Well, last week was Macha and it was pretty fantastic! Both of the guys and I managed to come down with something or other entailing fevers and some intestinal distress the morning we were to leave which made for a slightly uncomfortable 5 hour drive on mostly bumpy roads, but we made it! We had a great time. There was another group from Messiah there, a summer missions team, and we knew some of the people. It was crazy reuniting with friends from Messiah all the way over here in Zambia! We had the opportunity to relax a bit on Saturday and Sunday was at the Brethren in Christ Church there in Macha, which was fantastic. Monday Ian and I were able to go on rounds in the pediatric ward of the hospital with Dr. Thuma. Macha has a mission hospital there that was founded by Dr. Thuma's father quite a while ago. Its the nearest hospital for quite a ways for many folks and so it sees quite a bit more action that the little clinic here. They also have an outpatient clinic, and operating theatre, mens/womens/peds wards, a TB facility and a malaria research institute. It was great to have the opportunity to go around with Dr Thuma and to see some of the other great work that is going on there. There were a few other American doctors there who were also pretty interesting to meet and hear their stories of how they ended up in Macha. We met some very interesting people! Tuesday we got to go into the OR which was amazing! We were able to see two sets of women have their tubes tied, one man get a chest tube put in to drain the fluid that had built up from TB, and then just as we were leaving we saw a C-section! That was pretty amazing also and we didn't think we were going to get to see it so it was an unexpected surprise.

I think one of the hardest things about going around in the hospital and seeing the patients was seeing them die or knowing that they soon would probably die. I don't know if death comes more frequently here or maybe it is just less messy at home usually. I guess its that people don't usually die from the things they die from here in the States. Most people die from old age, or heart problems, or cancer. People don't usually die from diarrhea or TB or AIDS (or both combined), or an infection of a wound, or malnutrition, or things of that nature. Death is so common here its a part of life. Women have 8 children, 4 or 5 die from things like pneumonia or diarrhea or malnutrition. Its really heartbreaking. We saw some kids on rounds that died. A few of them have stuck in our minds. One child, about 4, was severely malnourished, had diarrhea, TB, looked like a stick, and probably weighed no more than the average American 2 year old. There was a child less than a year old who had come in complaining of uncontrollable diarrhea. His parents had taken him to a traditional healer who had given him an herb which had actually stopped the diarrhea but in the process had caused his kidneys to begin to shut down. So do we get angry at the parent for taking the child to the traditional healer trying to save their child? Do we get angry at the lack of a healthcare system which caused the mother to try herbal remedies instead of walking for 2 days to get to the hospital? Is the government to blame? How about God, why would he allow such a thing to happen? I don't know the answer, but its hard to witness. There are no dialysis machines here. Either the childs kidneys will work to get the herbs out of his system or he will die. Mmmmm.

There is one little girl who has haunted both Ian and I since we saw her. She was 6 years old. She weighed 22 pounds. She looked like a Holocaust survivor. Eyes completely sunken in and a stick. HIV positive. All of the doctors were encouraged by her progress and commenting how much better she looked since she came in. The next morning she was dead. The wailing of the women that accompanied her body being removed was enough to send chills down one's spine. I don't know. Somethings got to change, thats not right.

Enough of the sad things of life. Monday of this week we drove up to Lusaka to pick up some items that our professor had shipped there. It was quite a journey! And it was really crazy to be in a city instead of in the middle of no where. The most exciting part was that we went to a place to get burgers and chicken sandwiches and let me tell you they were pretty darn amazing. complete with cheese on top. Yes please.

In two weeks time we will be home! That is so insane! Our time has gone so incredibly fast...and has been so incredibly wonderful. I think we would all like to stay and teach another term and continue to get involved in the community. Its a great place. Its going to be pretty hard to say goodbye, but...it will be good to see the family and the friends and we are all looking forward to food ( a whole lot)!