Katete

Finally in a rural setting, I am more comfortable away from the noise of the city.  Katete reminds me of the village I worked in Tanzania last summer, except most of the houses are round with thatched roofs, making things look a bit less modern (the houses in Tanz were mostly mud or brick with tin roofs.) 
I wonder what happens during the rainy season to these simple thatched roofs made out of grasses? 

When we arrive in Tikondane Community Center, we are excorted to the canvas tents out back.  There is a national celebration occuring this week, and one of the chiefs from Malawi has booked all of the guest rooms in the main house.  (The tents end up being fun, and better to keep out the mosquitos as they have netting all around them.  Many girls on the trip are visibly uncomfortable with the lack of electricity and water; I am reminded that traveling in sub-saharan Africa is not for everyone! ;)  After a hot day, I dump buckets of cold water over my head while standing in a small enclosed cement shower stall.  It feels soooooooooo good, and I soon get used to the bucket showers and forget warm water even exists. 

To go into town you can either walk 20 min or ride a bicycle taxi - a cushioned seat on the back of a bicycle.  We walk into town to buy some Chetenges (cotten skirts) required attire for women who attend the ceremony, and take bicycle taxis back (FUN)  At Kulumba ceremony the next day, we watched many traditional dances and presentations by local chiefs to the head 'king'.  People from all areas of Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia greet the king who lives locally in Katete.  The president of Zambia was also in attendance and gave a speech encouraging peaceful elections (which are occuring in Sept) and presented the king with a stuffed lion, refridgerator and flat screen tv as gifts :)  We were given 'journalist' ID tags so we could go right up to the stage with the local camera crews and take photos.  10,000 people from 3 different countries congregated in one dusty place.  People were excited and overjoyed we (muzungus - white people) were in attendence and welcomed us publicly.

Mass at the Anglican church nearby was full of beautiful music and we were asked to get up and introduce ourselves (and dance ofcourse - everything requires dancing ;) The service was very much like a catholic service, in fact the only thing that was left out was the 'Hale Mary' as far as I could tell.  It was also very long - 2 hours. 

At St. Francis hospital nearby we toured the 7 different wards, including the maternity ward where we saw many pre-mature babies all in incubators - a good sign that they will survive.  The rate of premature infanty survival is about 50/50, a midwife told us later.  Many women go into premature delivery due to the hard work they perform at home, as well as malnutrition (not getting enough protein mostly.)  My research is specifically on maternal health so I sat down with 2 different midwives on separate occasions and learned about abortion rates, c-sections delivery, prenatal care, nutrition and accessibility to local clinics and the hospital.  St. Francis is the best hospital in Zambia as far as access to technology and medicine, though is severely lacking doctors and under-staffed.  There is a line out the door of the outpatient clinic everyday - hundreds of people. 

More on hospital visits later...