Just finished a big bowl of Nshima and relish. Yummy. Nshima is basically maize ground into meal and then made into big blobs. If you were to make cream of wheat as thick as play dough, it would be something like it. It's really good. What you do is you take a bite of that mixed with relish. Relish is usually a mix of cabbage and rape (rape is a green veggie - and yes I've heard a lot of jokes about the name...), and either beans or soy chunks or tofu or eggplant. It seriously is good stuff. That's what we have for lunch every day. Breakfast is porridge, scones (more like cornbread), tea, and bananas. Then for supper they serve scones, bananas, and tea, though we usually just make something at the house instead of going.
They have cats wandering around the education building! That makes me happy... :) The one that is currently in my lap is white with some black markings on her face, bum, and tail with huge green eyes. Don't know the name, but she's a sweetie.
Not much to tell right now, meetings in the morning, studying and visiting with some of the local kids in the afternoon. Looking forward to heading out to Lushomo Wed so we can get to work.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Well, we went on the big trip to town on Monday to do all our shopping for supplies for Lushomo. I was able to get my other bag from the airport! Woot! We got a bunch of groceries, I bought a phone for $25, and got a couple of chitanges (Yeah, I probably slaughtered the spelling of that word, basically its a peice of cloth that women here wrap around and use as a skirt). And Alan had a lot of stops he needed to make in town. Driving here is quite amuzing. It's backwards, of course, driver's side is on the right, and people drive crazy here! Much like my dad... On the way back we got to see an Impala as we drove by an area that's a sort of game reserve.
Tuesday, Liz and I sat in on some Bible worker's meetings (all the work here is covered, so there isn't really anything for us to do). Basically, they have Bible workers spread out all over the country, and they are here for two weeks to recieve some training. Don Miller from Uchee Pines is the teacher. They are really good meetings.
Wednesday we held a bush clinic at Shimilanga (or something like that). My job was to weigh babies (I know, I know, poor me). We saw about 78 babies I think. Anywho, I weighed babies, Liz recorded the weight on the baby's card (each baby has a card where you keep track of their weight so you can see if they are growing well, or losing weight...), Alex looked the cards over to see if anyone needed any immunizations or if there were any kids to be worried about then recorded them all on a chart, Darby gave immunizations and pills, Evelyn did prenatal, and Alan was crowd control and photographer. It was a good day.
Thursday was much like Tuesday and we didn't have a whole lot happening here on Friday either except tidying up, vespers, and hanging out at Alan and Paulene's house that evening. They make wildwood popcorn. Yummy.
Today was church. They had a nice service. It's in English and Tonga. Don Miller spoke. After church was a potluck at Alan and Paulene's
It turns out we won't be going out to Lushomo until Wednesday now because there will be a bush clinic there that day, so there is no point in Alan making two trips out there. He gave us a laptop and some health powerpoints and scripts to begin studying so we'll be ready to give health talks when we get out there. So, until Wed there will just be a lot of studying and attending meetings.
Someone here needed an injection yesterday and Darby let me give it. Apparently I did pretty well because she asked me if I liked giving shots, and of course I said yes, so she said I could give shots at the clinic Wednesday! So yeah, they're letting me stab people now! :)
The people here are great, all smiles and very freindly. I've been enjoying trying to follow along in the hymnal when we sing at the meetings. Fortunately, unlike the English language, things are spelled the way they sound. They all have great singing voices too, they don't have much in the way of instruments, but they sing acapella and everyone knows their part. The language is very interesting. Saying hello is not as simple as I'd like for it to be. There is a morning hello, an afternoon hello, and an evening hello. The morning hello is "mwabukabuti." That's like saying "Good morning, how are you?" Then you respond "kobotu," "fine." You have no idea how long it took this one guy to teach me that much... they talk fast... and it almost sounds mumbled.
In the villages, when people say hello, if they are not shaking your hand they will sometimes clap three times or tap their chest a couple of times as a greeting. When we held the dental clinics and handed toothbrushes out they accepted it with both hands, bowed their head and gave a slight curtsey while thanking you. They are so sweet!
Ryan and Ean, a couple of little boys who came over and played uno with me the other day, tried to teach me the hello for the afternoon... didn't work so well. But they've decided they are going to teach me Tonga so I can understand them. They're cute. They got a hold of Liz and I's cameras and were posing for and taking pictures like crazy, they really got into it! It's really easy to get to know the guys here, but the girls and women are more quiet and withdrawn.
The country is beautiful! It's very green right now, being the rainy season and all (and thunderstorms come up fast! Out of nowhere!). But, it looks similar to something you would see on the discovery channel or national geographic when they are doing a study on gorrillas or something I don't know, can't really explain it well. There's a nice mix of flat land and hills, rocky hills. When we go to nearby villages it becomes obvious why Alan drives a Land rover. On the way back from the clinic at shimilanga we all had to get out and push to get the vehicle up through some thick thick mud.
Anywho, poor Alex probably wants her computer back so I better go.
God Bless!
Tuesday, Liz and I sat in on some Bible worker's meetings (all the work here is covered, so there isn't really anything for us to do). Basically, they have Bible workers spread out all over the country, and they are here for two weeks to recieve some training. Don Miller from Uchee Pines is the teacher. They are really good meetings.
Wednesday we held a bush clinic at Shimilanga (or something like that). My job was to weigh babies (I know, I know, poor me). We saw about 78 babies I think. Anywho, I weighed babies, Liz recorded the weight on the baby's card (each baby has a card where you keep track of their weight so you can see if they are growing well, or losing weight...), Alex looked the cards over to see if anyone needed any immunizations or if there were any kids to be worried about then recorded them all on a chart, Darby gave immunizations and pills, Evelyn did prenatal, and Alan was crowd control and photographer. It was a good day.
Thursday was much like Tuesday and we didn't have a whole lot happening here on Friday either except tidying up, vespers, and hanging out at Alan and Paulene's house that evening. They make wildwood popcorn. Yummy.
Today was church. They had a nice service. It's in English and Tonga. Don Miller spoke. After church was a potluck at Alan and Paulene's
It turns out we won't be going out to Lushomo until Wednesday now because there will be a bush clinic there that day, so there is no point in Alan making two trips out there. He gave us a laptop and some health powerpoints and scripts to begin studying so we'll be ready to give health talks when we get out there. So, until Wed there will just be a lot of studying and attending meetings.
Someone here needed an injection yesterday and Darby let me give it. Apparently I did pretty well because she asked me if I liked giving shots, and of course I said yes, so she said I could give shots at the clinic Wednesday! So yeah, they're letting me stab people now! :)
The people here are great, all smiles and very freindly. I've been enjoying trying to follow along in the hymnal when we sing at the meetings. Fortunately, unlike the English language, things are spelled the way they sound. They all have great singing voices too, they don't have much in the way of instruments, but they sing acapella and everyone knows their part. The language is very interesting. Saying hello is not as simple as I'd like for it to be. There is a morning hello, an afternoon hello, and an evening hello. The morning hello is "mwabukabuti." That's like saying "Good morning, how are you?" Then you respond "kobotu," "fine." You have no idea how long it took this one guy to teach me that much... they talk fast... and it almost sounds mumbled.
In the villages, when people say hello, if they are not shaking your hand they will sometimes clap three times or tap their chest a couple of times as a greeting. When we held the dental clinics and handed toothbrushes out they accepted it with both hands, bowed their head and gave a slight curtsey while thanking you. They are so sweet!
Ryan and Ean, a couple of little boys who came over and played uno with me the other day, tried to teach me the hello for the afternoon... didn't work so well. But they've decided they are going to teach me Tonga so I can understand them. They're cute. They got a hold of Liz and I's cameras and were posing for and taking pictures like crazy, they really got into it! It's really easy to get to know the guys here, but the girls and women are more quiet and withdrawn.
The country is beautiful! It's very green right now, being the rainy season and all (and thunderstorms come up fast! Out of nowhere!). But, it looks similar to something you would see on the discovery channel or national geographic when they are doing a study on gorrillas or something I don't know, can't really explain it well. There's a nice mix of flat land and hills, rocky hills. When we go to nearby villages it becomes obvious why Alan drives a Land rover. On the way back from the clinic at shimilanga we all had to get out and push to get the vehicle up through some thick thick mud.
Anywho, poor Alex probably wants her computer back so I better go.
God Bless!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
So... we went camping Friday and came back Saturday night. It was at a little outreach called Mukuyo, they have a church and an orphanage there, and a South African (as in from the country of south africa, not the southern part of africa) couple have a nice little house there on the bank of the Zambezi river. It's cool. You can sit down on the lawn and play with the dogs while watching the Hippos in the water. We held a dental clinic Friday, I got to pull another tooth, but spent most of the time holding a flashlight while someone else pulled a tooth, giving meds and instructions for them, handing out toothbrushes, fanning the people pulling the teeth so they didn't sweat into the person's mouth... stuff like that. Then after that we took a walk over to the orphanage. The kids were handed a frizbee to play with the whole time (we had about 20 kids hanging around, following the white people everywhere). It was really nice.
There's nothing quite like laying in the tent at night and listening to the hippos making their strange grunting noises, monkeys plaing in the trees etc... (Don't freak out on me, we were in the missionary couple's yard, which has an electric fence around it)
Then Saturday some of us went for a walk at 6:30 around the place we were staying at. We saw some cool birds, got really muddy, saw a spot where a croc had been sitting on the bank, saw a bunch of hippo tracks (then realized they were all heading into the field we were walking towards, meaning they hadn't moved back out to the river since the night before - not to mention it was so muddy that each time we took a step we sunk down in deep), then turned around and went back. We just lounged around and visited the rest of the day, then drove back to riverside.
Today we got a tour of Riverside farms, then after lunch (which consisted of nshima - made from mealy meal which comes from maize, kinda playdough like, you use it to scoop up the other stuff-, eggplant, and cabbage) we went out to Lushomo to see where we will be living and figure out what needs to be done to get the place ready. It's probably about an hour and a half from here. Its really pretty out there! And about 15 km of the trip is a really really bad dirt road, nice four wheel drive. Anywho, there's a really nice waterfall back in there and stuff. We will be living with a Zambian family, cooking our own meals, all that.
The schedule has changed a bit now, we'll be moving out there next Sunday. Tomorrow we go shopping in Lusaka for supplies, Tuesday we do whatever Alan finds for us to do on campus, Wednesday will be a bush clinic, Thursday we will do whatever Alan tells us to do again, and Friday and Saturday are the days everyone around here is off.
So yeah, that's what's happening right now. Have a good one!
There's nothing quite like laying in the tent at night and listening to the hippos making their strange grunting noises, monkeys plaing in the trees etc... (Don't freak out on me, we were in the missionary couple's yard, which has an electric fence around it)
Then Saturday some of us went for a walk at 6:30 around the place we were staying at. We saw some cool birds, got really muddy, saw a spot where a croc had been sitting on the bank, saw a bunch of hippo tracks (then realized they were all heading into the field we were walking towards, meaning they hadn't moved back out to the river since the night before - not to mention it was so muddy that each time we took a step we sunk down in deep), then turned around and went back. We just lounged around and visited the rest of the day, then drove back to riverside.
Today we got a tour of Riverside farms, then after lunch (which consisted of nshima - made from mealy meal which comes from maize, kinda playdough like, you use it to scoop up the other stuff-, eggplant, and cabbage) we went out to Lushomo to see where we will be living and figure out what needs to be done to get the place ready. It's probably about an hour and a half from here. Its really pretty out there! And about 15 km of the trip is a really really bad dirt road, nice four wheel drive. Anywho, there's a really nice waterfall back in there and stuff. We will be living with a Zambian family, cooking our own meals, all that.
The schedule has changed a bit now, we'll be moving out there next Sunday. Tomorrow we go shopping in Lusaka for supplies, Tuesday we do whatever Alan finds for us to do on campus, Wednesday will be a bush clinic, Thursday we will do whatever Alan tells us to do again, and Friday and Saturday are the days everyone around here is off.
So yeah, that's what's happening right now. Have a good one!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
I'm Here!
Alright peoples... I'm in Zambia! I got in last night, minus one of my peices of luggage. Fortunately, that's basically standard procedure here and its probably at the airport waiting for me now.
Tomorrow we go camping! I forget the name of the place we'll be at but we'll be having a clinic there Friday and then spending the day with them Saturday for church. Then Sunday and monday we'll be checking out lusyomo and making a trip to town to get everything we need. And either Tuesday or Thursday Liz and I move out into the bush (Alan's not sure yet because he'd kind of like to have us for a clinic Wednesday).
Anywho, so here's what I did today: Woke up at 6:00, went to breakfast, went to meet with Alan and get the scoop on what the schedules is looking like so far. He told me Liz was coming at 10 and he'd meet me at either the clinic or the house about 10 and give us a tour of campus or whatnot and I was free to wander around or do whatever in the meantime. So, I wound up at the clinic helping the oral surgeon who is here visiting his son (and doing a lot of tooth extractions).
I got the gloves, mask, goggles on and mostly just handed him gauze and instruments and whatnot and helped set up for the next patient, holding the flashlight, handing out toothbrushes and toothpaste, and eventually giving instructions to the patients on when to take the pain meds and sometimes amoxacillin. Stuff like that. Pretty cool stuff. Aaaaaannnnndddd I got to pull a tooth! Woot!
The clinic wound up open from 9-12, 1-7 today because there were so many teeth to pull. Then, after we stopped taking patients, a couple of the people who work here started to sneak people's names in. Jeremy (the guy who's dad is the oral surgeon) basically knows how to numb people and pull a lot of the teeth. So, he had me come out and hold a flashlight while he started numbing people out in the waiting area so his dad would have to see them... It was great. Good fun.
Well, tomorrow I need to be ready to leave at 6:30 so I'm thinkin' I'll go now.
-Megan
Tomorrow we go camping! I forget the name of the place we'll be at but we'll be having a clinic there Friday and then spending the day with them Saturday for church. Then Sunday and monday we'll be checking out lusyomo and making a trip to town to get everything we need. And either Tuesday or Thursday Liz and I move out into the bush (Alan's not sure yet because he'd kind of like to have us for a clinic Wednesday).
Anywho, so here's what I did today: Woke up at 6:00, went to breakfast, went to meet with Alan and get the scoop on what the schedules is looking like so far. He told me Liz was coming at 10 and he'd meet me at either the clinic or the house about 10 and give us a tour of campus or whatnot and I was free to wander around or do whatever in the meantime. So, I wound up at the clinic helping the oral surgeon who is here visiting his son (and doing a lot of tooth extractions).
I got the gloves, mask, goggles on and mostly just handed him gauze and instruments and whatnot and helped set up for the next patient, holding the flashlight, handing out toothbrushes and toothpaste, and eventually giving instructions to the patients on when to take the pain meds and sometimes amoxacillin. Stuff like that. Pretty cool stuff. Aaaaaannnnndddd I got to pull a tooth! Woot!
The clinic wound up open from 9-12, 1-7 today because there were so many teeth to pull. Then, after we stopped taking patients, a couple of the people who work here started to sneak people's names in. Jeremy (the guy who's dad is the oral surgeon) basically knows how to numb people and pull a lot of the teeth. So, he had me come out and hold a flashlight while he started numbing people out in the waiting area so his dad would have to see them... It was great. Good fun.
Well, tomorrow I need to be ready to leave at 6:30 so I'm thinkin' I'll go now.
-Megan
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