Day 29

I'm so sorry for not posting for so long! I just got back from a 5 day trip to Livingstone where there was no internet! Anyway here's my update:

6/23/12

Today we finally entered the actual Italian Orthopedic Hospital. We have been here for 4 weeks now and we have yet to actually enter the building that our guest house is attached to. Anyway, we spent our entire Saturday morning getting a tour of the hospital and volunteering with the clinical officer (similar to the US Physician Assistant). He told us to come back in anytime and we can help out and even scrub in on some surgeries! So....more to come on this!!

6/26/12

Today was our second full day in Livingstone. We traveled back 2 hours to the rural health clinic far outside of Livingstone. Today instead of conducting our health surveys at the clinic, we went to the primary school (grades 1-5) directly next to the clinic. For our survey we were going to survey over 70 children from grades 2 and 5. The survey consisted of basic information about the child and then we calculated each child’s BMI, conducted an eye, ear and physical examination, and then had each child submit a urine sample and complete a Rapid Diagnostic Test for malaria. All of these children barely spoke any English, all they seemed to know was “Good morning” and “Hello, how are you?”…but I’m not even sure if they knew what this meant. Because they all spoke Tonga and Chris and I know no Tonga…we were assigned to the height, weight, and BMI station. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at this station, we had to perfect our “sign language” skills...as in pointing to various things to get them to stand straight against the wall to measure height or put BOTH of their feet on the scale. The best part about our station was that we had to ask each child to remove their shoes. Our first challenge with this was crossing the communication barrier. We asked a medical student how to say “remove your shoes” in Tonga, it is “comozwea mabusu” (I’m not sure if this is actually how to spell it but that’s how it sounded…and we had to write this down on a piece of paper to actually remember it the whole time we were doing the school survey). We attempted to tell each kid to remove their shoes in Tonga, but most of them still didn’t understand what we were trying to say, so we also had to point to our own shoes or demonstrate ourselves removing our own shoes. To say the least, it was pretty entertaining and all the other medical students got a kick out of Chris and I trying to speak Tonga to young children. From the results of over 70 children that we had pass through our station, we noticed that almost all of their BMI’s were in the malnourished range. It was sad to see the stunted, thin children with tattered clothing and shoes that were at least 4 sizes too large. I was glad that I could make their day though…being white really makes every child stare at you and giggle almost 100% of the time.

After finishing at the school we drove the 2 hours back to our hostel and then grabbed a taxi to Victoria Falls. It is about a 10 minute drive from the middle of Livingstone. On the drive over we saw monkeys on the side of the road!! It was so cool! This was the first time I actually saw wild animals running around. That actually surprised me about Zambia. Everyone always assumes that Africa is just teeming with wildlife running around everywhere; however, I can say that I have literally seen no wildlife since being in Zambia.

Upon arriving at Victoria Falls, we found out that ticket prices for foreigners are $20 whereas only $1 for Zambians. This reminded me of European museums which are free for all European citizens and extremely expensive for all foreigners. Why don’t we have something like this in the US????

At first glimpse of the falls we were truly astounded, it was so HUGE and beautiful. We really could not see all of the falls though because it is not the driest season yet (mainly August and September), this is when the water levels are the lowest. Therefore because of the high levels of water, there was A LOT of mist coming up from the pounding of the water below. This made it impossible to see the entirety of the falls. We could only see about ¼ of it. However, it was still a gorgeous sight! We also got completely soaked trying to get better views of it.

6/27/12

We visited Victoria Falls for the second time today. When we arrived at the falls today we decided to cross over to the Zimbabwe side. We briefly crossed the border to a bridge that crosses over a large gorge over the bottom part of the falls. As we crossed the border there were so many monkeys!!!! They were so funny just sitting on trucks or chilling on the middle of the road. There were some baby monkeys riding on their mother’s back. They were very entertaining! But we were told to stay away from them because they tend to have bad tempers or try to steal your belongings. When we arrived at the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe we could see the outline of the falls in the distance and we found the spot where people bungee jump!! There was a couple about to bungee jump off of the bridge when we arrived. We waited about 30 minutes to see them jump and it was insane! The bridge must be at least 500 feet above the enormous gorge and white-water rapids below. I’m not sure if I would ever be brave enough to take the plunge…it looked way too scary for me.

Some of the medical students told us that we had to take the trail down to the “boiling pot” at the bottom of the falls. We hiked all the way down a well-made trail that truly got us into the African jungle. It looked like a scene out of a movie, monkeys climbing up tropical trees, small waterfalls sprouting through the rocks above, palm trees spread randomly across the landscape, it was awesome! The hike back up to the top was definitely a workout!! We then went on a trail that went behind the falls so that we could watch the sunset over the falls. It was an amazing sight!!!! We sat on a rock protruding out over the rapids right at the top of the falls, literally 20 feet from the drop-off. While we were waiting for the sun to go down we noticed that there was a fisherman in the water with a net trying to catch little fish. He was IN the water!! As in the water DIRECTLY ABOVE the falls…as in a HUGE drop…basically a guarteed plunge to your death. Is it really worth it to fish at the top of the falls?? At one point this man went literally 10 feet away from the drop-off, just standing in the middle of rocks and rapids trying to catch fish. When he was this close to the edge I was so freaked out for him, Chris and I were sure that we were going to have to report his death to the officials at the park. After a few minutes of watching this man we suddenly didn’t see him and I had really hoped that he walked behind this rock (instead of falling over the edge…). Anyway, his friend came up to me then and asked in a freaked out tone if I had seen where his friend went. I laughed and told him that I really hoped his friend was behind the rock ahead of us, but I wasn’t sure. Finally though the fisherman appeared again and somehow managed to cross over all of the rocks and rapids to reach land again. We then proceeded to watch the sunset…so gorgeous! 

Anyway, we are now back in Lusaka after another great 7 hour bus ride from Livingstone. Today we updated our business visas after having a few arguments with the immigration officials in their office...

Tonight we will be going out to dinner with some NGO officials from NASTAD (National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors). Tomorrow we will spend the day volunteering again at the Italian Orthopedic Hospital and then probably catching up on some laundry and grocery shopping.

Here are the pictures from the last few days:

This is the Nyawa Rural Health Centre, 2 hours outside of Livingstone. Many, many people were lined up outside waiting to be seen.

This is Hims!

Here's our handy-dandy bus from the medical school that we drive around everywhere in.

These are the Zambian version of water towers, they are literally everywhere! (which I guess is a good thing haha)

Part of the village across from the Nyawa clinic.

Here was our lovely room in the hostel for the past 4 nights! Yes, that is a slab of concrete and a 2 inch thick mattress...

This was the hostel courtyard and the rooms.

Here are some of the people waiting outside of the clinic.

This is at the Nyawa Primary School. All of the children ran up to see all of us, so we told them to gather around and wave to the camera!

Chris and I outside of the school.

Hims right before he addressed the entire class. These kids were so cute! We all went around the room introducing ourselves and telling them where we are from, and each time one of us began talking all of the kids stood up and shouted, "GOOD MORNING SIR!"

Here's Chris and I measuring the height and weight of the 2nd and 5th graders for our health survey.

These are the kids lined up for their Rapid Diagnostic Test for Malaria (basically just a finger-prick).

Our first view of Victoria Falls!

The rickety bridge that we had to cross to see more of the falls, we got completely SOAKED crossing it!

This is the view from the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The rocks on the right are Zambia and the rocks on the left are Zimbabwe. The water down below is the "boiling pot."

This is the woman we watched bungee-jump!

The view from the rock we sat on at the top of the falls.

MONKEYS!!!

This was the fisherman who I literally thought went over the edge of the falls!!

Us waiting for the sun to set over the top of the falls, it was so beautiful!

Well that's it for now! I will try my best to continue updating this every time I get internet!

Until next time,

Jenn

Day 19

Hey everyone!!

Sorry for not posting in 6 days!! We haven't had internet since then so I was unable to post. We didn't do much over the last few days, primarily only relaxing after our busy last week. This past weekend we went to 2 different markets to look for different souvenirs and items. The first marketplace was very busy and had many different shops lining the street. Our primary goal at this market was to find cloth. Almost all of the women here wear very colorful cloth wraps as skirts and dresses or wrap their babies in them and tie it around their bodies as carriers. Anyway, these pieces of cloth are so African and so colorful! We have definitely wanted to buy some to bring home with us. I bought this beautiful blue and yellow cloth that I'm going to use as a tapestry for the wall of my room this year. I also bought a large piece with the Zambian soccer logo, and a Zambian soccer jersey.

On Sunday we went to a small marketplace in the shopping center where we always buy our groceries. It was filled with outdoor stalls and many many Zambian and African souvenirs. I've decided that the figurines of hippos are literally the cutest things ever!!! I will definitely be bringing home a few of them! I found several souvenirs that I will be getting for my family, get excited!! :) After walking through the market for several hours, we all went out to lunch and then met up with two other Cornell students that are here for the summer not with the global health program, Will and Chris. Chris is originally from Zambia so he comes home every summer to see his family and work at the hotel his family owns. It was great to see other people from Cornell!

On Monday we met up again with the medical students and began our 3rd week of the community medicine rotation. This week our objective is to analyze 2 different clinics in Lusaka, giving a preliminary community diagnosis of the township surrounding the clinic through the data we collect at the clinics. Upon arrival at the first clinic, Chipata Health Centre, we separated into two groups and began with a tour of the clinic. This clinic was much bigger than the rural clinic where we worked in last week. There was also hundreds of people waiting to be seen, very different from the 15 or so that were waiting at the clinic last week. We found out on the tour that only 1 doctor works at this facility, everyone else are either clinical officers (similar to Physician Assistant's in the US) or nurses. There must have been over 300 people in the waiting area and sitting outside.
My job at the clinic was to draw a complete diagram of the rooms inside, so I  began walking around with Lupia, one of the med students. We drew a rough sketch of all of the buildings and then wandered through all the rooms drawing out what each room was used for. In one small room in the back of the clinic there were about 100 women with infants in a winding line around the room waiting for immunizations. One nurse was at the front of the line immunizing each infant as they reached the front of the line. We talked to the nurse and found out that every Monday is a "Under 5 Immunization" day where all of the women from the villages around that area come in to get their children immunized. I was very impressed, this is what I call a step in the right direction!

The Chipata Health Centre that we were at all day Monday.

Ignoring me in this picture...this is the room for the Under 5 Immunizations.

Glad to see some family planning information out there.

Main door to the clinic.

This was the lab for the clinic. Only one lab technician is on staff and they aren't able to perform some of the most basic lab tests because of lack in supplies. They only have one microscope..for my small biology lab class at Cornell we have around 30 microscopes...discrepancies at it's most obvious.

My group at the Chipata Health Centre.

The front of the clinic.

Being with the med students all the time here has really made me feel like a medical student! I'm pretty sure that everyone thinks that Chris and I are medical students because we are always wearing our white coats and hanging around the other medical students. I'm definitely not complaining though, I love it! Yesterday we met a medical student from Cambridge University in the UK, he was so excited to meet us and I think he just assumed we were also medical students when we said we went to Cornell. He told us that he is on an internal medicine and pediatrics elective for the rest of the summer here, so I'm sure we'll definitely see him around.

In our free time away from the medical school and hospital, we all have been reading a lot, playing cards pretty much every night and going by the grocery store often. We all take turns cooking dinner and doing the dishes. After dinner each night we all tend to sit around the table talking for many hours after that, we call it our "family dinners." 

The rest of this week, Chris and I will be working on researching our case study on lead poisoning more. Tomorrow we are going by the Immigration Office to renew our business visas.

That is all for now!

Jenn

Day 13

Today turned out to be a lot of fun! We were told that today we would be traveling back to the village in Kafue from yesterday in order to just pick up some data sheets from the nurse at the health center. Many of the med students didn't show up this morning because they knew we were just going to be traveling 2 hours to pick up a few forms and that's it. However, upon arrival to the health center in the village, the nurse asked us to see a few patients while she gathered the data sheets. I partnered up with one of the med students, Gregory, and we began to see patients in the examination room. Though I couldn't understand any of the language, it was very interesting to watch the entire examination. Throughout the exam, Gregory would stop and explain to me what was going on, what the patient's complaint was, how to diagnose it, what medications to give, side effects, etc. It was sad to see the lack of supplies and medications in the clinic. During one of the exams Gregory told me that he wanted to prescribe this one drug to the patient but the clinic and the surrounding health centers did not carry it, so he would have to give the patient a less effective drug with more side-effects. Latex examining gloves and soap soon ran out as well, but the examinations continued as there were only a few of us and about 40 patients waiting to be seen. The nurse later informed us that the single doctor for the health center didn't show up today and that's why she needed us to examine the patients. It is definitely easy to see the lack in access to healthcare that these people have to deal with everyday.

For this reason it's so difficult for places like this to ever keep doctors around. Many of the medical students have told me that they plan to leave Zambia after they graduate in order to work in the US or Europe so they can make more money and have better access to technology. However, most of the students are on scholarship from the Zambian government, so their deal is that upon graduation they must work 2 years in a rural area clinic/hospital before they are free to do as they wish. This is similar in the US, the US government offers scholarships for medical students if they promise a certain amount of time to working in a poor area upon graduation. Or if you join the military, they will pay entirely for your medical school if you devote at least 4 years to being a military physician upon graduation. I definitely don't think I would ever be someone to join the military...way too much for me to handle.

After seeing some of the patients today, we loaded back onto the bus and went to the Kafue River. Because of how close the villages are to the river, most men of the village are fishermen. At the river, some of the fishermen asked all of us if we'd like a ride on their fishing canoes/boats, we all agreed (though I was pretty hesitant, as the boat didn't look too safe...) and rowed off into the water.

All of us in front of the Kafue River. This picture is seriously amazing because one of the old fisherman photobombed it! (second on the right)

This is Gregory, the student I was partnered with today.

Some of the fish being sold near the river.

Blurry, but Lou Pierre, me and Francisca on the boat.

They were yelling, "Jenn take pictures of us!!"

All of the med students in our group!

This is the best picture I could get of the landscape. Cotton fields and palm trees are seriously the strangest combination...

Tomorrow we have the day off so we will definitely be sleeping in!! (Haven't done that in over a week...we wake up around 7am everyday..) Also, we probably need to go by the grocery store to stock up on food for the weekend.

My dad wanted me to include what the weather is like here, so most days are cool in the morning and night, probably around 40-50 and during the afternoon pretty warm in the 80s. Everything is very dry because it only rains in this part of Africa during the months of December through March.

Until next time,

Jenn

Day 12

After a early morning start today, we headed off on the bus again to the rural villages of Kafue. Upon arrival, we separated into groups of 4 and divided up the village between all of us. Each group needed to complete 10 different household surveys today, these surveys basically consist of information about the head of the household's education, age, children, disease, access to immunizations, etc. This village was very poor. All of the households were mud huts with straw roofs, they had shared latrines and a communal water tap. Few of the children had gotten any immunizations, and many of them had malaria and were malnourished. All of the men of the village were fisherman. One interesting thing I found out from the surveys was that most of the mothers were under the age of 20 (some with 3 kids already) and were married to men in their 50s. I didn't see many men around the village because they were probably out fishing for the day. The women were all carrying babies wrapped to their backs and were washing clothes, fetching water, sweeping, or cooking.

It seemed like having a white person in the village was the main attraction of the day. Everywhere around Zambia people tend to stare pretty blatantly at any white person, some of them call out "Muzungu!" which means foreigner in Nyanja, the local language. At one point today around 20 small kids were following me around, it was really funny! I kept smiling at all of them and then they would giggle. One kid poked me for awhile in the leg, another kid stared over my papers the entire time I was doing the surveys. All of the kids were so cute!

The rest of this week we will be continuing with these household surveys and compiling data from local health centers on prevalence of certain diseases in the area. Thursday we will write our report for the week and Friday we will present to the class.

Something completely random about Zambia, due to the poor quality of most of the roads, there are no speed limits (or none that I have seen). However, to ensure cars don't drive extremely fast, there are speed bumps literally EVERYWHERE! This method definitely makes people slow down but it has gotten pretty annoying...

More pictures!

Here's the group of us in Kafue. The Zambian flag is in the background.

These were the huts in the village where we were conducting the survey today.

The huts were very small and most of the doorways were covered with towels.

Here were some of the kids following me and giggling. I am definitely the odd one out here!

That's all for now!
Jenn

Day 11

So today began our real experience with the medical students. Chris and I walked over to the main campus around 8am this morning and had a meeting with our group (14 med students) and Dr. Baboo, the head of the department of Community Medicine. We finally received a hard copy of our tentative schedule for the rest of the summer. The community medicine rotation is 8 weeks, week 1 was lectures; week 2 (this week) is a rural community health survey in Kafue (about an hour outside of Lusaka); week 3 is an urban health clinic survey in Lusaka; week 4 we will be staying in Livingstone (where Victoria Falls is) for the entire week doing school health surveys around the community; week 5 we will be conducting the lead poisoning survey in Kabwe (the focus of our case study); week 6 is the industrial medicine/occupational health unit where we will be going to local factories and job-sites including Chilanga Cement, the Padmodzi Hotel, Kafue Sugar Estates, and King Quality Meat Products; week 7 is the environmental health unit where we will be conducting surveys on sanitation and refuse disposal in various locations (including a sewage plant...should be interesting..); finally week 8 will be our wrap-up week where we will be writing our case study and presenting it to the students and faculty at the medical school. Sounds like an exciting summer!!

TODAY I GOT MY WHITE COAT FOR THE SUMMER! :) Seriously the white coat just makes everyone who wears it look so much more legit and amazing. I get to wear it pretty much everyday for the rest of the summer and it basically made my day when Chris and I got them today.

So after we received our fabulous white coats, one of the med students, Lou Pierre, we were shown around the med student's dorms, student center, lecture halls, and dining hall area. Then, all 16 of us loaded up on the bus and headed off to Kafue, about an hour outside of Lusaka. When we arrived at the Kafue Health Center, we found out that the head of the health department (who was supposed to come with us to the rural village) was still in a meeting and then needed to get lunch. So, we preceded to sit in the bus in the parking lot of the center for about 2 hours waiting for him...however, this was a great time to finally bond with a lot of the med students. I think I forgot to ever mention this, but EVERYONE speaks English SOOOOO well here!!! All of the lectures were in English and all writing everywhere around Zambia is in English (this might have to do with the fact that the British still claimed Zambia until the 60s...). Anyway, we sat in this parking lot talking and joking around for a few hours. It was a lot of fun and we definitely had some interesting conversations...some about witchcraft (which most people here COMPLETELY believe in!), polygamy (which is totally acceptable in life here...part of the reason why HIV/AIDS has become so predominant in sub-Saharan Africa), I remember some argument about renal failure, a huge discussion about malaria and how awful it is (most people here get it around 3 times a year! And while I am taking preventative medication for this whole trip, most of them have never taken it), and of course we talked about the nightlife. Many of them invited Chris and I to tag along with them any weekend when they hang out at the local clubs/bars, etc.  

After we finally picked up the head of the health department, we drove about 45min across the bumpiest rock/dirt road ever! As we began to drive further and further away from urban civilization, we ran across several straw huts and farms across the landscape. Speaking of the landscape, I really need to get a good picture of it because it is so strange! Basically it was high grasses on each side of the road with palm/coconut trees spread sporadically around and then some of those enormous trees with really fat trunks and really skinny branches..think the Tree of Life from the Animal Kingdom.

When we arrived at the next health center, we picked up another person and then drove off again, heading deeper into the rural fields for another 30min down the bumpy road (if you could even call it that).  Upon arrival to yet another health center, we sat in the bus for another half hour while the head of the health department guy went and talked to someone, and then everyone decided that we were done for the day...even though we hadn't even done one household survey yet and I think we were supposed to do 10 today...whoops haha. I took some pictures of the final health center and the area around it:

The thing in the middle is a water pump (probably one of the only for the whole village), behind it is a home with a straw fence.

This marked the first time I have ever seen a rural, poor community. It was really shocking in a bad way. It was just awful for me to realize what some people live like..in conditions that no human should have to suffer through. While we were in the bus we saw a malnourished, stunted child walk by..and though I have seen pictures of what these children look like, I had never actually seen it before. It was truly a sad sight and the entire drive back to Lusaka, Chris and I had a discussion on what we just saw, how to do something about it, what the government can do, etc. The med students even were saying how these people in the rural communities have nothing, poor access to healthcare and how sad it is. I have noticed that the med students are definitely well-off compared to the average Zambian. They all have Blackberries and touch-screen phones, are very educated, and most of them have said the main reason they want to become doctors is to make a lot of money (and most of them plan on leaving Zambia once they have their degree and go to the US or Europe to make more money and live in better conditions).

Well I should probably go to bed as I have to wake up a 6am tomorrow to meet up with the med students and head all the way back to the rural village we were at today...so goodnight!

Jenn

Day 10

Well, I'm back at our house in Lusaka now...the past 48 hours have been  hectic. On Saturday morning we woke up around 4am to head over to the Lusaka bus station for our 6 hour bus ride to Kitwe in northern Zambia. The bus ride was uneventful until we began to get closer and closer to Ndola, the city where the Zambia vs. Ghana soccer match was being held in their brand new stadium. At first I questioned how Zambia was able to afford to build such an enormous new soccer/track stadium...then Anna let me know that it was actually the Chinese government who donated the money and supplies for the stadium to be built. The Chinese have began to invest in Zambia, specifically in the mining industry. I assume they built the stadium for Zambia to get on the good graces with the citizens and government of Zambia (and what better way than through their hearts...aka soccer). Anyway, as we approached Ndola on our coach bus, we began to see people along the sides of the road and in cars tooting their horns, yelling, cheering, blasting music, blowing on their vuvuzela's (the large plastic horns infamous from the 2010 World Cup as the droning noise in the background of all the matches). People were so spirited for the game!! Everyone we saw was wearing their bright green and orange soccer jerseys or wearing long-almost dress-like Zambian flag outfits in support of the upcoming game. It was really interesting to see how much the country is united for the day to support their national soccer team. I attempted to take a picture of some of the people from the side of the road..but this was the best I could do, as the bus was still moving...

I'm definitely going to bring home a few Zambian soccer jerseys, they look so cool! I love the green and orange combination!! So when we finally did get to Ndola, the crowd was even larger along all the roads with people cheering insanely in preparation. The stadium was right off of the main road so we drove right by it, it is ENORMOUS! Well, the rest of the bus ride to Kitwe was completely uneventful, aside from me seeing the true poor parts of the African continent. It was really sad to see how things are in poverty-stricken areas..when we drove by all the areas all I wanted to do was help out those people in some way..but I honestly don't know how. I'm hoping that my way of helping will be through medicine, and in the future I plan to travel at least once a year for a few weeks to poverty-stricken areas and help out with any healthcare they might need.

Upon arrival to Kitwe, we went straight to our hotel (which was amazing I might add) and took some much-needed naps. We woke up for the game and watched as Zambia played to victory against Ghana!! After the game, Ken, the professor from Copperbelt University, came to our hotel and picked us up (he was actually at the game so we had to wait for him to drive back from Ndola) and we went to Mona Lisa Restaurant, a  nice pizza place right down the street from our hotel. We stayed for a couple of hours talking to Ken about Zambia, medicine, lead poisoning, sanitation, malaria and tons of other stuff...all while eating some amazing pizza and watching the Germany vs. Portugal soccer match (GO DEUTSCHLAND!). When the game ended we headed back to the hotel to catch up on sleep before waking up again at 4am to catch the bus back to Lusaka today.

In other news, I did laundry today! It literally took me 3 hours...I hand-washed all of my clothes as we have no washer or dryer. I really took for granted all the work that a washing machine does, because doing my laundry definitely felt like a workout to me!

Tomorrow, Chris and I will be going to the medical school at 8am for a meeting about what we will be doing the next week..and as of now I have no idea what that will be!

Until next time,
Jenn

Day 8

Hello again!

     I'm heading north for the weekend to the city of Kitwe in the northern part of central Zambia. We are all going to Kitwe in order to meet with Ken, an expert on lead poisoning from Copperbelt University. Chris and I are going to interview him (we just made up a list of like 11 questions of random things) to get more information for the direction we should go with our case study. We all have to wake up at 5am (!!!!!) tomorrow morning to head to the bus station in Lusaka to hop on the 6am bus to Kitwe, a 6hr drive.
     One HUGE thing in most parts of the world (except the USA) is soccer..and it is no different here in Zambia. The Zambian people have so much pride in their soccer team, as this past march they won the Africa Cup...which is a BIG deal here. Last weekend we all watched the match of Zambia vs. Sudan, and unfortunately Sudan took the victory there. All week I've been hearing about everyone's disappointment in the loss and how bad of a sign that was. Well, tomorrow is the match of Zambia vs. Ghana (if you don't remember Ghana was the country that bumped the USA out of contending for the World Cup in 2010) and we all plan to go to some type of sports bar as soon as we get to Kitwe to grab some pizza and watch the game with true Zambians. I know I'm super excited to watch it! I remember how exciting it was to be traveling through Europe during the 2010 World Cup, so I know this will be awesome!
     I finally took some pictures today!!! My mom should really be proud of me :)

This is the lecture hall that I've been at all week with the medical students. All of them wear their white coats everyday to class, definitely makes me jealous!

There are bulletin boards posted throughout the hospital where pretty much all correspondence is posted, I don't think the school uses email very often so they post everything here, including all grades! 

All large buildings and well-off houses are surrounded by huge fences usually with barbed wire or electric fencing at the top. However, I have noticed that some people get creative and cover the tops of their fences with broken glass from bottles!

I tried to get a picture of this woman carrying a basket on her head but I didn't want to be too obvious about it haha. It's so interesting to see how many women just walk around balancing such large items on their heads.

This is the front entrance to the Italian Orthopedic Hospital where we are living for the summer.

This is the main building of the Italian Orthopedic Hospital.

Here's our house!! Look's pretty small but it's actually large from the inside!! I'll get some pictures up later of  what the inside looks like.

Well, that's all I have for now. My next post will be from Kitwe!

Jenn