Lions, elephants, and snakes, o my. These were only some of the fascinating things I encountered hallway across the world.
To say that our travels to Livingston were not direct would be an understatement. The adventure began even before with left. As I was preparing to depart at 3am on Wednesday morning, I was informed that our flights had been changed and we would not be departing till Wednesday night.
The four of us started out from Pearson with eight bags filled with various donations including clothing, books, hard hats, medical supplies and more; plus, our various carry-ons, stuffed with barely enough cloths to last us two and a half weeks.
The flight to London was uneventful. We had sufficient time to take a quick visit to Windsor Castle and Eton College. Back at Heathrow we met other Canadians and spent some time doing the most Canadian thing you can do at an international airport: complain about Pearson.
After a long eleven-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, we had to clear customs before we could collect our bags in order to re-check them for our next flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The good news was that seven out of the eight bags made it on the correct flight. We arranged for the bag to be sent to Livingston directly. The Johannesburg airport was not easily navigated. After one broken elevator, and a bit of confusion, we were able to check our bags, go through customs again, and find our way to our gate to discover that there may be something wrong with the plane we were about to fly on and that our flight had been delayed.
Landing in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe we were surprised to discover that our bags had to go through security again, as the airport was looking to tax anything that we may have bringing into the country. They were about to search our bags when we told them that we were in transit to Zambia. Once clear of the airport we loaded up in taxis and drove about 25 minutes to the border. At the border, we were met by individuals that our team leader had hired to meet us and take us over the border. We were slightly delayed by questions at the border about our activities in Zambia when our bags somehow ended up over the border before us.
On our way into Livingston, we passed Victoria Falls and a few elephants. There were also a few Zebras wandering around the city. We spent the night in Livingston and me with the eMI team, a group of engineers who had spent the last week at the New Life Training Centre, which was our final destination.
The training centre is located near the town of Itezi Tezi, an 11-hour drive north of Livingstone. The Training Centre was founded by Pastor Daniel Magpei, a twenty-year veteran of the Zambian Air Force, who had since planted some 30 churches in that part of Zambia. The goal for the training centre is to develop it to the point that it will eventually be certified as a college offering various technical training. We met with a team of engineers who had spent the last week surveying and planning for the development of the training centre. Their plan adds a significant number of buildings and the necessary infrastructure to support them. This plan will support an enrolment of between 300 and 400 students. This plan is meant to be completed over the next five to six years. However, this timeframe will be dependent on fundraising efforts.
We set out in the afternoon to cover a large chunk of the 11-hour journey before stopping for the night. We packed into two trucks that had been heavily modified for use in the African countryside. They each were topped with two collapsible tents. While the first part of our journey was on the paved highway, the four-wheel drive would soon become necessary.
We soon departed the paved roads and set out on dirt paths that were regularly flooded during the rainy season. Now many of the things I will refer to as roads are probably better described as black-tracts, although many of them receive different amounts of traffic. To call these roads bumpy would be an understatement. While cars do drive on the left side of the road in Zambia, it was not uncommon in many places to drive down the centre or simply navigate back and forth to avoid various holes or degraded parts of the roads. In many of these places, seat belts were required to avoid hitting your head off the roof of the truck.
To reach Itezi Tezi, we would need to use a ferry to cross the Kafue River. The landward side of the ferry simply sat directly on the sand. Once both our vehicles were secured, we pushed out from shore. We had gone only a few metres before another car appeared, and the ferry was navigated back to shore. We were told to move our trucks forward only enough for this car to fit on the ferry. The reason for this became obvious when the ferry pushed out from shore, and we saw that the bow of the ferry was now underwater. The landing spot on the opposite shore was simply an area on the beach wide enough for the front ramp to fit on. It, however, was directly in front of a steep incline which our first vehicle stalled hallway up.
We arrived at New Life Church in Itezi Tezi slightly after the morning service had begun. They had been waiting to introduce us, but they did not bring us into the church right away. We were instead ushered into Pastor Daniel’s office. We would later join the church service where we would be introduced. We walked through the front doors of the church and past the entire congregation and were seated along the wall at the front. Impact Zambia has had a relationship with this church since the beginning. Needless to say, this was not the first time that a Canadian team had been introduced in this fashion. Our team leader introduced all five of us, while a member of the congregation translated into Tonga, the local language. When I was introduced, my connection to St. John Ambulance was mentioned. This led to a large cheer from the front row of the church. While St John Ambulance in Zambia, these were the only people that I would encounter who were familiar with it.
The service was not short. While New Life and the many churches that have been planted by Pastor Daniel are non-denominational (they are somewhat of a denomination themselves), the service had a very Pentecostal feel to it with loud and lively music. I did not recognize any of the songs.
That afternoon, after five days of travelling, we finally reached our destination at the Training Centre. There are only a few buildings, but most of them have electricity and some even have running water, although, it is all cold. The Training Centre is located approximately 24 km out of town along a very poor road. Driving into town and back took a fair bit of time as the road was in very bad shape.
I-Teams Canada sends individuals on a regular basis to train the local pastors and members of the community. The visit by the Canadian team normally coincides with the annual training week that Pastor Daniel arranges for the Pastors at his churches. The topics instructed by the Canadian team this year included abnormal psychology, family and marriage counselling and first aid skills. Members of the community were also taught bread baking, quilting, and first aid skills.
My role was to teach first aid. Something that I have done back home for many years. There were of course differences. To begin with, I termed the class “First Aid Skills” because they would not be receiving any qualification, and would not be receiving any authorized course, for example, I did not nearly have the time to deliver the normal first aid course, and I was also very much outside my jurisdiction. Not everything was relevant to them as well. There was no point in teaching them how to use an AED, when there was little chance of them seeing one in the near future. I also needed to add a few additional items. In Ontario, we are only worried about one poisonous snake, whereas the inhabitants of Africa are worried about all of them.
I learned early on that a local baby had died of dehydration only a few days before our arrival. As well, a woman had died from a miscarriage. These aren’t things that someone would normally die of in Canada as long as they receive the proper medical attention.
Monday, the first full day at the training centre was mostly directed to maintenance of the Training Centre on my part. While most of our team was sent to teach a particular set of skills, one of our members came in order to assist with repairs to the current buildings. As I was not teaching Monday, my job was to assist him. However, there was little I could do, as he already had five Zambians assisting him. My biggest contribution as far as maintenance was concerned on that day was to replace a door handle and lock.
I later went into town to help with the collection of wood in order to fix the toilet block. One of the Pastors-in-training took us to his carpentry shop which was located down a back street. Some of the local people were very amused at seeing white people in this part of town. One person asked me about why we were there, and I filled him in about our work at the Training Centre. He asked me which Church I was from, and I said that I was Presbyterian. He asked me who we worshipped, and I answered God. He replied “You mean God (with a heavy emphasis on the D). My response was yes God. He replied, “No, it is pronounced God (with the same emphasis), speak English.”
It was then that I noticed one of my first occupational health & safety concerns when I noticed the Pastor-in-training place bare wires into an outlet on the power bar he was using.
On Tuesday I accompanied our team leader to the local clinic to get a better understanding of their local medical procedures. I had been told that in an emergency, the casualty would be driven first to the clinic and if necessary to the hospital.
The clinic staff were friendly, but they seemed slightly uncertain about our presence. While at this time there was a nurse on staff, the clinic had previously been staffed by a veterinary technician. We invited one of the staff to attend my class the next day.
On Wednesday I taught First Aid to the assembled Pastors. While most of the Pastors spoke at least some English, an interpreter was used as well. While this did slow the process down, it did, however, provide them with a greater understanding. While some of the Pastors asked questions in English, many asked them through the interpreter. There were a few interesting questions that were asked. The topic of snakebites seemed to bring up many of them. Some of them were based on local superstitions. For example, I was asked what you should do if a snake bit you and wouldn’t let go. My response was that you should kill the snake. One of the Pastors then commented that killing the snake would me that you would never recover because he believed that there was some type of supernatural connection between the two. I was very taken aback by this, as this was a Pastor speaking these words. I simply responded that that was not medical. Another Pastor stated that the proper first aid for venom spit in the eye by a spitting cobra was to find a breastfeeding woman and have breast milk squirted into the eye. I informed the class that the proper procedure would be to flash the eye with water right away. I suppose a comparable question that I often get asked in Canada, would be if you are supposed to pee on a Jelly Fish sting, which you are not. There were also many questions that contributed to the class. Some of the members of the class even shared a few personal experiences. I will normally when teaching in Canada get asked the odd “what if” question. In this case, I was asked what you should do for someone who drowned and was bitten by a hippopotamus. It should be noted that about 100 metres away from where I was teaching was a river that could at times be home to hippopotamuses and that a member of the local community had been killed by one a few years before. Florance, Pastor Daniel’s wife attended the class and had some very helpful thoughts on some matters.
Overall, the pastors did seem grateful for the knowledge. A member of the clinic staff showed up to attend my class. I tried to get his thoughts on a few things, but he did not seem to speak English very well, or at the very least couldn’t understand me.
On Thursday I taught First Aid in the Church in town. This was attended by various members of the community including the teachers from the school run by the church. Those who attended were very eager to learn. I knew that the subject of snakes would bring up many questions again, however, they were generally more related to the subject. I did learn about one superstition that suggested that you must kill the snake right away, because the faster it moved, the faster the venom would move through your body. One woman shared her experience of having her stomach cut open and having organs protruding when I talked about abdominal injuries. This was perhaps one of the most engaging classes that I have ever had while teaching first aid. Many of the people who attended my class also attended the breadmaking, sewing, and quilting classes taught by others, on other days. They seemed eager to learn everything and everything that they could.
On Friday, we took the medical supplies that we had brought from home over to the local clinic. We had one large suitcase and a hockey bag full of various medical supplies. To say that the clinic’s staff’s reaction to these donations was children on Christmas morning would be an understatement. The clinic was under-equipped, and they stated that these supplies would be of incredible use to them.
Back at the training centre, I attempted to help fill in some of the large holes that the eMI team had dug to access the water table. I was able to fill in one hole before the shovel was taken away from me by one of the local people. They didn’t seem to want to let us do any of the physical work. Later that day I tried to carry a chair but got only a half step before someone took it away from me.
Friday night was our last night at the Training Centre. Every night we had been there, one of the caretakers had started a fire for us outside of our accommodations. I would later learn that starting fires in Africa is a little different than back home. They did not have the traditional firepit, it was simply the end of logs piled on top of each other. You would gradually move all of the logs into the fire as their ends burned off.
Saturday after we visited a hot spring, we took Florance out to dinner at a local lodge. Paster Daniel was still at the Training Centre with the pastors. We slept at Pastor Daniel’s and Florence’s house and attended Church the next day. Once again, they did not have us enter the Church right away but brought us in partway through.
We then departed for the long return to Livingstone which would take a few days because we had many stops to make. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to pass through Kafue National Park where we saw extensive amounts of the local wildlife. This included elephants, baboons, and I’m pretty sure just about every species of antelope located in that part of Africa. We saw hippos from a distance, they are not a creature that you want to see up close. We camped at a place called Hippo Bay inside the park. It was well-named. Hippos make a grunting sound as a form of communication that carries long distances. I would have to say that it was one of the most disconcerting sounds that I have ever heard. Just picture hearing Jabba the Hut laughing in the middle of the night being unsure of exactly where the sound was coming from.
The next morning, we proceeded through the park on the various “roads” that left the trunks jumping up and down. At one point, we had an elephant chase our trucks. At another point, we had to drive through a fire as there was no other way around. On the way back we took a shortcut over a mountain to reach the Mission of Love Orphanage and School. The desks at this school had been provided by the Rotary Club of Georgetown. Our next stop was at Nyawa Secondary School. At this location, the Rotary Club had helped to upgrade a well and to provide science labs to the school. The well at the school supports approximately 30 communities. The fact that the well is located at the school is very important. In Zambian culture, the responsibility for collecting water is often left to the girls. In some cases, they must travel far distances, which does not allow them to attend school. In this case, they can take the water home with them at the end of the day.
We travelled back to Livingston from Nyawa with one of our community partners. Part of the way back to Livingston our community partner stopped his vehicle on the road beside a vehicle that stopped going the other way. We were under the impression that it was the police because a man in a uniform got out.
It was not the police. Instead, it was the local Chief who decided that he wanted to meet us after our community partner had greeted him. There is no exact equivalent to their position in Canadian society.
Once we returned to Livingston, I got the chance to cross the border into Botswana into one of their national parks. There were numerous elephants, lions, hippos, and other animals in the park.
While this was not my first time in Africa, it brought me many new experiences. The people were so eager to learn anything we could teach them. I have taught First Aid to many people, and while this knowledge can be crucial at the right time, at the right place anywhere in the world, the Zambian people do not have the same level of emergency services to rely on and must depend on their own efforts a great deal more than we may at times. This is not unique to Zambia, as it is a similar situation in much of the developing world.
My Corner of the Internet 