2.18.10----3.1.61

February 18 marked my one year anniversary of being in Zambia. I had meant to write this entry a lot earlier, but getting to a computer has not been easy to do these past few weeks. I am still finding it hard to believe that I have lived in Africa for an entire year. I guess what seems even more unreal is that I have about 14 months still to go! The time has absolutely flown, and as I like to tell a lot of people from home, the days may drag on occasionally in the village, but the weeks and months pass by with a speed I never thought possible. I thought I'd recap my year as a Peace Corps Volunteer by the numbers:

3-----------number of times I've fallen off my bike
<2,500 -----kilometers biked (an average of about 250k per month)
5-----------number of cats I've acquired- 1 cat, 4 kittens- not cool!!
4-----------bags of charcoal consumed (since I arrived in the village april '10)
4-----------countries visited (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique)
1.5 million- number of times I've heard "How are you!?" screamed by a child
41----------books read
117---------letters written
0-----------episodes of malaria (knock on wood)
2-----------number of items dropped in chimbusu (pit latrine) on accident
<5,000------photos taken
100---------marriage proposals recieved (approx)
<450--------babies weighed
6-----------number of fellow PCV's in my intake of 49 who have 'early terminated" or ET'd aka gone home

While it may not seem like a lot,this year has been full of new experiences, emotions, and endeavours. When people ask me what I miss most about home, my first response is always family and friends. In terms of the ammenities in America, I miss going to movies next, followed by food. As strong as nshima makes me feel, I can't help but miss the variety of an American diet...'sigh'. I also miss things like customer service (in every way shape and form when it comes to social interactions), being able to drive, and not being stared at on a daily basis. Some of the things I do not miss are traffic jams, people flaunting their ridiculously fancy cell phones around, spoiled children/fussy parents, and having to wear closed toed shoes and/or matching clothes on a regular basis.

March 1 also represented a pretty significant date in history. In 1961, this was the day that the Peace Corps was 'born'. Thanks to some students at the University of Michicgan, John F. Kennedy, and Seargent Shriver, the concept of helping other nations in development and cross cultural exchange with Americans became a reality in the Peace Corps. The 50th anniverssary is being marked by special occasions throughout the states. While we don't get a party thrown in our honor here, there are apparently some pretty big doings' in DC. I actually had a fairly lenghty conversation with a headman I've been working with about this organization I work for. He asked me what 'Peace Corps' actually means (he is also the one who asked me what a cowboy is...). It's funny because here in Zambia, the 'ps' of corps is pronounced, so it sounds like people are saying 'peace corpse'. I explained this to the headman who was shocked that there would be such letters in a word if they were not to be pronounced. Anyways, I explained to him that the organization is basically a group of people who are working for development. He wanted to know why we weren't in places like Iraq and Afghanistan trying to promote peace in war-torn countries. Explaining that the title 'peace corps' sounds better but is a bit deceiveing, and we should probably be called the 'development corps' was a daunting task, but I think he understood in the end.

As far as work goes, I recently attended a nation-wide meeting about our GLOW camps. We got to talk to volunteers from other provinces about what worked well and what didn't during their respective camps. While the next Mpika camp won't be held until December, we are starting to get ideas together and work on our grant proposal soon. I am also working on a grant proposal to help fund a big VCT (voluntary counselling and testing) day in Luchembe. I am hoping to make this an eventful day with a cooking demonstration, testimonies from people living with HIV/AIDS, entertainment, and of course free HIV testing. It is going to be a tiring process planning such an event, but I really think it will make an impact in the community. I'm shooting for early June, and will continue to update my progress.

I've also been trying to help out a young girl who attended our camp GLOW. She is in grade 9 and has become pregnant. The teachers at the school had become very concerned about her because she had failed to report to class for 2 weeks. After learning that she was in town attempting to get an abortion, they asked me to help intervene. I was glad that the teachers were so concerned, but at a loss for what to do. I'm not trained in counseling for these types of things, and the issue of teen pregnancy is very precarious here. While abortions are illegal here, they are practiced but are often dangerous and deadly. We wanted to deter the girl from making a rash decision and putting herself in danger. Luckily, a member of our Peace Corps staff was able to come and talk to the girl, her family, and the teachers about the situation in order to help me out. The girl is going to keep the baby, but continue to go to school and hopefully pass her grade nine exams and move on to grade 10 in the boma. She is one of the brightest studnets in her class, and the teachers really want her to continue her schooling after grade nine (something that is not commonly done in the village since the grade 10-12 schools are in town and are extremely expensive). It really is a tough situation here because of course this 19 year old would be better off without a child, but reaching this end would have put her health in unnecessary risk. The only things I can do at this point is be a friend, and try to find some financial or material support for her situation.

Otherwise I am still teaching people about compost, working in my garden, involved with my environmental ed clubs, and living the village life. The next few months should be pretty exciting with a lot of things going on. I'm able to see my good freind from training this weekend which is great since we haven't met up since September. I'll be meeting some of the new trainees in April, and we'll be having a big going away party for those volunteers coming to a close of service in April as well.