I have internet again!
I’m sorry that I’ve been out of contact for about a week -- our internet service went down and it just came back up this evening.
This past week has been quite an adventure - I know I say that every week, but we’ve just done such a variety of amazing things while we’ve been here! Last weekend we went to Dune Estates, which is an art gallery. They have lots of beautiful ceramics, tapestries, and knick-knacks. It was interesting to be there because it’s definitely designed for tourists and the more affluent people living here. The restaurant there had very good food, but it was quite expensive compared to some other places we’ve eaten (although it was much less expensive than any US restaurant).
On Sunday we went to the Balancing Rocks, which are these humongous boulders that naturally balance on top of one another, although I can’t imagine how they stay like that! Then our driver, Tendai, took us to this large hill that is really a very large slab of rock. I don’t know how to spell the name in Shona, but it means “God of the Rocks” and it looks out over one of the growth points. In addition to the beautiful view, I was impressed by the number of children that followed us up the rock. In general, it’s funny how much the children in rural areas stare at us because they’re not used to seeing white people. Melanie and I stopped to give them some chewing gum, and after that the crowd following us just grew and grew! I some pictures that turned out really good, so I’ll post them soon.
This week was a lot of data entry, but it was nice to spend some time around the office chatting with people and getting to know them better. Krycia and I also had the opportunity to help the typing team by typing up transcriptions of reunion sessions with the Community Popular Opinion Leaders. These are outgoing individuals in the rural areas who have been chosen to receive the HIV prevention education, and who are responsible for helping to diffuse this information throughout the rest of their community. Typing the transcripts was really fun because we got a chance to read first-hand about the successes and problems that the CPOLs are having. This was also a nice intro to the lectures that Walter, the head of the Intervention team, started yesterday. He gave us an overview of the intervention strategy and next week we will go in-depth on the whole process of choosing and training the CPOLs, as well as dealing with the problems that arise.
Last night we had a very fun and very humbling experience. Jane is the “tea lady” at ZiCHIRe. She is responsible for taking care of the kitchen and bringing drinks to employees and guests during conferences, etc. She has a husband and three children who are 22, 14, and 1 years old. As with many Zimbabwean families, her husband works far away and does not live with their family on a regular basis. (I’m currently reading a book about women in Zimbabwe and a large part of it talks about how the families came to be separated when the British colonized Rhodesia. Essentially, they wanted African employees for their farms, but they also wanted to have the best land and keep it separate from the African homes. As a result, they forced the Zimbabweans to outside areas and employed only men in the white areas. This set up the social structure such that African families would reside outside the white areas, but the men would have to travel far from home for work and had to have a second residence (and you can figure out what effect this has had on the spread of AIDS). In any case, Jane lived with her children in Chitungweza, but they lost their home recently in the clean-up. Now they are living in a “cottage” which essentially means the place where people employed as housekeepers live. These are located behind the large, nice house where they work. Last night we went to Jane’s cottage to learn to make sadza, the staple Zimbabwean food made from corn that I wrote about last time. Their cottage fits their double bed, a closet, and a hot plate for cooking. There is honestly about 2 feet between the bed and the closet, and that is it. We all ate dinner sitting on the bed and Jane and her children sat on benches about 1 ft wide crammed in the corners. All four of them share the double bed. For dinner they eat sadza and cabbage every night because that is all they can afford. We brought chicken, potatoes, and vegetables, which were a real treat for them.
But in spite of all this, I cannot convey how much love there is in that family. It just radiates from all of them. Can any of you imagine a 14-year-old boy holding his baby sister while she is fed, and WAITING until she finishes to eat his own dinner? And I felt so welcomed there. Everyone, even the baby, Nicole, got comfortable with us and was happy and we had so much fun! I wish you all could have been there to experience it.
As a side note, Jane makes delicious homemade peanut butter, and I’d be happy to buy some and bring it home for anyone who’d like some.
Today was fun because we met with Dick Adams to discuss our upcoming trip to Weya where we’ll hopefully get to do home-stays with rural families. He talked a little about the history of Zimbabwe and how it came to be that the women in Weya are responsible for almost all of the work. The men claim they have “no work to do” because there are only women’s chores available. It is a difficult problem because the gender roles here are part of the culture, and it is important to be culturally-sensitive when you are trying to help these families subsist.
This afternoon we interviewed some people who work at ZiCHIRe for our video that we’re hoping to make about our trip when we get back. It was really neat to hear people’s perspectives on the HIV epidemic and life in Zimbabwe in general.
That’s about it for now, and I’m sorry that I always write so much.
This past week has been quite an adventure - I know I say that every week, but we’ve just done such a variety of amazing things while we’ve been here! Last weekend we went to Dune Estates, which is an art gallery. They have lots of beautiful ceramics, tapestries, and knick-knacks. It was interesting to be there because it’s definitely designed for tourists and the more affluent people living here. The restaurant there had very good food, but it was quite expensive compared to some other places we’ve eaten (although it was much less expensive than any US restaurant).
On Sunday we went to the Balancing Rocks, which are these humongous boulders that naturally balance on top of one another, although I can’t imagine how they stay like that! Then our driver, Tendai, took us to this large hill that is really a very large slab of rock. I don’t know how to spell the name in Shona, but it means “God of the Rocks” and it looks out over one of the growth points. In addition to the beautiful view, I was impressed by the number of children that followed us up the rock. In general, it’s funny how much the children in rural areas stare at us because they’re not used to seeing white people. Melanie and I stopped to give them some chewing gum, and after that the crowd following us just grew and grew! I some pictures that turned out really good, so I’ll post them soon.
This week was a lot of data entry, but it was nice to spend some time around the office chatting with people and getting to know them better. Krycia and I also had the opportunity to help the typing team by typing up transcriptions of reunion sessions with the Community Popular Opinion Leaders. These are outgoing individuals in the rural areas who have been chosen to receive the HIV prevention education, and who are responsible for helping to diffuse this information throughout the rest of their community. Typing the transcripts was really fun because we got a chance to read first-hand about the successes and problems that the CPOLs are having. This was also a nice intro to the lectures that Walter, the head of the Intervention team, started yesterday. He gave us an overview of the intervention strategy and next week we will go in-depth on the whole process of choosing and training the CPOLs, as well as dealing with the problems that arise.
Last night we had a very fun and very humbling experience. Jane is the “tea lady” at ZiCHIRe. She is responsible for taking care of the kitchen and bringing drinks to employees and guests during conferences, etc. She has a husband and three children who are 22, 14, and 1 years old. As with many Zimbabwean families, her husband works far away and does not live with their family on a regular basis. (I’m currently reading a book about women in Zimbabwe and a large part of it talks about how the families came to be separated when the British colonized Rhodesia. Essentially, they wanted African employees for their farms, but they also wanted to have the best land and keep it separate from the African homes. As a result, they forced the Zimbabweans to outside areas and employed only men in the white areas. This set up the social structure such that African families would reside outside the white areas, but the men would have to travel far from home for work and had to have a second residence (and you can figure out what effect this has had on the spread of AIDS). In any case, Jane lived with her children in Chitungweza, but they lost their home recently in the clean-up. Now they are living in a “cottage” which essentially means the place where people employed as housekeepers live. These are located behind the large, nice house where they work. Last night we went to Jane’s cottage to learn to make sadza, the staple Zimbabwean food made from corn that I wrote about last time. Their cottage fits their double bed, a closet, and a hot plate for cooking. There is honestly about 2 feet between the bed and the closet, and that is it. We all ate dinner sitting on the bed and Jane and her children sat on benches about 1 ft wide crammed in the corners. All four of them share the double bed. For dinner they eat sadza and cabbage every night because that is all they can afford. We brought chicken, potatoes, and vegetables, which were a real treat for them.
But in spite of all this, I cannot convey how much love there is in that family. It just radiates from all of them. Can any of you imagine a 14-year-old boy holding his baby sister while she is fed, and WAITING until she finishes to eat his own dinner? And I felt so welcomed there. Everyone, even the baby, Nicole, got comfortable with us and was happy and we had so much fun! I wish you all could have been there to experience it.
As a side note, Jane makes delicious homemade peanut butter, and I’d be happy to buy some and bring it home for anyone who’d like some.
Today was fun because we met with Dick Adams to discuss our upcoming trip to Weya where we’ll hopefully get to do home-stays with rural families. He talked a little about the history of Zimbabwe and how it came to be that the women in Weya are responsible for almost all of the work. The men claim they have “no work to do” because there are only women’s chores available. It is a difficult problem because the gender roles here are part of the culture, and it is important to be culturally-sensitive when you are trying to help these families subsist.
This afternoon we interviewed some people who work at ZiCHIRe for our video that we’re hoping to make about our trip when we get back. It was really neat to hear people’s perspectives on the HIV epidemic and life in Zimbabwe in general.
That’s about it for now, and I’m sorry that I always write so much.