Final thoughts…

The SLHS in Zambia 2016 program concludes…. a 4^th group of Purdue University students had the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Zambia, meet and work with each of our inspiring community partners, interact and work with the amazing children at the various locations, get clinical practice doing hearing (and vision) screenings, and also get some practice in providing professional development training by doing presentations and providing hands-on experiences to some of our community partners….

We had a very successful program thanks to a great student team that was able to “go with the flow”, adapt to changing situations, work well together, support and help each other, take initiative to do whatever was needed, and never complain!

Here are some snippets to share about the past two weeks:

Challenge 1:

• We were involved in a minor fender-bender en route to the airport that delayed us more than an hour while the police report was completed…
• BUT – we made it to the airport and the gate in time (though we were the last ones to board the plane!) – Whew!

Challenge 2:

• Emirates had no record of our overnight hotel accommodations in Dubai…
• BUT – we were able to call our travel agent in Indiana and get it sorted out (while students waited patiently)

Challenge 3:

• The hotel in Dubai said the payment had not been made, so we had to pay…and the emergency Purdue credit card we had got declined…
• BUT – we paid with a personal credit card (and thanks to the travel agent for wiring the money back to my account ASAP!)

Challenge 4:

• Christi’s room at Zebra Guest House was full of cockroaches…
• BUT – she calmly walked out so as to not alarm the students and got moved to a different room

Despite this “starting trouble” – once we started our daily work activities we were on a roll!!!!

And here are some gems from our nightly debriefing meetings…

Cheshire Homes:

• A child was using toes to cut with scissors and working together with another child to glue. The children didn’t let their disability define them.

UNZA:

• Question from a buddy: “What did you think of Africa before you came here? Did you envision naked people on the streets and lions everywhere?”
• Zambians have the ideas and the technology – but they can’t apply them easily. They really have to problem solve to get things done. They understand the roadblocks and problem solve to get around them

Mthunzi Centre:

• I expected to be sad (going to an orphanage), but I actually felt happy
  • They have this place, like a big family and a father figure who takes care of them
• I thought to myself: “why are they so excited we are here? We are the ones who should be excited!”

Vera Chiluba Primary School:

• I can’t believe we screened 400 students! (These are some of the best smiles of the UNZA students doing hearing screenings!)

Beit Cure Hospital:

• Marriage advice from Chef Kelvin: “Be best friends, don’t make each other upset”

The Haven:

• “This has been the hardest clinic since we have been here. Younger kids were harder to work with”

Special Hope Network:

• “We are here for a short time – one place for one afternoon – but there is so much more. These kids’ life is not all happy times – we are not able to experience everything”
• They mentioned Purdue University: “Purdue is back” – hopefully our program has a bigger impact in the long run

PCOE:

“The job is never done” – nurse who lives in a compound and provides nursing care to other residents at the compound after her work day

Conversation between staff member and child:

• “Do you know why you have to take these medicines everyday?
• Because I have HIV
• What happens if you don’t take the medicine?
• I am going to die”

This is the reality of the lives of children with HIV…

…yet there is so much work being done to improve the lives of children with HIV and with disabilities in Zambia. Each staff member at every one of the community partner organizations that we work with is passionate about improving the lives of these children, and we are indeed fortunate to have met and worked with each and every one of you!

 

 

 

 

 

Day 12: Last work day and farewell…

Today was an EXTREMELY busy day that started at 7:15am and ended at 10:30pm! We are exhausted!!!! So here is a very brief synopsis:

First stop: Starkey Hearing Institute to meet Dr. Alfred Mwamba who was our initial contact through whom this program began. I still remember when we applied for our first grant for the program in 2011 how he wrote us a fantastic letter of support that enabled us to make the exploratory trip to Zambia in 2012, and since then bring 4 groups of students (total = 43 Purdue students) for a life-changing experience from which we hope they have learned much and we keep learning every time we return!

As always it was fun for our students to meet the audio tech students there, but we had to rush to get back to UTH to do our encore presentation. As of yesterday I guess we have officially been on Africa time!

• We were late reachign PCOE yesterday morning due to traffic
• Late this morning as well…
• Late to UTH for the afternoon presentation (which we gave to about 11 students who are practicing physicians who have returned to specialize in pediatrics)
• And even a few minutes late for our farewell dinner with all of our community partners – traffic has been crazy!

Here we are ready to depart for our farewell dinner…

And now to just acknowledge each and every one of our community partners for their inspirational work and for allowing us the honor and privilege of working with them, their staff and children: we are lucky to have gotten to know all of you these past 5 years!!

Pezo and Katelyn from PCOE – thank you for allowing us to rotate through all your stations and learn so much

Dr. Uta from Beit Cure Hospital – thank you for being so gracious and teaching our students about ear care in Zambia

Sr. Clara, Judith, Rajiv and Charity from Cheshire Homes – we had a wonderful first day this year with all of you and the special little children at Cheshire

Milika and Lauren from Special Hope Network – we missed the Nelsons sorely this year, but as always were so impressed with your amazing staff and the work you do with the children at Garden and Ng’ombe

Mr. Malama from the Mthunzi Centre for allowing us to screen his “boys”! 🙂

And as always the Mwambas for that’s how it all began….

Tomorrow we shop and leave for home….

Day 11: PCOE Day 2

Today was our second day at PCOE and we were to be there at 8:00. We reached the hospital in time despite terrible Lusaka traffic….thanks to our terrific driver William!

but were stuck in traffic within the hospital! So we finally got out of the bus and walked up to the building!

Upon arrival we were told that indeed they had arranged for us to provide our presentation to the 5th and 7th year medical students at 11:00! So we first observed and participated in their early intervention and autism groups (sorry no pics allowed) and some students also rotated through the neurology consultations and Adherence.

At 10:50 Christi and I walked over the the UTH Outpatient building with Sr. Ornella and went into a lecture room. Although there appeared to be a projector in the room, it was not connected and we were thankful that we have our small portable projector that can go anywhere and serves us so well!!! After taking a few minutes to find an outlet that worked and an extension cord, we started around 11:15 – there were about 30 medical students who attended.

The students were very engaged, asked lots of questions and seemed to appreciate the information that we shared – especially the practical aspects.

While we were gone the students continued rotations and also worked on making some AAC cards and sequence strips for PCOE at Pezo’s request.

We had a little down time after that as we waited for the final patient to arrive: and a game of “Mafia” was begun!

Thanks Team PCOE for having us again this year – we always enjoy our time with you and learn so much about the work you are doing!

As we were driving away from PCOE we got a call from them – they want yet another “encore” of our presentation: this time to post-graduate students!!! So we will have a VERY busy day tomorrow!

Some of us went for a walk again today  – another beautiful winter day in Zambia with bright blue skies….the zebra outside the Zebra Guest House is always a fun friend for our two week stay 🙂

This time our goal was to find fritters to buy at the roadside and eat them(since we were so successful with the roasted corn on the cob last time!) And indeed after we passed a couple of corn vendors, we did run into the fritters (fried bread)!!! We bought them from Charity and her grandson…

And enjoyed them as we continued our walk 🙂

We had our final nightly “pow-wow” today in Room 12 (tomorrow will be a long day and we will likely be getting back too late after our farewell dinner to have a pow-wow).

And after discussing the day and prepping for tomorrow we had the funnest team bonding activity: a game of MAFIA! Whitney was a great narrator which made the game a lot of fun.

Ready for Mafia with the lights out and iPhone flashlights lighting the room 🙂

Hard to believe that tomorrow will be our last work day here for this year and we will have our farewell dinner with all the wonderful people we work with!

Day 10: More student reflections on a difficult day of learning

This year’s students have been phenomenal about sending in reflections for the blog!! Here are two more about today!!!

From Ellen:

Today was much different than other days we have had in Zambia this trip. We went to the Pediatric Center of Excellence (PCOE) in Lusaka, which is an “advanced” hospital in Lusaka that focuses on treating children that have been diagnosed with HIV. I use quotation marks around advanced because it was not what you would expect from an advanced hospital in the states, but it works for them and PCOE is a model for other Zambian hospitals. They are still using paper charts at this hospital, and I spent an hour and a half with “Captain Jerry” and Liz getting the patients charts ready for tomorrow’s appointments – and we didn’t come close to finishing. We put in the papers that would be filled out at the next appointment in the file and we also made sure previous test results were in the file. I would say at least 50% of the test results were not in the file where they should be. We started out completing the files that were “ready” and then we went back to the files with missing paperwork. After some consulting with Jerry’s co-workers, they were able to find some of the missing test results and more files were complete and ready for tomorrow! I had to leave (and just as I was getting a hang of the system) to go to my next rotation, but I am assuming they found and completed the rest of the files. When I initially walked in, my thoughts were “this is a complete disaster,” but as we were leaving everything was working out. It was just a completely different system than I am used to, but it works for them! The “flow” of this hospital is also very different compared to hospitals in the US. They are given an appointment date with no time, and they are expected to be there early in the morning, and they stay until they are called back. It is on a first come, first serve basis. They start with triage, then they go to adherence, they see their doctor and nutritionist if necessary, and then they will pick up their drugs at the pharmacy. I don’t know if I, or the rest of American citizens, could get used to this. In the US, we are angry if the doctor is a half hour late to our appointment, and every single patient here clears their whole day to get their treatment. The whole concept of timing in Zambia is different. They are much more relaxed, and everything seems to move slowly compared to what I am used to. It has definitely taken some patience and adjusting!

After my rotation in the filing room, I went to sit in on an appointment with Sister Ornella, a neurologist at PCOE. At this time, she was seeing an 8-year-old boy who had severe epilepsy and developmental delays. He was there for a 3-month appointment, so Sister Ornella was just checking on his overall health. The mother stated that her son’s seizures had slowed down, but that he had recently gotten a cough. They discussed the medications that were prescribed, and we learned that he was prescribed a dose for an infant at a clinic in Lusaka, and Sister Ornella stated this was doing nothing to help him. The dosage is not common knowledge, so it was in no way the mother’s fault, but it was just sad to see that whoever prescribed this medication was so negligent. It is very important that children are given proper health care, especially when they are HIV positive and it was evident that this wasn’t happening at some smaller clinics in Zambia. Sister Ornella stated that she is no longer surprised when she sees mistakes like this, and that was hard to comprehend. I think in the states we often take for granted that quality health care we do receive, and I didn’t realize how different it could be in other countries.

The other rotation I did was the most eye opening. I was observing adherence, which is where patients go to speak with a counselor who will determine if they are using their drugs correctly. I have only read and heard about the HIV prevalence and actually seeing these young children today who were all HIV positive was heart breaking. We had learned a little bit about HIV before coming to PCOE, but I don’t think anything could prepare us for this experience. I observed three different children today, two who didn’t know they had HIV. They were both still taking their medications regularly, and they were able to explain how many pills they took, what time they took them, and what would happen if they didn’t take them. One of the kids was fourteen and didn’t know why the was taking this medication. All he knew was if he didn’t take his medication he would “get sick and die.” It was hard to hold back tears when he said this, and at first I was kind of angry that he didn’t know why this was happening to him, but after seeing the caretaker’s emotion and talking to the counselor I understood a little bit better. The mother was scared to tell the child, which I understand. The counselor told the caretaker that they needed to tell him as soon as possible, and she told her about support groups and techniques to make it easier for everyone. The workers in the adherence room were excellent support for these caretakers and patients!

Overall, today was a lot more learning than doing and it didn’t directly relate to our field, but I feel like I learned so much. I didn’t truly understand this situation in developing countries, and it really opened my eyes to the problem. I am so glad there are places like PCOE that work these patients and families and try to make this heartbreaking experience better for all involved. After our rotations, Dr. Krishnan and Ms. Masters gave a presentation on hearing loss and speech and language delays, and it was clear the attendees were very interested and thankful for the information.

From Liz:
We spent the day at the Pediatric Center of Excellence where the majority of patients have HIV. I learned a lot, but it was hard for me to see the prevalence and sad stories of families having to tell their young children that they have this infection and will have it until they die. They usually tell the children by the age of 10 that they have HIV, but the youngest person they have told was 71/2. I started the day in Adherence, which is where they ask the patients questions about how many pills they take, what time a day they took their pills, the expiration dates, among other things. The first patient was a girl and her grandmother, and the grandmother was not watching the girl vigilantly. Some of the pills had been put in a different pill bottle, and the counselor explained that this is not acceptable and to never do it again. She took the bottle away and very sternly told the grandmother the proper ways to make sure the child swallows the medicine and that everything stays in its original container to make sure the expiration date is still valid and that the child is taking the correct pills.
My next observation in Adherence was a mother with her 2 kids, a 10 year old boy and an 8 year old girl. The counselor first asked the boy why he was taking the medicine, and he replied that it was because he has HIV. She then asked him what will happen if he were to stop taking the medicine, and he promptly responded, “I will die.” She explained that first he would get very sick and not be able to go to school, and he eventually would die. But she also reminded the young boy that we all will eventually die. The counselor also inquired who the boy has talked about HIV with, and he stated “no one.” She praised the boy for being so smart and disciplined. At the same time, my heart broke that society has this negative stigma surrounding HIV, and kids often lose friends and are made fun of. I appreciated this though, in the sense that PCOE stresses that they do not want HIV to define the patient. Yes, they are open to ask questions to the PCOE staff and their family members, but they do not want the stigma to negatively impact their emotional well being and social lives. The counselor asked these tough, yet realistic questions multiple times, Next, the counselor asked the younger sister the same questions, and she did not know why she was taking the medicine. The counselor then turned to the mom and told her that it is time to tell her daughter and that she will have a brother to support and encourage her so that she did feel alone. The mother’s eyes welled up with tears and she slightly shook her head, as she was trying to deny that this day would come. I had to compose myself because I almost started to cry right there, but I cannot imagine that the hardest days for these parents and children are yet to come. I felt very uneducated and unexposed to HIV, as I do not feel like we talk about it much in the U.S., but it was a humbling experience to realize that my illnesses are so minor compared to how much these skids and parents have to be monitored. These kids are so young with so much life ahead of them, and I pray that places like PCOE will continue to educate and support families to raise awareness and reduce the prevalence of HIV here in Zambia.
The next rotation was the filing room, and then I observed a physio session. A young girl with cerebral palsy was unable to told her head up, and the entire time she screamed and cried. It was interesting that the mom was not very responsive and did not attempt to calm the child. It took everything in me to not just get up and start soothing the baby or singing to her help her feel comfortable. I was just there to observe, so I learned to accept that culturally parents do not interact with their children as much as parents in the U.S. Parents do not realize that language begins at birth, and all types of interactions shape the child in their first 3-5 years of life. Ms. Masters and Dr. Krishnan did a great job explaining those parenting styles and strategies in the presentation to make known what children need and what parents can do to make sure they are reaching milestones. Parents and staff seemed to be very responsive and appreciative of the presentation. I just could not believe that parenting strategies that are second nature to most of us, they have never heard before! I enjoyed observing and being exposed to new things today…it’s safe to say that this was the most eye-opening day so far for me.

 

Day 10: Pediatric Centre of Excellence (PCOE)

Not a lot of photos today, but we had a great learning day at PCOE. To our delight when we arrived we saw a flyer advertising our training presentation for the afternoon!!

We had about 25 people attend the presentation including several parents who learned strategies to facilitate language development in their young children.After the talk Sr. Ornella, one of the pediatric neurologists asked if we could possibly present it again to the medical students again tomorrow! If that is able to happen, what a great educational experience we hope it will be for the soon-to-be physicians, who are often the first point of care. We hope they may use the information to help counsel the families of the children they see.

From Erin:

Our day at the Pediatric Center of Excellence was very eye opening for me. This center offers aid, counseling, and medication for children with HIV and AIDS. Being from the United States, I don’t know anyone personally that has HIV or AIDS so this center really was overwhelming in the fact that most of the young children we saw today had this disease. I was able to sit in on multiple 6 month check-ups, observe the nutrition counseling that they provide for the families, and see adherence appointments where the nurses counseled patients on their medications and gave advice to the patient and caregiver. Most of the young children that I saw contracted the disease from their mothers during childbirth. Because they have had HIV their entire lives, it hasn’t yet been explained to them why exactly they are taking medications and going to the doctor so often. I was not aware of how bad the stigma was regarding HIV and AIDS in Africa, but have learned that many parents put off telling their children about their status because they don’t want to have to tell them that they gave it to them. 10 years old is the suggested age at which parents should disclose this information to the children. Even when the child learns about their HIV status, they are counseled to not tell anyone else because it is likely they will get bullied at school. However, today I saw 2 children who didn’t even know why they were taking medicine. One of the young girls had been told that it was because she had a heart defect, which really struck me because she thought she was dying because of her heart. She also mentioned that no one monitored her taking medicine and finally it came out that the young girl hasn’t taken medicine for HIV since April. The nurse even seemed devastated because this young girl doesn’t know how dangerous it is for her to not take her medicine. I witnessed the nurses practically begging the parents to tell their children about their health condition because the nurses do not believe it is their duty to do so. The parents are responsible for this but some fail to take action. During the appointments, I observed again how independent the children are in Zambian culture. The nurse or doctor spoke to the patient, even if they were 10 years old. The child was asked how much of each medication they took and at what times exactly during the day. In the United States it is very common for the parents to just answer for the child and I was amazed at the responsibility put on the child with something as important as this. Although I was reminded that because this disease is so reliant on medication it is important that the child takes responsibility early in case anything would happen to the parents. A nurse even asked a caregiver if anyone else knew about the status of her child just in case something would happen. I was also surprised at how the appointments were conducted at PCOE. In America, we have the full attention from the doctor and have complete privacy. Especially in patients with HIV and AIDS, I assume the appointments in the United States are conducted with a sense of confidentiality, yet here we were sitting in on these appointments hearing everything about the patient. This made me feel out of place and guilty for sitting in on such a private matter for this family, but have learned that this is normal in Africa and the appointments often are not conducted with full attention or privacy for the patients.

Whitney with Jerry at the Registration desk…

After our rotations at PCOE were completed, Ms. Masters and Dr. Krishnan gave a presentation on speech and language development to parents, staff, and members of the community. During the presentation it dawned on me yet again just how second nature stimulating language for children is to many people in the United States, yet these people could have been hearing this information for the first time. The parents who asked questions at the end of the presentation had a sense of desperation in their voice for answers regarding their delayed children and I could just see the heartache that they go through on a daily basis. Everyone seemed very appreciative of the presentation and we are hoping that this information can be spread to many doctors in Zambia so they can counsel parents on methods and activities that can be performed at home to stimulate language development. We go back to PCOE tomorrow and I can’t wait to learn even more from the amazing staff and from the eye opening experiences I know I will have.

Tonight we also packed our final lunches for the program! Our daily routine after the day’s work is to eat dinner, and then meet for a discussion of the day and prep for tomorrow – after we pack our daily lunches of PBJ sandwiches, chips, fruit and cookies.

Can’t believe that we only have two more work days left for the SLHS in Zambia 2016 program!!

Day 9 Addendum: Evening walk

Since we got to Zebra Guest House early after our work day today, a few of us decided to go on a walk. Along the way we had a Botany 101 lesson. This is a banana flower…

And this is papaya or pawpaw (not mango) 🙂

I always enjoy the beautiful bougainvillea flowers each year…

And we really lucked out because we found Dorothy with her little roadside stall selling roasted corn on the cob!

A fun evening walk!

Day 9: Special Hope Network

Special Hope Network is a special organization indeed! I first met Diana, one of their Zambian staff members back in 2012 and she continues to be a smiling member of their team. Over the past few years I have interacted with other Zambian staff including Milika, Dennis, Goodson, Ben, Lois, and others whose names I may not remember, but whose work is inspiring, every time I meet them. Although we missed meeting the Nelsons (who founded SHN) this year, their story is incredible and today we met Lauren and Rachel, two more of their amazing staff. Here are two student reflections of our day.

From Katy at the Garden Compound Community Care Centre:

Today was a day filled with many emotions, some of which included joy, heartbreak, anger, and hope. We were at the Special Hope Network (SHN) which is the topic that I did my presentation on weeks before we had arrived in Zambia; therefore I was fairly familiar with it. I was also really looking forward to this day since we had arrived. A little background information about SHN is that it is a place for children with intellectual disabilities. It is a place where they require the parents to bring their child so that the parents can also learn ways to educate/stimulate their children at home outside from the 6 hours a week that they will spend at SHN, which is awesome because 6 hours a week is not enough time to have focus on a child with an intellectual disabilities alone. Even though the staff is aware that it can be exhausting especially with a child that has a disability SHN aims to provide these parents with ways to make it an easier and more fun journey.
Our team split up into two groups so that we would be able to go to each community center – which are located in the compounds or high density, high poverty areas.

Entrance to Garden Compound:

Our group arrived at the second community center and when we got there we got a little more information about the views on children with disabilities in Zambia. Milika, was discussing with us how parents many times will hide their child in the house if he/she is born with a disability because people will blame them for their child being that way especially the mothers. The people of Zambia believe that if you have a child with a disability, that means that you have done something to deserve it or you are cursed. Milika was also saying that on a bus if there is a child with a disability and their parent sitting people will not sit next to them because they do not want to get to close because they might get cursed too. These parents hide their children away because they are afraid of what their friends and other family members may think of them and in this process they are giving their child no chance to grow to their greatest potential. With these situations many times the husbands will abandon their wife and child because they do not want to deal with it. It then leaves the mothers alone with a child they do not know how to care for and many times with out any form of income. So for these people at SHN to step up and reach out to these parents and let them know that they did not cause their child to have their disability and that there are things you can do to improve it and allow your child to live their life that god gave them to the fullest is a miracle and a blessing all wrapped up in a bundle to smiles.

Milika and Dennis explaining the work of SHN to our team:

Today everyone kept saying thank you to us for being here but the real thank you is not to us for one day’s worth of work but to the individuals who have dedicated their lives to these children and to the community to try and erase the stigma that there is towards special needs children. There is a long road ahead to end this stigma but with programs like SHN there is hope and that is all many of us can ask for.

Team at Garden compound

Throughout the day I just kept thinking about how back home, in high school and college there are clubs that are designed just for the special needs children. People would always go up to the special needs kids and invite them to sit with them at lunch – they were some of the most well liked / popular kids at school! It is amazing to me how the mindset can be so completely opposite in another country. All day I kept thinking there must be more that we can do and how frustrating it is that we are only there for one day and don’t really get a chance to get out there and really help make this image change.
Through the week I have seen many differences between our two cultures but none of them have made me so frustrated. The only thing that makes it a little easier to sleep at night is to know that the stigma is improving and there are people like our buddies at UNZA in the field of special education that are there with the drive to make a difference in this area, and that there are people like Milika and Susan (just a few who I spoke with today) and all of the staff who are working for SHN right now and make a difference in these children’s lives everyday.
Aside from the emotional side we were able to screen around 30 kids, and got to participate in their outside playtime, and their song time. I really enjoyed my time dancing with one of the girls in the center of the circle! Made my whole day to see the kids smiling and laughing!

From Whitney at the Ng’ombe Compound Community Care Centre:

It’s hard to believe that today marks the 10th day of being in Zambia. It feels like we just got here. My room woke up at 6:30, showered, drank some coffee and got ready for our day at Special Hope Network. SHN is an organization that focuses on helping children with intellectual disabilities by helping teach their parents how to best care for them. It’s a beautiful mission! They have two centers in Lusaka where a parent, caretaker, or sibling brings the child with a disability every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for two hours. If the child and their parent make all the sessions and don’t miss more than 2 a month, they are rewarded with a food bag. We were told that this was a good incentive to make sure that parents were investing in their child and doing the best they can for them. The twelve of us split up and went to two different care centers. At the center I went to, there were only about 10 children who needed to be screened; we were expecting 45. There was one boy in particular who touched my heart. He was non-verbal, had very little control of his body, and a smile that was irresistible!! I couldn’t get enough of him. His mother was there and spoke very little English but she was able to tell me his name and that he was 9 years old. After he had been screened and it was time for them to go, as she picked him up to place him on her back, he reached his hands over to give me a hug. His mom smiled and laughed, “he doesn’t want to leave you”. I gave him a big hug goodbye and they were off. I had a wonderful 30 minutes with this boy, but I know this mom has several challenges having a son who is so involved. We come, play with the kids, hold them for a couple minutes and say our goodbyes. We are just seeing the surface level and what lies beneath are the struggles and complications that make up their reality (which is also where a lot of joy lies as well). We don’t see that, how could we in such a short time?
After we went to one of the care centers we all met up at their resource center. Here we screened a few more children and a some of the employees. Although we were warned it was going to be a crazy day, it was surprisingly laid back and not stressful at all. Once we had finished our screenings we ate lunch outside and were able to learn more about both Lauren and Rachel who work there. Rachel taught in Seattle before coming to Zambia and ended up on google looking for a place to go abroad; Special Hope appeared on the search engine and here she was. While she has been here she adopted a young boy who spends his time at the center with all the other children and has a disability as well. She plans to return to the US when the adoption is finalized so he can receive certain surgeries that are not available in Zambia. Lauren arrived in Zambia due to an organization called CLASP. She knew that the typical 10 days was too short and decided to spend a whole summer out here. That summer turned into a year. It was really wonderful to hear their stories and see a glimpse of why they decided to invest some of their lives with these children. Lunch concluded with the sound of children singing and clapping-it was outside play time! We all gathered into a circle and began singing and dancing. Each child was involved and so happy, their little smiles were enough to make me want to stay all day and learn more about each of them. Of course, with the time we have, that does not happen. We are in and out of these places so quickly and don’t have the time to get to know them all. It’s the people who move here and decide to make a new life in Zambia and all the Zambian staff who have invested their lives into helping these children that make the difference. Looking back at each place we have visited I have continued to realize just how amazing the people and their work truly is.

SHN staff and Team SLHS in Zambia 2016

 

Day 8: The Haven

Today we drove back from Livingstone to Lusaka, but this year we had an added activity along the way. Instead of visiting the Haven we can now call them another one of our special community partners as we stopped to screen the ~45 children there. We left Chanters Lodge feeling sad that we may not go back there (depending on what happens to the Lodge) and remembering Mr. Chanter.

Arriving at the Haven at about 9:30 we started screening and finished about 1:00 and were on our way for the rest of the drive back….here is a reflection on the day:

From Alli:

The Haven is an orphanage that watches after children anywhere from several weeks to 5 years old or however long it may take to find a safe place for the child. But this isn’t like any other orphanage because their mission is to temporarily care for the children until they can place them back in their own families. Usually, the children need to stay at the orphanage because the family doesn’t have the means to care for them at the time, their mother passed away or some situations were not safe for them. Meagan Hawley, who is from the United States, is the head person at The Haven who kept the place running. It was inspiring to see how she interacted with the children, the local people, and how much respect was given to her for all the work she is putting in there (google “The Haven” to follow her blog and search “Megan Hawley” on Instagram to keep up with happenings at The Haven! You can even buy a t-shirt to help buy a school bus for the children). There were also college students from Harding University there on a mission trip to work and stay with these children for five weeks. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to interact with these students much or hear their stories but it was awesome to see other students from the United States in Zambia trying to do work where it was needed. Although some of these children’s stories were heart breaking, it was remarkable to see they had a safe and happy place to be.

Meagan calming a baby for the screening

This was the first more hectic day our team has experienced. We were mostly screening babies under the age of three, so from experience, I know that we work on their schedule. I love all of our team that is here and we were able to overcome the chaos and get our job done. I was really proud of everyone, especially the undergraduate students on the trip who have less experience screening younger babies. The girls on this trip have made it truly special and I am so thankful for the friendships I have made through such a unique experience.

 

At The Haven, I was holding a child who was 8 months old waiting to be screened. He was crying, could not calm down and I tried everything in my power to quiet him down so we could screen him. I finally got Megan, the one in charge at The Haven, and asked what could be wrong with him and if there was anything I could do. She told me that she would take him because he just doesn’t take well a to white person other than herself, who is with him everyday. This was somewhat shocking to me since the majority of the children we have been screening have adjusted well to all of us. The Haven is about 5 hours from Lusaka and this isolation from the city may be the reason why they are not more exposed to white people versus the children we have been working with previously in Zambia’s capital city of Lusaka. This whole situation was a unique experience for me!

Up until today, I have loved the work we are doing, but haven’t really felt like I personally was making much of an impact here in Zambia. A special experience today changed that. I worked with a 30-year-old woman who had a hearing aid but it was not working properly for her. It was given to her without a full hearing evaluation 10 years ago and she hasn’t been able to hear well since. I screened her, although there was a known hearing loss and gave proper recommendations. I had to talk to her father because she did not understand English. When I was done counseling him about her situation, he asked me why I was here in Zambia. I discussed the mission of our group, to screen and identify children with hearing loss or children who need immediate medical attention, and push for them to get the proper help that they need. He shook my hand, hugged me and told me that we were doing God’s work and that God is with us always in what we do here in Zambia as well as in the future. He wouldn’t let me leave without knowing his full gratitude and appreciation for what we were doing here. This was a special moment that made me realize even though our work may be small in the grand scheme of things, we are here doing something and hopefully in the long run, this program can leave a larger impact on Zambia and the people here who need our help most.

 

 

 

 

Day 7: SAFARI

What a day it was today!!! Although safari days are always fun, this year was extra special!!!! We started with the boat safari as usual in the morning and saw baby crocodiles..

…warthogs..

…Cape buffalo

…lots and lots of impala…

…water monitor lizard…

…hippo!!!…

…elephants!!!…

and more hippos!

The onto our jeep safari (game drive) after a sumptuous buffet lunch at the lodge…

and we saw giraffes…

…sable…

…kudu…

…more elephants (and baby elephants)!!…

And for the grand finale – LIONS!!!

We ended the day with a wonderful dinner at Olga’s. Tomorrow we are back to work – driving back to Lusaka with a stop in Kalomo to screen the children at the Haven. But more on that tomorrow….

 

Day 6: Victoria Falls!!

An early start this morning (7:00am) to set off for Livingstone to see Victoria Falls. We reached Chanters Lodge at 2:15pm and were shown to our rooms. Anastasia came out to greet us but not Mr. Chanter who is also usually there (so I assumed he must be out). Unfortunately, Anastasia came into my room and gave me the sad news that Mr. Chanter passed away last Friday after a brief illness.

This is my fourth visit to Chanters Lodge and Mr. Chanter has always been there to welcome us. I will remember his gentle demeanor and warm welcome to Chanters Lodge each year, and miss seeing him.

This year our driver and tour guide for the Falls was Godfrey (although I told him to convey my regards to Oliver who took care of us last year and he did so immediately by calling Oliver!).

We were greeted at the entrance to the Falls by monkeys as usual; Godfrey told us they stay close to the road to try and steal maize from trucks that transport it along the road!

The falls were majestic and awe-inspiring as usual. The name Mosi-o-tunya (Smoke that thunders) is well-fitting indeed as the mist (smoke) from the falls can be seen from afar….

…and also heard roaring like thunder! (see video on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PurdueUniversitySlhsStudyAbroad/ )

We had the usual tour, seeing the falls bit by bit as we walked from the upper Zambezi….

Pre-soaking

towards the lower part where we got thoroughly soaked…

And saw a double rainbow!

Great feeling after getting soaked seeing Vic Falls!

After dinner at the Lodge we had an early night. Tomorrow we leave early (7:00am) for our day trip to Botswana to the Chobe National Park for our safari!!