Email from Mukinge, Zambia 4/4/01

Dear Vaughn Forest Family

Greetings from Mukinge, Kasempa District, NW province, Zambia. I have been here since Friday 30, March and am just beginning to see how I might get by. The 2 pediatrics wards are huge (this is the NON busy season) with 35 kids in each. Most have malaria, worms, anemia, burns, breaks and fevers. I have seen kwashiorkor like out of a news film. The first day here I lost a little girl to terminal starvation (& malaria, gastroenteritis and heavens knows what all). I don’t really know what I would do here if it were not for the staff. It is numerically mostly Zambian except for a few Aussies, North Irish, Canadian, English and (yes) Americans about. These folk are really dedicated, smart and tough, (e.g. a “short term” SIM missionary goes for a minimum of 3 years, most do not take malaria prophylaxis therefore) . Very discouraging work at times. AIDS is a piece of the landscape. The station is about half the size it was in the 60’s (30 now).
On the 31st I went to town, Kasempa which is “the Boma” meaning British office of military administration or something; quite a hold over from the colonial period, but I think it is aword hijacked from swahili. It was a radio station, a power plant (something of a episodic endeavor), an emigration office (I have to go tomorrow to prove that I have a ticket home) and a few dozen shops around a deeply gullied plaza littered with dogs, trash, bicycles and mothers in kesapis with babies on their backs. A small loaf of bread goes for 1510 Kwacha (about 50 cents).
The day is divided by a 2 hr lunch break so that the workers can walk home and cook their insheera (a rather bland thick maize porridge that is rolled into balls and eaten with the fingers, very efficient). Morning rounds are punctuated by tea and prayers at 10AM. Work continues to almost sun down (very little dusk this near the equator) so that you don’t need a “torch” to avoid the occasional snake, (all high test, no regular). Theatre (ie surgery) was delayed this afternoon as the chief (&only) surgeon had to extract a 7 ft cobra from his garden. They keep the ‘bushy mice” population in check donchaknow.
The weather is quite humid and warm into the low 80’s but nights are cool and damp(we’re at 4000ft). It is heading into winter and the dry season so that it only rains a few times a day now with bright sun in between. Tonight is one of the few nights which doesn’t have something I feel I must go to so I am trying to keep up with the mail. Please remember me in your prayers and write if you find time.