Med Evac Blues

4 am is the standard time for me to get what I have come to call “med evac blues”, basically this is when I’ve run out of things to distract me and I begin to dwell on my situation. I’ve been trying to find active support groups or at least blogs by med evac RPCVs but interestingly the internet seems to be drawing a blank. The only really groups I have found are about trying to get your medical stuff dealt with (which seems to be a huge issue for most PCV’s returned to the states).

A friend of mine from PC Zambia Jessica is one of the only sources of real info on the subject, she was sent home from Zambia after contracting HIV and her blog is an on-going look into what she is doing after. http://nogoingback-thereisonlyforward.blogspot.com/ I sincerely suggest looking at it.

Though every med evac is different I feel like there is a common sense of “well now what?” and bit of hanging on by your finger tips. We experience all the feelings and trouble adjusting that a regular RPCV has but we didn’t get to mentally prep at all.

For me my biggest struggle is the lack of mobility and independence. Just now 2 months after my accident I can carry a plate of food myself and navigate a store without getting winded. I’m still on crutches, can’t drive and can’t start working yet. Also that I’m 24 years old with a college degree, and have been living on my own in another country for a year and suddenly I’m transported to feeling like I’m in high school again. Living with my mom, no money, no car and unsure of what I’m doing in life.

I guess the point of this entry to make a formal calling out to other med evacs, how are you guys doing? What did you do to not make yourself crazy?

Guess Who is Getting Medically Separated?

Alright so I have bad news; my Peace Corps Service is being cut short. On my vacation to Tanzania (which I’ll post pictures of later) I had a silly accident playing volleyball. I went to make a shot (I won btw) and my body went one way and my foot didn’t. I ended up fracturing my ankle in 3 different ways and dislocating the foot.

This injury really illustrated the difference between African medical care and American health care. I was on Zanzibar so it took 8 hours for me to get an ambulance and to get to a hospital. They took X-rays but because of the machine quality only could see the dislocation; the doctor there relocated the foot and wrapped it up and said I’d be fine in 2 weeks (which was very wrong). Thankfully the PCMO for Tanzania came the next day and flew me to Dar Salam to get real X-rays. Where they saw 2 of the fractures and decided I needed surgery. So then I was flown to South Africa. I ended spending a week in the hospital; during surgery number 1 they found a 3rd fracture which required a second surgery. 2 weeks since the break, I now have an ankle made of screws and plates, and am at the Rose Guest House in South Africa waiting until I am well enough for a trans-Atlantic flight.

The estimated healing time is sounding like 6 months until I walk normally and longer before I can rejoin Peace Corps. I’ve been hearing longer and longer times from other people with similar injuries. Peace Corps has decided to send me back to America for good. I’m bummed that my service is ending because of a volleyball game. I didn’t get to say goodbye to anyone, finish my projects, or even pack my stuff. I don’t really know what I’m going to do from this point on.

Helping Zambian Girls GLOW (You can help too!)

Man this past week has been all GLOW related. Myself and another volunteer thought it would be a good idea to have our girls clubs celebrate women’s day together. After a lot of planning and a few minor heart attacks later it actually happened. The event consisted of my girls club (120+ girls), her club (15+ girls), a group of interested girls from another of my schools (9 girls + mentor), 4 Peace Corps volunteers and whoever else wanted to show up. The girls were fantastic; they sang, danced, said poems, and had a debate. I was lucky and managed to wrangle up 3 guest speakers and enough nshima and beans to feed everyone.

Our GLOW 2012 camp is now officially booked for November. We start official planning soon. Which means I’m going to be asking for… DONATIONS! I’ll post more about our needs and the official link to donate to the project after my grant gets approved. GLOW is a fantastic project; it has been the single most rewarding aspect of my Peace Corps service. Girls in Zambia face so many challenges and GLOW helps the rise above it, so they can have a fighting chance to improve their own lives. While we work out the details, have your hearts (and maybe your wallets) open to helping us this year. In the mean time enjoy my video about the fantastic women/girls in my village Lumpampa.

One Year in Zambia

So it is officially February 2012, that makes a year of Peace Corps service. Well technically I think I was on the plane on Feb 1^st last year, but I’m counting it. To mark the occasion I got to host first site visit for the new RED’s coming in this year. It was a blast, I tried to give them an experience of everything. I took them to school to observe classes and talk to the teachers. My HIV support group came over to talk to them about working in the community. My favorite part though was making a huge Zambian dinner with Nshima, chicken, chiwowa (pumpkin leaves), soya, soupu, and potatoes. My counterpart came over and helped us kill the chicken (well the trainees did) and cook. The people at the dinner included teachers, villagers, my host family, my pcv neighbor, and the new volunteers – it was pretty great. It was really heartwarming to see all the people my village that matter to me in one place sharing a meal. Happy anniversary Zambia.

Camp GLOW!

One of the projects in Peace Corps I am the most excited to be taking part in is Camp Glow (GLOW = Girls Leading Our World). This is a worldwide activity that PCV’s around the world put on every year. It’s a girl’s empowerment project, which is something I think is very important for so many young women around the world. This year I came as a sort of helper/observer, next year myself and 2 other volunteers in my province will be in charge of organizing the camp (yay grant writing!).

This year’s camp focused on so many topics. Unfortunately in Africa girls are lowest on the totem pole. There are a lot of opportunities denied to them, usually their education. Worse is that many are in sexually abusive environments and have no one to turn to for help or even understanding. Things are getting better but it is still a huge issue. On top of that, they have to deal with all the same issues American teens do; acne, boys, getting their period, and weird body changes. This camp is a safe environment to discuss it all.

This year we talked about sugar daddies, prostitution, HIV, STI’s, hygiene, self-esteem, puberty, did condom demos, counseled them on sexual abuse, talked about staying in school, offered STI testing and on top of it all we got to do some rock climbing and canoeing.

It’s a really brilliant program and it is a pleasure to be a part of it.

Video of our slideshow!

Individual Photos Here

Bats, Ninja Turtles, and Model Competition

Provs:

Happy Thanksgiving! Its so odd to be in another country for thanksgiving but we are making good times of it. We have provincial meetings this week so everyone in the provice is staying at the house, which means provs parties (we did a 90’s tv show theme this time) and TONS of great food cooking. We even have football streaming online. Amazing what a bunch of determined Americans can do.

Kasanka:

Before provs I took my second day trip to Kasanka to go see the great bat migration take place. Each year in Oct/Nov over 8 million fruit bats fly from the Congo to Kasanka national park in Zambia. I went earlier in Oct when the bats were less but I managed to anger a whole herd of elephants. This time the bats were in full bloom, it was amazing.

AOB:

Completely unrelated business. My friend from home is in a competition for a professional photo shoot. This is the last week that voting is open so if you could PLEASE get your friends/cousins/boyfriend/girlfriend/mom/dad/ anyone!
Click 'like' on her pic here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=310491565643255&set=a.310491528976592.94383.193168430708903&type=3
And do the same here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=245159232209575&set=a.244543435604488.63126.178785632180269&type=3
And thank you :)

Vogons, toilets, and condoms.

Fun Things Going On In My Life:

Call my Arthur Dent:

On one particular Thursday I woke up at 5am to the sound of tree’s being chopped down. Wishing nothing further then to ignore it, I tried to fall back to sleep. However it was insistent, I finally realized the tree’s being cut… were mine. I woke up in a fit; half dressed I stumbled outside and tried to yell in fractured Bemba. I unfortunately didn’t know how to say “What the hell are you doing?!” After more frantic yelling a Bamayo came over and translated for me, apparently they are building a road through part of my house, and they were clearing the area. The bulldozer would be coming in a few days. I of course very politely told the road builders to shove it up their you-know-what. This didn’t seem to have the desired effect…

So we had to relocate my toilet and my fence, the building is almost finished. All that’s left is to cement the floor. Ironically the bulldozer came… the road doesn’t even touch my property.

Don't Panic.

Condoms, Condoms, Condoms:

So recently I have been working heavily with an HIV support group. We have meetings consistently (a feat in itself). Have started and maize field and vegetable garden. Our newest initiative is to distribute condoms. As a registered group we get hundreds of free condoms, and are supposed to “educate” the community. Now I have tried to talk about condom use before in the community and have normally been met with resistance. But now that I just walked around with a box, people were practically mugging me for them. I gave a man 10 and he went “Madam are you serious? This won’t last us the night!”. Today I took a bike ride to work at the under 5 clinic, armed with a 300 hundred condoms, a wooden penis and the eye of the tiger. At first the clinic officer was hesitant, but a woman saw the wooden penis and started yelling for me to do a demo. So in front of about 200 hundred women I did a demo for female and male condoms. I was suddenly struck with an extreme sense of awareness. That yes I did leave my home country, travel across the world, to live in a small village, and put a condom on a giant wooden penis for 200 African women… I get paid to do this? My life is great.