First day of school

Today we started the lecture and book portion of the course. This morning Dr. Thuma talked about global health and the progress that has been made on the Millennium Development Goals (a set of goals established in 2000 with the goal of reaching them (globally) by 2015). Some of these goals are really relevant to our trip here: reduce child mortality (in the under 5 years category) by two thirds, reduce maternal mortality by three quarters (to read more about maternal health in developing countries check out posts at: www.rachelmariestone.com), and to reverse the spread of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.

Emily and Evan studying today's lessons.

 I found the official content of the lectures quite interesting, but it is especially interesting to have Dr. Thuma’s personal experience added to the base information. He has been involved with caring for people here in Zambia for many years, and has seen many ways of approaching the problems facing the Millennium Goals personally. Thus he places a special emphasis on things that he has seen work in practice – specifically preventative measures in public health.  

The pharmacy at Macha hospital

After class and lunch we all dispersed to explore the area or arrange for the rest of our time here. After delivering the empty pill bottles and bandage wrappings sent from Grantham, we got a tour of the Pharmacy. Then Emily was introduced to the physiotherapist and was able to observe him for most of the afternoon. She saw patients with broken limbs, a club food, and a knee with osteomyelitis. Jess and others set up a time to go and observe the local primary and private secondary schools during the week (and played Ring around the Rosy, Simon Says, and Duck Duck Goose with many of the kids from the school). Other students found friends from the village and played football in their yards, or found the female soccer pick-up game and watched that. Other students joined the people waiting at the fires, and chatted (and danced) with them there. We are starting to feel more comfortable moving around and meeting people here in Macha, and will especially enjoy starting to go into the hospitals in the next couple of weeks.

Stephne and Jess playing with the kids at the primary school.

 

Sarah and Jackie dancing with a guy from the fires.

Other fun things: On Sunday we all took at walk to the Macha Dam, and took some fun pictures. 

ZAMBIA! (you may have to squint to make it work)

MACHA (again, squint or just believe us)

 P.S. For those of you who may be wondering why all of these pictures are tiny- we have all been learning that internet is not as easy to get in the middle of Africa as it is at Messiah (although the students tell me it's not bad by comparison). Bandwidth is especially expensive here in Zambia, and so we are only showing small pictures here, when we get back from the trip, we'll share nice big pictures with you all!