Home Visits

We do a lot of home visits as part of the child carers project, requiring us to go out to the rural areas to various homesteads and talk to the children's parents, grandparents, or guardians.  Some of the residents receive us with open arms, some are skeptical of our involvement, and others have never heard of Environment Africa or child carers before.  As a special side note, there was another volunteer here for two weeks in February! Her name is Janna, and she is a nurse from Wales, but working in London.  It was AMAZING to have another volunteer to work with in the same program, and we had a lot of fun together.  Without further ado, some pictures of the home visits in February.

Cheidza, an 18 year-old orphan who asked to be a part of the Child Carers project.  Her cousin, Caroline, was the reason for our visit.  They both live with their ill grandfather. 

 

 

 

a beautiful homestead on a perfect Zimbabwean day

Janna and Lorren (lower right in the blue t-shirt) with the family of one of the child carers

During these home visits in Nemananga ward, I also got some good photos of a borehole water pump and of a rural woman carrying firewood on her head back to her homestead.  Traditionally, women do all the heavy lifting because the men are supposed to walk beside them with a spear, protecting them.  While this is not the case in modern times, the women in the rural areas still do all the water and firewood fetching (traditional female roles) and they are all masters of grace and balance. 

borehole water pump. they are fenced in so that cattle and elephants do not destroy or bend the pipes

Daniel and Lorren, waiting for me to pump them water.  The excess water flows into a trough for livestock to drink from

A woman we asked for directions, she didn't even need to hold the massive amount of wood on her head to talk to us or walk down the road

Ministry of Health HBC Workshop and Monitoring Visits

At the end of January and through the beginning of February, I participated in the Ministry of Health's HBC workshop and monitoring visits in Mkhosana as part of Environment Africa's PRP II sector (Protracted Relief Program).  This series of events started out with a day-long lecture on what the ministry of health is trying to asses followed by a practice session on the interview form and how best to coax the information from the interviewees. 

All of us attending the lecture at the youth-friendly center in Mkhosana, at the time of this photo, we were already going over the interview questionnaire.

A representative from Save the Children conducted the lecture, which mainly focused on the definition and components of 'quality of life'.  According to him, there are three B's concerning quality of life: being, belonging, and becoming.  Being was defined as the physical, emotional, psychologial and spiritual station of a client; essentially, their ability and willingness to care for themselves and function normally.  Belonging concerned with assessing the community and how it relates to the client including the communities attitude toward the client both physically and socially with emphasis on identifying cases of positive and negative discrimination.  Lastly, becoming referred to the client's participation in community activities, leisure, and personal growth.  After the quality of life discussion, we moved on to a full explanation of the questionnaire and any clarifications needed.  We then took a break for lunch, then returned for a mock-interview session with the other participants to try and identify any problems with the questionnaire.  

For the next two days, I went out into the field with two different community facilitators and interviewed clients using the questionnaire and the training I received the previous day.  The first day, I visited three clients, two children and one adult.  The first was Brightshoe (pronounced bright-show-eh), a seven year old boy with chronic knee problems.  In spite of this, he was a precocious little child, and his mother said he always is out running and playing with other kids.  Evidence that children are universally procrastinators: Brightshoe was finishing his homework for that day even as we were interviewing him!  The second child we tried to see was Simalinekosi, a nine year old girl who was very, very sick. She was taken to the Vic Falls hospital that morning by her father, so we interviewed her mother in her place. The last client on the first day was Ennah Shoko, a gogo (grandma/old lady) with a bad cough and pain in her joints.  The second day was uneventful, since we could only find one person at home to interview and that was Mrs. Anitah Ncube who was feeling well though partially shunned by the community.  Overall, the workshop and visits were worthwhile, although I do not know when we will be monitoring these same people again to check on their well being and quality of life. 

Brightshoe in his house, he was working on his homework on the floor

Brightshoe's mother, she was so vivacious; always smiling. I included this because it is a beautiful picture although you can tell how bare and spartan their house is.

HBC Kit Distribution

At the end of January, Lorren, Nyarie, and I spent three days distributing home-based care (HBC) kits to child carers at five different clinics in the Hwange district.  Although these kits consist of extremely basic medical supplies, they are incredibly useful for the people in the rural areas and they can do wonders for basic health care and cleanliness, particularly when fending off opportunistic infections in people living with HIV and AIDS. 

A full HBC kit consists of:
- one twenty liter bucket
- one ten liter bucket
- one apron
- one tube of betadine ointment
- two jars of vaseline
- three bars of antibacterial soap
- one 1kg bar of laundry soap
- two packets of oral rehydration salts
- one washcloth
- one canvas bag
- one packet of cotton wool
- one can of bicarbonate of soda

Supplies we left at the clinics for all child carers to check out:
- packets of linen savers (basically disposable bed liners)
- extra bicarb of soda
- five liter bottles of bleach (called 'jik' here)
- betadine ointment and solution
- extra gauze and cotton wool
- household rubber gloves
- boxes of disposable latex gloves
- extra soap and vaseline

These basic supplies are mainly used to try and maintain a living situation that is as sanitary as possible for both the client and the child carer.  Most items on these lists are self explanatory, but the jik is used for cleaning purposes and the bicarb of soda is used to cure thrush (yeast infection of the mouth commonly seen in HIV positive and AIDS patients).

Not all of the children were given full kits; only the five children with the sickest parents got full kits at each clinic, but all of the children were given soap and vaseline as well as full access to the remainder of the supplies we left with the nurses to distribute as needed.  This system is obviously not perfect, but we distributed as many kits and supplies as we possible could.  The biggest problem I had with the distribution was the selection of the most needy children - who knows what could happen next week with all the other child carer's parents and guardians?

Most of the kits and supplies were donated from Save the Children, but a few of the kits came from World Vision complete with bright orange bags and hand-written notes from the lovely people who donated that specific kit. (as a side note, I was very impressed that these notes were included in the kits. they embody the kind of promise that NGO's and charities are constantly making to donors but that is very difficult to see followed through, so kudos to World Vision).

Here are a few pictures of the HBC kit distribution at Jambezi clinic:

Some of the secondary school children listening to the nurse describe how to use the various items in the kits and from the clinic

Me inventorying supplies while the children line up to sign the registers

Our three facilitators (second from left, fifth from left, and sixth from left), myself, and three of the children who recieved the full kits (in front)

Some primary school girls signing the register with help from Nyarie

The whole group with their vaseline, soap, and kits.

Fauna

Needless to say, the wildlife in Zimbabwe is incredible.  Other than the falls, the native animals are the biggest draw for Zimbabwe, particularly Hwange National Park.  While some of the animals can only be seen in the wildlife preserve and national park areas, there are plenty that I see every day on the street, in town, or from the car.  These are a few pictures of the animals I have seen so far both in town and on game drives in the bush.

As a side note, I haven't seen a rhino yet (of the black or white variety) and, apparently, I happen to be the anti-buffalo.  They are supposed to be everywhere, but I have yet to see one.  I also don't have a good picture of the baboons that are ubiquitous around town. 

The Falls

It is quite embarrassing, but, after three months of living and working in Victoria Falls, I finally found the time to actually visit the attraction from which the town takes it's namesake.  Victoria Falls are not the highest waterfall in the world, but, at high water, the combined flow over the falls is the single largest sheet of falling water in the world.  At high water, the amount of water flowing over the Falls in one minute is greater than the total water consumption of the capital city, Harare, for two days.  The relatively small area directly surrounding the falls, particularly the land subject to the constant spray, is a natural rain forest, the only one in Zimbabwe.  Above and beyond all the facts, Victoria Falls is simply breathtakingly beautiful.  The unobtrusive, unfenced pathways through the Falls and the minimal (and unsettling) low thorn branch fences - or no fences in some areas - allow a viewing experience that is dominated by nature, not by human interference.  It is difficult to describe in words how stunning and grand the Falls actually are, and I'm afraid that even my pictures will not do them proper justice.  The best way to see the Falls is to visit and spend a few hours sitting and watching a force of nature that existed long before you did and will exist long after we are all gone.  As a side note, these pictures of the falls are at fairly low water.  I will try to take some pictures at high water for comparison later this spring.

Devil's Cataract, island view

Main Falls, Devil's Cataract island view

Main Falls, partially head-on, you can see the spray building on the bottom right

The path through the Falls

The sign cautioning everyone on the transition from small stick fences to no fences at all

Rainbow Falls

Danger Point

Looking over to the Zambian side, note the people viewing from Zambia on the upper right hand, gives a good reference to the size of the gorge

Horseshoe Falls, through the spray

Part of the 'fence' that separates you from a 750ft fall into the gorge

Sylvester

For the past few weeks, two of my good friends here, Lexi and Emma, had the job of looking after a seven-month old cheetah named Sylvester.  He was rescued south of Bulawayo when a local couple noticed his mother and other siblings being eaten by a lion.  Since Sylvester was rescued before his eyes were even open, he will never be able to be released into the wild, as he is too used to humans and has not been taught how to hunt or fend for himself; he is afraid of guinea fowl!  Given that he is still a kitten, albeit a huge one, he is a trial to train and take care of.  Wild Horizons, a large tourism company, has taken over Sylvester's care and made him a nice home enclosure out at the Elephant Camp resort.  The biggest part of Sylvester's daily maintenance is taking him on a twice-daily walk out in the bush beyond elephant camp.  I was lucky enough accompany Sylvester on many walks and to spend some time with him courtesy of Wild Horizons and these girls.  So without further ado, here are some pictures of him in all his baby cheetah glory.

Sylvester on his 'block' waiting to get his harness and collar put on for a walk

 

 

 

 

Sylvester trying his hardest to get the button off my pants... he loves chewing on/playing with shoelaces and buttons

He also likes licking any human skin, which is quite trying since his tongue has the texture of rough sandpaper

 

Taking a break on a felled tree. Wild cheetahs use any high point, usually termite mounds, to survey the surrounding area

Sylvester stubbornly refusing to go back to his enclosure after his afternoon walk

Sylvester mid-walk (walking is a loose term for it, he is unleashed and runs, stops, and stalks his walkers at liberty)

The Rural Areas

Since I have the time, I should explain further exactly the state of the rural areas in Zimbabwe.  Outside of the major cities, the majority of the population lives practically as if they exist in a different century.  The rural areas do not have running water, electricity, or indoor plumbing; the main methods of transportation are walking and donkey cart, there are no metal fences, and old plastic bottles are saved and treated with reverence.  Most water is gathered in old gas cans from either local streams or boreholes (which are few and far between).  As I've explained earlier, the rural clinics cover vast areas of the rural areas, and only staffed with nurses (the Victoria Falls hospital only has nurses, what does that say about the staffing in the rural areas) serving thousands of people with only the most rudimentary health care practices.

As for accommodations, typically, a family compound consists of a few thatched mud huts, one of which is partially open-air with half-walls for cooking.  When a son of a rural family wants to get married, he builds a house for himself and his future wife/family close to his family compound.  After this house is complete, his father then negotiates with the father of the future bride for her lebola, the price the groom's family must pay for taking the bride from her family.  Traditionally, this is paid in cattle, but in modern days, it can now consist of money and modern goods as well.

All of the buildings in a housing compound are made of mud and thick logs with pointed thatched roofs.  Mud benches are built into the inside of the buildings for seating and sleeping as furniture is understandably scarce.  The buildings are either round or rectangular, the best and most prestigious of which even have windows.  Although the buildings are made out of natural materials, they are quite beautiful.  Extreme care is taken when building, resulting in clean, symmetrical buildings with smooth walls and neatly thatched roofs.  The thatching can be done in stylized layers or cut-out swags as decoration.  Often family compounds have beautiful designs painted on all the houses, each design unique to each family group. 

A typical cooking hut (foreground). Also, notice how the buildings match in the decorative painted stripes at the bottom.

Another rural house, with thatching drying (on the right) and a traditional stick fence.

Quite a large rural house although its grounds are desolate.

A housing compound, in pretty bad shape

Another housing compound

And another

These pictures were taken at the height of the dry season (mid-October).  That's why the vegetation is nonexistent and there is no visible wildlife.  At the moment, even though the rains are not at full force, all of the trees that were brown and barren have fully sprouted their leaves.  The terrain has changed so much, in the rural areas the dirt is no longer even visible outside of the roads and the housing clearings.