Cancidates with misunderstandings

Many Zambian guys try to pick us up here because of our skin colour. They want to get married with white women. I'm Japanese, but for them, I'm also a 'white woman'. They think all of us are very rich. They don't have much understanding of the global economy, so they just think if they were to get married with us, they would have plenty of money automatically. Even a guy who you meet for the first time on the street proposes to you. "I love you, Madam. I want you to be my wife" And they are insistent. although you say 'No', they follow you. it's really annoying.

I always try to explain how life is in Japan. We should work hard all day long to get money and the cost of living is very expensive so we're always struggling with a shortage of money, but they don't believe it. They think we can get a lot of money so easily.

One man said, "You should get married with my nephew. He loves you a lot and he would make you happy. You wouldn't have to worry about housework. You can hire a maid. And just buy a farm, so you can get a lot of money easily". And his wife added "You should prepare some money for my nephew's mother before your wedding". I'm just an ordinary single woman, why did they think I could afford to buy a farm? And what if I can afford to do so, why should I pay money to my husband and his family? Their ideas are totally stupid. That man and his wife are not uneducated. They graduated from college, but they still have wrong perceptions.

I know some women from developed countries who got married to African guys, I want to know how they manage these misunderstandings about economy.

Under 5 Clinic at a rural health center in Zambia

Sonia is weghing babies. Twice a month we provide 'Under 5 Clinic'. We wegh babies, give them vaccinations and vitamin A tablets.  Today about 50 babies came to our clinic.

Webster, Zambian guy, 25 years old, The Story of His Life

Webster is a watchman during night at my place. In the daytime, he goes to school. This year he became grade 10. It means he entered secondary school. I wondered why he is already an adult yet goes to school with kids?
He told me the story of his life.
*****
Me and my family lived in a small farming village in the bush. I was a school boy. We were not rich, but my parents managed to pay my school fees. When I was in grade 7, I failed the exam. The following year, my parents payed the school fees for me again and I failed again. So I stopped going to school. I did nothing at that time. I would just sit at home and sometimes I worked on the farm.
And then I got married. One year, the weather was cold. We couldn't grow any crops and all of our cows died from a disease. So we moved to Kalomo town to live. First I did only some small piecework, and then I got this job. Then I started to think that my salary was not enough to feed my family and pay for my children to go to school. I thought I should get more money, but I'm not well educated so I couldn't get a highly-paid job. And then an idea occurred to me. I could go back to school again. I told my wife my idea and she agreed with my plan. It wasn't easy for to me to study again, so I tried hard. During the final exam this year, I got study leave and my wife worked for a living instead of me. She helped me concentrate on my exam.
*****
Wao! It's a good story. But I was worried about his school fees. I asked him if his salary is enough for him and his family, because I thought his salary is not so high. He replied that when he was in basic school, he managed to pay it on time, but now he has got a sponsorship from a Canadian woman. She had stayed here for 5 years before so she knows him and his life. He sent her an e-mail asking for sponsorship and she accepted it. Now he doesn't have to worry about his school fees! It's wonderful. Here in the Namwianga area, many students get sponsorship from the U.S. and Canada. And their organization is doing this program very fairly and correctly. That Canadian woman should be happy because her money was spent on the right thing in the right way.

Zambia Mission Fund Canada
http://www.zambiamissionfundcanada.org/

My friend, Jack, 1 year old

Jack lives behind my clinic. When I pass by his place, he calls my name, "Shima ! Shima!"
And when I come up to him....

He starts to cry. He scares of a people who's colour is defferent.
When I step away from his place, he stops crying and says, "Bye-bye, Shima !" It's funny.

At a restaurant in Kalomo

You can see 'nshima', Zambians staple food made by maize, fried chickens and tomato sauce. It's 10.000ZMK. A bottle of orange juice is 3000ZMK. Zambians eat nshima with their right hands. Of course, I also do it as them!
※5000ZMK=1USD

African time, African appointment

One of the annoying things in Africa is that they don't keep on time. People say we Japanese and Germans are very precise about time. In Japan, we are used to everything being on time. If we delay an appointment with our client, we will lose our contract. If you late for your date, you'll lose your girlfriend. Punctuality defines your reliability in Japan.

In Niger, I called a plumber to fix my place in the morning. He said "O.K. I'll come now." He came to my place around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In Japan, "now" means within 30 min. In Niger, it means 8 hours !?

In Zambia, people also don't care about time. Our clinic is open from 8:30a.m to 16:00p.m. But after morning service, they greet and chat for about 1 hour. Then they start their work around 9:30a.m. And they do everything very slowly. So patients have to wait their turns for a long, long time. The word "efficiency" doesn't exist here. Social events also are always delayed. Wedding, party. ceremony, even National conference are also delayed for about 2 hours. Here you shouldn't get mad if someone doesn't show up to your appointment. He'll come 2 hours later, and he doesn't think it's a problem. Or sometimes they don't come and there's no apology. But you shouldn't be angry. They have reasons like something came up and they didn't have money to call you. You can't trust them as for time and appointment. We have to recognize all of these are just part of their culture.
Anyway, it's kind of stressful, though I know basically they are nice people.

Cell-phone in Africa

Before I came to Africa, I wondered if there were cell-phones in Africa? The first country that I went to in Africa was Niger. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. I heard that many people there live with less than 1 USD per day. I couldn't imagine how life is there. Despite my concern,in Niger, I found everybody has cell-phones. Though they are poor, they have one. In Africa, they haven't a regular phone network, I mean, wire-networks for telephones. In developed countries, we have telephones in each house and office. But in Africa, only "cell-phones" are telephones.

All calls should be pre-paid in Africa. We should buy coupon tickets for calls and enter the number. So, telephone companies can avoid unpaid customers. I think this is a good system here. And the cell-phone have torch functions. It's very convinient here because electricity stops everyday. In the dark, it helps us. Of course, in developed countries, we don't need this function.

We can see NOKIA, SUMSUNG, Sony Ericson and some Chinese model cell-phone. Even BlackBerry is also available. I saw iPhone in a market in Niger, but it was fake. African people enjoy chatting with their friends, radio, music, movies and taking photos with their cell-phone like us. I've never imagined it. The communication industry is developping even in Africa!

Malnourished Baby and her Mother

Now we have one baby who is malnourished in the ward. The main reason is a lack of protein. The baby doesn't like milk. She prefers soft drinks like Fanta to milk, so her mother gives her only that. And nshima, their staple food, and bread. All of them become just glucide.
I prepared F-75, milk designed for malnourished babies and told the mother to give it to her baby. For the first 2-3 days she did it, though her baby was unwilling to drink it. The mother frequently asked me when her baby could start to eat nshima again so they could go home. She thought feeding milk to the baby was troublesome. I stayed in the clinic to observe them as much as I could. I couldn't trust the mother. I saw that she gave her baby other food even though I told her not to do it.

Yesterday, the mother lied to me. She told me she gave her baby some milk, but it wasn't the truth.
And now our F-75 milk has finished so we'll allow them to be discharged from the clinic. Now we can do nothing for them without that milk.
That baby might get AIDS in the early stage in her life. She is HIV positive, as is her mother, and the mother doesn't feed her properly.

I feel angry towards the mother. She has to make an effort for her baby but she doesn't. Babies can't choose their parents. There are no options. We have to live our fate. Sometimes it's dire.

Shopping in Kalomo Market

Here is Kalomo Market in the morning. We can see a lot of cabbege. I bought one. It was 3000ZMK.( 5000ZMK=1USD)

Tomatos. 4 tomatos=1000ZMK. I bought those for our patients in  wards. 10000ZMK.

Grapefruits. 2000ZMK / each. I bought two of them.

Spring onions. 1000ZMK / 1 bunch.  I rarely find them here. We Japanese love them. I bought one bunch.

Roasted corns. In this picture, you can see their colours are yellow. But actually before they are roasted, their colours were white. In Japan I thought the colour of corn is yellow and they are sweet. In Zambia, they aren't sweet. It might be a different breed.

Chickens.

Metal plates.

Buckets and braziers. I bought a small brazier for our clinic. It was 15000ZMK. We should use it when electricity is stopped, like this .

 

Which do you prefer, slim girl or fat girl?

We can find many culture differences between developed countries and Africa.
When I lived in Niger before, one of the most surprising facts I found there was that guys love fat women, so many women want to be fat. It's totally the opposite of Japan. Most Japanese guys prefer slim women to fat women, so we try to keep our figure slim.

In Niger, people worried that I would not be able to find a husband as I was thin. Every day they encouraged me to be fat. Some people advised me to take medicine to get fat. I asked them what kind of medicine should I have? They replied, "Vitamins!" Funny.

Today, I was chatting with Crive, a driver at our clinic. He said, "Most American guys like slim women with big breasts. I don't understand that. Here, we don't like big breasts."
He continued, three quarters of Zambian guys prefer slim women to fat women and they don't like big boobs. They think fat women with big boobs aren't stylish, sophisticated or modern.

It's a new finding here in Zambia. There is an ethnic group who doesn't like big boobs in the world. Even in Japan, guys like big boobs the same as guys in the USA. Though after World War II, we were affected by American culture like Hollywood movies. Hundreds of years ago, we thought flat bust was beautiful. And of course, it depends on the person.

I'll ask my Zambian friends what kind of woman/guy they prefer? I might get interesting results.

Zambian Herbal Medicine

I met a woman who sells dried herbs in a market. She sells dried and powdered garlic, parsley, cinnamon, and rosemary. I asked her if she has ginger. I want to use it for cooking.
She picked up a small plastic packet from a box. It is powdered ginger indicated as "Herbal Medicine".
It's for, quote; disorder of the digestive system, rheumatism, pulmonary, allergic, skin condition, colds, influenza, sore throats, sinusitis and boils.

In Japan, Chinese herbal medicine is popular. According to their theory, ginger works for those symptoms. But even though we don't have any health problems, we use ginger daily for cooking. That woman said, in Zambia, they use it only when they are sick. I bought it. It was 2USD.
I made ginger tea with that powder and tasted it. It was just the same like that in Japan.Ginger is a very nice spice for our health and beauty. And in my village we can't find whole ginger. I'll use that powder and when I finish it, buy another packet.

She also has other medicines for children's cough and men's impotence and so on. They seem like several kinds of herb that have been mixed. I found a packet, "SUPER LADY". She said it works for cramps and makes our body warm.
I'm not sure if African herbal medicine can be relied on like Chinese herbal medicine. But someday, I want to try "SUPER LADY". I hope it'll work.

Communication problem with patients

Now, my malnourished baby in a ward is getting well. Good. These days I have spent almost the whole day at the clinic. I prepared milk for him every 2 hours and observed him while he was drinking it. After his grandmother stopped giving the other foods to him, his diarrhea also stopped. Now his condition is stabilized. I'm going to change the milk to a more high-energy and high-protein one tomorrow. I hope his weight will increase.

We admitted two new babies in the ward. They're also malnourished. Unfortunately, their parents can't understand English. Today I asked them to bring their babies to weigh them but they didn't understand what I said. A woman who was near us interpreted me.

In Zambia, their public language is English. Most staff in our clinic can speak it. Our clinic is founded by a missionary organization from the States. In the same area, there is one secondary school, one college and two orphanages. Some Americans live here. And volunteers from western countries always come here throughout the year. People here are used to western people and their language. But some patients don't speak english. Only their local language.

My friend, another Japanese volunteer, is working at a clinic in a town near my village. Her situation is tougher than mine. Staff there don't speak English. Because that isn't a misson's clinic. That is a government one. Good communication is necessary for good treatment. We should manage this problem.

Blackout, everyday...

In our town, there is blackout everyday about 2-3 hours. During a blackout we should cook meals with charcoals.

Polygamy in ZAMBIA

I met a man in a prenatal clinic at our rural health center. He brought two wives at the same time!
In ZAMBIA, they have a culture of polygamy. In urban areas, it's getting to be an outdated culture, but in rural areas, it's still around.

I asked that man if he planned this or it was just a coincidence. He replied that it just occurred accidentally. So I couldn't say "congratulations!" to them. I just said that I hope they will have healthy babies and be happy. One of his wives replied, "We are happy because when I am tired, she helps me." She thought that I think it's pathetic.

Although she said that, I can't believe African women accept polygamy. I spent about a year in NIGER before ZAMBIA. Most of Nigerians are Muslims and Allah allows them four wives. But it is likely that they argue. Sometimes wife versus wife, sometimes wife versus husband. I think jealousy is a universal feeling all over the world. What if my husband brought another wife, I would be mad. I asked my female colleagues if they would accept other wives with their husbands ? Their ansers were "No".

Even if a man has only one wife, having more than one sex partner at same time is popular here. I want to know what women think about it. Do they admit it as a part of their culture?

Market, Kalomo, ZAMBIA

I bought 1 bag of tomatoes at  a market  in Kalomo town. It was 5000ZMK (1USD).

My patient passed away.

My patient passed away last weekend. A baby in a ward. He was malnourished. I gave him high-energy milk every 3 hours and his weight was increasing. He came to our clinic on Friday and he had gained 500g by Saturday evening. I thought he was getting well. But Saturday midnight, his condition suddenly deteriorated. We sent him to the district hospital. His condition looked so serious. On Sunday, I went to the hospital to see him. And I found that he had died.

I'm shocked. What happened to him? Was my treatment not adequate? I'm not sure.I don't have enough experience with malnourished babies. It's my first time because I've never seen them in JAPAN. My colleagues told me it was not my fault. I know it. I did what I thought was the best way. However, I feel bad.

A girl got pregnant and her age is 16

I'm working in a small clinic in ZAMBIA. Every Wednesday and Friday, we provide a prenatal clinic. Pregnant women come to our clinic with their partners.
Last Friday, we found a girl whose age is just 16 and her partner is just 17 years old. They are still students.
They haven't gotten married yet, and the girl doesn't want to do it now. She told us she wants to finish her school first, and then she wants to get married. I saw her boyfriend, the baby's father. He looked just happy.

I worried about their life instead of him. Can that girl continue to study in school with a baby? Who will take care of the baby? Who will provide them money for living? Will that boy have any responsibility for his girlfriend and baby until he'll get married with her? That boy has no idea that he is still young. What if he'll find another girl who is much better than her in the future? And what if he'll find another one, isn't he going to regret that he already has a baby?

They are not rare here. We can find young girls who are pregnant. Their ages are 15, 16 or 17. We can find even 14 years old girls in the prenatal clinic. And they deliver. They don't terminate.
Their partners are also young. Some of them are married. Some of them are single. I can't understand why they don't feel scare about their future with a baby without a source of income? In ZAMBIA, are all young guys just romantic?

Young pregnant mothers and their boyfriend's family might think they are too young to have a baby. But they have no options like an abortion here so they might have to just accept the babies.

Malnutrition in Zambia

Today we have two babies in the ward at our clinic. They are malnourished.

Our images of African countries are civil war, famine and refugee camps. Some of my friends think I can't access food in Africa, but Zambia is not a country like Somalia. We can access food. However, we can find malnourished children here. There are several reasons.

First, the poor infrastructure of logistics. They don't have enough logistic network in rural areas. Even in my village, Namwianga, we don't have public transportation to town where we can buy meat. When we want to go to town, we should hitchhike or walk for 1 hour. In other small villages, especially in the bush, it's very difficult to access a variety of food.

The second reason is that a Zambian diet lacks diversity. They eat the same menu every day. Nshima is their staple food made by maize. They eat nshima and some vegetables. People who can afford to buy meat, eat chicken, beef or mutton. Beans and small dried fish, called "kapenta", are more inexpensive source of protein. But, they don't eat protein with every meal. Especially in the bush, they consume protein 1 time a day or spend the whole day without it.

The third reason is lack of knowlege about nutrition. In developed countries, we learn about nutrition in school and mass media provides information about a good diet. So we can be "health conscious" people. But in Zambia, because of the poor education system and mass media, they don't know enough about nutrition. They don't pay attention to what they eat. I think these reasons cause child malnutrition.

In Japan I worked to reduce obesity, here I should do the opposite.

Cute cat!

At my clinic staff, Doled's place. Cute!



HIV care service in our clinic

Every Tuesday, we provide care service at our clinic for the people living with HIV virus. Just today we got about 50 patients. Our clinic is a rural health center in a small town. In a big hospital, you can see more than 50 patients every day.

Although medical care service is free in Zambia, some HIV patients don't go to the clinic. Some of them don't have enough money to go, some of them can't stick to the treatment. They have to take several kinds of medicine every day, not only once a day, but 2-3 times. And some medicine causes you to feel like vomiting, headache, or appetite loss.

Adherence to treatment is not easy. They have to keep a healthy life style. They're expected to quit smoking, drinking, and having sex without condoms. If I were an HIV patient, it would be hard. I want to enjoy some alcohol with meals and have sex without condoms with my spouse.

To continue adequate treatment, they need support, like family, friends, and people living within their community. But some patients don't want to disclose their status. They might be afraid of losing their family or friends.

There are "adherence supporters". They are volunteers in the community who help HIV patients stick to treatment. They call patients in case they don't show up at their appointment, and sometimes visit their place to counsel. Some of them are also HIV patients themselves.
HIV is not somebody else's problem here; everybody has possibility to be infected.

It's hard to undestand culture difference

Now I'm living in Zambia.

In the morning I got a mail from Bridget which said, "Today, don't forget my chitenge."
A chitenge is an African wrap skirt. I can't understand what she's saying.

She is my friend's sister. She has a husband and a baby. Today I have an appointment with her for lunch at her place. Why does she demand me to bring her chitenge? I don't have her chitenge. Does she want me to buy a chitenge for her? Her husband is a government officer, they're not poor.

In Japan, if you're invited to someone's place for lunch or supper, you're expected to bring something for them. For example, flowers, sweets, or a bottle of wine. It's an expression of "Thank you for inviting me." There's the same custom in Zambia, so is she demanding something from me?

Another possibility.
In Zambia you can find people on the street who beg you for some money. They think you can afford to do that because you look rich. She's doing the same thing as them?

In Japanese culture, begging for something from other people without a special reason is a shameless attitude. And if someone asks you to do something, doing everything possible is considered a faithful attitude.

So I'm wondering if she's saying that for a special reason, Zambian custom or is it just a joke? Should I find a chitenge for her?

He wanna be my husband

He is cute!
But he is 18 years old, just graduated from secondly school last month.
If I was in my 20's, I would be his wife.
Actually I'm almost his mother's age...

Mango season in ZAMBIA

Now we are in mango season here!
You can find many mango sellers in market places.
The price is 500ZMK/each.
Today I bought two of them.

In JAPAN, we shoud pay at least 4USD/each.
So I shoud enjoy these mangos in ZAMBIA !