Cheri woke up with a sudden awareness that since Josephine is not breast-feeding she has no protection against a next, unwanted pregnancy. (She stated her husband is opposed to contraception.) Our trip to Kantolomba to visit the preschoolers is suddenly put on hold as we begin the process of finding out what we can do for Josephine.
We have a couple of concerns: 1) is she already pregnant, and 2) would she be willing to take a Depo-Provera shot, given the misinformation she had received from someone earlier. At some point a health care provider told her that taking ARVs and using any type of contraception other than a condom would “cause a bomb in her body.” Needless to say, this frightened her. We checked with our medical people who assured us that, while all medications interact with one another and there is no guarantee about side effects, there’s no evidence that combining ARVs and Depo-Provera would have negative effects. Josephine, with Baby Cheri only 2 ½ months old, really doesn’t want to be pregnant again. We stopped by Dr. Obi’s to see if we could get what we would need to provide Josephine with a shot, if that’s what she chose to do. Sure enough they had everything right there and off we went.
The clinic.
We called a meeting with Josephine, Theresa, Karen, Cheri, and Jen. We all wanted to be very sure Josephine understood exactly what was happening. We were concerned that if she became afraid of “the bomb,” she might stop taking her ARVs after getting the shot, and of course that would have disastrous results. One interesting outcome of all this is that we discovered Josephine has very good English. Rather than simply have Theresa translate into Bemba what was being said by the three English speakers, trusting that it was accurate and that Josephine understood, we asked Josephine to reflect back what she was getting from the conversation. To our amazement she understood perfectly and was able to say back to us in her own words what the information was. She wanted the shot!
We all left nurse and patient to complete the task, and moments later Josephine emerged from the temporary clinic room with the biggest smile we’ve seen from her. Since then she has been a different person. She smiles, she laughs, she is interactive, and almost talkative.
We’ve subsequently learned that all birth control, HIV testing, and ARVs are free in Zambia. The women can go to the clinic and get the shots on their own. We will encourage them to do this and feel confident that when they understand what needs to happen they will take responsibility for doing it. After all, this is the group of women who, when learning that their new solar flashlights should have the battery completely discharged once a month, came up with the date of the 18th and all, without fail, follow the protocol religiously.
Flashlights charging on the roof.
This attended to, we walked down to the little school to make necklaces with the kindergarten class. Having sufficiently destroyed any discipline or hope of learning for the day, we left the little guys and made our way back to the building where the tiny children were getting lunch and the big kids were engaged in a wild game of something involving a giant baseball we’d brought.
Jan and Nellie help the children with their beads.
Jill helping to tie the necklaces.
Proudly sporting their new jewelry.
The older children playing.
The women were finishing up with lunch and dishes so we gathered in the little insaka outside the kitchen to deliver the new, enormous cooking pots (gifts from two of the retreatants) the women have desperately needed for months. They have been feeding 350 children using pots not much bigger than those we have at the Monastery. Finally we were able to find some that will work for them, making their work so much easier. Next came the piece de resistance-- an electric sewing machine. The women were beside themselves! Amidst the bedlam of expressions of joy and gratitude, the three seamstresses set to work reading the manual, figuring out how the machine operates.
The pots the women used to cook with.
Receiving the new pots.
Great excitement unpacking the new sewing machine.
Georgina and Josephine look at the new machine with love in their eyes.
Next was the delivery of necklaces to the littlest children. These necklaces were made by a third grade class from Sacramento (the ones recently featured in an email about the Bridge Walk). It took us a little while to get everything ready. The children waited very patiently while we simultaneously untangled necklaces and subjected them to off-key renditions of “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and “B-i-n-g-o.”
Back to town for a meeting with Dr. Obi at his clinic to talk about birth control, HIV (for the first time the numbers are not going up), and other major health concerns. Next was a visit to the clinic Emory University operates, doing research through couples HIV testing.
The youngest children wait patiently for their necklaces.
Our work during this part of the trip complete, we returned to Castle Lodge for a traditional dinner of nchima and relish--along with curried veggies and “sausage” to take care of lingering fears of starvation. Part way through the meal the lights dimmed, then went out completely, leaving us in total darkness. After a bit of a wait, we could hear attempts to get the new generator up and running. Eunice came in shortly after we’d affixed a flashlight to the chandelier, and commented, “Ah, a romantic dinner.” Might as well put on the best spin possible—and of course she was right! We were all feeling ourselves to be among the luckiest folks on earth.