June 19^th (Tuesday)

           I had to be over to Dorothy’s to go out with her around 7:15am. We didn’t end up leaving until 8:00am, so we had a later start. We went through Kolundola, Nymibia, Sowfuku, MatuWanki, and Impidi.

I was assisting Dorothy by taking blood pressures (we never really got out of the Isuzu truck.) I suppose it’s safer that way, but Dorothy will honk the horn when the children are crowding too close. I would take BPs from the left side (the passenger side in Zambia -like UK driving) and have the patients put their arm through the window. I was essentially a “drive-thru blood pressure check”. I tried using what Luvale I have learned so far to converse with the people. I made the children laugh when I spoke to them, they would try the few English phrases they knew (“Hi, how are you?”) and I would answer them in English and they would all die laughing. When we got to Sowfuku there was a man there in his late 30s and he introduced himself to me (he could speak English). He then turned and introduced his 3 younger male friends. He told me that they wanted to meet me and ask some questions, how old was I? Where was I from? Did I have a baby at home? Did I have a husband? They were very interested in learning about me to see if I was a single *white woman. As white women are usually more well off in their opinion, so we were told that some men may approach us or offer marriage.

Dorothy handed her patients their meds and would talk to people about their concerns or if they needed rides or if they wanted her to purchase corn (maize), beans or peanuts. While we were out she traded 5 baby bundles for chickens for the hospital kitchen. The chickens went in the back with the patients, other travellers, and Patrick. Dorothy told me she sometimes gets home with some chickens that are squashed by some of the people’s loads if they aren’t careful with packing.//