Doctors Without Borders (Medecines Sans Frontieres) will be coming to Zombodze’s health clinic. Not just once or twice, but every Wednesday for the foreseeable future. They’ll bring an RN and sometimes a doctor to treat patients and provide critical services our clinic can’t currently provide. The most significant of these services are TB testing and monitored TB treatment, HIV testing, counseling and treatment, and CD-4 counts.
We’re thrilled. Their decision to come to Zombodze had nothing to do with us, but we’ll make sure to support their efforts here, especially regarding referrals. We can now do targeted homestead visits, looking for people who need medical attention (esp. TB cases) and help them get to the clinic on Wednesdays. Before, all we could do was encourage them to go into Nhlangano’s health center—but many can’t afford the kumbi ride into town and back, and there’s something troubling about directing a TB-infected person to use crowded public transportation…which left us with no good options to help. Now we can refer them to the clinic on Wednesdays, then show up ourselves to see who does and does not come, then do follow-up visits to those who didn’t show.
In this manner, DWB’s presence in Zombodze will undoubtedly save lives. They are here to stop a TB epidemic. In and around Nhlangano (the nearest city, 19km away) they’ve identified something like 26 cases of MDR-TB (not XDR, thank God), which is a highly lethal form of TB that’s developed resistance to the typical drug treatment. So DWB has likely drawn a “catchment area” around Nhlangano and are now hurrying to get doctors into those communities to try and halt a nasty epidemic. Furthermore, cases of XDR-TB, the worst and most drug-resistant form of TB currently known, have been found in the South African state of KwaZulu-Natal—which directly borders our chiefdom. So when Zombodze’s high HIV infection rates are combined with this heightened regional TB risk, there’s no question as to why DWB is setting up shop. And we’re overjoyed that they’ve come. I cannot help but think that, had they been here back in November/December, Gogo (grandma) Nkambule might still be alive: she didn’t get tested/treated soon enough and TB quickly killed her, leaving about 5 young kids without a caretaker.
As I’ve noted before on this blog, Swaziland’s HIV-TB co-infection rate is (by far) the highest in the world, at 80%. HIV weakens the immune system, TB infects the vulnerable person and—unless they get rapid treatment—swiftly kills them. Thing is, TB is curable. But it requires the patient to adhere strictly to a drug-treatment regimen for the full duration (usually 6-9 months), which is difficult. When adherence breaks down, resistant forms of TB emerge. That’s where the highly lethal MDR and XDR strains came from: they’re essentially manmade super-bugs—and an HIV patient with a low CD4 count does not stand a chance against them. Anyone who’s read “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” or is otherwise familiar with Paul Farmer’s work, knows what’s up with this resistant-TB thing… it’s serious, it’s devastating, and it’s preventable.
So here’s the short of it: thanks to DWB, we’ve been given the opportunity to help stop an epidemic of MDR- and XDR-TB from sweeping through this community. Accordingly, this development shifts our project priorities a bit. Homestead visits, for example, now take on an entirely new level of importance. We’re in a great position to help—we know the area’s homesteads by now, we know enough siSwati to ask the right questions and check people out for symptoms and tell them when/where to go, and we’re healthy enough not to be vulnerable to sickness ourselves. We’ll help DWB train and support the local RHMs (Rural Health Motivators), we’ll finally be able to encourage people to get an HIV test right here in Zombodze, and we can help with adherence follow-up on those receiving TB treatment.
Our basic goal is to make sure that DWB staffers are busy every Wednesday they spend in Zombodze.
As we walked over to a meeting to meet with a DWB rep, we brainstormed a wish list of things we wanted them to do in Zombodze. Before we got there we went through a “magic wand” scenario: if we could have them do anything we wanted in our community, what would it be? We figured that this exercise would prepare us for the unlikely event that someone asked us what we wanted from DWB. And when we sat down in the meeting and the DWB rep explained what services they’d be providing, she basically described our whole “magic wand” scenario. Every single thing on our little DWB wish list was named and will be coming to Zombodze—even some things we hadn’t thought to wish for. Hearing of these plans was, for both of us, a stunning moment. Thank God for DWB.
We’re so very glad to be here.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
some pics
Jamie-boy gets to play on a roof.
Hiking in Malalotja Nature Preserve (Swaziland)
Hiking buddies and fellow PCVs
camp in Malalotja
More fun working on the roof
Jamie-girl at training event she organized
puppies. everyone likes puppies.
warthogs. not everyone likes warthogs.
Jamie-boy standing in his corn. If you build it...
Jamie-girl tending to the sweet potatoes.
Beans.
spider webs on a dewy morning... very Hallmark, I know.
at the fruit/veggie market
a rainbow in Zombodze.care package bliss
Hi all-
We’ve been spoiled by all the care packages you’ve sent us over the months, and we want to sincerely thank you for your kindness and generosity. We have good coffee and drink mixes, pain pills and daily vitamins galore, beef jerky and sausage and all kinds of tasty treats, great music and movies (getting movies/DVDs are cause for major celebration), yarn and crosswords, Splenda, magazines and newspapers, pictures, lots of seeds for the garden, socks and undies… it’s like year-round Christmas. And many packages have included things for people in our community too—which is really fun to give away. We once received a packet of Halloween stickers and the local kids loved them. We’re always excited to go to the post office… thanks to your thoughtfulness, we don’t feel particularly deprived of anything.
Well, maybe a few things.
After all these months, we still get quite excited about receiving any and all of the stuff on our long-standing care package wish list, but there are a couple of new items we’d like to add.
Duct Tape. Even here in Swaziland, not a week goes by that I don’t long for a roll of the greatest tape on earth.
Pens and pencils. For some reason, basic black-ink writing pens are kind of expensive and hard to find in Nhlangano-- and I’ve yet to find my pencil of choice, the Dixon Ticonderoga #2. go ahead and laugh if you want, but the DT2 is a beautifully crafted piece of hand-held goodness. Ever the cutting-edge futurist, Jamie-girl loves her mechanical pencils, but they don’t do it for me. One cannot chew on the mechanical variety-- I’m a Ticonderoga man.
Highlighters, and maybe a few Sharpies. We do a lot of flip-chart stuff for various events and displays. And we’d like to hand out highlighters to some of our students as prizes (instead of candy).
More pictures. I know pics are already on the list and we’ve been getting them, but we want more of YOU hanging from our walls. And we lost a bunch of ours (long story). So even CDs full of digital pics would be (and have been) great.
Rechargeable batteries—AA and AAA. Our headlamps and reading lamps take AAA and we don’t have rechargeables in that size.
Podcasts (on CD). We recently got a CD full of NPR/PRI podcasts, and it’s been great listening to them. Here are some podcasts we really like: This American Life, Radio Lab, KEXP Live Performances, surf video podcasts (like Fuel TV, DVS, Rip Curl or Shralp), Bill Moyers Journal, NOW, 60 minutes, Democracy Now… whatever you think we’d enjoy. We’re able to download some shorter podcasts when at the internet café, but the larger ones (esp. video) remain out of our reach.
Video of an NBA game: the Cavs’ first home-court loss to the Lakers last month. But I’m not picky—any good Cavs game will do… I just want to see LeBron James play. If you can figure out how to get it and put it on a DVD, I’ll be forever indebted.
Same goes for the Super Bowl. Heard all about it… love to actually see it.
GU or GOO… not sure how it’s spelled. It’s high-energy “food” sold in little squeezable packets that runners use during long runs and races. We want to have some for our upcoming 1/2 marathon in April.
Little things we can give to kids in our community—small toys or stickers or kid-size toothbrushes or small bars of soap or crayons or… whatever you might think of; we have fun giving and they have fun receiving.
As much as we love getting them, we’d like to offer you an alternative to sending care packages. Instead of spending all that money on postage, consider donating a similar amount to one of our projects-- or tell us what charitable idea you’d like your “care package” money to go toward. You wouldn’t believe how far $50 goes in Swaziland (as a reference, we’re currently living on a stipend of around $250 US dollars per month—which covers both of us). So for example, instead of sending us 2 care packages in 2009, just send us one—and donate the postage cost of the other one to a project we’re doing here in Zombodze. Or maybe make one of the packages a “charity pack” full of things we can provide to our community.
We still want to get your packages, believe me, but we don’t want their cost to cut into anyone’s charity budget.
Again, thanks everyone for your generosity, friendship and support!
We’ve been spoiled by all the care packages you’ve sent us over the months, and we want to sincerely thank you for your kindness and generosity. We have good coffee and drink mixes, pain pills and daily vitamins galore, beef jerky and sausage and all kinds of tasty treats, great music and movies (getting movies/DVDs are cause for major celebration), yarn and crosswords, Splenda, magazines and newspapers, pictures, lots of seeds for the garden, socks and undies… it’s like year-round Christmas. And many packages have included things for people in our community too—which is really fun to give away. We once received a packet of Halloween stickers and the local kids loved them. We’re always excited to go to the post office… thanks to your thoughtfulness, we don’t feel particularly deprived of anything.
Well, maybe a few things.
After all these months, we still get quite excited about receiving any and all of the stuff on our long-standing care package wish list, but there are a couple of new items we’d like to add.
Duct Tape. Even here in Swaziland, not a week goes by that I don’t long for a roll of the greatest tape on earth.
Pens and pencils. For some reason, basic black-ink writing pens are kind of expensive and hard to find in Nhlangano-- and I’ve yet to find my pencil of choice, the Dixon Ticonderoga #2. go ahead and laugh if you want, but the DT2 is a beautifully crafted piece of hand-held goodness. Ever the cutting-edge futurist, Jamie-girl loves her mechanical pencils, but they don’t do it for me. One cannot chew on the mechanical variety-- I’m a Ticonderoga man.
Highlighters, and maybe a few Sharpies. We do a lot of flip-chart stuff for various events and displays. And we’d like to hand out highlighters to some of our students as prizes (instead of candy).
More pictures. I know pics are already on the list and we’ve been getting them, but we want more of YOU hanging from our walls. And we lost a bunch of ours (long story). So even CDs full of digital pics would be (and have been) great.
Rechargeable batteries—AA and AAA. Our headlamps and reading lamps take AAA and we don’t have rechargeables in that size.
Podcasts (on CD). We recently got a CD full of NPR/PRI podcasts, and it’s been great listening to them. Here are some podcasts we really like: This American Life, Radio Lab, KEXP Live Performances, surf video podcasts (like Fuel TV, DVS, Rip Curl or Shralp), Bill Moyers Journal, NOW, 60 minutes, Democracy Now… whatever you think we’d enjoy. We’re able to download some shorter podcasts when at the internet café, but the larger ones (esp. video) remain out of our reach.
Video of an NBA game: the Cavs’ first home-court loss to the Lakers last month. But I’m not picky—any good Cavs game will do… I just want to see LeBron James play. If you can figure out how to get it and put it on a DVD, I’ll be forever indebted.
Same goes for the Super Bowl. Heard all about it… love to actually see it.
GU or GOO… not sure how it’s spelled. It’s high-energy “food” sold in little squeezable packets that runners use during long runs and races. We want to have some for our upcoming 1/2 marathon in April.
Little things we can give to kids in our community—small toys or stickers or kid-size toothbrushes or small bars of soap or crayons or… whatever you might think of; we have fun giving and they have fun receiving.
As much as we love getting them, we’d like to offer you an alternative to sending care packages. Instead of spending all that money on postage, consider donating a similar amount to one of our projects-- or tell us what charitable idea you’d like your “care package” money to go toward. You wouldn’t believe how far $50 goes in Swaziland (as a reference, we’re currently living on a stipend of around $250 US dollars per month—which covers both of us). So for example, instead of sending us 2 care packages in 2009, just send us one—and donate the postage cost of the other one to a project we’re doing here in Zombodze. Or maybe make one of the packages a “charity pack” full of things we can provide to our community.
We still want to get your packages, believe me, but we don’t want their cost to cut into anyone’s charity budget.
Again, thanks everyone for your generosity, friendship and support!
Friday, February 13, 2009
we went to Durban
We spent all of last week in Durban with a fellow-PCV couple. It was great. we found a good deal on a little "Kondo" (yes, with a K because it's not really a condo but a motel room with a kitchen) right on the beach and spent quality time in the ocean, staring at the ocean from the balcony, jogging alongside the ocean, sitting in the sand beside the ocean... you get the idea. My friend Jay and I got to surf every day, and Jamie-girl got to jog every morning along the promenade.
We ate seafood in restaurants. We went to a movie (Burn After Reading). we drove a car. it was all quite luxurious and reminiscent of times past. And it also allowed us to step back from our daily lives in rural Swaziland and appreciate its simple beauty.
Anyway we're back and we're busy, especially in the schools. More on that later.
Also, we just got an email from a Port Townsend woman who's working/living here in Swaziland-- how cool is that? She found us through this blog. I love it when that kind of thing happens.
We ate seafood in restaurants. We went to a movie (Burn After Reading). we drove a car. it was all quite luxurious and reminiscent of times past. And it also allowed us to step back from our daily lives in rural Swaziland and appreciate its simple beauty.
Anyway we're back and we're busy, especially in the schools. More on that later.
Also, we just got an email from a Port Townsend woman who's working/living here in Swaziland-- how cool is that? She found us through this blog. I love it when that kind of thing happens.
wind blows our latrine down... again
We had a big wind/rain storm a few weeks ago, and it tore the roof off our outhouse and damaged its walls. again. I took a little video of the aftermath, and thought this would be a good opportunity to try compressing the video file and uploading it to the blog... let's see if it works. our internet cafe's bandwidth in Nhlangano isn't exactly huge, but it might just be enough.
The whining noise you'll hear on the video is the dog (not me-- sorry to disappoint). I call him Killer, due to a disturbing incident with a neighboring homestead's kitten... but when the storms come he doesn't exactly live up to the vicious bravado his name implies. And I like him for that-- big scary dog, total wuss. Anyway, if this video thing works okay, we'll do more of them for the blog. And we'll even put ourselves in them from time to time.
hey-- i think it worked! let me know if you can view it on your side of the world.
The whining noise you'll hear on the video is the dog (not me-- sorry to disappoint). I call him Killer, due to a disturbing incident with a neighboring homestead's kitten... but when the storms come he doesn't exactly live up to the vicious bravado his name implies. And I like him for that-- big scary dog, total wuss. Anyway, if this video thing works okay, we'll do more of them for the blog. And we'll even put ourselves in them from time to time.
hey-- i think it worked! let me know if you can view it on your side of the world.
Help Zombodze: Way #2
This one is a water project aimed at renovating our community garden’s water-delivery system, which currently fails to provide year-round water. You can be part of this project primarily by helping to fund it: I’ll be posting the project on the Peace Corps’ online, public-funding vehicle called Peace Corps Partnerships (see below entry). You’ll be able to click on the project and donate directly to it—100% of the donation will go directly to the project, and all of the project funds will go through me personally (PC deposits the funds into my Swazi bank account). But before I post the project to the website, I need to get a feel for the level of interest (ie, how much funding can I reasonably expect to raise) and factor that into the project’s proposed scope.
This project will restore a reliable water source to the Zombodze Community Garden—called the bomake garden (pronounced bo-mah-gay, which is plural for mother). The garden is a big rectangular patch of fenced land that once contained many dozens of food-producing plots for our community’s homesteads… but when the water source failed. So did many of the plots. Here’s the abbreviated version…
The bomake garden is where we have our plots, along with about 20 other locals, mostly mothers, grandmothers and kids. During the rainy season—Nov-Apr—this number doubles. But during the dry season—May-Oct—only the strong and determined can manage to haul water up the hill in buckets to their plots, so the number shrinks. But if water was delivered to the garden’s pipes year-round, we project the number of active, food-producing plots would triple, providing food to perhaps 50 different homesteads. Our community census showed an average of 8 people living on Zombodze’s homesteads—4 adults and four children (2 of those kids being OVCs). So using the 50-homestead figure, improving the community garden’s food-producing capacity in this manner would provide a year-round source fresh veggies to around 400 people, 200 of whom would be kids—and about 100 of those kids being OVCs.
There once was a good water-delivery system for the garden, carrying water through underground pipes to the garden’s spigots from a small dam-created reservoir located along a year-round stream 1km away. But about ten years ago the concrete dam was vandalized and never properly repaired, eventually leading to a full breach of an adjoining earthen berm. So today the water-delivery system is far less reliable—and totally seasonal. Water now reaches the garden’s spigots via a 1km-long, open-cut trench, and only when the stream is full enough. The trench is susceptible to pigs and livestock and spongy soils, so it’s a very inefficient water-carrier. In fact, most of the water it carries never ends up on anyone’s garden plot.
Why use the community garden instead of simply having a “kitchen” garden on one’s own homestead? Well, here are the three main reasons. First is fencing: the community garden’s fence is intact and offers reliable protection from free-ranging cows, goats, pigs, chickens, etc. Most homesteads do not have such fencing—it must be taller then an average cow’s head and sturdy to be effective—and they don’t have the resources to install anything like that around their garden plots. So the homestead plots are usually pretty small, yielding much less veggies than a plot in the community garden could offer. Secondly, when one gardens among many others there is beneficial exchange of seed, fertilizers, knowledge, and ideas. The seed-swapping alone is invaluable, and the garden has a ready supply of sweet potato starts, spinach seeds, etc. Gardening alongside others makes for a healthier variety of veggies in one’s kitchen. The third reason would apply if the community garden had reliable water: most homesteads here (like 76% of them) don’t have easy access to water, especially during the dry season. If they had a place to grow food during the dry season, it would dramatically change their quality of life.
There are a few different ways of renovating the bomake garden’s water delivery system, and the community will ultimately decide which one to pursue. I’ll help. One way would be to drill a borehole onsite and either reconfigure the existing underground piping to connect to the new source. Another way would be to make some structural repairs the earthen berm and reservoir up on the stream and reconnect the existing piping to new feeder lines. Both have their benefits and complications, but the borehole option is significantly more complicated and community leaders seem to be leaning toward making repairs to the old reservoir. We shall see…
Anyway I’ll be happy to provide lots more information (and pics) if you’re really interested in getting involved on this project—send me an email: cooktimothy@hotmail.com.
This project will restore a reliable water source to the Zombodze Community Garden—called the bomake garden (pronounced bo-mah-gay, which is plural for mother). The garden is a big rectangular patch of fenced land that once contained many dozens of food-producing plots for our community’s homesteads… but when the water source failed. So did many of the plots. Here’s the abbreviated version…
The bomake garden is where we have our plots, along with about 20 other locals, mostly mothers, grandmothers and kids. During the rainy season—Nov-Apr—this number doubles. But during the dry season—May-Oct—only the strong and determined can manage to haul water up the hill in buckets to their plots, so the number shrinks. But if water was delivered to the garden’s pipes year-round, we project the number of active, food-producing plots would triple, providing food to perhaps 50 different homesteads. Our community census showed an average of 8 people living on Zombodze’s homesteads—4 adults and four children (2 of those kids being OVCs). So using the 50-homestead figure, improving the community garden’s food-producing capacity in this manner would provide a year-round source fresh veggies to around 400 people, 200 of whom would be kids—and about 100 of those kids being OVCs.
There once was a good water-delivery system for the garden, carrying water through underground pipes to the garden’s spigots from a small dam-created reservoir located along a year-round stream 1km away. But about ten years ago the concrete dam was vandalized and never properly repaired, eventually leading to a full breach of an adjoining earthen berm. So today the water-delivery system is far less reliable—and totally seasonal. Water now reaches the garden’s spigots via a 1km-long, open-cut trench, and only when the stream is full enough. The trench is susceptible to pigs and livestock and spongy soils, so it’s a very inefficient water-carrier. In fact, most of the water it carries never ends up on anyone’s garden plot.
Why use the community garden instead of simply having a “kitchen” garden on one’s own homestead? Well, here are the three main reasons. First is fencing: the community garden’s fence is intact and offers reliable protection from free-ranging cows, goats, pigs, chickens, etc. Most homesteads do not have such fencing—it must be taller then an average cow’s head and sturdy to be effective—and they don’t have the resources to install anything like that around their garden plots. So the homestead plots are usually pretty small, yielding much less veggies than a plot in the community garden could offer. Secondly, when one gardens among many others there is beneficial exchange of seed, fertilizers, knowledge, and ideas. The seed-swapping alone is invaluable, and the garden has a ready supply of sweet potato starts, spinach seeds, etc. Gardening alongside others makes for a healthier variety of veggies in one’s kitchen. The third reason would apply if the community garden had reliable water: most homesteads here (like 76% of them) don’t have easy access to water, especially during the dry season. If they had a place to grow food during the dry season, it would dramatically change their quality of life.
There are a few different ways of renovating the bomake garden’s water delivery system, and the community will ultimately decide which one to pursue. I’ll help. One way would be to drill a borehole onsite and either reconfigure the existing underground piping to connect to the new source. Another way would be to make some structural repairs the earthen berm and reservoir up on the stream and reconnect the existing piping to new feeder lines. Both have their benefits and complications, but the borehole option is significantly more complicated and community leaders seem to be leaning toward making repairs to the old reservoir. We shall see…
Anyway I’ll be happy to provide lots more information (and pics) if you’re really interested in getting involved on this project—send me an email: cooktimothy@hotmail.com.
Peace Corps Partnerships
Hi everyone…
Before I post any more project ideas, I’d like to explain what the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) is—if you ever decide to help us fund something, you’ll probably do it through PCPP’s website. It’s tax-deductible that way.
The PCPP website is how people back home can donate money directly to a PCV’s projects. We post a specific project to the site, and then anyone can click on it and donate directly to it—100% of the donation goes to the selected project; no “admin” or “overhead” costs apply. And the funds we raise through PCPP are managed by us personally: once the funding target is reached the Peace Corps deposits the full amount into our Swazi bank account for immediate project implementation. We then write a bunch of reports and document the project costs and outcomes for the Peace Corps and all the partnering donors.
Projects posted to the PCPP website have to meet some basic requirements first. One of them states that the community benefiting from the project must provide at least 25% of the overall project expenses (which could include in-kind labor costs, materials, or money). So if we post a project to the PCPP website, it means we’ve received community buy-in and we’re ready to implement the project asap. If the project doesn’t raise the funding target within a specified timeframe then it’ll be pulled from the list—allowing room for others.
Anyone can donate to any project posted to the PCPP site (any PCV in the world can post projects), but by far the most common way they get funded is through the donations of people connected to the PCV administering the project. Friends and family! So before we post anything, we’ll put our project idea on this blog to gauge interest and potential funding partners. So as we post the different projects we’re working on, we’ll be sure to mention when it’s a potential PCPP-funded one—and if you see something that strikes your philanthropic fancy, just shoot me an email to begin the partnership.
Before I post any more project ideas, I’d like to explain what the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) is—if you ever decide to help us fund something, you’ll probably do it through PCPP’s website. It’s tax-deductible that way.
The PCPP website is how people back home can donate money directly to a PCV’s projects. We post a specific project to the site, and then anyone can click on it and donate directly to it—100% of the donation goes to the selected project; no “admin” or “overhead” costs apply. And the funds we raise through PCPP are managed by us personally: once the funding target is reached the Peace Corps deposits the full amount into our Swazi bank account for immediate project implementation. We then write a bunch of reports and document the project costs and outcomes for the Peace Corps and all the partnering donors.
Projects posted to the PCPP website have to meet some basic requirements first. One of them states that the community benefiting from the project must provide at least 25% of the overall project expenses (which could include in-kind labor costs, materials, or money). So if we post a project to the PCPP website, it means we’ve received community buy-in and we’re ready to implement the project asap. If the project doesn’t raise the funding target within a specified timeframe then it’ll be pulled from the list—allowing room for others.
Anyone can donate to any project posted to the PCPP site (any PCV in the world can post projects), but by far the most common way they get funded is through the donations of people connected to the PCV administering the project. Friends and family! So before we post anything, we’ll put our project idea on this blog to gauge interest and potential funding partners. So as we post the different projects we’re working on, we’ll be sure to mention when it’s a potential PCPP-funded one—and if you see something that strikes your philanthropic fancy, just shoot me an email to begin the partnership.
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