Zimba

Good Morning!

I am writing from Choma while the students are currently in class. We have had Jerilynn here with us for a little over a week now and things have been going great. She is teaching Leadership and Management and all that entails. Today after class, lunch, than more class we will be packing up one more time and heading to Zimba where we will be staying until Sunday afternoon. While we are in Zimba we will not have internet, so don’t be worried if you don’t hear from your child. We will be having some class time while in Zimba as well with clinical every day. The students are busy working on their leadership projects, and they have some great idea.  The great things about these projects are that the students can really make a difference. They can identify a problem or weakness that they see in the clinical setting, and implement a new strategy to improve it. We are really encouraging the students to not just think of these as another school project they get a grade on, but a way they can make an impact on their current community.

Yesterday was the Zambian Independence day, and we were downtown to celebrate with our fellow Choma residents. It was definitely a cultural experience. There were traditional dancers, street vendors and intense HEAT. It has been very hot here, upper 90’s to 100’s. As soon as you take a shower, you are sweating again.  Since we have arrived back in Choma we have had another team here from Hamburg, N.Y. They are a church group who has been visiting trusts. They have been really great to get to know and we have enjoyed spending time with the last few days, they left this morning. When we get back to Choma this coming Sunday, there will be another team here so we will be sharing out living space again. The students are doing well, we have only one who has not been feeling well, but is on the mend with all the great nursing care she has been receiving J it can be helpful yet slightly annoying to have so many nursing students/nurses who are ordering you to rest and drink fluids. I will update you all more when we come back Sunday, hopefully it is a great experience, we are very excited. Right now the three of us (Jerilynn, Judy and I) are going to be conducting mock interviews for the students to prepare them for real job interviews.

On a side note we just finished interviewing the students, I got to play a manager who does not make eye contact and is very abrupt and uninterested…kind of the highlight of my day J They handled me well.

Sincerely, Bethany