Goat Tastes Like Beef

It's been an interesting and eventful week at Kalene. Last Saturday, some of the girls from Sakeji School came for the weekend to have a break from the chaos of teaching children...we didn't give them much of a break!
We spent the afternoon climbing Kalene Hill, a fairly steep climb that ends with a stunning view!  The descent was only slightly hazardous...we each spent the time trying to stay up right as the patches of slick mud seemed to come out of no where. Thankfully, no one go hurt, but we all got dirty!
Saturday evening was spent playing "Articulate", one of my favourite board games involving teams and guessing words...not unlike Taboo or catch phrase. Because of this game, I now know where Munich is...we might have one the game had I known this during the game!
I wrote about Tuesdays events already, Internation Women's Day...because of the enthusiasm, some of the young women at the mission have begun a Bible Study of Women of Faith. We had our first session on Thursday night in our home. I've mentioned Mamisa and Maria before. Mamisa, 19,  is still in High School and Maria, 20, has just graduated.  They both have huge hearts for God. It was really encouraging to have them at the study, along with Emma and Rachel Reed, midwives and Dr. Chris, Becs and myself. The time of prayer following the study was awesome. It's amazing how quickly random people sitting in a room can become close friends just for simply taking time to pray for each other! Please pray that others whom we've invited will come this week.
Yesterday was yet another stat. holiday. We celebrated International Youth Day at Musangala Community School. Nearly 200 children were in attendance and 50 adults for a day of sports and gospel outreach.  Although, I managed to get a pretty decent sunburn, every moment of blistering heat was worth it. We had spent the previous day baking cupcakes for the children's snack. This was the first time any of them had seen one! Ruth, the leader, had to demonstrate how to remove the cupcake's paper and eat one to prove that them were edible!
What an amazing feeling to be able to introduce new things and ideas to children and adults! At the end of the day, James was able to take time to share the gospel through the story of the Good Samaritan. Each of the audience members really took James rendition to heart. The Harvesters, a group of Zambian young people striving to share the gospel through sports, lead by James and Ruth, acted out the story as James spoke.
The day ended with The Harvesters singing selection of farewell songs for James and Ruth, as they are returning to the UK, having working with the Harvesters and the founders of Musangala School for the last 2 years. It was lovely to see and hear how much they will be missed, but that their work here will continue as the Harvester Group is now prepared to stand on their own, sharing the gospel with communities near and far away. (They don't have vehicles, and very few have bicycles, so some of the young men walk up to 17 km to meet the group for Saturday outreach!)

The commitment of these young people puts me to shame!

Maria and Mamisa resting after the steep climb up Kalene Hill. Emma and Chris taking in the view.

Rachel (Canada) and Rachel (Scotland)

Women marching in celebration of women's day

James and the Harvester's sharing the gospel at Youth Day

Children at Youth Day, eagerly awaiting their lunch of rice with sugar, nshima with goat and cupcakes! You should've heard them sing!

The Blood Lab at Kalene...We have a patient in Female Ward who presented with a Hemoglobbin of 2.8...or roughly 30 in Canadian :). Since the norm is between 11-16 or 120-160, this was an obvious cause for concern. Also, our blood bank is currently void of O +. We screened the two family members with her, only one was x-match compatible. We transfused his unit of blood, but her Hb only increased to 4.4. We wanted to give her another transfusion, but without blood, it wasn't possible. I volunteered my blood as I'm O+. In the end, I only was able to give 1/2 a unit as my veins colapsed, but she made it through to the next day when her brother came to donate blood. Thankfully she is looking much better now, but as we don't know who she is so anemic, she likely will continue to have these issues.  

Well, that's all for now...

International Women's Day

March 8th is International Women's Day. The school's are cancelled, workers get the day off. The School of Nursing held a parade and government officials, the Chief and the community were invited to spend the day celebrating women's advancement in education, specifically in science and technology.
I worked this morning at the hospital, preparing patients for the operating theater as scheduled operations happen Tuesdays and Thursdays. I managed to sneak away early to go watch the parade and eat nshima. I discovered that nshima is delicious when prepared with mais meal as opposed to cassava...this is handy to know as I expect to be heading to a nearby village to live for a few weeks to learn Lunda.  And as nshima is served twice a day, its good to know that I have some sort of option and a hope of surviving!
Well, the celebrations went very well, it was really encouraging to see women of all socio-economic states joining together to promote women's equality while maintaining a Christian perspective. The banners carried had references to Galatians 3:28. "There is neither Jew now Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
It was so touching to see these women rally together. They have every right to give up hope, the tragedy they've seen, the injustice of the education system toward girls. The cultural tradition that allows men to marry multiple wives, premits adultery for the man, but criminally punishes the women.
This paradox was spoken of by Mrs. Chilambe, the organizer of the day. She directed her speach to the women in the audience, knowing full well that the Chief, sitting next to her has recently taken on a third wife.
I couldn't help but to be thankful for the society in which I was raised. Not only were these battles fought and won, but they happened over 100 years ago! The fact that I have to right to a post-secondary education, or that I can expect to go through my day without being assaulted or mistreated by the males around me. Though I am not ignorant of the crimes against and struggles of western women, I can only be thankful for the life that the Lord place me in.
I hope that with the enthusiasm the women showed today, they will continue to rally together to increase the education system in this rural area, so that these women can learn even the basics like math for running a small business, or obtain credits prerequisit for entering post-secondary.
At the moment there are only 4 girls out of 60 students in the highschool, because the other girls have dropped out to raise their families. The Nursing School provides a post-secondary education, but the entry requirements don't allow for a rural education. The necessary biology and math for nursing is not being taught in the rural highschool here.
In talking with the other missionaries, we'd love to just scrap everything and start new. Unfortunately, that wouldn't solve the systemic problem.  The solution needs to come from the Zambians, from the grassroots. There are funds and government initiatives to boost rural education, although we have yet to see much of it put into place.

All in all it was an encouraging day!
Rachel

Week 1...no Malaria yet!

It's hard to believe that I've been at Kalene for nearly a week. It's been a busy week, at that. I began work a the hospital last Thursday, orientating on the Female ward. It's been more of an adjustment than I imagined as I came here from spending the last 7 months on a rediculously heavy unit in Ottawa.  Though the patients are very sick here, we are so limited in resources that patients don't make it to the point of needing the invasive nursing care provided back home. It's so hard to watch them go through pain of even a dressing change, knowing that at home we would be using conscious sedation or that even the multiple blood sample draws would be eliminated with a PICC line insertion.
This week started off badly with two patients passing away...as if its not hard enough to see a patient die...the grieving families wailing that follows for the next 24h is excrutiating to hear.
We had a pretty intense case, a patient whose bowel had twisted on itself. He underwent a 3 hour surgery then returned to the ward. Emma and I set up a mini "PACU", complete with a heart monitor circa 1985 and a curtain rod for an IV pole. The patient came around from the anasthetic just in time to see a nurse standing one foot on a chair, one foot on the head of his bed, hanging a new bag of normal saline! It's times like these that I truly wish I knew how to speak Lunda!
There have been some very good times so far, as well. I spent Friday night/Saturday morning with Mamisa, an 18 year old girl from the village. Her family welcomed me into their home, teaching me to cook nshima, a paste-like dough from the cassava plant, the staple food here. Though, they spoke next to no English, we spent the evening at her uncle's house watching a cheesey Spanish soap-opera, dubbed into English. I doubt that they had any idea of the plot, but they really enjoyed the luxury of watching TV. Much to my horror, Mamisa insisted that I sit in the only household chair, and sleep in her bed, while all the sisters shared the other. I felt bad, but knew it would be embarrasing for them if I refused. I slept in her bed...in the village, and no malaria yet! (It takes at least 10 days to hit....but this is no place for the hypercondriac, lol!)

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Girl's Club, singing and listening to Becs's Bible Lesson. There was a good attendance of nearly 30 girls. There is so much potential in these young girls! I'm really excited to see them grow in the Lord!
This afternoon  we played a game of ultimate frizbee with 15 local children...I was pleasantly surprised at how well they could throw...clearly Becs' lessons have done good!

Well, it's been busy, but good, or Chachiwahi, as they say in Lunda!
R