Two weeks down...

Hi All,

We made it...I'm sure I'm not the only one whose had a busy week, so here's a shout out to the much anticipated weekend. Hoping this finds each of you truly well. Please know how extraordinarily grateful I am to have such a supportive network of family and friends surrounding me in prayer and encouragement through this journey. So thank you for your outpouring of loving emails, affirming letters and inspiring verses and recipes!

In Zambia this week I was afforded much opportunity for local travel, which has consequently provided me a pretty thorough tour of Kitwe and its surrounding districts. Additionally I commuted into Ndola (about 50 minutes by bus) for my first rotation at Ndola Central Hospital (NCH), where I will be filling in for my supervisor in the interim between her departure from the study and the hiring of her successor. Ndola, apart from its notably clean and pleasant community, boasts one particular lunch spot with a full "gourmet coffee" menu! I delightedly finished two "Mocha Cocoa Nut Freezachinos" this past Thursday, and needless to say, am looking forward to my next visit to NCH. My travels around Kitwe were rather less enjobale, but most certainly character building. For a bit of background, one of my responsibilities in this position is to visit each of the rural labour clinics which feed cases into our central hospital. These clinics include a randomized selection of control (no NASG garments placed) and intervention (NASG garments placed) locations. My job is to follow up with every site as frequently as possible (there are seven total), in order to track any new or potentially missed cases. This brings me back to my character building trip to four of the aforementioned sites. My commute involved a combination of routes by foot, taxi and bus, which unfortunately proved quite confusing on my first attempt. I found the the first clinic a relatively easy walk from the hospital, passing merely a funeral procession on my way. And my next two bus rides and taxi trip went off without a hitch. It was my third bus ride, however, that I disembarked one stop too early and found myself thoroughly lost along a particularly unfriendly stretch of Kitwe bus station. With great fortune I met an exceedingly kind local school teacher, who directed me to the correct spot, and my final two bus trips were back on track. I even made it to my last clinic in time to observe my first Zambian delivery; breathtaking!
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With no option of epidural, or any other pain medication, the woman laboured alone on her wool blanket, holding her own legs apart and swallowing her cries. When I ultimately congratulated her on the success of such hard work she could hardly respond, but gave the faintest role of her eyes. That small gesture deflated all my romantic notions of the wild beauty of natural delivery, but helped me realize something even more incredible about this process: a painful balance. There was a certain miracle in the power that came from so much weakness. This woman was broken and exhausted, but all her exertion culminated in the birth of a perfect new hope. And hope seems to be a resource in short supply around here.
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Other highlights of this week included some indulgent time at the Special Baby Care Unit ("SCUB"). I helped to feed with a cup and cradled newborns to my heart's content. I even got to assist with some baby transport, as the elevator broke down and we needed to deliver all our "Caesar" babies (i.e. Caesarian-born infants) to their mothers on another ward. While the midwife and an available janitor shared one basket of about four newborns I carried a second basket with one "big baby," who wouldn't quite fit with the rest. They made me promise not to fall down the stairs. I kept my promise.

One last highlight...my bus trips offered some interesting local insight. A few stickers read:

"Don't force me to drive fast, because you are late!"
"It's over when God says so!"
"If you are a passenger, don't cause a problem!"

That is all for now, but be sure to tune in again. Same place, same time (relatively) next week, my friends...