Gwesani Malaria

So another cold season has gone by and we are beginning to sink into the hazy and dusty depths of hot season. I've done a poor job of keeping up with my blog but work has been busy and I've been on the move a lot lately. Several of my projects have had pretty major developments (I talk about my malaria project in particular in more detail below) and my social life has kept me entertained for the most part as well (a busy social life? not what I expected when I signed up for the Peace Corps!). And while days go by slowly, life moves pretty quickly here in Zambia. Peace Corps Volunteer friends have finished their services and gone home and new Peace Corps Volunteers have come to replace them. A new cat has moved into my house uninvited so now I'm keeping two cuddly rat-eaters at home. Farmers are burning the land to prepare for the next farming season so the earth is charred and seems to be aching for the rains to come. The burning also drives mice out from the fields so people have been feasting on field mouse for dinner most nights. Yumm (And I'm not being sarcastic here)

A year into my service and I'm still keeping up with the same routines that I did when I first moved into my village in Mwasemphangwe. I make jungle oats in the morning and do house chores like fetching water and most recently smearing a fresh layer of mud on the outside of my hut. I usually work everyday but Sunday, traveling on my bike to different villages for various programs or just working from the clinic. I cook for myself some nights and on the others I usually eat with the women in the village at the house of my headman's first wife. Each woman comes and presents nsima and relish and we eat one woman's cooking at a time until we are all satisfied or the food is finished. We sit and chat and I try to keep up with the latest gossip about who married who, how many cows the neighboring village has, who is pregnant, and who has had a particularly good crop. I'm so thankful for these women's kindness and friendship. They're truly responsible for making my village a home to me.

And for all you faithful blog readers (hey, mom and dad!) who haven't heard, Kevin and I recently got engaged! We will be having a traditional village wedding in November while the rains are still light during which there will be a lot of singing, a lot of dancing, and A LOT of food. We will eventually be having another ceremony after we return to America. We're really in love and really excited about our future together. Thanks, Zambia!

And on to a slightly more boring topic: work. Although I haven't written about it much on this blog, the majority of my work here has been devoted to a project I started with the community called Gwesani Malaria (In English, Topple Malaria). The project is part of a behavior change pilot study that I helped kick off for Peace Corps - Zambia. The community health workers and I interviewed over 100 mothers of children under 5 in the community and conducted a "barrier analysis survey" where we tried to understand why people do or do not take measures to prevent malaria in their families. Our results were really interesting. We found that while most people know that malaria is caused by the mosquito, they still attribute malaria to other causes such as juju magic, eating unripe mangoes, being caught in the rain, and other reasons. Many women said that they could utilize resources such as insecticide treated nets (ITNs) if their husbands or parents-in-law would only approve. Also, most of the mothers doubted the efficacy of interventions such as using ITNs; they didn't see much connection between preventing malaria and using a bed net.

My Zambian counterpart and I took those results and we began to generate behavior change social marketing messages. We are in the midst of training 180 Malaria Educators comprised not of traditional medical workers but of trusted local traditional leaders such as village headmen and traditional healers. These Malaria Educators will provide community education at 11 Malaria Field Days that will take place throughout my catchment area. At these Malaria Field Days we will be educating people about malaria basics and how to use ITNs through drama and other activities. We'll also be doing mass malaria rapid detection blood tests and treating people who are sick or carrying the malaria parasite on the spot. Perhaps most importantly, I applied and received a grant that will allow us to distribute mosquito nets to families with children under 5. The community is enthusiastic and mobilized around the Gwesani Malaria project and I am incredibly excited to see the project develop. We'll be gathering data after 3 months on the impact on malaria incidence and mortality.

So, life is good. I'm excited for my ZamWedding next month and for Gwesani to pan out over the next few weeks. And I'm feeling really lucky lately to be surrounded by so much community development, such exciting challenges, and such incredible love.

Look out for more GLOW pics soon!