Dec 10. 2014. HOME

I came back home. Flight duration was 2 hrs 30 mins (Lilongwe, Malawi to Johnnesburg, South Africa) + 13 hrs (Johannesburg, South Africa to Hong Kong, China) + 3 hrs 20 mins (Hong Kong, China to Incheon, South Korea) = 18 hrs 50 mins flight. The travel was not done yet. I took the bus to go home, it took another 5 hrs. It took whole one day to come back to my home from Africa.

I have never imagined I would be able to go several African countries. Of course, I have always dreamed of going all African countries, but I did not realize I would do that this year. Though there was Ebola, I went to Sierra Leone. During the two months in the epicenter of Ebola, I had to fight with my fear that “What if I get Ebola?” The most dreadful enemy was not deadly virus; it was me, myself. I learned how to fight against human being’s fate. Though I had to evacuate from Sierra Leone, I did not give up staying in Africa. Relocating to East Africa, Tanzania was another good fortune to me because I was able to appreciate East African’s life and culture. Going to Southern African region, Zambia and Malawi, was a great chance for me to realize how I was blessed that I had always access to clean water. I also want to say before I forget that I met wonderful Korean people in Malawi who have been working for Malawians several years. Staff from KFHI (Food For the Hungry International) and Milal NGO came to Malawi to provide water resource, food, nutrition, relief and rehabilitation for people in need. Comparing to their spirit of sacrifice, I have done only a small thing so far. I appreciate their service, and I am proud that people from my home country are willing to come to Africa to share their pure love.

Blue sky in Malawi. Can I see it again?

Surprisingly, my will naturally came true without even noticing. I am tunneling my way as I have thought. There was no wide and clean road in front of me, and it was hard. Yes, it was not easy to realize my goal, spending my time with people in Africa to understand their true life by eating local food, staying in the lodge, following their own culture, and so on. I am not still free from sufferings that I had, but I just want to applaud to myself for a few seconds that I broke through all difficulties wherever I go.

Pioneer spirit! To be honest, it is apprehended that there would be some danger. I am even fearful of airplane accident whenever I go on board. Through three airplanes and many transportations, I came back “safely”! I always have fears in mind, and those feelings make me shrink, but I cannot just stay calm and do nothing. I believe my destiny, and I know what I can do the best is to go the field and do on-the-ground work.

Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home! But I am not done yet. My Africa story will be continued in Mozambique and in the U.S. as well. 

Nov 29. 2014. II. Lake Malawi

It’s about time to feel the real nature of Malawi. I went to Lake Malawi, one-hour and 40 minutes distance from the capital city, Lilongwe. I was supposed to go at noon, the departure was delayed to 3pm. I was there about only one hour, but it was good amount of time to take a picture and enjoyed the scenery. 

Lake Malawi is 560-580 km length with maximum width of 75km. It is pretty long and clean lake, and looks just like the ocean. It is interesting to know there was name dispute to say “Lake Malawi,” because other countries also border on the lake. Tanzania and Mozambique claimed that the name should be “Lake Nysasa.” There is still ongoing Tanzania-Malawi dispute for the partition of the lake’s surface area; Tanzania wanted the international border should run through the middle of the lake whereas Malawi wanted the whole surface of the lake. In 1954, the British and the Portuguese signed an agreement of “making the middle of the lake their boundary,” but there is conflict occasionally between Malawi and Tanzania. 

The nickname of Lake Malawi is “the Lake of Starts” because there is the lantern lights rom the distance looks starts in the sky. It is also called “the Lake of Storms” because there are unpredictable gales that can sweep the area. There are many kinds of fish, invertebrates, and even hippos, and the beautiful beaches and islands attract local and international tourists to visit this place. If I would have more time to spend in Lake Malawi next time, I would swim and take a boat! 

Nov 29. 2014. I. Farmer’s Market

WV staff Mari told me there would be a farmer’s market this Saturday, and we went to the market place. It was an interesting and small market that anyone can open the outdoors market. There were many foreigners and local people who were enjoying Saturday morning. Since this market is held once a month, sellers may not have to be desperate(?) to sell their items. Many people were from NGO, and they were selling fruits, vegetables, bags, peanuts, honey, dumplings, drinking water, and many types of souvenirs for Christmas. Wow, the 2014 has only one more month, December, and I was surprised that Christmas is just around the corner. 

I will spend too short period of time to get to know the country, Malawi, so I have not had many chances to meet people. I thanked Mari that she took me to this place and be a good colleague for me. There was a NGO from Korea, Chismo Miral Community, which helps the disabilities get primary education and job training. I said hello to them, and asked if we could meet to have a meal on that first meeting. (because I am leaving Malawi so soon!) They would invite me for lunch next Saturday. They were so kind that they will cook Korean food for me. This must be a great attachment between Koreans who are in foreign countries. Wherever I go, I can have a strong mind because Koreans who I have never met will kindly greet and help me. Banding together with people who share the same culture somewhere in home country would be the best way to keep motivation of staying in the unfamiliar place. 

The Korean NGO team consists of 4 people, and one guy who was at that market enjoyed Malawi life and would extend one more year for volunteering. I was so moved by their pure mind to help people in Malawi. 

I said to another member, “I really appreciate your work in Africa.”
She smiled and said, “Somebody would have to do it!”

How great the answer is! They had a wonderful mind. I reflected myself again that how much I still have a pure mind to be with African people. I have been with World Vision more than half a year, and trying to think how to keep consistency and contribute to World Vision (WV)’s work even after I complete my duty. Nobody knows what would be going on in the future, so I may not know whether I will come back to WV, but at least, I can share my experience with other people in Africa and help organization to develop fellowship program and the best way to serve people in developing countries. 

I wished I could stay more in that market, but the operation time was 10 am to 1 pm, and I needed to go Lake Malawi with WV WASH team in the afternoon. Under the warm sunlight, I enjoyed the picnic in Malawi with nice people. 

Nov 26. 2014. Normality & Abnormality

It has been a while since I uploaded the last blog post. When I was in Sierra Leone and Tanzania, I wrote at least one story every day. My passion for the blog has been waned slowly. Whenever I go to different African country, I had to go through the same steps. “Please let me go!” situation in every immigration checkpoint, buy Internet modem SIM card and charge the credit, find out whether there is micro-SIM card for my cell phone, go to the lodge and check if the place is fine with the budget cut, fight with wi-fi in the lodge and ask people “Why it doesn’t work?,” wait for reimbursement for living expenses, wait for driver to take me to the office and home, fear for unidentified bugs…

In Malawi, I could not still get cell phone micro-SIM card. It seems that I have to cut the standard one into the small size to make “micro”. When I barely finished exchanging money, too much time has already passed, and the driver looked tired of taking me to the other place. I felt bad and said to him, “I will do it next time.” I still have no access card to get inside of the office, so I wait until other staff are in and out. 

It must be the timing that I have to get used to be generous for “slowness,” but I can be never fine with that. I did not even realize that I am just pure Korean who always need fast fast 빨리빨리 process. If there is something that does not go well, I become quickly exhausted mentally, and fall into despair. My life is not to put off anything tomorrow what I can do tomorrow, which means I am doing something right now even if I can do it later.

I am learning about computer file size in Africa. In South Korea, it recently became possible to download a movie for 8 seconds. It must be 2GB for one movie. Can I download that file capacity in Africa? If it would take one or two whole days, I can wait. But the problem is Internet become on and off frequently, so downloading is failed at halfway. In that case, of course, I get mad. Youtube streaming is not impossible, but the Internet speed relies on random connection situation that I cannot quite notice the best timing of using Internet. Anyway, modem credit is so expensive, so I have to avoid searching any video or high definition picture. I charged 10 GB in the modem last Friday, and it cost about 50 US dollar. I cannot check the balance, and I am just hoping that those GB should be enough until I leave Malawi.

I miss the place where uploading and downloading is done within seconds. Today, there was 11 megabyte file that I need to send to professor. I overstrained myself that the file was not uploaded for a long time in the email. I wanted to be professional without making any mistake, so I checked several times if I am ready to send it. It took one hour and a half to “upload” and send.J Actually, I am not still sure the file has been sent appropriately. I went to Sent Items box and tried to “download” to check if receiver will actually see it. I failed to download it multiple times. Should I email again? Or what should I do?

I would like to talk about “normality.” If I have lived in the global Internet powerhouse almost entire life, my normality would be up&download just for seconds. On the contrary, If I have lived in the rural region for a long time, my normality would not even care about up&download something. It is just impossible for me to abandon my normality from the deep bone, and change my life style into opposite. Since I do not want to make any excuse for my “abnormal” situation, I am getting too uptight about the daily life in Africa.

I may have to realize how to endure “abnormality” that everyone around me in Africa considers it as “normality.” I must be some kind of weirdo who acts silly here only because of up&downloading. I still scream (or struck dumb with fright) whenever I see giant cockroach in my room. It is just big, so big. If it stretches its antennae and leg, the maximum length would be the same size of my hands. I cannot just ignore them. I cannot be with them! So I have to either kill it or get out of it from my sight. If I have no insect spray, I throw my shoes to it. Now I see lizard as a cute buddy. They are crawling on the wall (giant cockroach as well), but I leave them because they do not look so hateful.

I do not know right now if I could take my “abnormality” as my new “normality” soon enough. It has already been half a year since I started Africa life, but I find myself that I am still struggling with those abnormalities. The level of controlling my mentality in Africa comes close to that of keeping patience in the military.

“Let your desires be ruled by reason.”

I still have risk of another diarrhea or typhoid fever, I know how horrible they are, but I dare to keep eating local food. I cannot let my transient emotion conquers my reason. I should not forget the reason why I am here in Africa. Typhoid? Come on yo! I am afraid not. I will be immune to the contagion. It must be a natural vaccination, and I bet I am stronger little by little when I eat this goat meat.J

Nov 13. 2014. Malawi

After a long 9-hour driving from Lusaka, I arrived at Chipata, eastern province of Zambia. I spent one night in Kwa Manda lodge. It was interesting that everywhere I went, there was a lodge no matter what the place was a vast stretch of land. After a lot of turns and twists during the last 6 months, I just went forward as I planned. On the one side, I felt a load off my mind when I finished Zambia presentation, and I am now ready to move on to my 4^th African country this year, Malawi. Sun rose at 5am today. It was a 1-hour drive to get borderline between Zambia and Malawi. Before passing the border of Zambia by road, I said good-bye to Davison and Doreen. They came here with me to see me off from 9-hour driving Lusaka. Thank you so much. I will keep in touch.

Borderline between Zambia (leftside) and Malawi (righside)

As I concerned, there was an issue at the immigration checkpoint. Every time I tried to leave the country or pass the border, they did not allow me to go with different reasons. Going African countries here and there with foreign nationality was punctilious. In those cases, I had to be poor Charles who eagerly wanted to go. Luckily, it worked again! I took the World Vision Malawi vehicle and headed to Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi.

Malawi is a landlocked country that is located in Southeast of Africa continent, bordered by Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. The geography of the country looks thin and long, and there is Lake Malawi alongside of the eastside of the border. It has the highest human population density among African countries; the population size is 16 millions with 121 pop./km² and 313 pop./mi². Malawi’s land size is 1/7 of Zambia’s but its population size is the same as Zambia’s. In this most-densely populated country in Africa, 85% of population lives in rural areas. 90% of export revenues come from agriculture, and it highly relies on economic aid from International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and other countries. Malawi has a high HIV/AIDS, 11.9% of the population, and high risk for infectious diseases, malaria, plague, diarrhea, typhoid fever, rabies, hepatitis A and schistosomiasis.

I met staff in Malawi, and I would start working with Malawi WASH team from tomorrow. Fresh start is always good because I gain a new motivation to survive in the new environment. However, I am under the pressure from memorizing new staff's name and adjusting to the new place within short period of given time. It has been already half a year since I came to Africa, and the year 2014 is almost over. All’s well that ends well. I hope I will spend the rest of 2014 without any regret in Malawi!

Nov 5. 2014. WHY are you doing this?

If someone asks me why I am stubborn to stay in Africa, how would I answer? To be honest, I cannot say now, “Because I really love Africa!” From my deepest honest mind, I would want to say, “I don’t recommend you because it is so hard…”

If someone throws back the question, “So then, why are you undergoing all sorts of hardships in Africa on purpose?” how do you think I would answer?

What is an explicit answer to satisfy people who feel questionable? While some of my friends are awed by my bold adventure and exclaim, “Wow, awesome!” my parents never understand me and always admonish, “Why are you doing this? Come back home!”

Come back home… Seo Taiji, who is called cultural president in South Korea, incorporated his social criticism into the song, <Come back home>, and say to delinquent boys, “You must come back home!” I feel like I am committing juvenile delinquency because I ran away from home for a long time. I went to the place where is teeming with Ebola virus, flied to East Africa, and now I am in southern African region, appearing West, East, and South.

Adding one more African country into my travel list may be not that helpful to boast my career. Deserting my pillow whole night to fight with mosquitoes would never be fun experience forever. Sunbeams make me spiritless, and dusty winds always annoy my contact lens. Nshima causes indigestion, and rice is lack of water. Electricity is on and off, and Internet is gone whenever I was eagerly looking forward to taking online lectures. Unidentified ugly big bugs do nothing harm to me, but they do frighten me. Like this, everything makes me sad. Recently, I have thought hundreds of times, “Yes, maybe they are right. Why am I doing this? I will quit!” I am mentally and physically exhausted. I could hardly be free from grudging feeling that I already have met school requirement, and I did not see good benefits of pure volunteering.

However, my anger “I will quit!” actually makes me sadder. I am not done yet, there should be no end, and above all, I do not want to betray myself. If I throw all away right now and come back home to eat kimchi and bulgogi, I may feel so wonderful for a while, but I may not overcome tsunami of regret later, “Why couldn’t I bear?” How can I be different? I do not want to do it with eagerness of hoping something. Pure volunteering is surely hard because it may not guarantee anything.

No matter how much a sense of duty is strong, I am still easily exhausted by environment, and I fret myself into everything just because I am in Africa. If I were in the U.S., I would not have to worry about Internet, food, fitness club, laundry machine, and all stuff, and I would enjoy school class by saying with smooth-tongued, “What is the future of public health?” There might be more better condition and opportunity that would be much helpful for my future. Of course, I long for being in Geneva, LA, New York, and London. Comparing to city life, it is surely justifiable for me to think sense of confusion, “What am I doing here?”

Nevertheless, I can never deny my reason of being in Africa. Nobody can feel the lesson from the deep heart if there is no direct experience. I had heard of no-electricity, no-water life in Africa several times. So what? I let those words go in one ear and out the other because those things were always available to me. I had always complained what I did not have, not appreciating what I already had. Finally in Africa, I realize again, even right this moment how lucky I am. I am a student. How lucky! I am a volunteer. How lucky! I can speak in English. How lucky! I drink clean water. How lucky! I sleep in the lodge. How lucky! These lucky series would be endless if I keep enumerating them. I realize I am the person who is privileged to have everything that many people do not. This is just unfair. I could have been born in this rural area, Choma, as a seventh kid in needy family, starved every day and no school.

If someone asks me “Isn’t half a year enough for you to be in Africa?” I would say, “No.” Helping people is not easy. I have not found answer for that yet. Should I just give them money? Distribute food? Teach mathematics? If I do all of that, will they feel thankful to me? Or, do I help them while wanting their appreciation? Did they really ask me some help? They look happy anyway, and it does not seem to be desperate. If so, what should I do? Should I just ignore them and enjoy my own life? Because I am busy with taking care of myself? Until I find the right answer, I need to be here. I want to find this concept; how can I make them happy while I feel comfortable as well? What is the true equality? I will not give up on being with Africa. Although I still have high risk of contracting malaria, I am praying that my physical condition would be okay as long as I am with Africa. Rather than thinking helping people, I would think being with people. I hope people around me, furthermore, all people over the world become concerned about and feel happy to be with and in Africa. That was how my blog title became <Africa with Us>.

If someone asks me now “Do you like to be here in Africa?” I would say, “I am trying to love to being here. What I can say now is that I have to be here, because this is what I can do very well, and it must be me to let people know about Africa.” I do not have to be the best, but I do want to be different. Keep going! I have things to do.

In Mbeza ADP, Zambia

Oct 31. 2014. Monitoring Boreholes

My lodge is quite new one, and construction laborers have been still laying bricks in the other compounds. The good thing is that the office is almost next to this lodge. I can walk there within 2 minutes. Sun rises early in Choma, Zambia. I went to the office in the morning, at 6:30am. Soon enough, Zambia WASH (ZWASH) in Southern region manager, Dorothy, arrived and said “Hi!” to me. 

“Wow, you came so early!” said to Dorothy. 
“Yes, because I will go to the field for monitoring boreholes at 7am.”

I thought for a while, and said to her, “I want to go there too!”
She also for a while, and said to me, “Okay!”

We waited for Mbeza MDP manager, Nathan, and we actually departed at 8:30am. Mbeza ADP was 1-hour distance by driving from ZWASH office. We looked around 5 boreholes, and ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines in that area to ensure the maintenance. In every place, community members and committee for boreholes greeted us. The community that has a good case of managing a borehole has a fee collection system to repair it, had a fence around it, and a soak pit was connected to drain water in the distance. 

When we were talking with committee members around the borehole, people frequently came here to draw water. Then, they pumped the handle to pour water into a water jar and carried it on their head. Some people were drinking water at this place. Even animals, cows and birds, were enjoying drinking water that came from boreholes. I looked around the borehole. It was a dusty area with dry weather from every quarter, and I could not even see the evidence of a drop of water besides borehole area. This borehole must be like a place of heaven, oasis, to every household. Once again, I realized the preciousness of water. 

While Dorothy and Nathan were pointing out something that should be improved, I could say nothing because they spoke in Tonga, the Southern province language. Since I have been moving around so many places since last June, I have already lost my interest to learn foreign languages. A ma’am greeted me “아부가부티! (How are you?) in Tonga so I said “I’m good!” in English. Then, everyone laughed. 

It was a hot day, and I was quickly exhausted. Staff work during half-day on Friday, and we went back around 3pm. It was a good experience for me to see how community people actually use boreholes in a daily basis and maintain it. 

Oct 25. 2014. FLY

“5-4-3-2-1-BUNGEE!”

I could not jump. Instead, I just fell from the sky. If I had jumped 3 meters from the spot, I might have felt committed suicide by jumping from the 111m heights. The count was so fast, and my legs and arms weakened and stumbled; in the moment of “BUNGEE!” I almost collapsed and bungee crews gently pushed me.

From the Victoria Falls Bridge:
the ground was cracked under 111m.

Victoria Falls scenery made me feel faint. How can I jump from this height? The bridge was even wobbly when the car was passing by. Oh… should I do it? Special force troops receive proficiency pay for dropping from a high altitude, but I paid exorbitant price with a lot of risk for plummeting to the sallow water. Victoria Falls was so dry in October; I expected my clothes would get soaked with water, but only sizzling heat worn me out. Nevertheless, I wanted to do it. No, more exactly, I had to do it because I needed to triumph over all fears in my mind. I weighed myself on a scale. Oh, I lost 4kgs! I have been suffering from serious constipation for a whole week, so I have only been drinking juice and eating some fruits since last Wednesday. (Thanks to losing weight, my abdominal muscle became visible.) Please, go away, constipation! Bungee jumping will beat you!

When I arrived at the bungee jumping area, I saw a fearsome message.

“Please dive out as far as you can: more than 3 meters. A good dive reduces the chance of injury and will make your jump more enjoyable.”

How can I do a standing broad jump more than 3 meters? At that time, bungee crew was not there because of the lunch time, so I had to wait almost 1 hour; waiting for diving out made me more nervous and scared. I practiced jumping on the ground and thought a lot of unnecessary anxiety. But I had to manage to set down. How many times have I been hesitating to do something in my life? What am I afraid of? I will blow off all stresses. There is no next time to do that. It must be the highlights of my life, at this very moment. Overcoming so many frightened emotions – 'What if the rope snapped? What if the rope tangled? What if I were shocked and got a heart attack? What if I peed my pants?' – I finally hopped to the bungee point. My original plan was not to look down because it would be just crazy to see, and stare at the front instead. But the front itself was also horrifying, so I closed my eyes. I wished I could FLY elegantly from the sky, just like Lala Croft from Tomb Raider, but it was not be like my heart.

Anyway, I succeeded! I was feeling the power of gravity and air resistance about a few seconds. I lightly opened my eyes and stretched the limbs at last. Wow, I am falling! Right after jumping (well, bungee falling), my mind was much more at ease. I bounced a few times; I just fell a half way between the bridge and water. I wanted falling more…

Next time, I will go skydiving. I had thought myself that I would not be a person who enjoys extreme sports, but I realized today that it was worth doing it. Life is short at best and I feel sorry if I spare my bones. The only difference between leaping off a cliff to kill oneself and jumping off the bridge to enjoy bungee jumping was safety equipment on the ankle and waist. The only thing I could do was to rely on bungee crews’ instruction. Bungee jumping was a special case, but I have already been surviving all perils; whenever getting on airplane, vehicle, train, bus, and walking on the road, I totally rely on my life to pilots, drivers and myself. An accident always happens somewhere, and all I can do is just to pray that this would not happened to me. Human being is weak-kneed under the natural disaster and furthermore, the laws of nature. There would be nothing that I can change the operations of Nature. All I can do is to enjoy every seconds of the moment, just like at the very moment while I was falling. 

Living life like a bungee jumping: I hope the life of the people will be always exciting.

Oct 21. 2014. 2G Life

I have been living in the 4G (4^th generation mobile networks/wireless system) world. Yesterday, South Korea companies, Samsung and SK Telecom demonstrated 5G technology at the World IT Show in Busan, South Korea. In the upcoming 2020, people will enjoy 5G, 50 times faster than 4G that only 1 second needed for downloading a movie.

<Here Comes 5G- The technology that will make your Smartphone nearly 50 times faster>

http://www.businessinsider.com/5g-technology-smartphone-50-times-faster-2014-10

1G technology refers to wireless telephone technology through radio analog signals.

2G networks use digital and SMS text messaging has begun.

3G is the beginning of Smartphone and mobile modem for laptop computers.

4G enabled us to have a video call.

And at last, 5G! This new frequency will vibrate like a thunder.

So far, I might have been only moving forward, adding number with the “generation.” Actually, I have never imagined going back to the previous G or keep staying an old G because my friends who have fancy Smartphones must have made fun of me. I was bothered by this quick quick fast fast world in the past, and now I am learning the beauty of patience in African countries. I came back to 2G life! Tracing back to my childhood, I got my first cellphone, only for calling and texting, more than 10 years ago.

#1. Since there was no micro SIM card in Zambia for my Samsung Galaxy III, I had to have another phone, which was NOKIA 2G phone. I was surprised that this little phone also had some racing game in the program. I was suspicious if this phone can ring a bell and receive some messages, but it all worked.

#2. Since there was no Airtel SIM card for my modem in Zambia (I do not still understand why… because modem SIM card should be the same as phone’s), I had to buy another modem, which was Zamtel. It must be Zam(bia)+tell, so Zamtel. The advertisement was clever; “Be Zamtelligent!” I paid 200 Kwacha (about $32) for Zamtel modem and 1GB SIM card, but unfortunately, it did not work. They said there should be network problem, but I had to use it right away to attend final project group meeting at 6:30 pm (EST), which was 12:30am CAT. Oh no… my peer evaluation will be terrible because I could not join.

#3. Western Union bank made me so sad, and I literally go there and come back about 15 times to receive the money from Tanzania. Whenever I went there, the system was down, cash was not ready, I did not know what MTCN number was…

Be patient. 2G life is not that bad. Nobody is chasing me, and it must be myself who pushes me to the desperate cliff. Nothing will happen, and everything should be fine. It is just slow. Slow slow. I am learning the rhythm, quick quick slow slow. I may not download a movie within a second in Africa, but I can feel the sufficientness of 2G technologies.

Oct 19. 2014. GDEC Cool Dudes

I know the word ‘dudes’ might be only for calling boys, but I just want to say dudes for my colleagues. They are all cool. My classmates in International Health: Global Disease Epidemiology and Control (GDEC) have been doing their practicum all over the world. Someone already finished and went back to Baltimore, and others are doing their second practicum to build more working experience. Americans normally like to shorten the long words and say the abbreviation literally, not G-D-E-C, but G-DEC, 쥐댁.

There are 2^nd year 17 쥐댁 people, including me, 9 girls and 8 boys. I am physically away from them, so I have been contacting with some of them since we completed 1st year course; but I was so glad that they are uploading their practicum experience in the voicethread. Actually, I did not quite like it when I made 3-4 slides and left a voice comments for the 1^st term requirement, but it was so motivating moment when I heard their voice and picture today. Only a few 쥐댁 people have uploaded their work so far, but I am looking forward hearing all other people’s news in the upcoming week.

Talking with my classmates who are in Brazil, U.S., Ghana, China, Kenya, Switzerland, Peru, and other countries through the online does inspire me with their enthusiasm. To be honest, I have come across so many frustrating moments, so it was so hard to control my temper. I also experience embarrassing, funny, ridiculous, and no way situations that goes against my narrow common sense. It was probably the first time in my life that I have felt terrible headache just because I got so irritated. I am still trying to finish my 1^st term online class in Africa – one of the hardest things that I have ever had – with fighting mosquitoes, mice, cockroaches, moth, and flies in the office. I do not really want to complain, but I have never realized that I was receiving blessing in the place where Internet was always available, “unlimitedly.” I had to talk with group members from the online class today, but both Skype and Google hangout were impossible to receive the call because of the slow Internet connection. I have given thanks to the situation that I anyway was able to connect to Internet since I came to Africa, but I am so sad that I have a hard time of taking online class that would be graded soon. Working and studying at the same time is hard!

However, I was motivated to be in Zambia by hearing my GDEC friends’ news. I cannot believe that I am already 2^nd year master student, and 1^st year students will listen my voicethread presentation soon. I am asking myself that I am good enough to be called as senior. Only two months are left that the year 2014 is finished, and I am getting old! I miss my GDEC friends. I may have to attend the graduation ceremony to meet them. My friends! I am looking forward to seeing you soon in next May, and you take care!

Oct 15. 2014. Global Handwashing Day

Today, October 15 is a global handwashing day. This day was originally created for children and schools, but anyone can celebrate and promote handwashing with soap all over the world.

<CDC Global Handwashing Day>

http://www.cdc.gov/features/globalhandwashing/

<Global Handwashing Day>

http://globalhandwashing.org/ghw-day

Every year, pneumonia and diarrheal diseases claim 2 million under age 5 children’s lives in developing countries. I did take using soap for granted whenever I wash my hands. However, the soap itself may be expensive stuff that remote villagers cannot afford to buy. Or, people just do not know the importance of handwashing with soap, have a hard time finding where to buy, or only use soap for washing dishes, bathing and laundry. Handwashing with soap is a “do-it-yourself vaccine” that protect against fecal contact and transmission of disease; this simple but critical activity does reduce skin and eye infections, intestinal worms, SARS, diarrhea, and respiratory infections such as pneumonia and influenza. Changing old habit into washing hands frequently – after using a toilet, before/after handling food, before cooking, or after cleaning a child – will be the most effective, affordable and easiest way to save children’s and mothers’ lives.

To enhance the effectiveness of handwashing, using soap, or at least ash is critical; fecal pathogens will not be dislodged by water alone, and soap will removes the oils of hands and leaves pleasant smell on hands. How long should we wash our hands each time? 20 seconds. Singing the “Happy birthday” song two times during handwashing would be the perfect time to gauge 20 seconds.

World Vision Zambia Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (ZWASH) team and I visited Hamaundu ADP- Demu area to attend the global handwashing day celebration. Before coming here, I could not distinguish between borehole and handwashing facilities. ‘Why are they different?’ One of the ZWASH staff Emmanuel told me people do not wash their hands at the borehole. ‘Why?’ He said that people use borehole only for drawing water. ‘Okay…’ And I finally realized that how a handwashing facility looks like. It was right in front of the toilet, and water bottle and soap water bottle were hanging on a branch. ‘Wow, it looks so simple.’

Village members gathered under the shadow of the big tree, and enjoyed performance and play about WASH. People dug a hole and constructed handwashing spot with 3 twigs within a few minutes, and a women demonstrated how to wash hand with soap. All I did today was sitting on the brick, learning tribe language, Tonga, and waiting for lunch, but a scorching sun caused dizziness. Having a good draught of water at that moment means everything; I have just saved my life. Living in Africa is hard, but it makes me to feel grateful what I already have. If you grab new cold water bottle and soap in your hand, you are a lucky person. I might have been wash my hands for 10 seconds, but from now, I will double the time of handwashing to eliminate all bacteria attached on my hands. 

Oct 10. 2014. Water Borehole

How much do we appreciate availability the water in our home? Water is always ready, so we might never realize how important it is. We might misunderstand that water is just like the air, and it never be drained. We simply turn the faucet on and wash our hands right after using a toilet. We enjoy the highest water pressure from the shower tap, feel the hot water for a long time, and hum forth our satisfaction.

However, the exact opposite situation is happening in the opposite side of the earth. There is literally, no water. There is even no rain, no river, and no creek in the drought-stricken area. It is not surprising anymore to me that people have been dying of diarrhea. People could not drink clean water, take a bath, and harvest crops. It took a whole day to carry only one bucket of water from the long distance. Ebola outbreak in West Africa has still claimed so many lives, and the virus has spread to the U.S. The reason why Ebola has started was that there might be no available water to wash hands and no education to make people sensitize to sanitation issues.  

I went to field with Dr.Opong, Doreen, Dorothy, and Davison to see how boreholes and sanitation facilities constructed by World Vision have positive influence on communities in Twachiyand ADP. We visited Mweebo village, the primary school, and Mumfumbila village and heard their stories about water, sanitation and hygiene.

What does a borehole mean to them? It must be a miracle because they are finally able to get the clean water anytime. 500 people in Mweebo village rely on only one borehole, but that one borehole itself does improve their lifestyle dramatically. Dr.Opong asked each child to hear how the clean water from a borehole changed his/her lives.

A child is using her bike to draw
 some water from a borehole

“I use it for drinking and bathing.”

“I wash my clothes.”

“I use my water to wash my hands after using the toilet.”

“I use it for cooking.”

“Animals are drinking our clean water.”

“We use our water for our vegetable.”

I have never realized that the water is the essential resource for our various critical moments in daily lives. If somebody had asked me how do you use the water, I might only have said, “I use it for drinking and taking a bath.”

Someday, water pipe will reach each household, and everyone can enjoy the clean water right in front of their home.

Oct 9. 2014. WASH Southern Regional office

Today was the officially first day to work for WASH in Zambia. I met staff in WASH Southern Regional office in Choma, Zambia. In the morning, I had a meeting with Alfred Chushi, Chongo ADP manager, Brenda Chilala: Regional DM&E officer, Dorothy Monde: WASH regional manger, Doreen Chizyuka: administration coordinator, Michael Chiyombwe: Magoye ADP manager, Daniel Ngulube: Kalomo ADP program manager, and Immanuel Opong, Regional Director. I had a presentation about LiST and my work in Sierra Leone. I was impressed that WASH team is ready to work under the great leadership of Dr.Opong. Zambia has 72 District and 13 Southern districts, and WASH intervention has been implemented in Southern area since 2010.

In Zambia, there is staple food called, Nshima, made of maize flour. It was almost same shape and taste as fufu in Sierra Leone and Ugali in Tanzania. Bravo! I have finally started using my hands to eat Nshima since I came to Zambia. No spoon needed. I had no more rejection symptom to tear of Nshima and immerse the chicken soup with bare hands.

In the other side of the regional office, I saw the equipment that was needed for borehole construction. It normally takes half a day to construct one borehole. I will go to the field tomorrow to see how boreholes have had impact on community people and how they have been maintained.

Oct 8. 2014. Every child deserves clean water

The weather at night was so chilly in Zambia. It reminded me of cool autumn weather in South Korea. I did not wait in the long line, so I ran directly to get Zambia visa. However, I realized that there was so simple step to obtain the visa; no paperwork, paying $80 for multiple entries, getting a receipt, and good to go! All processes were finished within a minute. I already love Zambia!

I got off the airplane at 8:50pm and exited the airport at 9:15pm. Everything seemed to go so smoothly, and I tried to find Doreen and driver from World Vision. ‘Where are they?’ I was in outside so early, so have they not arrived yet? After 5 minutes, people who I was looking for were getting out of the airport. They were waiting for me inside.

“Welcome to Zambia!” said Doreen.

I spent 3 days in the guesthouse in Lusaka, the capital city in Zambia, and introduced myself to National Office staff. My project for Zambia and Malawi is to analyze Lives Save Tool (LiST) to evaluate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) project in Southern African Region (SAR). World Vision promoted the campaign, <Every child deserves clean water>, and it has become the leading NGO that drills wells in the developing world. World Vision has been working closely with the academic institution, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC) to research, repair, and remain the well operations. 

World Vision’s efforts to provide clean water in African countries succeed in reaching one new person with clean water from well every 30 seconds. West African countries have already received benefit from sustainable clean water, and World Vision has expanded this WASH intervention to SAR since 2010: DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. It is good to be here in Zambia because I can contribute how much WASH project in SAR has been effective to community people by showing retrospective estimated number of lives saved from 2010 to current.

Until every single child have access to clean water in Africa, we will keep it up!

- From FEC ZWASH FY13 Semiannual Report

Oct 5. 2014. One-way ticket

I did not realize how hard saving money was. I just found the air flight that goes directly from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Lusaka, Zambia, takes only 1 hour and a half. It was also way cheaper than my original air flight. My effort to save the money lasted 3 full days, from Friday to Sunday, but it turned out that I lost my time, additional transaction fee, and energy. The payment method of that airplane company did have problems, so they did not confirm my ticket, and their Sunday flight was already booked. The next flight would be on Monday, but I did want to go Zambia at least on Sunday because my new fellowship would begin on Monday. It was not okay for me to get there one day late only because the airplane ticket is cheap. After long fuss and fret, I finally got another ticket, South African Airways, departing today. It was the exact same flight as my original ticket except the date. I felt my destiny to lay over at Johannesburg, South Africa, was already set. Anyway, I go to Zambia today!

I arrived early at the Dar es Salaam international airport, and tried to find where the South African Airways office was. I could not print my airplane itinerary, so I was a little worry; I just needed a piece of thick actual ticket paper in my hands as early as possible. I asked several airport employees to find the South African Airway booth.

“Inside!”

Inside where? I wished they could explain more where exactly it was. After standing at the random place with big 2 luggage quite a while, and I literally entered inside. Before getting inside, a man who looked from immigration office or police checked my Tanzania visa and asked me the purpose of visit in Tanzania.

“For travel!”

I answered shortly because my Tanzania visa says I am a visitor in Tanzania. I finally found the booth I was eagerly looking for, send my 45kg luggage to Lusaka, and got the one-way ticket: Dar es Salaam to Lusaka. One-way ticket… I always like to make plan ahead, and every activity should be lined-up, but I do not still even know where to go after this December. I want to open and be flexible to find more job opportunity in Africa. That was why I only had the one-way ticket.

This one-way ticket, unfortunately, made some problem when I finally checked my passport and scanned right fingers at the immigration office. The officer glared at me and asked, “Why do you go to Zambia?” The simplest way to answer was travel, so I said, “For travel.”

“Do you have round-trip ticket?”

“No, I only have one-way ticket.”

“Then, I can’t allow you to go because we don’t allow anyone to visit African country here and there without ticket for going back to their country.”

Oh my… every time I passed immigration office, I had a serious problem. In Sierra Leone, the officer urged me to go back to Freetown to get monthly renew stamp, and this time, the officer in Tanzania wanted me to show him a round-trip ticket. He might worry the situation I never return to my country and hide somewhere in Zambia.

“I don’t have that ticket, but I do go back to my country. Everyone is waiting for me in Zambia!” said desperate Charles.

“I don’t care everyone is waiting for you there, and you are not allowed to go.”

Argument time with the immigration officer had just begun again. The situation was “Let me go, let me go!” and “You can’t go, You can’t go!” Some passengers behind me had already changed to other line, and others were still waiting for their order.

“Okay, so should I purchase round trip ticket now?”

I did not mind buying one at that moment. Oh, actually, I did not have any money to buy any other ticket. The officer looked so unhappy about this situation, but he finally let me go. He sealed my one-way ticket with a stamp.

“Thank you so much!”

He did not talk back to me, but I was not offended at all because anyway, I passed the immigration checkpoint!

“Ticket one way! Ticket one way! One way one way one way ticket…! Ticket one way! Ticket one way! 한참을 너에게 가버린 맘…” The 9Muses song, <Ticket>, lingered in my mind. I really like that song. Maybe, I have already got crush on African life, so I cannot even decide when to leave. To be honest, I am a bit fear of my future, and it is too funny that I cannot decide where to return: to South Korea? to the U.S.? Nothing has been decided, but as always, I do focus on my current one-way ticket.

“Zambia, I am coming! Please wait till this evening!”

I got on the airplane. Cool! It is now taking off. My new life in Africa is ready to expand in Zambia.