Nervous, Obvious, Precious

No, those aren't three words I would use to describe myself. Those three adjectives are only a few of the shall I say 'interesting' names I have come across here. Along with those, I have met people named, Given, Loveness, Golden, Memory, and Fortune. Not exactly traditional Bemba names, but pretty interesting all the same.

I'm finally at my site to stay now. After the 2 weeks recovery I spent one week at site before heading back to KAsama for our provincial meetings. This is when all PCVs head to their respective provincial capitols for two days of meetings. I'm not sure if I've explained provincial houses so if I have- apologies. In fact I apologize for anything I repeat on here, along with all the horrible spelling and grammatical errors. I'm usually in such a rush to type things out... Sorry sorry. So the 6 provinces that have volunteers here have a Peace Corps house (minus Lusaka province which has headquarters). It's a place for R&R but also holds the provincial PC office. As PCV's we are allowed 4 days per month at the house. However during the 1st three months of service (AKA Community Entry- what I'm in now) we are technically not allowed at the house except for business. Anyways it was great to finally meet all the other PCVs from Northern Province. I was lucky enough to get a lift to KAsama for the meetings with a PC cruiser. However I had my first hitching experience on my return trip to Mpika.

Officially, PC does not condone hitching but as transport is severely limited here, it is often times the only option. Luckily, I didn't have to endure my first African hitching experience alone (some may recall I actually have quite a bit of hitching experience in Ireland :o). Two other volunteers (one from my intake, and one veteran) from Mpika were with me. We started on the road at 9:30 am looking for a free ride in a nice car. People were being extremely pricey with their fares- corporate vehicles like the electric or phone company would stop but ask for 50,000 kwacha from each of us for a 2.5 hour ride. These drivers have money for gas from their company and are getting paid so the money we would pay would go directly in their pocket--- not cool. By the time noon rolled around, we decided we would have to lower our standards and settle for a canter truck. These are basically small semis with a flat bed with sides. They are used solely for deliveries- mainly people. However they can be pretty pricey. We finally found one who settled for 20,000 from each of us. The other problem with canters is they often make numerous stops to pick up as many passengers as possible. This, as one might imagine can turn a trip into an extremely long journey. The driver assured us he would not be making many stops. He was truthful in this regard, but about half way to Mpika he pulled over at a small village. Him and the passenger up front (who may or may not have been the owner of the truck) bought some food and then demanded us to pay. The passenger was clearly drunk and it seemed they only wanted the money for more drinks. When we told them we would give them money when we arrived in Mpika, they became irrational and mean... "In America don't you pay before a trip??" they kept saying.. "Well, we aren't in America are we???' I wanted to shout back!Eventually after a 10 minute argument (quite a show for all the local villagers who suddenly crowded around the truck)- we convinced them w2e had to get our money from the ATM at the gas station in Mpika. Our main worry about paying before arriving 9besides the driver buying alcohol) was that we would reach the border of Mpika district and they would say 'okay we're in Mpika- get out" leaving us to walk who knows hos many kilometers to town. Sure enough we were about 8k from the boma (town) when they stopped to let off another hitcher and said 'okay we're in Mpika- get out"... Thankfully we told them we still needed to get money and they didn't want to pass up making a buck so they took us all the way in. While it was not a great first hitching experience- we made it back alive and in one piece.

Now that I'm back at site, I've been getting back into a routine. I've had some sort of meeting or engagement every day. Unfortunately 2 days in a row, the meetings I was supposed to attend went bust. The first was a Farmer Group meeting that the farmers of Luchembe themselves planned. I waited 2 hours with the local agricultural camp officer ( a government employee) and nothing... The second was a woman's group in a neighboring village. The leader of the group was an hour late and there was no real agenda. They just told me they wanted me to teach them everything about farming. These unsuccessful 'meetings' did make me realize I am really going to have to work hard to make people want to come to the workshops I plan. Getting people to come on time however, may be bigger than I can handle :o)

I am extremely excited about next week when I will be traveling to nearby villages with the Luchembe clinic nurse to weigh babies. I have wanted to help at the clinic since I first visited and was finally able to coordinate with Regina. It's child health week next week so the baby weighing tour will be 5 days. The clinic has a great new building with a chalkboard for workshops and meetings so I'm really hopeful for work being done there.

In other news, I have been shelling peanuts for 3 days now and have acquired sizable blisters on both hands because as Poulin puts it, my skin is too too soft. People seem to love to give me groundnuts so I'll be snacking o them for months to come. I've recently decide3d that I want to get a cat (pushi in Bemba). While I'm not a huge fan of cats at all- a dog would be too difficult for me to leave behind after 2years. A cat will keep away mice and hopefully whoever replaces me will appreciate that and be happy to take care of it. I went to see a woman about a cat and she wanted a chicken for a kitten. While I don't own any chickens, we settled on 10,000 kwacha (roughly $2). The kittens are still really small (no one knows when they were born) so I'm going to wait a couple weeks to pick one up. More details on how a former cat hater and how her adopted kitten get along in my next entry...

I have been having Bemba lessons in the village which are not going great but are helpful-- I just need to study more. Sadly I am not able to get explanations for why a verb is conjugated a particular way like my teacher in training could give. I do really miss Ba Rave and everyone else from training. Actually though, my host family called for my birthday which was really nice (especially considering 12:00 on the 18th of May I was on a night bus from Lusaka).

Anyways, I am hungry for mail and news from home. Please keep writing, emailing and calling me! I appreciate it more than you know.