September 13, 2005

  • Life in Zambia

    Life in Zambia

     

     

    Well today is Friday Sept 9th....we are comfortably settled in our apartment for now and so our focus has switched over to the clinic.  We are starting to organize it and have seen patients already.  There are alot of bugs here....spiders, flies that dive bomb you and will not go away trying to get at the water in your eyes and mouth, hornets, crawlers, things with legs, things with hard shells and who knows what else.  The floors everywhere are cement so you just squish them!!!!  We have even had to chase small lizards out of the clinic!!  We are treating one little boy with sores on his legs from malnutrition...he is 13, looks like 9, has sticks for legs and is in the second grade here at the farm.  Sal was really stirred to supplement his diet with a high protein gruel when he comes in for his dressing changes, so he sent for his mother to get permission.  When his mother came, we found out he has two siblings that are twins and are four months old.  The mother is breastfeeding and doesn't have enough milk for both babies, so one baby is doing ok but the other is sickly and smaller.  I can't imagine not being able to feed my babies and having to choose which one I favor.  The missionaries told us we are going to see alot of that especially these next few months.  There has been a drought so crops did not do well and people will soon be hungry.  Linda heads up a feeding program here at the farm and I'm sure we will be a part of it.  Even if we were to give all we have, it would not be enough.  This is too big a problem for us...but not for our very big God.  With God all things are possible and as long as we have Jesus, there is always hope.  We have also seen gonorhea, peptic ulcers, scabies, fever with respiratory problems, gingivitis with hyperplasia, and Schistosomiasis (also known as Bilharziasis).  Things are definitely challenging here.  We weighed, measured and assessed 15 of the orphans today...7 are HIV positive and  on antiviral medications, 1 has CP.

     

    Let me tell you a little about life here....first of all it is very hot and dry right now...your nose always has hard crusty stuff in it.  There's always dirt and dust coming in the house because you have to have the windows open and fans going.  Everything in Africa takes longer than we are used to....It took 10 days and 5 trips to town to get our satelite TV up and operational, 2 trips to town for our phones and e-mail set-up and even now only one computer works with one phone for email.  Cooking is a challenge also because everything is from scratch...there is no box of Bisquick, no cake mixes, no sour cream, etc. Even when you do find something you can use like tomato paste or puree it is not Hunts.  Currency here is Kwatcha and it is interesting to pay at a store and figure out the bills....1 dollar is equal to approximately 4500 kwatcha and the rates change daily.  We purchased an electric stove here for 2.1 million kwatcha!!!   Thank goodness they do not have coins!!  We have been to the bank twice trying to figure out if we should open an account here and what type of account at that....most of the missionaries don't have accounts...there is no federal safety nets like home and frankly people don't trust them.  Our vehicle is a four wheel drive used Land Rover with an extended gas tank....a much needed vehicle because there aren't always "tarmacs" (paved roads).  Driving is a challenge to stay on the left side of the road.  Everything here is metric like kilometers instead of miles, liters instead of gallons (like for gasoline), kilograms instead of pounds, centigrade instead of farenheit (and thats not only body temperature but also the dial on my oven!!!)  

     

    There is a workteam here from North Carolina helping with building projects around the farm....I have been helping with meals. The six of us here at SoT got together for prayer Monday night for the monthly Sons of Thunder prayer meeting and we have been to missionary fellowship last Tues where we met some more missionaries in the area.  We have been invited to another couple's house next week for dinner...that should be nice. Butch, the husband is the golfer and he and Sal have already been talking.  Well I think I have made this long enough....