Did you know. . .?

Some insights from the village. . . Did you know?

If you have a glass bottle of coke and put it in a tub with water on cement ground it will get cooler ;) Yes, better to drink!

If you put a clear closed container with water outside in the sun for long enough and then bath with that water, it's like you just turned on the hot water nozzle in the shower ;)

Did you know, that most 10 year olds can carry more water than I could even try to. And they do it on their heads ;)

If you are riding a bike any animals from cattle to chickens feel the immeasurable need to run out right in front of your bike ;)

That's all for now, thanks ;)

Trying to help The Kids ;)

So we just had Child Health Week. That's when every 5 months or so the rural health clinics are charged with reaching children in the area for measles vaccinations, distributing de-worming meds, giving out vitamin a, and redipping mosquitoes nets with insecticide. It's a very cool program and it reaches alot of kids.

At my health center we do outreach called under 5 to each village in the area at least once a month where we give health education, vaccines, and weigh and chart growth of kids. It gets pretty good attendance but child health week gets better. So you're thinking good stuff, right?

Well, ya we reached quite a few kids but let me tell you a bit about how the days went. . . I gave a little health education on why vitamin a is important, how to prevent worms using clean water practices, how people sometimes get side effects from vaccines but it is still very important to get them, and about the importance of insecticide treated nets in reducing malaria cases. I also mentioned how the process would go for the day so people knew what their kids were getting, when, and why so there's no mystery to how they are helping their kids be healthy today. My Envirnmental Health Technician at my clinic translated, he is awesome. Then we had comunity health workers weigh and chart the kids, the nurse give the measles vaccine, a neighborhood health committee member giving vitamin a, the EHT recording ages of every child and what they get, and me giving the de-worming meds.

So sounds like a smooth process, right? ;) Well it was, except I didn't mention the about 4 hours of crying and very loud screaming from the kids ;) Oh, I know I didn't go into medicine for a reason ;) We are helping these kids, right? But they see a pill and flip out! They don't even need to glance at the needle for the vaccine, just the deworming pill that they just need to chew is enough to start the chorus of screaming accompanied with alot of kids spitting out the pills and enticing others to do the same ;) Oh the fun! I know we did good and needed things, but wow! I prefer the health education and I'll leave the dispensing work to my colleagues. One kid even ran away! I mean bolted from the area after seeing what was happening to the other kids and the mom had to take off in chase after him, hilarous and so sad at the same time. Oh, pedriatrcians are very strong ;)

Some thoughts

I'm doing good. I'm writing a health training for our neighborhood health committees on malaria, tb,hiv,integrated reproductive health, water and sanitation, and child health and nutrition. I am busy and really am looking forward to doing this. I feel like such an international public health professional on the ground ;) Good stuff. I also helped at a VCT (voluntary couseling and testing) day for hiv in my catchment and did not sanitation presentations too, all seemed weel received and needed.

So other things are well. We got a cat, Scout. She scouts for mice and conquers them ;) Too bad sometimes she is so proud of herself she brings them in the house to show her prowess in killing ;) Ah well.

I'm in the provincial capital right now. I'm working on curriculum stuff and eating some meat, cheese, and ice cream, oh ya ;) On the way here we drove by a some lake or a big pond, who knows. But I was mesmerized. Being in a land locked country is hard sometimes. I really love the water. I felt like my uncle Mike who lives in Arizona and almost cries everytime he sees big water ;) It's ok though we have a meeting in July and afterwards Rob and I hope to go with some volunteers to Victoria Falls in the south, so big water viewing here I come ;)

While at the peace corps house here I chatted with a volunteer who has her sister visiting here. Really I'm happy and very busy most the time, so homesickness isn't too bad. Plus I have Rob so I'm way luckier than most volunteers. But still being around two sisters made me sad for a bit. Man it's nice to see someone who looks like you and knows you so well you can talk or not and just be at home ;) Miss ya Stacy! Yesterday my Mom called and I seriously didn't know what to talk about but just wanted her to stay on the phone so I could hear her voice, yup, I'm 27 but sometimes I just miss my Mamsie ;)

So when we came here we didn't bring an ipod like everyone else. So if someone wants to send a cd walkman, AAA bateries, or cds feel free. It's fine mostly I read for fun but sometimes music would be nice. My mom was cute enough to send 2 musical cards so far and I kid you not we rock out to them from time to time ;) You know you use what you got ;)

So a highlight latlely in the village was the creation of mac n cheese ;) My sis sent velveta cheese and Rob melted it on pasta, AWESOME! I mean kind sad since in the states I would be repulsed by this fake cheese, but here it's a culinary delight ;)

Rob and I taught a life skills class in a local school. It went well. We tried to show that people from the states marry later and have children later, maybe role model a little and teach them a bit about hiv and women's empowerment stuff. They loved us, probably more for the novelty of us then the presentations them selves, but whatever works. Anyways now girls pass my around the village and say they want to be my 'benzy' aka friend, super cute ;)

I'm been trying to write letters to people, so far I've hit those that have wrote me. So please write me and send me your snail mail addy so I can write ya. Miss you all very much and hope everything is very good.