceeded to drink 4 shots of vodka… which didn’t make his headache any better, but at least he didn’t slip off into a coma! He’s crazy. He said the next day that we should try to have near death experiences weekly because it makes you appreciate life more. Needless to say, he’s found some appropriate work gloves online that he has ordered.

I was busy this week with the AIDS Relief Partners Forum. This is a meeting that happens every 6 months in Lusaka where all of the executive directors of the AIDS Relief hospitals come together for updates and discussions. It was a great opportunity to meet some of our sites for the first time, and to spend time with the sites I have already visited. Thursday, I gave a full-day lecture at a centralized training to our hospital staff on dry blood spotting, which is a technique the Ministry of Health is launching to run DNA tests on infants to aid in early diagnosis of HIV. Right now, many HIV+ babies are dying (30% by age 1, 50% by age 2, and 75% by age 5) because they aren’t getting tested until 18 months. The test Zambia has been doing is the rapid antibody test which is not useful in infants because they have their mom’s antibodies until 18 months, and would therefore show potentially false positive results on their HIV test. In the US, we have been doing DNA testing for infants for a long time, it’s good to see Zambia moving in that direction. If more babies can be tested earlier, we can get them into care and treatment in time.

Today, Dave and I ran 21K (1/2 marathon) for Global Millenium Projects, specifically to combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases. We hadn’t done enough training, and were 2 of about 10 white people running out of 700 runners. I was 1 of ~10 women total. It was a good time. We had some of the first rain since we got here in June, so that cooled us off a bit. We didn’t get the winner’s time, but guess it was ~1 hour. We finished just under 2 hours – not quite as quick as our Zambian friends (some of whom ran it barefoot!)

We’re heading over to the US embassy tonight for a BBQ. We’ll write more later. Sorry we haven’t posted pictures. We have tons that we’ve taken, but it takes all our band width to upload them. Tomorrow we’ll try to go by the internet café and use their band width to get some pictures online.

Until next time… please write and keep us posted on your day-to-day activities!

Love,

Kim & Dave

3 months in...

Hello!

It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on 3 months in Africa! We officially arrived June 15 and we’re already in September. Time flies. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been here much longer, especially when we’re homesick! But usually we feel like we are still settling in, needing more time to make Zambia our new home.

We have been busy setting up our place – buying furniture and other necessities, including some artwork from the local markets. I feel like I finally appreciate why my mom and dad had such funky interior design from Saigon when I was growing up! It’s been fun to decorate with an entirely different flair here. Dave had a 4-post bed made so we can hang our mosquito netting – and it’s getting to be that time here – hot and rainy season is just around the corner. I bought some fabric and made our curtains. We’re managing to soften up the place a bit. Dave’s latest purchase was a coffee table made of teak wood. It’s beautiful – and amazingly cheap.

I spent a week in the Copperbelt for another HIV and TB training for providers. Other than our accommodations, it was a success. I think I’ll be traveling with Raid from now on, especially if I travel north to the Copperbelt.

Dave has been buying all the necessities for a test-run of biodiesel. We have all sorts of chemicals in our pantry!! Who knew he was a chemist! We also have a few jatropha seeds planted in the backyard. He met with a local Zambian that is growing Jatropha and is very interested in Dave’s desire refine it. So, we’ll see. He is really interested in exploring the possibility of alternate fuel, especially here when gasoline is very expensive and there is land to plant on and people that can farm it. He’s my hero because he is so original. The Price Waterhouse and EY positions would be ok, but he could have done that work in the states, so he is less eager to take them. We didn’t expect to come here to make money, so I keep telling him to pursue his passion while we’re here. He’s still exploring different interests (jatropha, microfinance), and I am so happy he can.

We are missing home quite a bit, especially as the holidays get closer. I was told that it would actually be better for us to stay in Zambia over the holidays because if we go home, we might not return!! I guess they recommend staying in country for at least 6 months before you visit home. There are some expats that are planning a Thanksgiving feast… should be interesting because turkeys are quite hard to come by, but it’s nice to know we’ll have our traditional celebration meal. I think we will go to one of our AIDS Relief sites in the “bush” to celebrate Christmas with the villagers. It should be interesting – very different, but interesting nonetheless.

We’ve started a running group that meets on Sunday morning. It’s been a nice reminder of home. We don’t have any Zambians in our group yet because they’re all too fast!! J There’s a ½ marathon coming up at the end of September, so we hope to be ready for it.

We’re heading out of town again later this week to Chilonga, ~7 hours north east of Lusaka, in Northern province. Dave is going to join me for the weekend, and then next week I’ll remain and work at one of our mission hospitals in the area. We hope to do some hiking and take some pictures to add to smugmug.

We love you all and look forward to your comments on the blog or emails.

~Kimberly & Dave

Travel mania

Once again, we write... as an effort to feel less far from all the people we love. We are still feeling quite homesick, but really trying to maximize our time here...

We’re just back from a few weeks of traveling, first to Mfuwe/South Luangwa National Game Reserve, then onto Livingstone at the southwest tip of Zambia bordering Zimbabwe. It has been so great to have the time to explore this country, especially under the auspices of “work!”

Our first trip to Mfuwe started 06Aug07. South Luangwa is ~8 hours east of Lusaka. The drive was a bit of a pain, so we think we’ll fly the next time. And there WILL be a next time! I spent ~2.5 days working at the Komoto Mission Hospital. AIDS Relief plans to partner with them this year as another site that will receive antiretrovirals and technical/clinical assistance. They have a decent hospital, but they have some clear gaps, for example, they have one clinical officer that runs the ART clinic (that’s the HIV/AIDS clinic). He does a good job, but he’s one person. Their lab is seriously lacking with no equipment to run the most simple tests, ones that are essential if a patient is to be monitored on anti-HIV medications. The staff were very excited at the potential partnership and welcomed us with a feast for lunch of nshima, chicken, and various relishes. It was odd to sit in the head administrators home and eat lunch while our “dinner” was clucking right outside the window!

Dave busied himself with long walks and runs around the lodge and decided he may take up “birding” because Zambia is supposed to be a hot spot for cataloguing all the bird species – when else in our lives will we have the luxury of birding??! We were able to take an early morning game drive which left at 5:30AM on the last day. It was amazing!! To see the animals in their own environment puts zoos to such shame!! We saw herds of elephants (they’re massive!), zebras, giraffes, hyenas, impala, baboons, ginea fowl, water buck, buffalo, hippos, bushback antelope, and kudu & puku antelope. We weren’t able to catch a lion or leopard, but did see the remains of an impala (leopard kill) up in a tree. We expected the leopard would return – but didn’t on our watch. Although, the baboons were barking, so they must have seen it, even if our eyes missed him. I guess we’ll have to do another safari!! They said that you see the predators on the night drives more often.

We had one day back in Lusaka between trips – just enough time to do laundry (with our own washer!!) and repack! We left for Livingstone 12Aug07 to perform a 2-day centralized training on tuberculosis and HIV co-infection. I was mostly an observer this time around and helped some with the logistics of putting on a conference. It went well. Wednesday, Dave and I went white water rafting on the Zambezi River. It was incredible. We had rafted before in Northern California, but that was nothing like this! They rate the waves based on difficulty, and in the states the rapids were rated a 4 out of 6, hard enough to require a helmet, but not over-the-top. Well, we decided that based on the ratings here in Zambia, the rapids we rode in CA were closer to a 2. We rode 4s and 5s here and they were out of control! I was petrified. But, of course, in retrospect, I’m alive and LOVED every second. We’ll post some pictures on the website asap. We had another early morning again today because we decided to ride rented bicycles to Victoria Falls to see the sunrise. It was breathtaking. They’ll be pics on smugmug soon.

So now we’re home, already bored, just kidding. It’s nice to be “home.” We miss you and now that we have internet – woooohoooo – we hope to talk more often.

Keep in touch - we love to hear from everyone and get updates so we don't feel so far away.

Love you all,

Kim & Dave

First Post -- a full weekend in Lusaka

Hello!
How’s everyone doing?? I’m missing you and hoping you are all doing well.

We’re doing well. We stayed in Lusaka this week after my trip to the bush got postponed. We leave tomorrow for Chipata, Mfuwe, and ultimately Komoto Mission Hospital, a new AIDS Relief site on the outskirts of South Luangwa game park. Dave is going to join me for the week and we hope to get some game drives in while we’re there. We’re going to start a blog from Zambia so that instead of emails, you guys can check out the blog. We can link pictures there too. The internet company didn’t show up on Friday as expected, despite David walking into their store front rather than relying on telephone communication. As I’ve said before, everything here is SLOW to happen… but when we return from our trip next week we’ll continue working on it.

A few stories of interest from Lusaka…
We met a 13y/o girl on a run Wednesday morning. We were practicing our Nyanja, saying good morning to everyone, and she answered in perfect English, saying, “I want to be your friend.” We stopped to walk with her to her school. Her name is Sikumbuzu, which means memory. She told us she is an orphan from Zimbabwe, living with her Auntie, in 7th grade, and wants to be a lawyer. She offered to come over and teach us Nyanja. We decided that she is an amazing motivator to us and we hope to see her again on our morning runs. Dave joked (?) about adopting her…

Dave and I had a proper nshima based dinner on Friday. Nshima is the mealy-meal corn based staple here. Dave and Lyson (a 15y/o from Malawi) made the nshima and I helped (sort of) prepare the relishes – chicken, tomatoes and onions, and cabbage. YUM… j/k!!! It was the exact same dinner I had had prepared from me in the village a few weeks ago, but Dave hadn’t tried it yet. Dave had asked Lyson to teach us how to make it as a trade-off to Dave taking him to see the movie Transformers. The fun part with dinner is that you’re not supposed to use forks. You roll the nshima into balls with one hand, press a thumb into it and use it as a spoon to eat the relishes (defined as anything you eat with nshima). Ultimately, not too tasty, but an experience nonetheless. We’re going to think of ways to flavor the nshima, even though that’s frowned upon!

The same night, we decided to go to one of the local restaurants for a few drinks after dinner. On our way there, Dave accidentally missed a stop sign (which is SO common by the locals here, maybe he’s getting too comfortable and thinks he’s Zambian!). There was a police truck at the stop sign that pulled us over. Two guys got out of the truck, one was in military clothes, and the other was carrying an AK-47. The military guy was pretty angry and put on quite a show, yelling at Dave about his error and telling him he was going to be detained at the station overnight, actually until Tuesday, b/c Monday is a holiday (Farmer’s Day, what?). I was a bit concerned, to say the least, but Dave handled it very well and encouraged them to resolve it right then and there rather than going to the station. After being told that the cost of his offense would be 600,000 Kwacha ($150 US), Dave shelled out $100 US he had on him, and avoided some overnights at the station. Phew! It was pretty crazy. We had our first experience with the police corruption which was not fun, but now we know the drill.

Yesterday, we decided to take a long bikeride up into the trails we had discovered on our runs. Our bikes are really more designed for road biking, but do have slightly bigger tires for easy trails… if only we had stayed on easy trails!!!! We got a bit lost because there are paths everywhere going every direction. At one point, Dave and I thought we had accidentally entered a game park (perhaps Jurassic Park??!) b/c we came across piles of dung the size of our heads. Seriously. Fortunately, we did not have any run-ins with live animals, but we managed to attract a tribe of children about 30 strong who ran after us as we biked through their township shouting “Mzungu!” and reaching their little hands out to touch our white skin, we took on very rocky steep terrain which I managed to take a tumble, and we rode through fire (it’s common for locals to clear their land with fire). Eventually (3 hours later) we happened upon a ranch owner named Aaron who sent us in the right direction on actual dirt roads, rather than the footpaths. It was quite an experience – and one that we will avoid in the future. I’m much happier on tarmac… although the kids were awesome.

That’s it for now. We’re headed over to the trade show to find some home furnishings… we’re busy beautifying our home so you all can come visit!! J

And, check out some of our pics at http://dave-n-kim.smugmug.com/



Ti konda inu! (“we love you” in Nyanja lesson 4 and still lots to learn)
Kim & Dave