Termites, makoswe and gekkos, oh my

The rains have started and with them an abundance of termites. The winged creatures were scattered on the kitchen floor this morning. Piles of wings were at the door step and scattered over the courtyard waving in the wind. On the roads and in the mud gutters children armed with plastic bottles and sticks were busy collecting them as were the ants, lizards, mice, rats and geckos. Upon my return from language class our guard and I tossed termites to a lovely green chameleon with pronged toes and an extremely long quick tongue. He moved slowly with a wobbly gait and eyes that individually darted backwards and forwards. As he moved from the grass to the dark brown earth his coloration darkened. I noticed the gardener and guard also enjoyed a plate of fried termites for lunch as will many families in Lusaka today. We have decided on baked potatoes and fish however. I suspect Jim would be willing to eat some if I fried them up as he is the only one of us who has a history of swallowing live goldfish at a youth group meeting in high school. Jason should try that one at the next gross food event.

After we cleaned up the termites, I plucked a small red spider dangling off of Jim’s hair and headed for the shower where I encountered two miniature geckos. At first with my glasses off I wondered if they were spiders, large ants or cockroaches but once I figured out what they were I transported them outside. They are awfully cute. Rascal thinks so too and we have found some dismembered ones about the house. The geckos come in and out of the air conditioning units and click loudly at each other and at the large fat spiders that come out at night to eat insects. The geckos in turn eat the spiders if they can catch them. We think we also have makoswe (house rats as opposed to field rats) though we have not seen them. We hear them running at night in the roof. They are so loud they sound like an infestation of raccoons. Some friends have rats that are so nonchalant they run past her in the kitchen when she is cooking. Her rats eat around the poison and have also dug through concrete which they used to patch up the holes in their wall.

Out-swimming the Crocodiles!

I have recently returned from two back-to-back trips to the villages (Eastern and Northwestern Regions) as part of my assessment of maternal mortality. Those who are following our blog will know that one of my current tasks is to help guide the US government project - "Saving Mothers, Giving Life", an ambitious attempt to reduce maternal mortality in four demonstration disctricts by 50% in one year. I have now visited all four disctricts and about 15% of the 96 health facilities and villages. The official maternal mortality rate is 591/100,000, about 500 times higher than in the US. I have so many thoughts and ideas it is hard to know where to start. The most simple summary is that access to a quality facility based delivery is the biggest issue. Of course there is a lot involved in this - roads, vehicles, communication systems, traditional beliefs, trained staff, equipment, safe blood products, etc.
If I could have one wish fullfilled it would be for a comprehensive system of paved roads - this would not only improve health but it would also foster broad economic development, as farmers and small business persons could get products to market. This would also further open up one of Zambia's most valuable resources - national parks. Tourism could help the economy immensely. I would employee Zambians to build the roads, which would also stimulate the local economy (too much aid actually goes right to the donor nations companies and nationals). Given that Zambia is only about the size of the state of Texas and has a stable government, this really is not too tall of an order.

When visiting Lundazi, which includes the Luangwa River Valley (where North and South Luangwa National Parks are located) we were told that during the rainy season about 15% of the population is cut-off from the rest of the district. If a woman needs to get to a health facility she may be placed on a raft and a few strong swimmers will push her across the flooded river beds, always mindful of the crocodiles! Yet these National Parks are considered some of the most beautiful in Africa and have many tour groups operating within their boundaries, tour groups with numerous all terrain vehicles. This seems an obvious opportunity for a public-private partnership. Wouldn't the average European or North American tourist be delighted to know that the company they are using is helping to save the lives of pregnant women?

I also noted so many broken vehicles and equipment - wouldn't it be wonderful if retired (but not tired) people from Europe and North America with skills (mechanics, electricians, medical equipment repair technicians, etc.) considered taking a year or two and volunteering in some of these places - teaching Zambian's some of the skills needed to sustain the equipment - think of the stories one would have for the golf buddies! I remember one of my seminary friends once asking, "where in scripture does it say we should retire from serving?"