hot springs & holidays

The big news in Luchembe (for met at least) is I have an enclosed insaka! The past three Tuesday’s a very small contingent of helpful villagers have been building bricks in my yard. We’ve made over 800 now, but this past Tuesday they built 4 foot tall walls around my insaka. Now I can light a fire in my brazier without the wind blowing it out, I can entertain guests (when I get some stools), I can sit in the shade…the possibilities are endless! The bricklayers did a great job and I’m really impressed. Next Tuesday we start on the addition to the house. I say “we” because I actually do help in the brick making process. The villagers get a kick out of it and are always asking if I’m tired or need to rest. What happens is we mix up a whole bunch of dirt with a whole bunch of water. Once it reaches the right consistency we throw the mud into a double brick mold that’s been wetted and dusted with sand first to prevent the mud from sticking (and I’m serious about throwing the mud in- it has to be packed fairly tight). Then we flip the mold over in the yard and before you know it there are about 300 bricks laying in neat rows covered by dry grass to prevent cracking in the sun.

In other news- I returned from a trip this past long weekend to the Kapyisha hot springs. Monday and Tuesday were Unity Day and Hero’s Day here for Zambia respectively- so with the 4th mixed in there it was quite a holiday-filled weekend. Five of us volunteers hitched 90 k north of Mpika to a turn off for these hot springs. They were another 30 k off the road so we had a driver from the establishment pick us up from there. While we were waiting (in some quite frigid weather I might add)- big surprise- a group of kids came out of nowhere and just sat and stared at us for a while. Therefore we busted out an ipod and started playing some “Amurican” music for the 4th and dancing up a storm. The ride into the springs was beautiful- huge eucalyptus trees lined the road and we even saw a few monkeys! The hot spring itself was a shallow pool dammed off near a river and was quite relaxing. Our campsite was right next to a river so it was really cool. There are chalets there for guests who have a little more money than us, as well as a lodge/bar. Everything was pretty pricey- but we brought our own food and cooked some pretty impressive fireside meals. I always say the best part of traveling is the people you meet and this time was no exception. We met an extremely friendly family from South Africa who lives in Lusaka. They offered us a hot shower and meal anytime we’re in the capitol. Then we met two Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) who served in Zambia in the early 2000’s. They rented this awesome cruiser with tents on the top of them (a lot of families actually had such set ups- super BUANA with fridges/freezers inside, a water tap out the back, stoves, etc--- all in a land cruiser!) to basically tour around southern Africa. The owner of the springs is a white Zambian who is the grandson of the builder of the Africa House which is 12k from where we camped. I suggest googling “Africa House” to see pictures. Basically this British aristocrat built this amazingly huge colonial mansion in the middle of nowhere Zambia in the 1920’s. He employed over 2,000 people at one point and while not the nicest boss, still did believe in African freedom. The house has now been restored and for a large sum of money you can stay there for the evening. It’s run by another grandson, and while we didn’t get to see it- I definitely want to go back and check it out.

Back to village life though… My little kitten Lucy is making me proud by catching mice. She also makes me crazy by getting into everything now that she’s a little braver. My host ‘mom’ Poulin feeds her while I’m away which is very nice. In other village news, I assisted the nurse in inserting Jadelle- a 5 year birth control for women in their arms. I was quite impressed to find that Luchembe women are pretty educated and “modern” about birth control. The clinic offers a variety of options and it’s good to see they are utilized. Regina, the nurse, gave a whole spiel about the benefits of family planning and made sure each woman asking for the Jadelle gave reasons for her decision. There really is no privacy in medical care here so 5 or so women all sat through this mini-lecture together and then stayed in the same room while the device was implanted. While I don’t consider myself too squeamish- I did no do very well watching/assisting in this procedure! A local anesthetic is given on the inside of the bicep, an incision is made, and then these two small white plastic tubes are inserted at a cross… Lots of poking and prodding of the arm did not do well for my balance.

This past week I went to Luchembe Basic- the closest government school to where I live- to talk about Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World- a leadership/empowerment camp for girls run by the Peace Corps). The teachers decided which female teacher who will attend the camp in December (and by decided I mean they chose the only female teacher who they think will still be around in December without telling her. When I showed up to talk to the students- the teacher was as surprised as I was to know she had been chosen… sad). So I spoke to all the 7th and 8th grade girls about the camp and it seemed like quite a few were interested in it! Come September I’ll go back and explain the essay we want them to write about why they think female leadership is important. We’ll read through the essays and choose the two best to attend the camp.

The other work in the schools I’ve been doing is judging interest in a Chongololo Club- an environmental education club run through the Zambian Wildlife Federation. Luchembe Basic is interested, as is a community school that is way out in the bush about an hour bike ride away from me. I’m hoping to bring them applications to the club soon so they can pay the small entrance fee and start getting materials for the group. I’ll be helping to plan lessons at the beginning but eventually it should be a self sustaining group with the help of a very enthused teacher! (difficult to come by)

Other than that, I had a visit from the Assistant Peace Corps Director (APCD) for the LIFE program (essentially my boss). He’s going to all the newbies’ sites to make sure we’re alive, sane, and adjusting well. I think I passed since he didn’t mention anything about wanting me whack-evac-ed. Our In Service Training (IST- two weeks of training in Lusaka marking the end of our community entry period) is in less than a month now. I’m super excited to see all of my friends from training!