Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ray and Bud, with Larry “the shorter” assisting, continued to finish up many of the electrical tasks, including preparing to install the water heater we bought in Lusaka. Andy and Larry “the taller” went to the basic school (grades 1 through 9) to speak with the head master about measuring the buildings of the school for a renovation project another group is hoping to pursue and to video record some of the classrooms, teaching activities, and interviews with teachers. It was determined best to come back in the afternoon to do the measuring and Thursday morning to do the video recording.

From there, Andy returned to the hospital to continue working with some of the staff on building computer skills and spreadsheet tools. Larry “the taller” met with Daniel from the lab to collect the results of the water quality tests put in the incubators the day before. The water sample from the filter came out clean and negative for ecoli which was expected. The water sample from the tap showed low levels of coliforms but was also negative for ecoli – that was not expected since samples had been positive in February. Our best guess is that the continuing use of water through the distribution lines has flushed the contaminated water out of the system while being at the end of the dry season (6 months with no rain) means the ground is very, very dry so there is little moisture in the ground even from leaking sewer lines to contaminate the water lines should there be periods of negative pressure in the water lines.

We decided to draw two additional samples from other taps around the hospital to confirm the negative ecoli finding. For evaluating the effectiveness of the filter, it would really be better to be able to start with water known to be contaminated so we can verify that the water gets cleaned by the filter. In any event, the water appears to be healthier for people right now. The rainy season starts in a couple of weeks and the ground will get thoroughly soaked. The picture will likely change significantly then.

In the afternoon, the two Larrys started the actual perc test, measuring the depth of water poured into each hole every 30 minutes for four hours. Larry “the shorter” got stuck doing most of the recording, standing and sitting out in the field from 1:30 until 5:45. Both were there during the last hour. As soon as the last measurements were taken, they filled in the holes so no one or none of the cows or donkeys grazing in the field would step in the hole and be injured.

While Larry "the shorter" watched and measured the water in the holes, Larry "the taller," Bud, Ray and Andy returned to the school to measure the buildings. As they finished the first, three representatives from World Hope stopped by to speak with Larry "the taller" about economic development activities in Zimba. Bud, Andy, and Ray completed the measurements of the remaining five classroom buildings while Larry met with the World Hope reps. Larry had had a prior conversation with the head of World Hope exploring ways in which the First Wes team might help stimulate economic development in Zimba, particularly through setting up a micro-finance program. World Hope is not involved in micro-finance in Zambia although they are in several other countries. They indicated that such programs don't seem to work well in rural areas where prospective clients are so widely scattered, making assistance and oversight too challenging.

The reps indicated that World Hope works through the Wesleyan church in a community to explore interest and, if there is, to invited interested parties in the church to attend a meeting to discuss how World Hope works at assisting with Income Generating Activities (IGA) and the kinds of IGAs that seem to have worked well in other communities. Most of these are either agricultural or craft related. People in the community are directly involved in choosing what IGA they think would be viable and which they would want to try. World Hope sends in technical experts to train community members on particular skills needed to increase the likelihood of success. They then also help arrange to provide (as a loan) the start up capital for the IGA. Those working on the project in the community become responsible for working the project and producing a marketable commodity to be sold. Profits get used to repay the start up capital and to provide assistance especially for orphans in the community. World Hope has several IGA projects in Zimba currently and there are five surrounding communities that have also expressed interest. About 20 US churches are currently involved as partners with communities to help generated the start up capital for the IGAs. The partnering pledge is $12k per year for five years. Larry told them we were pleased to find out about their program and that they were already working with the Zimba community. Their approach seemed solid and effective. He indicated that we might be able to complement each other's efforts. He indicated that we would look for ways to come along side their efforts perhaps as a partner but also would try not to work at cross-purposes. At the same time, World Hope could complement our efforts to help the hospital by drilling another well for the hospital under World Hope's well initiative. This seems likely to happen.

The medical staff had a somewhat lighter day than usual so several of the team went to video record interviews with the pastor and a couple of other individuals in the community.

Earlier in our stay we had invited a couple of the clinical staff to have dinner with us. Today we invited several others, including Wedon (anesthesiologist), Mr. Khondowe (administrator), Mr. and Mrs. Siabowa (he is a surgical clinical officer and she is a teacher in the basic school), and Anna (a retired nurse who has helped Dr. Kari with translation this trip and last). The conversation was lively and helpful in getting to know each other better.