It's amazing!!!

hello

i am really sorry i haven't been using this as much as what i thought but i have been a bit busy, just settling in and all the other stuff thats going on, but as promised i am about to fill you in! Monday involved a tour of Livingstone village, it is a typical African village, lots of red coloured roads and lots of green, it really is an amazing view. I am staying at a house with 9 other girls and we are roughly all around the same age and everyone is really friendly. There are also two other houses, one which contains about 10 others, younger though and a new one with a nice pool. No one stays there yet but we can use the pool.

Tuesday- we had our induction, we talked about the clinics and what projects we would like to be involved in. In the morning you either do a morning of teaching, medical or home based care (bit like community nursing but with unpaid locals doing all the work). In the afternoon you get involved in a variety of projects, 1) farming peppers which are used to discourage elephants from destroying the crops but they also sell them to buy medical supplies. 2) orphage where you either play with the children or help building a new sleeping place for the children, or 3) do sports with the children. In the afternoon we went to the orphanage to have a look around and introduce ourselves to the children.

Wednesday- went to maramba clinic, this is one of the largest clinics in LIvingstone town, they have baby weighing clinics, vaccinations, so you help there and then once finished you can go and help in the pharmacy, general clinics, ante natal or in the laboratory. In the afternoon we went to the orphange, i had 3 children braiding my hair, think i might get dreads (joke). In the evening we had some tea and the went to a bar called raphsodys for a cocktail or two (happy hour two for the price of one), very nice.

Thursday- we got up at 5am and went to one of the National parks called Mose-o-Tuny, this was fantastic, i saw zebras, giraffes, Impalas (kind of Gisele) and vervet monkeys, that have blue testicles, oh and a few baboons. In the afternoon we had a language lesson, the local language is Chinyanja. So when i am confident i will try a few words out. After this we had lunch and then went to a local village calledKahundi village which has been in place since 1300s. Our tour guide was the chiefs son. I have some really good pictures of this village so hopefully i will be able to post them on the blog soon. Again it is a typical African village, lots of little huts, we even tasted the beer (just looked like cement to me but it did taste like beer. Ten years ago the Japanese, German, British and US embasseys paid for the village to have water pumps, before this they had to walk 4km to get water. In the evening we went to the new house with the pool and had a barbecue. When got back to our house we looke in to the sky and clearer than clear was orion just above the house, very beautiful, this was the most amazing day.

Friday- probably the toughest day i have had yet, i was working at Maramaba clinic weighing babies when we were asked to assist with a man that had been brought in by a taxi, he had taken an overdose of zinc oxide (rat poison). He was in such a mess, the stuff smelt awful, but there was no Doctor at the clinic so we had to take him to the local hospital in another taxi practically unconscious, it was not nice at all. I don't think he will live but even if he does he will be put in jail and scentenced as suicide is illeagal here. Will find out on MOnday what happens to him.

Saturday-did some somebathing at a local hotel resort called the Zambezi sun (very posh) it has a lovely pool and because it is part of the national park vervet monkeys and sometimes zebras come up to you and say hello while you are sunbathing, it is amazing. In the evening we went on a cruise up the zambezi river, took a great picture of the elephants in the water, i tried to get the hippos to but every time i got the camera out they kept diasppearing, amazing experience though.

Sunday, just emailing then going back to Zambezi sun. As i keep saying it is amazing here, everyone says it, you can't help it but it truly is amazing. Keep in touch and i will email soon.


AndreaX