Books I have read this summer

There is plenty of time in Milenge to read! Feel free to comment/ask questions about what I'm reading...I'll update this post throughout the summer.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

The Restaurant at the end of the Universe (Douglas Adams)

Life of Pi (Yann Mortel)

Tao of Coaching (Max Landsberg)

Critical Villager (Eric Dudley)

Mountains Beyond Mountains (Tracy Kidder)

Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)

Open Defecation (a.k.a. “Shitting in the Bush”) and Other Risky Behaviours

The hygiene promoters have a list of risky behaviours that they discuss in village meetings. They discus why these behaviours are risky. Some of the discussion is very blunt and the villagers have a good laugh about it. The idea is that building latrines and wells is only part of the solution to decreasing incidences of water borne/hygiene related diseases!

Risky Behaviour #1: Open Defecation (a.k.a. “shitting in the bush”)

This is what a villager must do if they do not have any sort of a latrine. So when the hygiene promoters arrive at a village without latrines, they know open defecation exists (but people don’t talk about it!). Why is it risky? I faeces is left in the open, it becomes a breading ground for bacteria and flies are also free to come and go from your food from the pile. The problem is that flies are also free to come and go from your food and can therefore transfer bacteria from faeces to food. So if you have a latrine, but your neighbour doesn’t, you’re not safe from the flies! Way forward: start building some sort of a latrine.

Risky Behviour #2: Not washing your hands

There are a variety of risky hand washing habits. The most basic risky behaviour is not washing your hands at all. Why is it risky? Toilet paper isn't used so much in the village, so it's either a leaf or your left hand! Way forward: build and use a hand washing station outside your latrine.

Risky Behaviour #3: Leaving dishes on the ground

Most cooking is done outside and dishes, even after they are washed, are left on the ground. There's no kitchen, let alone a sink or counter top. So animal like chickens, goats, dogs, and pigs can sniff, lick, and step in dishes, pots, and pans! Why is it risky? All of these animals are also free to roam in the bush (see Risky Behaviour #1). Way forward: build a dish rack to dry & store your dishes.

Risky Behaviour #4: Washing hands in shared water

It is a tradition in Zambia to rinse your hands with water at the dinner table before eating nshima. At restaurants there are water dispensers to wash your hands. In homes you use a bowl of water. Why is it risky? Everyone at the table washing their hands in the same bowl of water means your sharing germs with everyone at the table! Way forward: pour water from a pitcher of water and use soap.

...etc.

So what do you think about this? It may seem like common sense to wash your hands after going to the bathroom in the west. Why do you wash your hands after going to the bathroom? Why do you bother using the bathroom?

*Drawings are from a PHAST training guide*

A Typical Day in Milenge District

Since I’ve been moving around a lot, I haven’t had a typical day. So this is a typical day when I was living in Kapalala Ward with a hygiene promoter and his family.

4am-6am Sometime early in the morning, I am woken up by the chickens, the children talking in the room next to mine, the ridiculously cold temperature, and/or an unbelievable need to use the latrine! Eventually, all of them combined motivate me to get out of bed and start my day.

6am-8am Go for a run around the soccer field at Kapalala school. It's so cold in the mornings that I wear pants, a long sleeve shirt, and a sweater! If the children that live around the soccer field have woken up they join me on my fifth lap (when I'm exhausted) and urge me to run as fast as they can (and they can run pretty fast!).

I return to the Mumba's house and find the mother sweeping, preparing breakfast, and already heating water for me to bath with. I have tried helping with chores but I am still seen as a guest. The bath shelter is ten meters away from the house, is made of straw and has a "floor" made of flat rocks.

Bath Shelter

After bathing I sit with Mrs. Mumba and the children in the "insaka" (where all the cooking is done - the Zambian "kitchen"). We sit around the fire as it cooks sweet potatoes. My breakfast is always boiled sweet potatoes, and I have to say they are mighty good!

Insaka

8am-12pm Mr. Mumba and I ride our bicycles to a village where the other hygiene promoter in Kapalala (Mr. Maybin Chishimbe) joins us. The village headman greets us and we go to sit in another insaka (this one is a meeting place for the village). The hygiene promoters and village headman insist that I sit on a chair or log as they are but I say that I am at the meeting to learn. As an observer I want to sit with the villagers. Everyone settles for me sitting on a bamboo mat. Being female and white, it is difficult to fit into the village and household dynamics! I think I am treated like a male visitor because I am both a guest and a white person - and therefore I should sit on a chair.

We wait for maybe 30 minutes for the villagers to gather. Time is very relaxed! Throughout the meeting, the hygiene promoters discuss "Risky Behaviors" such as not washing your hands before eating. I am learning Bemba and understand some of it brokenly and the hygiene promoters also translate for me.

12pm-2pm Return to Mr. Mumba's home. I sit outside and talk with him about the meeting, how it went, and more general things like his role as a hygiene promoter. The purpose of my visit in Kapalala is to learn about how the locals work and what their responsibilities are. Mr. Mumba and I eat lunch in the sitting room inside his house while Mrs. Mumba and the children eat outside in the insaka.

2pm - 4:30pm Mr.Chishimbe joins us at the Mumba's house. We sit outside while they complete their monthly reports. There have been some problems with the reporting process and one of my projects this summer may be to determine what exactly the problems are (ie. a question is misunderstood or the format of the form is confusing) to improve the reporting process.

4:30pm-6:30pm I sit with Mrs. Mumba and the children and help prepare dinner. It took a few days of only watching them prepare the meals before they let me help! Usually I peel sweet potatoes or help stir nshima until my arm is tired.

6:30pm - 7pm I eat dinner with Mr. Mumba inside the house. The meal is nshima and fried fish. I take a long time eating because a) I'm not good at separating fish bones and b) I'm trying to disguise that I'm not eating a lot of food. Mr. Mumba wants me to eat a lot of food! So every meal is like a complicated dance, but I stop eating when I'm full and say "Nayakuta" with a sigh. It means "I am satisfied".

7pm - 8:30pm I sit with Mr. and Mrs. Mumba in the sitting room. We talk about the differences between Canada and Zambia while I knit with Mrs. Mumba. I think she thinks I'm funny when I try to knit because I don't understand the pattern she wants me to knit (she speaks broken English, and I speak broken Bemba, so it's difficult to get the instructions straight!!). Mrs. Mumba brings a big bowl of boiled sweet potatoes. This is why I save some room after dinner! i drink lots of water to wash them down, explaining my "unbelievable need to use the latrine" in the mornings!!

8:30pm - 9:30pm I sit in bed, read, and write in my journal, or write letters to send home. I fall asleep to the sounds of one of the kids snoring and crickets outside. A neighbor's radio blares music in the distance.

What am I eating?

Nshima, lots and lots of Nshima









Chicken
Fish, lots and lots of fish
Goat
Hippo
Game meat

*I'm vegetarian in Canada but decided to eat meat this summer.

Sweet potatoes







Sweet potatoe leaves
Cassava tubers
Cassava leaves
Pumpkin leaves
Pumpkin






Cabbage
Soya pieces (really good!)
Tomatoes
Beans
Popo
Peanut butter (home-made!)

Bread
Oatmeal
Sweet bread (made in a pot)
Fritters
Rice
Boiled sorghum

Popcorn, shortbread cookies

Oranges, watermelon, apples, bananas









Water, orange juice, fanta, coke, sprite, carbonated apple juice, tea, honey

From the Black Proboscis to Zambian Bicycles

An update my first month in Milenge July 1, 2008

Here is a short dialogue I had on my first day of work at the health clinic in Milenge:

Doctor: “You have Malaria.”

Me: “Haha, okay where do I go to get the treatment?”

So starting work in Milenge was delayed about a week and a half for me because I got Malaria. I am trying to avoid the black proboscis (aka the mosquito) with a mosquito net at night, mosquito repellent, and covering as much skin as possible! I guess the mosquitoes in Milenge are really sneaky!

In Milenge, I am living with a woman named Charity who is a secretary at the Ministry of Education office. Charity’s niece and cousin (Cathrine and Penlope) also live in the house. Cathrine is 17 and Penlope is about 15. They both go to school in Milenge. They were awesome help when I was sick and, when I was healthy, introduced me to a lot of Zambian culture! For example, they taught me how to cook nshima – the staple food in Zambia – and I made my first pot of nshima on June 22! They said it tasted great. Until that point my arms weren’t strong enough to stir the nshima until it was done, so the girls would always finish preparing it.

Penlope

The chicken that sometimes sleeps in my room

Her eggs, which are taking a long time to hatch!

I have actually only lived with Charity and the girls for about two weeks because I’ve been traveling around Milenge. For one week I lived in Kapalala ward with Mr. Anthony Mumba, a hygiene promoter, and his family. Another week I stayed with Ms. Hennedy Mwewa Perfecta and her family in Mumbotuta ward. I have been living in the wards to learn as much as possible about the projects in my first month here. The project officer for the Milenge WaterAid project has not been so there wouldn’t be much to do alone in the office.

Hennedy (top left) and her family

Hennedy and her son, Steward, at Mumbotuta falls

Me, grinding sorghum. Hennedy makes nshima from sorghum flour.

I received my bicycle before leaving for Hennedy’s home. But I had some bike problems in Mumbotuta. My front tire punctured the first day with Hennedy. After a group of village men tried to repair it, justified that I was “so very fat”, and the tire punctured again, everyone agreed I needed a new tire. (Here it’s a compliment to be called fat) The next day my other tire punctured but we replaced it immediately.

I am on my way to the middle-of-term retreat with the other JFs. I will return to Milenge, the land without internet or chocolate, on July 12!

WaterAid in Milenge (cnt'd)

Part 1: Water and Wells

When a location is selected for a well, the villagers around that site are responsible for digging he well and collecting sand and stones for the well structure. Sand and stones are available locally. The water technicians use the sand, stones, and concrete (provided b he MDC and WaterAid) to cast rings that line the hand dug well. Once the rings are lowered into the well, it is capped with a concrete slab. This is a reliable source of clean water year round for the village. To complete a well, the water technicians will also install a pump (if there is no pump, villagers lower a bucket by rope to fetch water) and cast a concrete ˝apron˝. The purpose of the apron is similar to when a baby wears an apron: it helps maintain the cleanliness around the mouth of the well b carrying water down a slope away from the mouth of the well.

Water technician starting to measure out sand. Next he will add stones, concrete, and then water.

The concrete is then poored into the ring mold. This will be left for one day and then the mold can be popped off.

This is a well that was dug and is waiting for concrete lining. The well is eight metres deep and requires 17 concrete rings!

Part 2: Sanitation Platforms

When a household is selected to receive a lartrine, the household is responsible for digging he pit for the latrine and gathering bricks, sand, and stones. For a household larine, he sanitation technicians use mud and bricks to build a sort of pyramid above the pit. Then, the technicians cast a sanitation platform (sanplat) that is placed above the pyramid. The household is then responsible for building a superstructure around the sanplat for privacy. (We also build latrines for schools, but I haven't learned too much about that yet)

Sanitation technician leveling the ground around the pit for this latrine

Sanitation technicians building a "pyramid" of bricks and will place the sanplat on top

Sanplat

Finished latrine (household built superstructure around sanplat)

Villagers make their own bricks

Part 3: Hygiene Promotion

The hygiene promoters in the wards have variety of responsibilities. They hold meetings in villages (with men, women, and children) and in schools to discuss hygiene issues in that village and promote hygienic behaviours (ie. Washing hands with soap) They also meet with village headmen, church committees, and school managers so that all of the community leaders/groups know about the WaterAid program and can help promote them. Hygiene promoters also report to Eddy, the program officer, on the progress of building wells and latrines and monitor the quality of these facilities.

WaterAid in Milenge

An introduction to the WaterAid program in Milenge

WaterAid is an international non-governmental organization based out of the UK. In Zambia, WaterAid works in several selected provinces. Luapula is the province I am working in and has the lowest coverage rates for water supply and sanitation in Zambia (WaterAid Zambia Country Srategic Plan, 2005). WaterAid works with other organizations and local governments throughout Luapula to help implement water and sanitation projects.

In Milenge district, where I`m working, WaterAid works with the local government, the Milenge District Council (MDC). Mr. Eddy Chitalu is the Program Officer (an employee of the MDC) and is in charge of the WaterAid project. Milenge ditrict is divided into wards. We work in four wards: Mikula, Kapalala, Sokontwe, and Mumbotuta. In each ward there are hygiene promoters, water technicians, and sanitation technicians. Each are local members of their communities:

What do we do in Milenge?

Overall, we are working to provide safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education…tune into my next post for more info on all three!!

Here is a pic of the Luapula River, which is just next to my office in Milenge!