Bananas and the Hospital

On Monday, when my Dad and Doug went to Lusaka to get the luggage, they stopped at "Banana Corner". I remember it well, from our journey leaving Lusaka the day we arrived. Never in my life have a I seen anything like it. Little children of all ages, come swarming around the vehicle carrying huge bunches of bananas, at very good prices. As we open the windows they just about push them into your face and it breaks your heart (well, MY heart!) to say no to any of them, but there's no way you can buy bananas from them all. Well, I think Dad and Doug must have bought some from every child that approached the van because they brought home 100 bananas...yes I said ONE HUNDRED!! (they insist they had to turn just as many away that they bought from though...I can believe it!) Now you might wonder what 8 people are doing with 100 bananas....I am here to say that as of today ...Thursday....we only have 18 left, plus a few mushy ones in the fridge that Mindy is going to use for banana muffins tomorrow morning. We love the bananas here in Zambia. I used to think a banana is a banana, but no more...they are sweeter, and even if the peels are bruised and brown, the banana inside is almost always perfect! Some us are enjoying peanut butter & banana sandwiches, Mother baked a banana cake today, yesterday I put bananas in the baked oatmeal, we are looking forward to Mindy's muffins tomorrow morning, and other than that, we are enjoying peeling those yummy things and just snacking on them! By the way, they cost about 300 kwacha each, which comes to 8 cents a banana, with the current exchange rate of 3600 kwacha = $1.00. When we came, it was 4000 K for the dollar, so we are getting less for our dollar now.

Tuesday we had a great day in Macha, which is about a 2 hour drive, but the drive is not one we would want to make every day! It's a dirt road, with many pot holes, ditches, gulley and bumps. We were very grateful for Given, who graciously agreed to drive for us again. Macha is the home of MIAM (Malaria Institute at Macha) and Macha Hospital, where Dr. John Spurrier, and his wife Esther, are currently living. Dr. Spurrier gave us a great tour of the hospital, and Esther gave us a tour of the open market, where stands are open to buy mostly clothing. The "fires" are also found here. These are the equivalent of our hospital waiting rooms. Unbelievable. Family members and friends sit here, making fires day and night to stay warm and to cook with, as long as their loved ones are in the hospital. At the hospital, every patient has someone with them, and these family members also provide the primary nursing care for the patient, while the limited staff of nurses does the meds. There is a children’s ward for children 5 and under, the women and children’s ward, and the men's ward. We also saw the delivery room - surely much different than the hospitals in PA. One thing that stood out to me when we entered the children's ward, was that in every bed, not only was there a child, but there was also an adult inevery bed with each child. I suppose most of them were parents, but sometimes it could be another relative. These Zambians are so relational. How precious to see every child comforted by someone else, as they lay in their hospital bed. It made me think of a friend back home who was recentlyreprimanded at a hospital when she was lying down in the hospital bed with her little sick child....I still want to have my brother post some thoughts, but today they were all busy doing a project at the primary school here in Choma. They scraped and painted the overhang of the school all day.
More will come!

Beth