Stream of Consciousness Travel

I wrote this while traveling.

Long road trips. I love them and I hate them just the same. I love them because of I love to travel. Travel gives you the chance to see and experience new things. My family's regular migrations from New York to South Carolina are enjoyable because you can see how much the backdrop changes: from tall skyscrapers and concrete to tall trees and open land. So why do I hate them? After 16 hours in a car, my body contorts like a zombie in Michael Jackson's Thriller video.

Malaria Anonymous

Looking up from the patient screening book to see the growing number of patients waiting to be seen, my eyes rested upon a mother anxiously rocking her infant back and forth in her arms. Worry clouded the woman's face as her eyes concentrated on her infant. The infant's eyes revealed fading glimmers of life. For the brief moments they opened, only the whites of her eyeballs showed. Her small chest rose sporadically as she gasped for air. For a brief moment, she didn't seem real. The one-year old girl remained in this zombie-like state as her mother rushed her to the front of the patient queue.

We tested the child and asked the mother the who's, what's, when's and how's about her child's condition. The mother treated her child at home, saving her the effort of walking the 24 kilometers to the clinic. But now, after several days, the child's condition deteriorated.

Looking at the child's lifeless state, I desperately snapped, "Can't we just please refer her to the district?"

"All of these people have malaria," the clinic In-Charge answered. He raised his hand to guide my eyes to the sea of patients waiting outside of the clinic for malaria tests and treatment.

"She doesn't look well... at all. This woman walked TWENTY. FOUR. K..."

"We will see her," the In-Charge reassured.

BAMM!: Stop Out Malaria

April is Blog About Malaria Month (BAMM). This month, we will increase our efforts to Stop Out Malaria with awareness about the disease. This post is the first in a series about how malaria affects everyone's lives.

Malaria, one of the world's deadliest diseases, is caused by a parasites that are spread by mosquitoes. The infected mosquitoes then transmits malaria from person to person. Malaria is found in many tropical climates in the world, mainly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.  Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 85% of malaria cases and 90% of malaria deaths worldwide. It can be especially harmful to vulnerable populations such as young children, pregnant women and People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Malaria devastates the lives of individuals, families, communities, and nations.

To date, many organizations have made countless efforts to eliminate malaria by raising awareness, conducting behavior change trainings, mass distribution of bed nets, and fundraising to aid community organizations in their malaria elimination and prevention programs. In Zambia, the Ministry of Health's prioritization of malaria control, in conjunction with increased international aid and advocacy, helped decrease the number of inpatient malaria cases and deaths. The Stomp Out Malaria initiative assists the Ministry of Health in their goals through malaria research, education, and community mobilization. By combining a scale up of community-level and large-scale organization/government effort, we hope to stomp out malaria once and for all.

For more information about the Stop Out Malaria project, click here.

A Mile in My Shoes

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes."-Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

It's no secret that I can be very hard on my shoes. I get every dollar and cent out of the worth of my shoes before they scream "Enough!," take one last breath, and expire. I've had small-scale interventions with friends and family which result in the retirement of some shoes I have worn to death. As I was cleaning out my stash of latest worn out shoes, I realized my problem is a bit more unique in Zambia.

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.