Trauma Counseling and Head Trauma

Friday, November 28, 2008

I learned that 80% of Kitwe has giardia thanks to a sewer leakage in Wusakili where most of the vegetables are grown for the city. At least it isn’t cholera. So far we have not been affected, even though I buy my fruit and vegetables at the market. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Saturday, November 22, 2008
It worked out for Josh, a missionary friend, to have a sleepover with the boys last night. The boys have been asking for some time for this to happen but it hasn’t worked out. Somewhat spontaneously, it was all arranged and the three boys had a great time together. This morning, Peter took them all to Mindolo Dam where there was a Motobike (no, not Motorbike, but it is the same thing) exhibition. They returned home full of stories of spectacular tricks and sights.

That night at dinner, Brendan stated that he wants to be “Holy Knoley.” Peter and I looked at each other and burst out laughing – he meant “Evil Knievel.” What a highly spiritual boy we have!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

I actually found rhubarb at Shoprite this week, and though it was a bit expensive, I decided to splurge. I made the most delicious rhubarb muffins and even Jason thought they were heavenly. Right in the middle of our scrumptious breakfast, a cockroach ran across the table. I managed to squish it with my finger. After thoroughly washing my hands, I sat back down and enjoyed the rest of my amazing muffin. I wasn’t going to let a little cockroach ruin my breakfast!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

It’s been a full and somewhat hectic week. I co-taught a Trauma Awareness and Healing workshop here at MEF and it went very well. A much better experience than last year when there was the strike and then the participants were advised not to listen to what I had to say because I was a Westerner. This year I co-taught with a Zambian woman I had met through Healing of Memories. I had remembered that Joan had a Master’s degree in Disaster Management from a university in South Africa so when Peter was looking for a second facilitator, I recommended her. And I’m so glad that I did. Joan is a marvelous person, talented in numerous ways, full of life and laughter, and extremely experienced in leading workshops. I think we worked well as a team, though with very different styles of teaching and relating. I learned a lot by watching how she interacted with the class and how she engaged them. We had twelve participants, mostly from the Copperbelt region, but with a few from Lusaka. It was truly a delightful group to work with, ready to participate and share from their own experiences, both personally and with the populations they work with. The class formed a community that listened to each other and challenged each other. There was a lot of laughter, despite the seriousness of our topic, and that was good for the soul. I connected with two ladies in particular, both live in Kitwe so I can continue my friendship with them. Julien lost the use of her legs due to polio when she was small and now works among the disabled in the townships. She is a delightful woman, and everyone fell in love with her. Despite her disability, an abusive husband, and few resources, she is so positive and generous. And then there was Annie, an older woman who has been taking care of siblings and family members who were orphaned since she was in university. Now that her children are grown, she continues to do that same work by running an orphanage. She has such a gentle spirit, a ready smile, and a gift for counseling. There were many other characters in the class: a policeman who is nephew to the new president, a young married man who flirted with all the young ladies single or otherwise, the older gentleman who designated himself the “headman” of the class, the young single man who lost his mother a few years back and who takes care of five orphaned nieces and nephews, a female prosecutor from Lusaka that goes to the prisons to start peace clubs, an elderly school teacher who runs peace clubs in her school, an actress, and I could go on and on. They all report that they learned so much and that they feel better equipped to handle trauma as well as grief and loss.


In the middle of the week, we had a bit of a trauma ourselves. Around midnight, Jason fell off the top bunk and onto our hard floor. I heard the thump and whimpering and when I went in to check, Jason was still asleep but obviously in pain. At first I couldn’t wake him up which really freaked me out. But then we got him awake and he could talk to us and knew who we were. We checked out his pupils to see if they were dilated evenly. A goose egg quickly appeared on his upper forehead and we iced that. He stayed in our bed the rest of the night which was a good choice, especially since he threw up an hour later and again two hours after the incident. Assuming that he had a mild concussion, we decided to take him into the clinic in the morning to have him checked out. Besides a headache, the doctor found nothing wrong and we are thankful. Jason insisted that he didn’t fall off the bunk bed, despite evidence to the contrary. Needless to say, he moved to the bottom bed.

Peter had his hands full with getting the kids to and from school as well as coordinating the workshop. I had Peggy come in the afternoons instead of the mornings two days so that the kids would have someone at home with them. The other three days, I had arrangements made but those were scrapped when we found out Brendan had extra rehearsals for the Christmas program being held next week. So Peter did more shuttling of children back and forth in the afternoons. It was a little tricky at times but we managed to make it all work.

We ended up having a quiet day at home today which was most needed. There were a few things that were tentatively planned but they were postponed or cancelled and I didn’t complain. We spent the afternoon putting up our little fake Christmas tree and decorating it and putting out a few other decorations. We managed to make an advent wreath with playdough holding the warped candles in place. It looks rather pathetic but it will serve the purpose!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008
We were thrilled to have our Reps, Eric and Kathy, come to Kitwe Sunday afternoon and visit us. We were able to celebrate Eric’s birthday as well as the first Sunday of Advent. They went to visit other MCC partners in Ndola on Monday and then returned to us Tuesday. It was good to just be with them and the kids always enjoy their company. We discussed some business but also just relaxed. Eric and Kathy play a mean game of Mexican Train Dominoes with a variety of house rules that kept the game interesting. We stayed up late playing Tuesday night, something which we hadn’t done since Adrian left over a month ago.

Happy Birthday, Eric!

Thursday, December 4, 2008
The lower primary grades at Lechwe put on quite a Christmas production these last two nights. They most certainly spent a lot of time practicing, both during school and afterwards. The title of the program was “How the Star was Chosen” and told the story of how the Sky People were searching for a guide to lead the Kings and Shepherds to Bethlehem. They had a competition and the Clouds, Rabbits, and River each sang a song to tell how they could be the best guide. But it is Bright Star, who is ridiculed by the other stars for being so bright, that is eventually chosen. Brendan was one of the narrators and was dressed up in a gold shirt and bowtie.

Jason and his class were clouds and they danced together during their song.
It was quite a production with everyone in costumes and makeup. Peter joined me the first night and I went on my own the second night. The second performance had a few unintended funny parts, like the kid who told another kid to “shut up” and he happened to be under a microphone so it came out loud and clear. And the angel who couldn’t blow out her candle and puffed about six times before the girl next to her blew it out in the middle of the first angel’s gigantic puff. The school usually doesn’t have power on Thursdays so they made a special request to Zesco (the power company) to keep the power on for the program. We were rushed out right after, knowing that the power was going to be turned off shortly and they didn’t want people wandering around in the dark. It was a good experience for Brendan and Jason to know what goes into a big performance like that but they were “shattered” as our British friends say, or exhausted, after that.

Friday, December 5, 2008
Where did all the time go? I’m preaching on Sunday and I have had my sermon hanging over my head, waiting to be written. It didn’t happen last week while teaching and I thought I would have all this week to work on it. But then Eric and Kathy came to visit and we found out Brendan’s and Jason’s Christmas program was two nights instead of one, and there were just all the things that I didn’t get to last week that had to be done this week. Not to mention the incidents where time was wasted. Monday I usually read to the Reception classes and I had Peter double check that we were still on because I didn’t want to show up and they weren’t available. He was assured that they were going to be there. But sure enough, when I arrived, they were still rehearsing for the Christmas program. There was no use going back home so I killed an hour at school. Then I had more time to kill at Shoprite when the power unexpectedly went off. Last time I was told that the power came on right after I left so this time I decided to wait it out. I waited for about fifteen minutes and then an employee came and started taking refrigerated goods out of my cart. I told him that I wanted to just wait a bit but he said it would take awhile seeing as how they didn’t know the cause of the outage. Reluctantly, I left my full cart once again and went home. Then on both Wednesday and Thursday, Brendan and Jason had to be at school an hour and a half before the program began. Peter hung out with me one evening but the other evening I was on my own. I was starting to get worried that this sermon would never get written but this morning, I finally completed it. I got a scare yesterday when I talked with the pastor’s wife about some of the things in my sermon, just to get her feedback. I wanted to know the Bemba word for “peekaboo” as I am using it as an illustration. She had no idea what I was talking about as she had never heard of peekaboo. Silly me. I assumed people around the world played that game with babies. So I asked her if there were other kinds of games that they play with their babies that I could use instead. She had a blank look on her face and then told me that they don’t know how to play with their babies. They put them on their back and get their work done but don’t interact much with their babies. She has a three year old and twins who are 15 months old. I suddenly felt so sad. I’m sure there are many parents who do interact with their children but I thought of all the babies who get no stimulation at all. I thought I would have to scrap a part of my sermon but I figured out a way to still do something with it. At least it is done and now I am praying that God can use it to speak to our congregation.

Saturday, December 6, 2008
It has also been a week of encounters with little critters. There is a baby gecko that showers with me. I don’t mind her company because I am assuming she eats the mosquitoes that also congregate in the shower area. But we have an unspoken deal that as long as she remains on the shower wall, she can stay. However, one morning she happened to cross over my foot while I was rinsing out the shampoo from my hair. This was a serious breach of the understanding we had reached. She must have known that because I haven’t seen her since.

When Eric and Kathy were here, Eric found a large chameleon on our lawn. Those are such fascinating creatures but Zambians don’t like them much. They believe that it causes infertility if touched. Myths only have power if you believe them, right?

And then this evening, we had another encounter, this time with a mouse. Peter opened the door under our sink to put something in the compost pail and was surprised to see a mouse. It must have been sick or dying because it didn’t run away. We brought Hero in to see what he would do. Hero wasn’t much interested as the mouse didn’t present much of a challenge. They merely looked at each other and touched noses a couple of times.
Finally Peter scooped up the mouse in our dustpan and took it outside and let Hero have his fun there. I was surprised that I actually felt bad for the little mouse, the very rodent I had been cursing earlier this week when I found his poop in the cupboards.

Sunday, December 7, 2008
Well, we are back to the trauma theme again. Not regarding my sermon this morning. That went well enough though it is hard to know. The trauma happened at the Sunday School Christmas party in the afternoon. Brendan and Jason were having a grand time jumping in the bounce house/water slide combo. One of the girls came down the slide and bashed heads with Brendan. His head split open and blood came pouring out. He had a gash about an inch long that looked like it needed stitches. So Peter and I packed him up and took him to the clinic. Unfortunately, getting stitches was even more traumatic for all of us. The nurse had a new blade but still couldn’t manage to shave the area around the wound. Brendan was screaming because it hurt so much. Finally, I convinced the doctor to give him the shot of lignocaine FIRST and then do the shaving and suturing. The doctor did the shot in three different places and that sent Brendan into hysterical crying. They moved directly into the shaving, which the nurse still couldn’t manage so the doctor had to do it and, let’s just say, he wasn’t gentle but he got the job done. On to the stitching but Brendan was still screaming in pain, apparently feeling everything. By that time, Peter and I were both nauseous and lightheaded from the hot stuffy office, the smell of antiseptic, Brendan’s crying and so much blood. We took turns being present for Brendan while the other put his or her head down and tried not to faint. It was not a good situation. Peter and I both felt queasy the rest of the day, but Brendan obviously was in the worst shape with a splitting headache. But he will be fine and we are thankful that we don’t live out in the bush with no access to medical help.