5/15 Update from Holly - Moringa Project

Good afternoon! Today has been a busy day for us all. We had to awake at a decent time because several of us were going to give presentations at the church planting school first thing. Tannen stayed up with me until 2am brainstorming, so we were tired but managed. I finally hit the point where I said "I'm spent- I'm going to bed. It'll all work out..." You know how I value my sleep. I'm so thankful that Dr. T brought tea from SA so we could perk up a bit this morning. Jim VZ led the sessions at the school by speaking with the students about the moringa; what it is, how to use it, etc. He's preparing for his spotlight on Zambian national TV this weekend; I think that he'll do quite well. After Jim presented, I led a 2 hour seminar on counseling. I started by asking the students "Ok, so what do you think that counseling is?" We talked about that a while, and also discussed some of their preconceived notions. Admittedly, I have been quite nervous about this because I thought "I'm not a trained counselor- how can I tell them what to do? Why should they listen to me?" I've been reading lots of books, but that doesn't make me an expert. It worked out amazingly well though; I think that the seminar made a huge difference. We ran through some textbook stuff on "what makes a counselor"- different characteristics and traits, and discussed them in depth. Tannen then helped by doing a little role-playing with me. We acted out a counseling scenario to illustrate the 15 necessary steps; e.g.- empathy, active listening, directing. They thought that we were kind of funny (which we are, I suppose). Next we broke them up into 4 groups of 3/4 students and gave them scenarios that we had made up ahead of time. An example:
Who: 16 year old girl
What: She was raped by her uncle and is dealing with feelings of anger and anxiety
When: about a year ago
They took turns being the counselor and counselee and Tannen, Jeremy and I watched each group and tried to guide them along, interjecting when we felt it was necessary. The students did an amazing job, and we were all very impressed. It was obvious that they were used to hearing tragic stories; they elaborated in such detail on some of them that I had to remind myself that they were acting. After the exercise, they discussed what worked and what didn't work, both as the counselor and the counselee. We were very pleased with the feedback, as they seemed to have learned a lot. They asked many questions, some very difficult. We gave them handouts that summarized what we'd taught, so they would have a reference. Overall it went far better than I'd hoped or expected. Tannen's knowledge of HIV and trauma as well as Jeremy's 25+ years as a pastor really helped out.

After Dan and his HIV education group gave a talk, we had lunch. Dr. Thinus made my day by announcing that he had brought many bags of rice from SA with him so that we can rotate eating nshima and rice. Apparently rice is rarely eaten here; people can't afford it. I ate every last drop with a sausage and sauce. It was delicious! They also served us a cooked cabbage dish that seems to be a staple of every meal. It's not my favorite, but is growing on me.

After we ate enough to keep us going for a while, Carol, Jessica and I went back to the house to keep digging more holes. Jim VZ stayed at the church planting school to make photocopies of technical notes for the doctors that we will be presenting the moringa information to next week at Kitwe Central Hospital. (This is the presentation that was set up through my mutual friend). The photocopy machine here is very old and breaks down about every other copy, so it's been taking him a while. The hole digging is the least fun part, and today the local kids were more interested in sitting back and laughing at us and just hanging out. A few lent a helping hand. The baby next door just sat while we were digging and threw the dirt back in the hole. I tried to tell her "No, please don't do that" but of course she didn't understand. She's adorable though. Carol went to town with the pick-axe (she's very strong!), I dug the holes, and Jessica hauled pails of water back and forth. By the time that we finished the 40 holes for the new trees, we had quite a system going. We were also completely drenched in sweat and parched, despite our massive water intake. The soil is hard red clay, and we have to dig holes about 1' around and 1' deep. It is quite an undertaking, but when we are done we will have a grove of 46 moringa trees in front of Dr. T's house. Needless to say, we're all pretty exhausted.

Tomorrow we are going to visit an orphanage called Emma's Kids, which I am REALLY excited about. They have moringa trees but don't know how to use them. We’ll be sure to let you all know how it goes!