The Process of Grief

Some call it “explosive crying.” I call it a cathartic release of pent up grief. When you pack all of your skeletons in the closet it comes to a point when you’re just waiting for the door to give way. Every suppressed feeling and thought is now sitting at the forefront of your mind, impressing upon an already confused emotional state.

The neighbor just died.  The sound of loss is very distinctive.  Blood curdling screams are now added to the soundtrack of loud operatic church music.  Family members and neighbors come and go; some staying for hours and others for minutes.  I'm sure they're not keeping track of time.  Time seems to slow down out of respect for the dead...

This Is Sparta-Whoops, I Mean Zambia!

Yeah, yeah, I know the movie 300 came out years ago but I still get urges to yell the above phrase when I accomplish something that I think is equivalent in effort to climbing Mt. Everest.

And whhhhy do I feel like shouting that phrase like I have some sort of nervous tick?  Well, it looks like the AMAI team's plan to create a 24-hour toll-free hotline is off to a great start.  My project supervisor at AMAI mentioned a while back that she wanted me to work on developing two more things: a 24 hour hotline for health workers to call in emergencies and a website.  This hotline will service both Lundazi and Nyimba districts in Eastern Province.  Inside my head I laughed because I love a good challenge.  Then, anxiety took over.

How was I going to pull this off?

Where There's a Health Worker, There's a Way

The lack of human resources continues to pervade the health sector across Zambia.  In an effort to earn a living, health care workers move away from family and their normal support systems to serve in remote locations.  Some health centers even try requesting unmarried service providers because they believe it lessens the likelihood of the person leaving.  However, without any familiar support, unmarried workers may face more obstacles in coping with living in unfamiliar and difficult environments.  A health worker, stationed at a site roughly 6 hours away from the town, explained that living and working alone in unfamiliar and isolated territory plays a huge role in service providers not wanting to work inaccessible locations. 

Supply Strain: Health Facility Barriers to Health Access

When the AMAI team conducted the assessment at health facilities in Lundazi district, I was unnerved by the general lack of medicine, supplies and general infrastructure.  Sometimes those supplies were present but non-functional. 

One facility received donated dental equipment.  The problem? There are no dentists at this facility. 

Many other facilities either had “improvised” beds or general patient beds due to limited resources.  There were also concerns about power sources.  Since many facilities have makeshift power supplies that include a solar panel, battery and an inverter but the usage from this power source varied depending upon the quality of equipment and any damage that might have happened to the equipment.  

An improvised labor and delivery bed

"If You Build It, They Will...Come?": Infrastructure and Environmental Barriers to Healthcare

A pregnant woman in her third trimester is having shortness of breath, a mild headache and blurred vision.  Her sister, concerned about her health, encourages her to visit the rural health center.  The rural health center is 10K (~6 miles) away on foot after she crosses the river. 

What is the likelihood of this woman going to the health center?

The above scenario might be made up but the conditions are not.  Some of the largest barriers to healthcare are caused by environmental factors and poor infrastructure.  If our team did not have a four-wheel drive vehicle and relatively good weather conditions, our travel to many of the sites we visited in Eastern Province would have been impossible and/or dangerous.  We couldn’t reach one of the sites due to a tree that was knocked down by a heavy rainstorm.

It just wasn't meant to be.

AMAI Team: Saving Mothers, Giving Life

This is the first in a series of posts on the new maternal health initiative Saving Mothers Giving Life and my thoughts on some of the common barriers women face in receiving quality healthcare.  I’ll also talk about possible solutions to eventually eliminating those barriers.

A Little Background

Last October, I started working with CIDRZ (Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia), on implementing the Global Health Initiative project "Saving Mothers, Giving Life."  The main goal of the project is to reduce maternal and infant mortality by 50% in a year.  Seeing as it is a very ambitious goal local and global stakeholders are collaborating on a multi-faceted strategy to not only promote women coming in to health facilities to deliver but to also improve the quality of life-saving health services those women receive.  I believe a key factor in this project is documenting the barriers to healthcare so that people across the globe see these struggles.

An Entrepreneurial Showcase: Aveles Niyrenda's Chitenge Creations

Anything artistic or crafty (or just downright quirky) usually catches my eye.  I oftentimes dream of creating some whimsical item for myself or as a gift to loved ones (unlike those “creative” pieces I used to draw in Kindergarten).  When I met Aveles Niyrenda at the Dutch Reformed Church’s Saturday crafts market, her chitenge¹ crafts display not only triggered my chitenge addiction (more on that later) but also made me curious to know how she created her unique items.  After a firing off a series of questions, I jokingly told her I was coming to her house to witness the steps firsthand.  Surprisingly, she welcomed me.

Welcome to Aveles’ workshop.  This narrow corridor in front of Aveles’ house allows her chitenge visions to unfold.   The following are steps to creating her works of art.

Just Write

This blog offers no proof that I’ve been living and working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia for over a year now.  In the age of “fast food” (mainly inauthentic) communication, I’ve been savoring the written word in the form of letters and journal entries.  After all, living in a village without electricity forced me to do that.  Oftentimes, though, as I sit in front of a computer I wonder: “What the heck is there to write about?”