Written June 15, 2012

Posted – probably at some random hot spot in Namaacha, who knows when

Hello all you blog spectators! Welcome back!

I hope everyone is doing well back in the states, and don’t worry I’m holding up pretty well here myself.

Today was another jam-packed day of schooling – language lessons in the morning, followed by an “Introduction to the health system” here in Moz. Dr. Ema Chuva came to speak with us about the basic forms of public health care, how it ranges from district offices, to provincial to the central health program. Very interesting stuff, not to mention useful, as we are all Community Health Volunteers in this program.

Some crazy stats for you all to digest – there are 23.7 million people here in Moz. Of that number, 29.8% live in an urban setting, while the other 70.2% reside in the rural parts. The literacy rate is 50.4%.

This is when things start to get a bit shocking. . the infant mortality rate is 93/1000 and institutional birth rate is 58%.

There are three hospitals in this entire country. No I did not stutter. 3. That’s it. There are more hospitals in the “smallest big town” aka- Pittsburgh, than there are in this entire country, which is about 3 california’s stacked upon one another. Mind blown.

Again another number commin at ‘cha – in this entire country, there are 859 doctors. That’s one for every 26,000 people, if the doctor is actually practicing treatment. Oftentimes, the doctors are the ones running the show, organizing things, and therefore do not actually spend much time with patients. With that said, there are 5,397 nurses in Moz, that’s one for every 4,000 people, and again the skill level of the nurses vary as well. Last ratio I have for you, there are 2,461 physicians assistants, that’s 1 for every 9,000 people.

If you haven’t picked up the main theme of this post yet here it is – Moz is an amazing country, it needs help in the health sector in more ways than just funding. It needs the trained staff. Money (while helpful for sure) can only go so far, the manpower needed to utilize the things money can buy is what is most important.

Down to the nitty gritty-

Of the 23.7 million people here in Moz, about 1.4 million of them are infected with HIV/AIDS. 250,000 are children, 860,000 are women, and 552,000 are men. The life expectancy in this country is 42 years of age.

Leading causes of death – malaria, and hiv/aids.

As shocking as all of this information was to receive (and there was much more, that’s just a summarization) it also spurred many of us into an almost excitement-like mood. We are here. We are here to make a change. No matter how small or large, this is what we are here to do.

The basic idea for our projects in the two year span range from; promoting key health behaviors and practices, detecting community health problems and offer/work  to find possible solutions, and coordinate/carry out activities responding to community needs.

The idea of integration of HIV/AIDS services into the community, incorporation of new lab technology, expansion of a community adherence group (help to facilitate long-term patient retention) – are just some of the few things we discussed, and hopefully can accomplish.

Children and women are going to be a target audience that we will try to reach out to. They (just by numbers) are the ones that are most strongly affected. Hopefully I can get involved with an NGO, or even a secondary project that promotes the health and well-being of women and children. If even possible, tying in nutrition studies – sustainability and various educational seminars to promote empowerment of women. . . thinking big things here. But I am well aware of the way things work here, and know that the pace may be a bit slow (drastically slow in comparison to the way things move in the US) but that’s ok. I’m a go-with-the-flow kinda lady, I don’t need specific timeframes for things (as my mother cringes at the thought haha) It would be great to see some things get accomplished during my time here, but its an evolutionary process, start small- building blocks for the future generations, future volunteers etc.

Ok- enough of the advocate chat – I had a lovely day today. Got a great workout in this evening with some friends, some cardio and aerobics. I have been trying to do yoga every night before bed in my room, and next week, we are going to try to get people together to have a small yoga class. Along with the circuit stuff we did today (lean mean moz 18) look out.

Dinner was delicious- grilled frango (chicken) with a salad, and some xima, followed by a banana for dessert. Again – no complaints on the food here, so far, all experiences have been good!

With that lovely thought, I will say goodnight. I still have a bit of studying to get done before I snuggle up with my book in bed. Tomorrow is our first language test, and I am slightly nervous for that. But no matter how I do it’s a mark to see how far I’ve come with the language in two weeks, where my strengths are and weaknesses are. Keep ‘em crossed kiddies. I want to learn this language.

X’s and O’s from your studious and excited pal here in Mozambique

td