L.I.F.E. & Courtney in Zambia

2012-01-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

While nothing significant has happened to me as of late, I just thought I would put a few thoughts out here that might be of interest to some...First, I went up to visit a friend of mine in Mbala. She lives about 380 km north me, just near the Tanzanian border. While she only lives 12 km from the Mbala town- the bike ride to her site takes about an hour and a half because of the rolling hills and rough terrain. Needless to say she doesn't get a great deal of visitors. She has a beautiful home and a wonderful family that stays just near her. She is a fish farming volunteer so I got to see a couple of her ponds that looked really good and I was incredibly impressed by. As I only have a few months left, I was glad to get a chance to see another friend's site. We put so much effort into making our lives manageable here, it is such a special treat when we can have a friend visit. Our villages are our homes and the people who live around us are our family. While Peace Corps Volunteers are also our family, the villagers are the people we spend the most time with, and we are always telling stories about these folks to our friends. Therefore it's nice to put a face to a name that you hear about from other PCVs.A note on Zambian culture:As a white person in the village, I stick out a lot. Most everyone knows who I am, and I am treated as a bwana (rich person). Therefore, wherever I go in the village, I am given the penultimate symbol of respect: the chair. If I attempt to sit on the ground with everyone else, I am usually chastized until I sit on whatever chair they have brought out for me. This may be simply a plank of wood that is about 3 inches off of the ground, or it might be a plastic sack filled with grass, or it may be a village stool that my butt barely just fits on, or it could be an actual finely made chair. It is incredibly embarrassing how much people will fall over themselves to give me a chair when I am usually perfectly content sitting on the ground. As I do stand out in a crowd here, I feel much better trying to fit in and be among the people rather than being separated. Similarly, whenever there is a large group eating nshima, I am always forced to eat INSIDE with the leaders of the meeting or the most affluent of the group. This frustrates me beyond belief. First of all, it is usually stifling hot inside any home which makes eating uncomfortable. Secondly, like I mentioned, I do not like being set apart from the villagers and them forcing me to eat with people they put above themselves. While this bwana group of people usually gets to eat first and their meal includes the best of the relishes, I would much rather be sitting outside on a reed mat eating with mayos than with people from town who act like they are better than the villagers.I usually bike with my ipod on my arm... Most people think that I am biking around with a solar panel on my arm...There are usually around 3-7 churches in one village. In every village, the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witness churches are by far the nicest ones. Throughout the country, these churches are almost identical. They're all made out of really nice brick, have tin rooves, and usually a very manicured yard area. I have to admit that I know little to nothing about the Jehovah's Witness church, but I have to assume that the churches here get their funding from the states to build these really nice Kingdom Halls.Rainy season is in full swing right now. This means it rained almost everyday in my village for two weeks. The rain usually comes in the afternoon and will last through the night until morning. Therefore if I wake up and there is any semblance of a sun outside, then I will hurriedly wash my clothes. It is not uncommon for my laundry to be wet for three days because there is no sun, and everything is just damp. I can't even begin to explain how disgusting and frustrating it is for clothes not to dry! With the rain also comes the end of all meetings. If there is a meeting or gathering scheduled of any kind, and it is raining, then it is automatically assumed the meeting is cancelled. Similarly, children and teachers do not go to school if it is raining- even if they live right next to the school. Therefore, unfortunately I spend a lot of my time sitting in my hut and reading during rainy season. I just finished "The Grapes of Wrath" recently, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had never read the book in it's entirety before, and as I always am with John Steinbeck, I was enthralled. A lot of the sentiments characters in the book were expressing about their America in peril seem to apply to today. "Where is this country going?" It's sad, but something that a lot of people seem to be thinking about lately.I am going to miss the kids in my village (my kids) so incredibly much when I leave. Lately, when they are over at my house, I will tell them that I am going to miss them so much when I go to America (Nkaya ku America pa April, na nkafuluka sana!). Usually they give me a blank stare and as I walk away they'll mock my Bemba. I would be lying if I said this didn't make me sad. I hope they'll miss and remember me. I've given them enough candy to give them multiple cavities, so at least they may remember me that way ;o).

COS Conference

2012-01-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

New Years eve was spent in the village. I decided I wanted to see what a major holiday is like in rural Zambia. I spent most of the day baking bread, banana bread, and brownies for my family. I cooked soya mince as a relish, and they prepared chicken for our supper. It was a lot of fun just sitting together and talking about what people do on New Years Even in Zambia (drink and go to church). The father from my family, Phillip, was going to go to church with his sister and a few of our other neighbors at around 19 and apparently stay until 6am. I gave him my headlamp after dinner and away he went in his nicest suit, in the dark, to pray at church for a good new year and thank God for the past year. I stayed with Poulin and the kids and handed out glow stick bracelts which they all found very entertaining. Earlier in the evening, Phillip had approached me with a piece of Hanukkah gelt I had given to the family in a Christmas parcel, and asked me if it was real money. He was quite concerned that I was giving him some sort of coin money that he didn't know how to use or where. Everyone thought it was quite funny when I showed him it was just some bad chocolate.The rest of new years eve went pretty badly as I spent the night vomitting and being sick in a myriad of other ways. While it was unpleasant and probably the sickest I have ever been in my life, it was definitely memorable. I was picked up by Peace Corps the next morning and taken to the central province house. Because of logistics and fuel costs and whatnot, they were unable to get me down to Lusaka until the 2nd of January. I saw the Peace Corps medical officer and he gave me some medicine, but by that time I was mostly feeling better. We determined it was some sort of food poisoning. It took a few days for me to get an appetite back, but I wasn't worried about losing that!Luckily, I had to be in Lusaka on the 3rd for the beginning of my intake's Close of Service (COS) Conference. Getting sick turned out to be a blessing in disguise since I would have othrwise had to find my own transport down to the capitol. We all stayed a guest houst together on the 3rd and then had administrative meetings the next day. The purpose of this conference is to prepare us for when we leave the country in April. We talked to a career panel of RPCV's (Returned PCVs) who all work in Lusaka which was pretty interesting. On the 4th, they took us to a really nice hotel outside of Lusaka in the bush. I'm now sitting in a gorgeous chalet with air conditioning, a beautiful bathtub, and huge down comforters and pillows. They bring us here as sort of a treat and it's been wonderful. The food is fantastic, there's a pool, and the best part is getting to hang out with everyone. We've had meetings that deal with learning how to market our Peace Corps service, writing a resume, dealing with leaving the village, etc. Last night, we had a nice candle-lighting ceremony where each of us was given another member of our group and we had to talk about them. It was really emotional for a lot of people, and it has been a really good time for reflection. I was put in charge yet again of another side show so I tried to condence 2 years of photos from a bunch of us into 15 minutes. It didn't turn out being too difficult and I think everyone enjoyed the show. I've been having so much fun here, it's just now starting to process what is actually happening. My roommate is sleeping, it's early in the morning, and I'm getting incredibly sad at the thought of leaving this place. Zambia is my home right now, and noone likes to leave home. These people are my family right now, and leaving family is like leaving a part of yourself.

2011-12-30T02:39:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday this year. My Christmas was fantastic! I spent the 23rd-26th at Mutinondo- a privately owned piece of land that is used for camping and tourist visits. It’s about 80 km south of Mpika and about 30 km into the bush (east). The couple that owns it is elderly and really quite friendly. They acquired the 10,000 hectares of land back around 1995 when an American wanting the same piece of land backed out of the deal with the local chiefs. Mike and Lari are white, and Lari was born in Zambia (both have English families). The land is incredible out there- huge rolling mountains that look like the backs of animals who have fallen asleep . The Mutinondo river runs through the area and has a bunch of waterfalls alon the way. The ten of us who went hitched or took cabs to the turnoff and then got picked up by Mike. The drive after turning off of the tarmac took about an hour so it’s a wonder that they found this area. Mike told us that when they were first deciding if they wanted to go ahead and take the land, they would just walk for days in different directions and take in the scenery. There were no villages in this area when they first started up and it was very important to them not to have to relocate anyone. Incredible to think that these people may have been some of the first people to walk around there in hundreds of years. The campsites there were really nice- with hot showers, nice sinks, mirrors, cooking and storage areas, picnic tables, and drop toilets that had an eye level window cut out so you had a view whiles doing your business. I don’t really think of myself as a camper and I think the reason why is because of campsites that are UNLIKE Mutinondo. It’s so frustrating to go camping here and not have a place to sit or a firepit to cook in. I know that sounds pretty hoity toity and stuck up, but I feel like I’ve pretty much been camping for the last two years in my hut. I don’t really feel the need to go somewhere else and sleep in a tent only to have to sit on the ground, search for water, and not bathe… ANYWAYS- this was a great place to camp out. We actually got to set our tents up in this huge insaka so in case it rained, we would be protected. We went hiking up a huge mountain on the first day and took in some really beautiful views. We also went horseback riding and swimming in waterfalls. In fact one of the waterfalls had such a gentle slope down, we slid down the drop and got to jump in these incredibly deep holes set in the waterfall. For Christmas dinner, we ate at the lodge with some of the other guests (white Namibians and South Africans staying in the chalets). There was ham, turkey, potatoes, vegetables (BROCCOLI!!!), and 3 different Christmas desserts, and of course lots of wine. The dining room was all lit by candles and lanterns and definitely created a very festive Christmas atmosphere. It was indescribably odd jumping down waterfalls and getting sunburned on Christmas day, but so much fun. I couldn’t have asked for a better holiday.They day after returning home after my nice little holiday, I went to my first Zambian wedding. I wasn’t exactly invited, but my counterpart was and had asked the families if it was okay for me to tag along. When the day came however, my counterpart was too sick to bike the 25 km to the wedding. I figured I just wouldn’t go since I didn’t really know anyone else who was going and would try to find another one to go to before I leave the village. But no no no… Lawrence, bless him, wanted me to go so badly that he called the father of the groom (the Catachist at the Catholic church, so I kind of know him) and told him to expect me and make sure that I got a good seat. Oy vey. So I biked the 25 k myself and arrived at the school where the ceremony was to take place. People of course know about me, but I just kind of stood under a tree and waited for something to happen. Eventually a group of women invited me over to sit with them which was very kind. People were bringing all of the desks from the school outside into a shady area and it turned out we were waiting for a priest from town to show up to officiate the ceremony. Two hours later, he rolls up and things start to get underway. A local bwana teacher drove the bride and groom into the school yard honking his horn and driving like a crazy person. Surprisingly, the bride was wearing a big white dress and veil and the groom had a nice suit. Because the groom is a teacher and his father is a catechist, this was a more fancy wedding than most are in the village. Essentially the ceremony was a mass including the Eucharist which was something I’ve never seen in Zambia so far. The couple never smiled once and there was no kiss, but there was some slight pinkie holding. A church choir sang a lot of songs and there was the odd mayo getting up a dancing a bit. The ceremony lasted about two hours so by this time it was getting to be late afternoon and I had a long bike ride ahead of me. I decided to skip out on the reception and just head home. I know I missed out on the fun part, but hopefully there may be one more wedding in the village before I leave. Everyone LOVES weddings here and just say it’s a big drunken dance party, so I’d really like to see what that’s all about.It is really good to be back in the village for practically a whole week finally! I was going to be heading up north almost immediately after Christmas but decided to stick around for a bit. I just can’t stand transport here and hate packing up and leaving the village all the time. I have to be in Lusaka on the 3rd, so I’d rather not be there any longer than necessary. My garden is growing slowly but surely. We haven’t had much rain at all so far, so things are kind of precarious. The villagers are especially worried since they have planted all of their crops already. I’m hoping we get some substantial rains soon because I know that my house is leaking, but I’m not sure where. I haven’t been in the house during a strong rain yet this year, and I’d like to try to fix the leaks if possible.I don't think Ill be able to post before the New Year so I'd like to give my new years greetings now. I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and safe New Year. My thoughts and prayers go to the family and friends of those volunteers in Mozambique who have experienced a tragic loss. 2012 will be a year of new beginnings for myself and I can't wait to see what new adventures life has in store for me. I have been so incredibly blessed with this amazing life, and I pray that I continue to experience new and exciting things and meet more great people.

Turkey , Bats & GLOW

2011-12-30T02:32:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was really quite lovely this year as the 40 volunteers in Northern province celebrated together at our provincial house in Kasama. Because we are so many these days, some of us had to stay at a nearby guest house. We had meetings beginning on Tuesday, and ended up cooking through about 3 days to get ready for Turkey day. We had two turkeys, five chickens, and most of the regular fixings.After this nice weekend, I headed south to Central province. The plan was to meet up with two guys from my intake so we could go to Kasanka National park and see the bat migration there. One of my good friends Bart was pretty sick though so we ended up staying at the Central provincial house in Serenje for two nights. We then hitched about 80km north to get to the national park entrance. Kasanka was the first privately run national park in Zambia, so the managers came and picked us up at the entrance. We camped out one night and got to see about 5 million bats at dusk. These tan fruit bats migrate here beginning in October to feed on the fruit trees here (mostly a bush tree fruit called amasuku). They come from as far away as equatorial Africa, but mostly originate in the DRC. At dusk they head out up to 50km away to feed on the trees. I read somewhere that where they roost, the weight of all of the bats on one tree can be the same as about two elephants! It was really quite a site as the bats came out of a line of trees about 200 meters from where we were allowed to stand. Looking up, I saw more bats than sky. Incredible. I have to admit I was a bit nervous we might be victims to the bat’s waste, but luckily none of us were hit. The park also offered an early morning viewing of the bats, but due to time and money we weren’t able to participate (in fact, the three of us that travelled there together had greatly underestimated the costs we would incur at the park—mostly the transport throughout the park, and barely had enough to pay when we left). However, as we were being driven back to our campsite after seeing the bats at dusk we saw the small herd of elephants that stay in the park. There were about 11 off to our right and one just ahead of our vehicle. The driver stopped and revved his engine to apparently scare the young elephant away. It trotted off a bit, but then stopped when it was behind our vehicle and started to charge after us! The driver floored it, and we sped away as the elephant eventually gave up its chase. It was a really exciting experience. How many people can say they were chased by an elephant! I got extremely lucky hitching the 300km home by myself as I got picked up by a super bwana (fancy) lift. It’s times like these, when people selflessly pick dirty white people up on the side of the road and drive them long distances for free, that my faith in humanity is restored.In the second week of December, I completed my 7th and final application to Graduate School. It really has been quite a process trying to work out all these applications here. It seems like back in the day when I was applying to undergraduate, things were a lot more simple and streamlined. Everything is online now, down to ordering copies of my transcript, and GRE scores, and the letters of recommendations that I needed from professors and bosses. With limited internet access up at our provincial house, I had to do a lot of the applications in waves. Most of the programs I applied to are ‘International Relations/Studies/Development. I do have two oddballs in there (A Masters in Community Planning and a MA in Cross Cultural and International Education), so we’ll see what happens. None of the schools are in Illinois, so it will really come down to cost when I have to make a decision. I’m really indecisive, so I’m not especially looking forward to making this choice.During the second week in December, I participated in my second Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). The nine of us volunteers who stay in Mpika all brought two girls and one teacher from our community to Lwitikila Girl’s School. It’s a beautiful private, Christian boarding school near the Mpika town. We used this venue last year and had such a great time. This year, we decided to invite the teachers for only one day of sessions, while the girls stayed the entire week. Last year we had problems with the teachers asking for ‘sitting fees’ (money like per diem that is usually paid to them here in the Zambian culture when they go to workshops or other meetings through the Ministry of Education), as they were staying the entire week. Dealing with teachers here can be quite difficult as they feel they are not a part of the village (even though they live in the village). Since they are usually the most educated people in the community, they will sometimes have a sense of entitlement. Plus, since the government always pays them these ‘sitting fee’s, they can’t seem to understand why Peace Corps has a strict policy of NOT paying sitting fees. To be fair, last year their room and board were all covered, and we gave them a thank you gift as well. So instead of dealing with the awkwardness of unhappy teachers, we had them come on a Sunday and leave on a Tuesday this year. Since the month of December is their break month, they want to be with their family, which is understandable. Plus, the reason we bring them to begin with is to teach them how to run a GLOW club back at their school. To be honest, they really don’t need a week of lessons to learn this. This change this year went really well, and I think it will be a permanent change for future years.The purpose of the camp for the girls is to teach them about female empowerment and talk about issues that they may not get to discuss at home. It’s often the first time some of these girls get to leave their village, and you can tell they are just thrilled. We teach them goofy camp songs, play team building games, lead them in craft activities, and even take them swimming at Lwitikila Falls (again a first for a lot of the girls). The educational sessions have topics like assertiveness, confidence, motivation, rape/sexual abuse, business skills, the female body, and goal setting. We even had VCT services available for them and all 18 of the girls participated and were tested for HIV. I asked one of the girls I brought (a nearby neighbor of mine) if she was missing home at all , and without a beat she said , “Nope”. I think all of the girls had a great time. I feel like this has been one of the most influential programs I have been able to participate in here, and am so glad I’ve been able to do it twice now. All of the funds that we had were donated by friends and family at home, and I can’t thank everyone enough. If you donated, you really made a difference in 18 girls’ lives. I think this is an experience in their life that they will never forget.Now I’m celebrating Haunkkah in the village. Two of my friends came over on the first night and we made both homemade and boxed latkes (courtesy of my Aunt Cassie in America). It was really nice to have people to celebrate with. I remember last year lighting the candles alone in my hut and crying thinking that I had a whole other holiday season to get through by myself. This year, I keep thinking that this is the last ____ (fill in the blank) I’ll have here in Zambia, and that makes me want to cry a little. So strange how much my feelings about this place have changed. I’m heading to Mutinondo today- a wildlife park about 80 km south of Mpika town- with 9 other volunteers. We’ll stay through Christmas, and I’ll head home on the 26th. The first day of 2012, will be spent heading down to Lusaka for our Close of Service (COS) Conference. Everyone from my intake will go to the capitol for medical appointments and meetings meant to prepare us for the end of our service and transition back to America. The nice part is Peace Corps puts us up in a fancy resort for two days as a treat. I’m really looking forward to this and to seeing all of my old friends for one of the last times.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-25T06:18:00.001-08:00

I now have my third bed of service. While it proved a bit difficult to get the mattress and bed to my site for Peace Corps staff, they are both brand new. It’s so much smaller than my last bed, I feel like I have significantly more space in my house. I can’t really do much with it as it’s in my bedroom, but it’s nice. Hopefully this new furniture will now eliminate the insect problem that I had been having of late. Who knows if the bed or mattress were really the problem to begin with, but at least it’s a solution other than moving. Keeping fingers crossed.Currently , I am up at our provincial house for what we call provs. This is a series of meetings where all of the 41 volunteers in Northern Province come together once every six months to talk about house issues and other Peace Corps administrative news. We have a member of the administration travel from Lusaka to be with us and update us on any new policies, developments, etc. Since we have so many people, and our house has a limited number of beds, some of us had to stay at a guest house around the corner. It just so happens that the November provs fall through Thanksgiving. It’s nice that our little family here is able to be all together and celebrate an American holiday that most Zambians have never heard of. I can't believe that a year ago, my parents were here with my celebrating Thanksgiving... Things were hectic trying to cook with a dinky electric stove, but we were really organized and shared all the duties well. We had a feast to rival most Thanksgiving dinners including two turkeys, 5 chickens, mashed potatoes, stuffing, applesauce (prepared by yours truly), green bean casserole, and salad, along with a plethora of desserts. It’s really nice to be able to have most of the traditional Thanksgiving foods even though I didn’t have my real family to share it with. Along with the meetings and cooking, we traditionally have a party to celebrate our togetherness. They are themed, much like many of the college parties I went to, and this year was no different. The theme was based around the alcoholic beverages here known as packets. They package different flavored liquor in plastic satchels a little bit bigger than a deck of cards. They are named things like double punch, fighter, leader, don’t kubeba, 500k, etc. I decided to dress like the ‘black panther’ packet and wear black, cat ears, and some whiskers. A good time was had by all.Back in the village, we’re gearing up for planting season which will come with the rains. While a lot of the country is already in the midst of rainy season, Luchembe is still fairly dry. Once it starts raining every day, the farmers will begin planting all of their crops. They’ll also do things like fix roofs as they want the grass to expand with the water and have a chance to settle with the rain. I’m anxiously awaiting these rains so I can plant my personal garden. I also am excited for two conservation farming plots I’m planning on helping with. My family and my counterpart will be employing various CF techniques like intercropping, pot holing maize planting, and incorporating agroforestry tree species into their fields. Hopefully they will do well, other villagers will take notice, and begin to use some of the ideas.I would just like to end by saying how very thankful I am for this experience I am having. I know I probably say this a lot, but sometimes I just have to sit back and look at my life in awe. Who in the world gets to do this? Live in an African village and try to help people. I’ve met some of the most amazing people here including Zambians and other volunteers. I am so thankful that the Peace Corps Zambia community has become my family here, especially those volunteers in Northern Province with me. We have such a great time when we’re together, and I am so very thankful that God has kept us safe and healthy. Here, in this place at this time, I am the happiest I have ever been. Of course there are days that seem like they’re the worst I’ve ever had, the good always outweighs the bad here. I am also thankful for my wonderful family back home. They have been such a rock of support for me for the past year and a half, I don’t know what I would do without them.

2011-11-07T03:25:00.000-08:00

In my last update, things were gearing up for the election. Well, for the most part the country was peaceful and ended up voting in a new ruling party- the Patriotic Front, and it's leader, Michael Sata. I went with the father in my family to vote at the school. While the line was out the door and a bit long, it moved at a steadily throughout the day. The mother of my family is a very politically minded woman who did quite a bit of "campaigning" the past few months. I'm not entirely sure as to what this campaigning actually entailed but she would travel around with other people who supported the PF party and go to various villages.Sata has put on a good show since being sworn in as president. He seems to be dismissing some of the corrupt tendancies of previous administrations and has been making moves to establish better foreign relations with countries like China. For the most part, people seem pretty happy with him and are excited to see what he does for the future of Zambia.As for me, my life has been turned somewhat upside down by a mysterious insect. I started noticing big red, itchy bites on my torso after waking up in the morning. I would leave my hut for a few days to visit someone and not get bitten, but as soon as I'd come back home and sleep in my bed, I'd have the bites again. I have never seen what these mysterious bugs look like (and it's been about 3 months since this whole debacle began). Eventualy, other people in my village determined that it must be 'impantila' a sort of mite that is carried by chickens and rats. Since I don't have any chickens staying in my house and my cats eats all the rats around, I'm still not positive as to how these bugs came to be in the hut. I have tried everything to rid myself of these creatures including: washing every piece of clothing I have (not easy or fun by hand), boiling all my bedding, putting kerosene all around the in and outside of the hut, bringing my mattress out in the sun, spraying my house with toxic chemicals, etc etc etc. The Peace Corps medical staff hasn't been able to help me too much besides suggesting that I spray the house with bug spray and myself with insect repellant before I go to bed. I finally got administration involved and I was lukcy enough to be visited by one of my bosses this past week. We took my cat to the vet to make sure that she wasn't carrying any sort of bug (and big surprise- she wasn't . I knew the vet wouldn't find anything on her since she wears a flea collar and is regularly doused in flea powder). The vet recommended another chemical to try so this past week I fumigated the house for the third time. I'm up at our provincial house/office because it's not recommended to sleep in the house for two days after spraying. I hope that by the time I get back these little bastards are gone- whatever they are. Whiel no one in my village is or has experienced the same problem that I am, there is another volunteer who has been battling the same type of bug. His problem has gotten so bad however, that he will soon be moving to a new hut. This will be an absolute last resort option for me as I only have 6 months left in Zambia. Moving now would make absolutely zero sense.Otherwise, in the village I've been preparing to dig two conservation farming demonstration plots. One will be with my family and include intercropping maize and soya, along with alley cropping various agroforestry tree species. The other will be with my counterpart and consist of maize, red sunhemp, and other agroforestry tree species. We can't plant until after the rains come. Usually they begin about now, but in Mpika we have seen very little precipitation. Elsewhere inthe country is receving daily downpours. I hope it starts soon in my village because it is getting insanely hot. My hut, during the day is usually about 91 degrees. Even sleeping is uncomfortable since the bricks absorb the heat of the sun all day and it radiates out at night.People are also beginning to collect caterpillars in the bush right now. Last year there was an extremely plentiful harvest of the little critters. However this year people are complaining that they are small and there are barely any at all to be found. It really is no wonder there are none this year considering how many were collected and eaten last year. I don't understand how any could have had the chance to reproduce!In other news, our preprataions for December's Camp GLOW are coming along nicely. I've asked the grade 6-8 girls at my school to write an essay excplaining what leadership is and why they want to attend Camp GLOW. If they want to attend the camp, they'll write this essay and the teachers will chose the best two girls from there. Thanks to your generous donations, our grant was fully funded in about two months. We are deeply grateful for anyone who donated.Up next will be Thanksgiving and our provincial meetings. All 41 of the volunteers from Northern Province will gather at our office/house and have two days of meetings which just so happen to coincide with turkey day. It will be good to be surrounded by my "No.Pro" family all together probably for one of the last times. We just recently had 14 new volunteers come up to ourprovince. In fact, they got to swear in at the President's house which was a really big deal in the capitol. The swearing in ceremony also coincided with our Peace Corps 50'th anniversary celebration at the headquarters in Lusaka. While I wasn't able to attend, I heard that a good time was had by all.

GLOW DONATIONS PLEASE!

2011-09-16T01:58:00.001-07:00

I recently returned from a trip to the capitol where I participated in our first annual inter-provincial sports tournament. The goal was to get a team from each of the 6 provinces and compete in various sports activities. Northern Province was a bit underrepresented along with Luapula and Northwest, so we created the “Northern Alliance”. Eastern and Central provinces both had full teams with multiple alternates. We played basketball, volleyball, kickball, and soccer and ended up having a blast. It was really great to get to see some of my old friends from training and meet new people from different intakes. The weekend we were in the capitol just so happened to be the ‘ring out’ or close of service for the RAP/CHIP intake that arrived in 2009. They had finished their two years of service and were participating in our ceremonial ‘ringing out’ ceremony where they all ring a traditional Zambian ‘bell’ of sorts (an old painted car wheel). It’s extremely bizarre to think that my intake will be the next to participate in this ceremony. We only have 8 months left of service in Zambia, so we are officially the ‘seniors’ of the group. I can vividly remember coming to country being terrified out of my mind. Now it seems so silly that I could be so afraid of this place. I am comfortable here and in fact a bit scared to return to home for good. Life in America seems so far removed from everything I know here, (even with a recent trip back to visit) and it will be a whole period of readjustment when I do get back. I also just recently returned from a “Second Site Visit” with some of the recently arrived RAP (Rural Aquaculture Program) trainees. They had just learned where they would be living for the next two years and got to visit a volunteer who stays in the same district as they will. I hosted LIFE second site visit back in April, so I knew how stressful it could be to have so many new volunteers at your site at once. Therefore I helped out my friend who stays in Mbala. The new volunteers were really excited about seeing their future district and we had a good time cooking, talking, and learning how to play cribbage. It’s really difficult for me to think back on what I was feeling when I was in their same position. To tell the truth, I think I was still scared out of mind about being here and had a really difficult time actually enjoying myself. Instead, I was just missing home and searching for reasons why I should stay. Obviously now, I know I made the correct decision by sticking it out because I am happier than I’ve ever been. Sure, the bad days get really low here, but otherwise life is great, and I love it. The national election is next week here in Zambia, and we are getting the full brunt of the campaign craziness now. Trucks with campaign posters plastered all over them drive through the villages blaring music or shouting out slogans and pushing their candidate. In the towns, people parade down the street behind these propaganda machines and flash their party’s respective hand symbol (including fists, making an L-shape with your finger and thumb, and other various hand movements), and yell at their opposition. I’m really looking forward to staying put in the village this next week, and visiting the school (the village polling place) on the day of the election. I'd lastly like to ask you to take a moment and look at our grand proposal for the Mpika district Camp GLOW scheduled for December. This is a great opportunity for girls in the village to learn how to be leaders, make good decisions, and lead healthy lives. We are funded solely by donations, so in order to make this camp a success I need your help. Any monetary amount would be a great help, and your donation will be tax deductable! https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=611-071

Where's the Work?

2011-08-15T01:08:00.000-07:00

Since my return from America, things have been fairly slow for me, work wise. I’ve heard I missed the brunt of cold season while overseas, but it is still chilly (high 50s) in the mornings and evenings. I enjoy the coolness much more than the African heat, but the worst part about cold season comes with the winds. In Mpika especially, the winds can be deafening, destructive, and painful. Biking becomes a tiring chore when your destination is against the blowing, and washing clothes seems almost pointless when the air comes at it hanging on the line, filled with dust. Not the mention the multitude of sweeping and dusting that comes with living in a house made of dirt and grass.

Another drawback of this dry time of year is the water situation. While I am lucky in the fact that my family’s well has stayed active (knock on wood), without fresh rain water seeping through, the result is a silty/clay filled water source. My PC issued water filter takes care of the gunk for my drinking water (albeit with consistently more cleaning of the filter elements called candles). However, when it comes to laundry, dishes, and bathing, the water starts out looking like it’s already been used for Pig Pen’s dirty clothes. The h20 has a milky, opaque color with all the sediment floating around. If I let it sit in my 20 liter jerrican for at least 2 days, the dirt will settle to the bottom (I don’t usually have time to wait around 2 days however). When bathing, I just try to think of all the sediment as an exfoliant, and not dirt making my bath rather pointless.

The reason work has been so slow is because people have finished harvesting their maize. Now, they pack it up in 50 kg plastic woven sacks and bring it to their area’s designated depot to sell. In the case of Luchembe, folks come to the storage shed near the school- essentially the center of the community. Here, a government chosen individual from the community is in charge of weighing the bags, redistributing the maize in government sacks, and keeping records of al maize brought in. Every year, the FRA (Food Reserve Agency- part of the government) sets a price for a 50 kg sack of maize. They buy these sacks by the million from farmers all across Zambia. After his maize has been weighed at the depot, a farmer is given a receipt for his transaction. Once the entire catchment of a depot is finished weighing and recording maize sales, the FRA will send trucks to pick up the sacks. Then, the farmers can go to town to a designated bank, show their receipt which must match the depot’s record, and be paid. In a lot of ways, this is a good system for small scale farmers because it is a sure-fire sale of their crop. However, the flaws are numerous as well. The weighing/recording process began in mid July and may continue until early October. After hauling their maize who knows how many kilometers, farmers often have to spend multiple days/nights at the depot waiting for their turn to have their maize weighed. The shed itself can only hold a few hundred sacks, so the overflow is placed outside on large spreads of logs to prevent rot of the crop. My counterpart, Lawrence has actually been employed as a guard at the shed. He sits up every night watching the huge piles of maize to make sure nothing is stolen. There was even a fence built to surround the area, showing just how crucial the security of this maize is. Lawrence has said people who have to camp out with their maize overnight become ornery and restless causing overdrinking and midnight brawls. Another problem can be the chosen individual who keeps all the records. Sometimes they can be corrupt and cheat people, or they can up and quit… The records themselves pose problems as well as in the case of last year when Lawrence never got his money from his maize because of clerical errors. While the government has told him he will receive both this year and last year’s sales come October, he is still nervous. For most families, this maize sale is their largest and sometimes only income for the year. They use it almost immediately to buy the government subsidized maize seed and fertilizer for planting in Oct/Nov. Some families, excited by the high set prices sell too much of their maize and end up without enough food for their family for the year. It also becomes complicated when farmer groups or cooperatives sell the yield the group worked on all season in terms of dividing the sale. Luckily, this has been an extremely plentiful maize season with a seemingly large bumper crop (making the famine in the horn of Africa seem even more sad and displaced from here). My family’s entire year of yard work resulted in selling 18, 50kg sacks of maize for 65,000 Zambian kwacha each, resulting in 1,170,000 kwacha (I receive about 1.5 million kwacha every month from PC). This converts to 99,000 pounds of maize for about $238 USD. The family is keeping 10 sacks for their personal consumption (as opposed to last year when they kept their entire yield of 5 sacks).

So, people are busy with that whole process, school has ended for the term (starting back up in September), and everything is too dry to do anything else with the land, leading me to be restless and anxious. I did teach my mayo how to bake bread recently which ended up being successful. Many women have seen me cooking or just straight out ask me to teach them how to bake. And while I am more than willing, I ask that they provide the ingredients, as I can’t always afford to bank roll cooking lessons. This condition usually leads to the person inquiring never to bring it up again. However, Poulin had pulled all the foodstuffs together, so we baked some really delicious village bread on the brazier (no easy feat, I assure you).

I’ve also made it my personal duty to teach some of my neighbor kids here a bit of English. I have become the local entertainment stop in the village with a multitude of soccer/kick balls, puzzles, crayons, music to dance to, paper, and most coveted of all…sweeties (candy). My first mission was to teach the children to say thank you (in Bemba) after receiving something from me. This was a devastatingly cute success. Now, I’m trying to get them to ask for the ball, crayons, etc. in English. Some have caught on quickly while others are still too shy to even look at me directly. I love these kids so much; I don’t know how I’m going to leave them in 8 months.

The next big excitement will come on September 20 with the national election here. People will be voting for their MP, President, and another local position I’m not sure of. The current leading MMD (multi-movement for democracy) party President, Rupiah Banda is running for his first full term in office (he became president when the previous leader died suddenly in 2008). There have only been 4 presidents of Zambia since its independence in 1964. Since 1991, the MMD has held the power. The opposition, Michael Sata of the PF (Patriotic Front) party is from Mpika, so most of the chatter I’ve heard has been for him. It really should be an interesting event to experience. While there is no violence/unrest expected during the election, PC is asking us to stay in our villages the week of the vote. It really is the safest place for us to be. Registered voters will go to the local schools to cast their vote. I wonder if there will be any coverage of the election in the states?

I recently received some pretty sad news from my brother. For reasons he can’t entirely explain, the Air Force (his employer) will not let him come visit me here in Zambia. It’s quite disappointing considering he was the only other visitor I was expecting. While having my parents come and stay for a while was excellent, I was really looking forward to showing my big brother around. My Zambian host family and counterpart are disappointed as well. They love it when I have visitors (even other PCVs). But to them, having an American family member come visit me is like they themselves hosting a visitor. They are so amazed that another white person from the same family as that other white person is coming to their little bush village in Zambia. I guess I’m lucky to have a Zambian family like them to lean on while my biological family is so far away.

2011-06-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

Just a few quick stories to keep this blog breathing...

My countepart's (Lawrence) wife, ba Dorothy, has been quite ill for some time. Between a 'painful body' and 'eye sores', she has been put through the ringer. Of course with health care being like it is, she hasn't received much relief. She did however end up going to the provincial capitol's hospital about a month ago. Lawrence's mother however is convinced that Dorothy has been bewitched by someone in the village. We were warned about witchcraft or 'juju' as they call it here during training. However I had yet to really experience anyone who believed in it or heaven forbid practice it. Without saying these exact words, Lawrence told me his mom basically thinks that people are jealous of him and his family since he is my counterpart. Therefore someone is bewitching Dorothy and making her ill as a revenge for being friends with the 'mizungu' (me). Lawrence's mom thinks that Lawrence will be hit by the juju next, so he better watch out. In fact, she wants him to move up to Kasama with her, so he's not around me and therefore not around jealous people. Now you can imagine how this might make me feel. Obviously, I don't think that Dorothy has been bewitched, but I do feel a bit awkward knowing that people may be blaming me for their juju problems. Oy vey. Life in the village.

Next story... I was hitching up to Kasama with a big tractor-trailer truck delivering a bunch of watermelons. The driver was drinking beer (as I discovered AFTER I stepped into the cab), and would not sit still the entire trip. He asked what my name was and after repeating it about four times (because Zambians never seem to understand my name), the driver says this, "ah, your name. It means spare part for a helicopter yes? Or maybe it's a tractor part." I had to laugh a bit because I had never heard that one before. I guess I'll keep sticking with Chileshe for the time being.

Lastly, I have a little more than a week to go until my big Luchembe VCT Day. I have had all sorts of issues with the testers/counselors. First we were all set to go, then they backed out, then they were on again but they didn't have test kits, then they couldn't come, and now we're back to them being able to come, but still unsure about having test kits. I basically have to confirm, reconfirm, reconfirm again, and then reconfirm ONE more time with every person arranged to come to this event. It's been quite a hassle, but I'm really hoping to get about 100 people tested. I really think it will be a great opportunity for people to learn more about HIV/AIDS, the VCT process, and what resources are available to them in the village and the boma.

Midterm Conference

2011-05-20T21:57:00.001-07:00

Midterm Conference
This past week I’ve been in Lusaka with my entire intake – well the original 49 of us minus 9 people who have ET’d. Since we have all been here over a year now, we’ve been having our Midterm Conference. Basically we got checked out by our medical staff and got a TB test, hemoglobin test, flu shot, and a Hep A shot. They asked us how we were doing mentally and emotionally at our site, and sent us on our way. We also got to go to a dentist which was a surprisingly pleasant experience. The office was beautiful and actually nicer than the dentist I go to in the states. They took x-rays that showed up on the computer screen right behind the chair- it was so cool! The dentist cleaned my teeth and said that everything looks good! The rest of the week was administrative meetings with our Assistant Peace Corps Director of the LIFE program, and other admin staff. Nothing too exciting…
Wednesday was my birthday, and PC had set up a panel at the house of the Deputy Chief of Mission, who is essentially the second in command behind the US ambassador . The panel consisted of embassy workers and the topic of discussion was the presidential elections coming up here in Zambia. We don’t know when the elections will be since the ruling party gets to decide. Sometime in June, President Banda will dissolve parliament and then set a date for the elections up to 90 days after that. So theoretically, the elections will be sometime in August. It’s going to be a very interesting election since the ruling MMD party has been in power for over two decades. The opposition party, PF, is headed by Michael Sata who is actually from Mpika. Basically, I’m living in Sata-land, which should prove to be an interesting vantage point for the elections. Since my birthday was also on the 18th, a bunch of us went out to a fancy Italian restaurant I had never been to before. There was even a piano player and lounge singer, so you know it was a classy joint. We had a lot of fun dancing and one of my friends even got up and sang a song with the piano player for my birthday! That combined with the cake I had for breakfast, and the bagel sandwich I had for lunch made for a great 24th birthday. This week has been a lot of fun overall since I’ve been able to see all of my friends from training. I’ve gone to two movies and eaten a lot of great food in Lusaka. Even though we rarely get to see other volunteers from different provinces, when we all get together, there’s always a great energy.
Next up, I’ll be heading back to Mpika and working hard to prepare for my big VCT day. I’m planning a Voluntary Counseling and Testing Day in Luchembe to promote awareness of HIV/AIDS. I applied for a small grant from Peace Corps so there will be food for all of those who attend (Zambians love free food- well let’s be honest, who doesn’t?). World Vision and CARITAS are helping me by providing counselors/testers. I’m also going to present a cooking demonstration of foods that are healthy and nutritious- especially for those living with HIV/AIDS. The school anti-AIDS club will put on skits and songs, and a church choir will sing for entertainment. Because every Zambian event needs a guest of honor, the District Commissioner of Mpika will attend to say a few words. I’m also trying to get our MP to attend, but we’ll see if that works out (it is an election year though, so politicians are always looking for a publicity opportunity). Other activities will include educational information sessions about HIV, a raffle for anyone who gets tested, and lots of nshima, beans, and cabbage. I was just able to pick up the money for my grant, so when I get back to Mpika, I’ll have lots to do!

Cold Season is coming!

2011-05-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

This update is long overdue. It's definitely strange to be in the habit of procrastinating after being away from school for so long. Here, there seems to be no need to procrastinate since I have so much time to plan, execute, and finish tasks. Anyways… I’ll try to backtrack a bit and explain what’s been going on in my little corner of the world.
The beginning of April was pretty busy for me in a number of ways. First, the oldest intake of volunteers was COSing (Close of Service). We had a big party at our provincial house in Kasama which was a lot of fun. It’s sad to think that this place is pretty much like a revolving door in terms of friends and co-workers. Every 6 months or so, people leave, and new people come in. I suppose that’s life though. Anyways, we lost a good group of volunteers after their two years of dedicated service. Many went on to grad school, while some are travelling around, and others are back in the states trying to figure out their next step. Immediately after this party, I hosted what is called ‘second site visit’. The newest intake of LIFE (agriculture) and RED (education) volunteers arrived in Zambia in February. During their 11 weeks of training, they visit two current volunteers’ sites (once in the first week of their arrival and once in their 9th week of training). Two new LIFE volunteers came to my site to see what Mpika is like since they were to be posted here. One of the nicest parts of site visit is the fact that these newbies are given money for food for their visit and get to shop in Lusaka at the nice grocery stores. I had two other current volunteers (my neighbors Chris and Scott) come and help me ‘host’ the newbies. I really only planned one big activity for the newbies to help me with and that was my permaculture garden demonstration at the school. I’ve been waiting to do this demonstration for months, but as is life in Zambia, things were constantly being pushed back. The environmental education club I work with at the school had finally finished a fence and we had purchased seeds, so it seemed like second site visit would be a perfect opportunity to hold the demonstration. Not only would the newbies learn a little about gardening that they hadn’t gotten from training yet, but having that many ‘misungus’ in one place was sure to draw a crowd. I advertised the demonstration by making posters and hanging them at the clinic and our local meeting shed, and also by writing letters to the churches announcing the demonstration so they would be read on Sundays. Unfortunately, people kept asking me, my family, and my counterpart if I would be providing food for such a demonstration. Zambian’s don’t seem to want to attend large meetings/workshops without some sort of compensation since most NGO’s and government agencies provide food and/or money for similar events that they host. This put me in a sticky situation since I did not want to set a precedent for providing food at my demonstrations. Plus, I don’t have the money to be feeding hoards of people. I settled on buying the ingredients for a local drink called munkoyo. It’s made of the munkoyo root, millet, water, and sugar. My counterpart’s wife brewed the drink, but we kept quiet about who paid for the beverage. The event was somewhat of a success in my eyes, while others said it went much better than I thought. Many people came, but we had to do a lot of clearing of grass in the fenced in area before we could dig the actual garden. This is a tedious process and many people were tired by the time the actual gardening began. We made a compost pile, and then double dug three beds to be used as nurseries. The garden will fit about 8 beds, so you can see how short we came of actually finishing the garden. Even now, no more beds have been dug, and nothing has been planted. The environmental education club is supposed to be taking it over now, but since April is a break month for the school, there have been no children around to help. It did seem as though the newbies and the villagers got a lot out of the demonstration which was a major goal of mine to begin with. The only downfall was after we finished working and the villagers sat down to drink the munkoyo. All of them complained that the drink wasn’t sweet enough and that I needed to buy more sugar. I was extremely frustrated at this and simply said sorry and walked away. The rest of site visit went well with us doing walks around the village, eating with my family, and watching my cat Lucy get spayed…I’ve been trying to get this cat fixed for months but the vet in town never had the anesthetic to do the procedure. He called me the day of my garden demo and asked if he could come the next day to fix the cat. I was hesitant since I had so many visitors, but did not want to pass this chance up. He came with his assistant and did the operation on my table in my insaka. I was quite worried since he said he had prayed this morning that it would go well. It indeed went well and Lucy is all healed and healthy now.

After site visit and the garden demo, my next big adventure came over Easter. A bunch of PC Zambia volunteers decided to take a vacation to Lake Malawi. Ever since I arrived in country, one of the places almost every volunteer told me that I should visit is the Lake. Malawi is a tiny country to Zambia’s east, and is relatively easy to get to. The spot we decided to travel to, Nkhata Bay, is almost directly east of Mpika. Unfortunately, there is no direct road there so we had to take the night bus south to Lusaka and then hitch north east to the Lake. When all was said and done, it took us two days to get to the Bay. Hitching to Malawi went well, and after we crossed the border and arrived in the capitol of Lilongwe, we got on a horrible bus to Mzuzu. This bus was more like a city bus than a coach so there was no cargo space and lots of room in the aisles. Therefore the aisles were filled with everything from desks to pots to chickens, and people. These poor folks stood for the entire 12 hour ride to Mzuzu. I’d have to say it was one of the worst travel experiences I’ve had here so far. Anyways, after arriving in Mzuzu late, we caught a taxi to our lodge in Nkhata Bay. This area is one of the only parts of the Lake that isn’t notorious for harboring schistosomiasis- a really nasty infestation of worms in the body. It was absolutely beautiful, and we had a great time. The lodge was built on the side of a cliff essentially so there were lot of stairs to get from our dorm to the restaurant and water. However the food was great, and the water was beautifully clear and blue. I spent a lot of time snorkeling and laying on a floating raft in the middle of the bay. We also took a rowboat out a few times and had a motorboat take us to another bay to do some cliff jumping. While I only travelled with my 2 Mpika neighbors, Raekenya and Chris- there were about 20 PC Zambia volunteers at the Bay that weekend. It was great to catch up with people I hadn’t seen in a while, and even meet a few people I never had before. Transport on the way home was equally as rough and long, but the trip was worth the discomfort.

This past week I helped the newbies do their big shopping for their sites. There are only 5 new LIFE volunteers in Northern Province so it wasn’t too stressful, but it did bring a lot of memories from about a year ago when I was going through the same process. Still can’t believe I’ve been here over a year now… How time flies.
On a less cheerful note, my counterpart’s wife has been in the Kasama hospital for the past week now. She has been sick with a number of ailments for months now and has been unable to receive proper or successful treatment. The hospital/clinic system here is grossly inadequate and sometimes really scary. She had gone to our local Luchembe clinic a number of times only to receive ‘panado’ which is essentially aspirin. Then she was told she should go to Kasama because there was an eye specialist there she should see for her eye ‘sores’ (I still have yet to understand exactly what these sores were). However, the family was having a difficult time raising funds to get to Kasama which is 210k away from Mpika and requires money either for hitching, a bus, or the train. As a white female, I hitch to Kasama, and usually end up getting a lift for free. Unfortunately for Zambians, they do not like to give their fellow countrymen free lifts. Then, they were told that in order for a doctor to even see them in Kasama, they needed a note from our local clinic nurse which would refer them to the Mpika hospital. From there they would need another note referring them to Kasama. For some reason, people aren’t allowed to go to hospitals or clinics that are not in their neighborhood. Anyways, Lawrence was finally able to procure some money for him, his wife, and their two youngest children to travel to Kasama. I visited them in the hospital today and wanted to cry. While Dorothy’s eyes are in much better condition and she has actually been seen by a doctor more than once (a rarity in these hospitals), the hospital facilities itself was so sad. I suppose it would be what you might imagine a third world hospital to look like, but even so, I felt horrible. It didn’t have that sterile hospital smell that so many facilities have in the states. There were no crisp white jackets on the doctors and nurses. A private room is unheard of, and often times the children of the patients are sleeping in the same bed as the sick. I do hope she is released on in 3 days time like they told her she would be, but you never can tell. It’s Saturday, and she won’t see a doctor until Monday.
Otherwise, I have my ‘Midterm conference’ to look forward to this next week. My entire intake will be going to Lusaka for meetings with administration and visits with our medical staff and a dentist. Since we’ve been here one year now, they think it’s time for us all to get a general checkup and to also check in with our supervisors. I’ll actually be in Lusaka for my 24th birthday which is pretty exciting since I’ll be with friends, have good food, and maybe get to see a movie.

Youth Day

2011-03-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday March 12 was Zambia's Youth day! However in my village, it was celebrated on Friday. I'm not exactly sure what the founders of this holiday intended when they created it, but for Luchembe, it involved a lot of work on the students' part. The entire week leading up to the event, the students slashed grass, gathered firewood, swept, and generally stayed OUT of the classroom. Originally the festivites were to occur on Saturday, but it was decided that all 4 schools in the zone would come to Luchembe to celebrate on Friday (therefore elliminating yet another day of learning). Each school had various groups/clubs perform skits, songs, poems, and cultural dances. It really was a lot of fun to watch. My GLOW club did some great songs and dances, and my Chongololo club was supposed to perform a skit, but time got tight and they were cut :o(. The dances were a lot of fun though because the students would start doing their thing and then the teachers would jump up and dance for a bit and give the kids money or sweeties. I don't want to brag, but I caused kind of a riot when I got up to dance for a minute! haha. I think the kids had a lot of fun, but it's just sad to see all of the work that children have to endure here.

I've been busy working in my garden lately. The fence is falling down a bit, but with the rains continuing on, I figure I have to keep it up. I had a few ears of sweet corn turn out (albeit they were quite small). I had a lot of green beans and also a few cucumbers. My tomatos are still growing, just waiting for them to turn green. Watermelon is slowly coming up, but I'm not sure it will last. So I recently planted peas, cabbage, lettuce, and summer squash. HOpefully they will pop up before the rains end for the season. Otherwise I've enjoyed working in it, even though the weeds here are out of control.

The week that I hit my one- year mark in country was pretty tough for me. I felt a bit unaccomplished and like I hadn't really done much in the year that I've been here. In the village, it's difficult sometimes to feel appreciated by the people. There are sometimes I feel like the villagers don't really want my help, they don't trust me, and they don't care that I'm around. However the other day, my counterpart Lawrence made me feel really good by telling me that him and his wife were my helpers and were there to help me in anything I wanted to do in the village. I am planning a big VCT day and was feeling really frustrated that day with the lack of support from various clubs/groups in the village, and Lawrence really boosted my confidence. I hope his family and I can work together for this VCT day because I really feel like it will make a difference.

2.18.10----3.1.61

2011-03-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

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.

PEPFAR

2011-02-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

Last week I went up to Kasama for our PEPFAR training. PEPFAR is the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, and is essentially our HIV training through Peace Corps. The training was for anyone in Northern Province who hadn't gone through the PEPFAR process yet. We had to bring a Zambian counterpart from the village with us so they too could learn about HIV/AIDS. I'm pretty sure most Sub-Saharan African volunteers have to do some sort of HIV/AIDS work. I was really excited for this because most PCVs I've talked to said it's one of the best trainings we recieve from Peace Corps.

I brought a woman from a neighboring village who works with an ante-natal and PMTCT clinic at the Luchembe health post every week (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission). She doesn't speak much English at all, but thank goodness there was a translator at the workshop. He literally translated every single sentence from English to Bemba for the Zambians.

The HIV/AIDS epedemic in Zambia is pretty staggering. The overall prevelance rate of HIV is about 14% country wide, down from 16% a few years ago. While Northern Province actually has the lowest rate of prevelance out of all the 9 provinces in country, Mpika District has the highest rate in Northern Province (if that makes any sense). Obviously the more urban, populated areas have a higher rate of HIV because there is more traffic there (ie Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces). LIke the rest of the world, there are more women here with HIV than men, and women are at a higher risk to contract HIV as well.

The workshop involved a lot of in depth discussion about the ways people can contract HIV, and how we can prevent this. There was also a lot of talk about sex, for obvious reasons. Because Zambia is a Christian conservative nation, things sometimes got a little awkward when we had to discuss things like anal sex, prostitution, and circumcision. However, the Zambian counterparts were all willing to contribute to the discussion and gave some very interesting insight into the Zambian view on such issues. We actually had a really informative question/answer session where people could write questions anonymously for our PEPFAR director, Jo to answer (Jo is a British woman who has been living in Zambia for 15 years and working with HIV/AIDS work for years beyond that). The Zambians were really interested in learning about relationship and sexual patterns of America. I must say us American PCVs were equally interested in the Zambian relationship culture as some of the customs seem so outrageous to us. For example, it is believed in Zambia that if a woman performs oral sex on her husband, when he dies and she sees his corpse - she will also die. Therefore people do not participate in this sexual activity for fear of death...

That is just one of the rather bizare beliefs that we learned about during the week. I could go on, but even I don't feel comfortable writing about it on such a forum. I must say that I learned a great deal about HIV/AIDS and really hope to pass on my education to others. My counterpart Lydia, and I hope to hold a big VCT day in Luchembe (Voluntary Counseling and Testing). In fact, VCT was offered at the PEPFAR workshop and almost all of the participants went for testing. There is a stigma placed on getting testing in the village sometimes because people think that if someone is going for testing, they have engaged in risky behavior and therefore think they must already have HIV. If a married woman for example, went to go get tested without her husband knowing, the husband would be upset and think that the woman was doing something wrong in order for her to want to be tested. There are a lot of problems with infidelty in relationships here (men having mistresses or 'side plates' as they call them here), which results in a number of problems.

Then there is the problem of getting and taking ARVs here (Antiretro virals). Most rural health posts do not supply ARVs so people with HIV often have to travel long distances to get them. There again is a social stigma on having to take ARVs since they need to be taken at the same time everyday. Everyone here knows someone with HIV so it's just too bad that they are still stigmatizing those living positively.

HIV/AIDS is a really tough topic to deal with in the village, but I have a lot of resources now to try to tackle the issue. I hope to help distribute condoms, and make people more aware of the simple steps they can take to defend themselves. We actually received a whole bag of resources to bring back with us, including a wooden penis to demonstration how to properly use a condom... not awkward at all!

Deep thoughts with Chileshe

2011-02-01T03:23:00.001-08:00

So, yes, my Bemba name is Chileshe. But in the village I am called a number of things… From misungu (white person), to Courtenay, to Courtenah, to Chile and Chileshe- I never seem to get called by my real name. Anyways, this entry is meant to be a conglomeration of some random anecdotes and thoughts that have been bouncing around my head for a while.

The biking culture is something huge here. Owning a bike is a pretty significant social status in the illage, even if the bike is old and tore up (like most are). The Zam-bikes are essentially road bikes with a high seat and handlebars, and very thin tires (usually bald and having numerous patches). However bad the state of disrepair is though, Zambians use these bikes to no end. You will see a man hauling 1-4 big bags of charcoal, or iron sheets for his roof on the bike rack. Did I mention that the bike racks on Zam-bikes are HUGE and are an integral part of the machine itself. Men will also often bike with theif wife issting on the bike rack, baby strapped to her back and all. Now, I have biked with some heavy loads before: ie my big camping back, packages from the post office, etc etc. But I had never biked with another person before. That is until I picked up an 11 year old neighbor boy in the rain the other day. We weren’t very far from our village, so I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult. Boy was I wrong. He couldn’t have weighed more than 80 pounds, but I tell ya- I was struggling! I always knew Zambians were extremely strong individuals, but their biking skills are something else!
This next story also involves the people I spend most of my time with- small children- namely boys. (Sidenote- in my village Kambe, there are significantly more boys than girls). The kisd will come over to my house at least once a day to play with the exoborant amount of toys I have. While I don’t usually mind their company, I do not allow school kids to play with my things if they didn’t go to school that day. Oftentimes, one of the truants will get the little kids too young for school to come over and ask for the soccer ball while they hid behind a tree watching and waiting. I can usually spot them, and then call them out and ask why they’re not at school. I never get a real answer, so I tell them to go to school tomorrow and then they can play. Attendance at school is a HUGE problem, and I’m not going to reward the kids for not going to school. Rainy season is especially bad and I can’t necessarily blame the kids who live three plus kilometers away and have to walk without a jacket or umbrealls, but there needs to be some enforcement of attendance. So, the kids will color with crayons, put together puzzles, or play with the soccer ball in my yard on a daily basis. On a number of occasions now, I have caught kids under 4 years old peeing in my yard when they think I’m not looking. It’s always been a boy, and they always jump out of their skin when I walk out my door and shout in surprise. They funny thing is they are doing it right in front of the other kids, yet know they’re doing something wrong as soon as they see my face. I’ve told them I don’t mind if they use my toilet, but apparently they like the front yard better.
I thought I might go into a little detail about my “family” here in Zambia. When Peace Corps is looking for places to put volunteers, they will oftentimes get advice from local government officials. Apparently the District Forestry Officer of Mpika was the one who chose Luchembe for my site. Peace Corps will then go into the community and then try to find a vacant house in a good area that will be used by the volunteer. They do not employ any family to take care of the volunteer, but if the house was once theirs or is on their compound, they will oftentimes feel it is their job to care for the volunteer. My house was once used for some Japanese volunteers, but I’m not positive who it originally belonged to. It is not on anyone’s compound, so it was never really obvious for the neighbors that they should ‘take care’ of me. However, the Chibeka family has kindly taken me under their wing. They do not get paid by Peace Corps, but are constantly making sure that my house is safe, and feeding me. I used to go to their house for dinner every night, but now I give them a break a couple nights a week. I repay their generosity by bringing a relish for their nshima, or buying them a small amount of talktime for their phone, or soap for washing, matches, etc. I am very grateful for their help while I am out of the village, in feeding my cat and watching over my hut. They were the main contributors to building the addition to my house, and are the ones I go to when I have a problem in the village. It’s funny because the wife, Poulin, speaks better English than her husband, Phillip—an oddity in Zambian culture. They are both young- Poulin 28, Phillip 37, and have 4 young children. I really like eating with them, but sometimes feel guilty for eating their food that is so precious to them. I try to introduce them to American dishes, and they appreciate this greatly. In the evenings, the dinner process goes something like this: I’ll come over around 18 or 18:30 and sit in the insaka (gazebo type building where cooking is done) with Poulin while she waits for the water to boil. Once the water is boiling, she’ll put in the ubunga or maize/millet meal. Most of the time we eat millet nshima, and this takes a significantly shorter time to cook than maize nshima. She will have a big basket of dishes next to her and will go through practically every one of them, picking one up, examining it, putting it back, picking up another, then picking up the first one…Eventually she’ll have the right dishes out and will dole out individual lumps of nshima for me, her, Phillip, and the two year old, Joe in one dish, and then a big pile of nshima for the three other kids. The kids get their own bowl of relish also and usually sit on their porch to eat. Most of the times there is only one relish (beans, greens, eggs, groundnuts, mushrooms, etc) so when I bring a relish, they get really excited for two. Me, the adults, and Joe will eat outside on the ground on the reed mat or in the insaka. Before eating we ‘wash’ our hands in a dish of water (no soap), and then pray. After eating, we wash our hands again (no soap), and the kids collect the dishes to be washed. I’ll sit outside for a while, mostly in silence, but sometimes engaging in our broken English/Bemba conversation. Humble though it may be, I do enjoy my dinners with the Chibekas.
In other news, my cat Lucy just had 4 kittens. She had been really sick before I left for vacation and I was pretty worried about her. When I returned I noticed her stomach was pretty large and suspected she may be pregnant, but didn’t think they would come for another month or so. Well the other morning she camped out underneath my bed and popped out 4 babies. Not sure what I’m going to do with them since my neighbors highly dislike cats. Hopefully I’ll find some volunteers that will want Ricky, Ethel, Fred, and Little Ricky as I’m calling them for now. Haha.

Mozambique

2011-01-10T00:42:00.000-08:00

Well I'm here to tell the tale of Mozambique so it must have been a good trip if I made it back right??

From Johannesburg, we took a bus to the capitol of Mozambique- Maputo. It was a double decker bus and the trip started off well enough. However about 2 hours in, during the heat of the high sun- the AC broke. It became a miserable inferno in this bus because the windows did not open. We made it to the capitol safely, albeit, much sweatier and dirtier than in the beginning. We stayed at a backpackers' place called Fatimas. A note on the term 'backpackers''. These are essentially hostels set up for weary travelers. While there are some private rooms- most are dorms, but everything is super cheap. The very next morning we took a shuttle from the Fatima's in Maputo to the Fatima's in Tofo. This was a very comfortable ride. However we found out later that they had jacked up the price of the shuttle the day we arrived because it was the holiday season- oh Christmas spirit...

Anyways, Tofo is a beach community in Mozambique. The backpackers' there was much more geared toward the party traveler. We stayed in dorms, and had the benefit of listening to soul rattling base coming from the bar area all night every night. The beach was a haven though, and had nice waves. We spent Christmas here with a few other volunteers from Zambia. There was a special lunch buffet for the holidays so I ate lobster on Christams day- can't believe it. Because there wasn't a whole lot to do in Tofo, and we were afraid we might loose our hearing if we stayed any longer, we decided to trek up to another beach area called Vilankulos. Transport there consisted of the most crowded mini bus I've ever been on in my life, a ferry, and a hitch with two Turkish Canadians on their way to their mattress factory.

Our accomodation in Vilankulos was also a backpackers' but we opted to spend a bit more money and rent out a 'challet'. It was right on the beach and was definitely worth the ridiculously inexpensive charge. We spent almost a week in Vilankulos and had a blast. Kerry and I went snorkeling, while our friend Blair went SCUBA diving (she's certified). While it was some really rough water we were snorkeling in, we had lots of fun. We were dropped on an island which is part of an archipelago off the coast. There was a huge sand dune that we climbed and had the most amazing view of the mainland and other islands. We also went horseback riding on the beach which was an incredible experience. During our stay there we met some PCV's from Mozambique an discovered that a volunteer actually stays in Vilankulos... Yeah, PC Zambia vacations in other people's sites- can't believe this girl lives on the beach as a volunteer.

As I always like to say, the people of the trip, made the trip. We met a bunch of interesting characters from Capetown, South Africa. It's funny because talking to all these new people made me want to travel even more. Heard great things about Namibia and South Africa.

After a fairly low key New Years, we decided to hitch back towards the capitol. We had horrible luck on our first day, but finally ended up getting a lift with a Mozambique national who considers himself Portuguese. We spent the night in a town called Xai Xai (pronounced shy shy), and then went back to Maputo. Spent two nights there and therefore had ample time to do the touristy things in the capitol. It's incredible how much more there is to do there than there would be in Lusaka. Mozambique in general is much more developed- especially in terms of infrastructure. I'm assuming most of this has to do with the fact that it's on the coast and has port shipping and a hefty tourist industry. We went to an art museum, a craft market, a really cool train station, and a fort in Maputo. It was a bit difficult traveling around since the national language is Portuguese and we speak none. In this way, we are thankful for Zambia and English.

Our bus ride back to Johannesburg was much more comfortable until it started raining and then leaking on the inside of the bus. We actually came back to Joberg earlier than originally planned because we wanted to go to the apartheid museum there. It was a very educational and eye opening experience and I would recommend it to anyone travelling through Joberg. It is a bit bizare however because the museum is set in a compound called Gold Reef City- which is an amusement park, casino, and hotel. You could hear the screams from the roller coasters as you were walking around the outside exhibits at the museum... Strange. Like the hungry PCVs that we are- we also stopped at McDonalds in Joberg and saw a movie.

All in all it was a very relaxing and interesting trip. While I could have done without the immense heat and humidity of Mozambique, the cool weather in Joberg made up for it. I had great travel companions and was glad to see a part of the world not many Americans can say they've been.

Johannesburg

2010-12-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

I flew with my two friends, Kerry and Blair, to Johannesburg today. Wow- the Lusaka airport was a big hassle since our flight was early in the morning and things were just getting started. Therefore all the lines were backed up because the airport employees were just showing up to work. We got through fine though and got on an airplane --- so exciting for us! Made it to Johannesburg and got picked up by our hostel- Ghandi's backpackers.

Just the ride from the airport was about 20 minutes but we had the biggest culture shock. The car we were in was SUPER buana (fancy and nice). It rode so smooth and had a working radio with all the speakers in great condition- even had two sunroofs. I know this must sound pretty dumb, but believe me, this is a big step up for us. The four lane highways were just like the states and I felt a big surge of homesickness. It's just so stark a difference between here and Zambia- it's hard to even describe.

Once we got settled at the hostel, we took a trip to the nearest mall. I forgot it's 3 days before Christmas (I'm used to feet of snow and temperatures in the minus 20's this time of year), so the mall was PACKED. I'm not a big fan of crowds- but people watching here was GREAT. Everyone is so diverse! We had a great lunch at a nice restaraunt. Wow I just can't believe we're here in South Africa and heading out tomorrow. We're taking a bus to Maputo, Mozambique (the capitol of the country).

Looking forward to sitting on the beach!

GLOW

2010-12-21T02:07:00.000-08:00

Camp GLOW was a smashing success in Mpika this month! Thank you so much to all who donated or supported us in our efforts. 14 girls and 7 teachers participated with the 7 of us volunteers. While it was a bit tough dealing with the teachers (they were a tad disgruntled for not being paid for this program), the girls were an absolute blast. They had SO much fun and it was so great to see how happy they were. We taught them songs and cheers and such which they loved singing all the time. Our sessions we held included topics like early marriage, teen pregnancy, sugar daddies, confidence, assertiveness, and being a leader. We also played games, went swimming in local waterfalls, and did lots of crafts. Most of these girls have never or rarely leave the village, so staying in school dorms with electricity and running water was a really big deal. They even braided my hair in tiny little braids one night while we were watching a movie. The girls LOVED to critique my Bemba, so that was really funny because they wanted us to learn their language so much. The 7 of us volunteers discussed the fact that this may be one of the most influential things we do doing our service. While working with farmers is nice and sometimes rewarding, we could actually see the impact of our efforts in these girls. It really made our hearts melt to see how happy they were and the friends that they made while together.

Now to back up a bit- after my parents left, the rains officially came to Mpika. Sadly, my house leaked like the Titanic. We had to put some more grass and plastic onto the roof to prevent water leaking down my walls and staining the whitewash/lime. It was not a good week, but I made it through.

Now I am in the capitol on my way to Christmas vacation. Two girls from my intake and myself are flying to Johannesburg tomorrow. We're spending one night in town and then taking a bus to Mozambique. We'll spend 2 weeks in Mozambique touring the beaches and eating lots of seafood! I'm pretty excited to be seeing the Indian Ocean and spend Christmas on a beach. However, I am getting a bit homesick for Christmas in America (yes I am Jewish, and I do celebrate Hanukkah, but my family likes to participate in all things commercial Christmas as well :o). My brother is at home with my parents in the snow of Chicago, and I wish I could be involved in all the holiday traditions taking place there. My first Christmas away from home :o( Mozambique should be a blast though and I look forward to posting about it later.

Turkey Day!!

2010-11-25T09:06:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving and a bit surreal...I'm in Zambia. Well it's not so bad since my parents are here! Yep they arrived on the 13th of November wide eyed and excited to see my new digs here in the dark continent.

We spent a few days in the capitol of Lusaka, visiting my original host family in Chongwe and seeing a movie in town! My host family was extremely excited to meet my parents. In fact my Batata said that when he found out my my parents were coming to visit, he danced. While walking up to their house, the entire family came running out to greet us with hugs. They served my parents their first meal of nshima, chicken, and cabbage. My mom and dad had brought gifts like photographs, candy, calenders, hats, and toys for the kids so we doled those out and had a great time.The only downfall was we had to take an infamous Lusaka minibus to Chongwe... It was quite packed, loud, and rather uncomfortable (22 passengers and 2 chickens in a vehicle that would safely fit 12). We actually hitched back to Lusaka, and got a nice ride with two Swiss gentlemen.

Next we headed down to Livingstone to see the glorious Victoria Falls. We stayed at a nice little guesthouse run by a Brit. We walked up to the falls the first night and saw it from the top. Since rainy season is just beginning, the falls are pretty thin (water is quiet low) but the view is still fantastic. It's wide series of ridges that the Zambezi river flows through. The first night we saw elephants crossing the river. The next day we took a small boat from the Royal Livingstone Hotel (probably one of the nicest hotel I've ever seen in my life) to Livingstone island. We got to walk on the edge of the falls and swim in the devil's pool which is literally right on the lip of the falls. We even leaned over the edge to peer at the bottom. It was a blast! The next day we took a helicopter ride over the falls which provided an incredible view of the entire river: we saw hippos and elephants from the air.

After our Livingstone adventure we journeyed to Botswana to te Elephant Valley Lodge. ou safari began that afternoon with a drive through Chobe National Park. We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, lots of impala, kudu and other antelopes, hippos, crocodiles, a spotted hyena, a springhare, lots of monitor lizards, etc etc etc. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and the "tents" we stayed in were really nice. The lodge was right next to a waterhole where elephants and baboons would come about. All in all, the 3 day safari was a great experience and SO much fun!

We then headed back to Lusaka for one night and then onto the open Great North Road. We stopped in Serenje- the capitol of Central Province- to see some of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. Then we went on up to Mpika to my village. I think my site was a bit of a shock to my parents (along with a lot of other things about life here in Zambia), but they are doing GREAT dealing with the hardships.

Today we're in Kasama at my provincial house for Thanksgiving. All the 30 some volunteers here in Northern Province are up here for the holiday. They made TONS of food and we had a great time.

We're heading back to my site tomorrow for a few more days in the village. LOTS of people want to greet my parents so we'll be meandering around Luchembe!

Caterpillars & Beatles

2010-11-13T07:05:00.000-08:00

I never thought I would see it, but the road I live on has had an immense amount of traffic on it... Well immense in terms of a dirt road in Zambia that normally has little to no traffic. Officially caterpillar season started November 1, but the last week of October really marked the beginning to this season. People from all over the country are flocking to Mpika to gather this national delicacy. They are big chunky green caterpillars that are pretty gross looking while alive. Zambians make them look even worse by popping the green guts out of them by digging their thumb through the fat crawler. There are piles of this green gut goo all over... The remainder of the caterpillar is then either dried in the sun to be fried later or immediately boiled and eaten "fresh". I must admit I am not a fan of the fried version- they are crunchy and quite frankly taste like I'm eating a bug. I have yet to sample to boiled version, but I doubt it will be much better. I think my family here will be eating this as their staple relish for a while, so it looks like I'll be cooking for myself a bit. It's just crazy how Mpika seems to be the holy grail for caterpillars. The vehicles coming down my road are filled with people going to "camp out" and harvest. In Aluni, the community about 27k down the road that I've been working with, locals have been setting up little temporary lean-to's for the visitors to rent out and camp in while having their go at the caterpillar crop. People also bring in goods like pots, pans, chitenges and other things from the capitol to sell while there is such an influx of people. I guess people in Lusaka will pay a pretty Kwacha for this delicacy. Can't imagine travelling 12 plus hours in the back of a truck filled with dead caterpillars. The season for these critter does come at a good time though considering this time of year (in between cold and rainy season) is thought to be hunger season by some. Another problem with this season of harvest however (besides putting all my work at a standstill) is kids not going to school. Parents like to keep their children home to help them harvest, so the schools all but shut down during this time.

Moving on to other tales from the animal kingdom...My neighbors have been loosing baby chickens at an alarming rate. Because most people don't keep their chickens penned all day, or at all- the birds are free to roam around as they wish. I have to say right now that since arriving in the village, I have acquired a severe dislike for chickens and their dinosaur type tendencies. Between the rooster crowing at 4am to the rest of them getting into everything- dishes of water left outside for more than 2 seconds and my insaka and bathing shelter- I just can't stand them. Anyways, hawks come flying around and snatch up chicks all the time. Lately there have been random outbursts from children and adults alike making crazy screaming sounds that at first really confused/concerned me. Well, turns out they are trying to scare away the hawks when they see them lurking. Seems that with those fits of hysteria they go through to scare the predators away, they would put a bit more effort into trying to keep the birds safe. Sadly, their technique isn't very effective, although the children seem to enjoy running around screaming.

Now, I thought I would talk about a few colloquialisms that I find pretty interesting here. Some of them are English and are just funny while some of them are Bemba and really confusing:

-"caref" : yes, this is English, sort of. A shortened version of 'careful', I find myself using this as a warning along with the villagers.
-"sorry sorry" : Pronounced "sow-ry, sow-ry", Zambians LOVE to apologize for someone else's mis-doings. I hear this all the time when I am tripping, dropping something, hurting myself accidentally, or otherwise embarrassing myself. Forget about trying to convince people something isn't their fault and they need not apologize.
-"capiba" : Pronounced "cha-bee-pa". Essentially, Bemba for "that's too bad" however it's used for anything from someone being sick, to exclaiming disdain at having to take a long journey, to someone dying.
-"Just there": This is a misleading direction given by many Zambians. When asking for directions, one must be careful when hearing a destination is "just there". Sometimes it can mean right around the corner, but sometimes it can mean halfway across the country- you never can tell.
-"used" : This is commonly used by people asking me if I have acclimated to life in Zambia. "Are you used?" they will say- not referring to anything in particular I should be used to. So now, before they can even ask, I say, "Ah, yes Zambia is nice, I am used".
- "awe sure" : In Bemba, awe means "no", so literally this phrase means "no, sure". It's kind of used like exclamatory like "oh my!", or as a filler like, "um".

Now to a small commentary on the logic of Zambia. My fellow Mpika district PCV's and I have recently endured some issues with the post office. A decision was made by the folks there to give all of our mail (there are 7 of us with the same PO box) to one individual now instead of to the mail's addressee. IN light of this odd and somewhat inconvenient decision, I have come to the realization that decision making here often lacks the usual logical reasoning Americans find common. It may be hte language barrier or it may be cultural differences, but the question "why" is more often than not answered with "pantu fye" or "just because". This can become quite frustrating when you are asking a teacher why they are outside chatting with a friend for an hour instead of teaching or when someone tells you that you shouldn't take a run when a group cancels a scheduled meeting and you ask why everyone was informed except yourself. Just because or because I said so is something I expected to hear from my parents when Iw as 5 and they made a decision I didn't like- its not something I would hear from counterparts and friends. Again, maybe it's a cultural thing, but it sure is confusing!

Another confusing situation arose when two census workers came to my hut to count me. The once every 10 year census is taking place here in Zambia. The government hires teachers and other individuals to walk around dor to door in orange vests bearing "Enumerator" across the chest like it's a superhero title ( you may ask yourself why would the government hire teachers to do sucha job when they already have a paying job and it's the middle of the school year and there are students to teach...GOOD question... pantu fye). Anyways two girls about my age came asking me about my life. Were you born in Mpika? Where were you born? When did you come to Africa? Were you here last October? Yes I had just answered the question of when did you come here? What are you doing here? What is Peace Corps? What is your job? But who is your employer? etc etc etc. I understand these girls have a form to fill out but their questions just got to the point of ridiculousness. After explaining about my situation a number of times,they stuck a sticker to my door with a strange code of numbers saying I've been counted.

I'll close now with a story about a recent conversation I had that left me perplexed and quite appreciative of American pop culture. A man from Lusaka is visiting his family here in the village. He grew up in the city and therefore speaks little Bemba and is quite taken aback by the way people live here. He came to visit me one day while I was listening to non other than Border Crossings on VOA. We started talking about music and he seemed pretty knowledgeable about American artists (rare here as Most Zambians have an affection for the most random pop stars line Celine Dione, Shania Twain, Akon, Brandy, etc) Anyways a Beatles song came on the radio (requested by a PCV in Zambia nonetheless) and the Lusaka man had never heard of the Beatles. I was at a complete loss. How do you even begin to describe something as monumental as the Fab 4? Ask yourself this: do you know anyone who ahs never heard of the Beatles? I know it may seem insignificant and trivial, but it took me out of the moment and made me look at the Zambian life in a completely different light. I feel extremely fortunate that I have lived in a world where although materialism and vanity are promoted and even revered, I have received an excellent education, nourishing food, and access to such cultural entities as the music of the Beatles.

Happy Independence Day, Zambia!

2010-10-28T03:19:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 24 marked the 46'th anniversary of Zambia's independence from Great Britain. It's one of the few African countries that obtained independence without bloodshed. To celebrate, I took a trip up to the Kasama Peace Corps House. Volunteers from all over the country came to celebrate with us up in 'bembaland'. We took a day trip to Chishimba Falls and then a night bus up to Mpulungu (about 100k from Kasama). This is one of the home's to Lake Tanganiyka- the world's longest lake. It is surrounded by four countries (DRC, Tanzania, Burundi, and Zambia). It was absolutely gorgeous- clear clean water and white sandy beaches.

Would like to write more but the huge long entry I just typed out was deleted so I will have to come back again and try later!

2010-10-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

Well I believe hot season is upon us here in Zambia. However, I don't think we've endured the worst of the heat yet so I'm still anticipating horrible temperatures. Right now it's still pretty cool in the mornings and evenings which is nice but it gets pretty warm in the afternoon. The one nice thing is the wind. I must say however my relationship with the wind here is quite a LOVE/HATE relationship. Most of the times it leans towards hate since it brings copious amounts of dust into my home and prevents me from riding my bike like a normal human being. However in the heat, the wind can be most pleasant.

Anyways, got an interesting lift the other day from the Zambia election council truck in my area. The presidential elections are coming up in November 2011 and they are already going around to village registering people to vote. Apparently people must register to vote every time there is an election. There are not very positive feelings for the current president Rupiah Banda, so it will definitely be interesting to see how the vote turns out next year.

In Kambe, the big news is the digging of a well for my family. They scraped up enough funds together to pay a neighbor to dig a well for them in their yard. It's been an interesting process watching this. It's all finished except for a top/lid section. It's about 12 meters deep and the poor fella doing this work would build little foot holes in the side of the well so he could climb in and out of it. His son would be at the top pulling up the rope with a bucket attached to the end in which he would fill with dirt and such. The water doesn't look extremely clean yet- but it surely can't be much worse than my open cesspool of a water source right now.

Work wise- I have been busy at the schools dealing with the Chongololo Clubs. At Luchembe Basic- the students wrote letters to a school in Elk Grove Village. Peace Corps has a pen pal program, so that's how I got into touch with the teacher there. She is using her International Club as my student's correspondents, so it should be an interesting exchange. I also visited a village about 27k away from my hut. They are extremely enthusiastic about me coming to work with them. I must admit that I do not exactly share their sentiments. I am flattered that a village actually wants me to work with them and teach them things (more than I can say for a lot of my surrounding villages), but a 54k round trip bike ride is going to be tough to do on a regular basis. I have plans to return next week and teach a bit about conservation farming, but we'll see what happens after that. They do have a really nice river in this village- crocodile free- so that is tempting enough for me to go back and go swimming! (In terms of biking- last month I biked about 375k, just in October so far I have done over 125k- phew!!)

Other kind of funny news for me came the other day while listening to my favorite radio program- 'border crossings' on VOA. While I mostly listen to BBC for the news, this VOA program is entertaining because it's a world-wide music request show. The host is this really goofy guy, Larry London. It's nice because they always play every single request, and I'll often here of other peace corps volunteers throughout the world requesting songs along with lots of us from Zambia. Well Larry decided to take callers the other day to win a CD of some sort. I didn't even know what it was but I thought hey what the heck- I probably won't get through anyways. Well I did end up getting through and I won! They put me on the air with Larry and he asked me all about Peace Corps and Zambia. It's so funny since they never take callers, and I just happened to win. My big claim to fame in Zambia I guess.

Now for some funny question's I've received lately:

- what exactly is a cowboy? - to which I really didn't have a straight answer
- does snow come from heaven? - I didn't even know where to start on that one
- do Americans celebrate October 24 as Independence Day also? - That is the Zambian independence day coming up

Chinamanango

2010-09-27T01:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to Kopa for the Chinamanango Bisa Cultural Ceremony. Kopa is about 75k up the road from me. There is a large palm tree plantation there that is basically the only thing of significance on the road I live off of. Anyways the Bisa is another tribe with a language similar to Bemba. The ceremony was supposed to mark some battle between the Bisa and Bemba's (Bemba's lost). Never really got a clear answer about the significance of the ceremony, but it involved the supreme chief of Kopa also. I went out there with Chris, and two of the German volunteers from the Mpika diocese. Unfortunately the road is horrible and I ended up getting pretty car sick on the 45 minute drive up there. We stood around at the chief's compound where there were a lot of people for a while. There were makeshift booths set up made of grass where people were selling some small snacks and whatnot. Then there of course was the homemade brew being sold all over the place also. There was a truck with some music coming out of it but that was about it. Then we found out we were in the wrong place and drove about 5 minutes away to where the actual ceremony was taking place. Turns out we missed the Chief's grand entrance which is too bad because it probably would have been the most exciting part. There were hundreds of people circled around and watching little dances and skits take place. However we could never really get a good view. The Cheif and other guests of honor were sitting under a lean-to type structure so we couldn't get a good view of them either. It was really hot and all of the people was just overwhelming for me. The worst part was since we were 4 white people together, people would just stop and gather in a circle around us. They would just look and watch and wait for us to do something exciting I guess. Maybe I should bust out my juggling skills next time. That is one thing about Zambia that really gets old after a while- the stares and feeling like I'm living in a fishbowl.

Anyways- I'm in town today to check on some prices for seeds. The environmental education club I set up at the school closest to me- Luchembe Basic-is going to try to build a permaculture demonstration plot garden. My counterpart Lawrence, and I learned all about this gardening technique in Lusaka. Basically a permagarden is a 'permanent' garden that should last all year and incorporate all organic techniques. It tries to use water in the most resourceful way possible and is usually located near homes so family can tend to them regularly and easily. We want to teach the community about these gardens and therefore will use the school as a demonstration area since it is a central place in the village. We'll try to hold some sort of workshop to show how the garden is dug, and once everything is planted the students in the Chongololo club(environmental education club) will take care of it. The produce will be sold as a fundraiser for the school. It's going to be a long and difficult process with all of the logisitics, but will hopefully pay off. I am even going to try to do the same type of program at another local community school.

We still need donations for Camp GLOW also. We've raised over $1,000 but still need more! Please try to donate if you can- it's a great cause. I'm going to the school this week to set up the essay contest in which the two girls who will attend the camp will be chosen. Any seventh or eigth grade girl interested in attending this female leadership camp can write an essay about what leadership is and why it is important for girls to be leaders in the village. The best two will get to attend this one week camp in December. There are four other Peace Corps Volunteers who are doing the same things so we will have about 8 or 10 girls attending.

Go to this site to donate!

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=611-062

Here are some pictures of my newly rennovated hut and whatnot:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071163&id=33102518&l=426cce8038

R & R = free internet

2010-09-19T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'm taking my allotted days at the provincial house up in the Northern provincial capitol of Kasama this weekend. I hitched for the first time myself on Friday. It's 210k from Mpika to Kasama and I got lucky only waiting about half an hour for a lift. The car that picked me was really nice but unfortunately dropped me in the middle of nowhere about 117k from Kasama on the way up- something came up with their work and the driver and passenger had to return to Mpika immediately. Luckily a semi truck was passing just as I was getting out of the first car and it picked me up. I must admit I am not entirely comfortable hitching yet- but it's getting easier. I just really don't like the way a lot of drivers will try to bleed you dry with a lift. Most of the time, these folks driving weren't planning on picking anybody up that day so it's just extra money in their pocket. Why not just take me for free? I'm a volunteer with little money and patience for your incessant questions about why I'm not married, why I don't marry a Zambian, and why I'm not Christian... Geesh. Both lifts I recieved pestered me non stop about those things--- sometimes they just don't get it.

Anyways- being at the house has been really nice. It's good to have electricity, running water, access to a refridgerator, oven, and free internet! Plus it's a lot of fun to hang out with other volunteers hanging out at the house as well. The only problem is we all tend to overindulge in food and usually end up feeling a bit ill ;o) not always bad though. Plus I've brought back a lot of books I picked up here at the library and read at site. It's tough trying to pick out new books to bring back with me! Did some grocery shopping and have a way too big bag to bring back with me. Luckily a PC cruiser is heading to Lusaka tomorrow (the newest intake of Health and Fish Farming Volunteers is swearing in next week-I'll no longer be a newbie!)so I'll get a lift. I'm going to stop at a friend's site on the way back to Mpika and spend the day with her which I'm excited about.

Getting back to the village- I'll be working on camp GLOW business and starting a pen pal program with some schools in the US and the ones in my catchment area.

Firsts!

2010-09-09T00:38:00.000-07:00

This past week I had a few firsts in my time here in Zambia. Yesterday I ran my first meeting of villagers. Those who came are interested in forming a tree interest group. The Forestry Department may be able to provide such a group with seedlings, so I facilitated a discussion about what would be done with the seedlings if we were lucky enough to receive them. It wasn't a complete train wreck, but at a few points i the meeting, my translator/counterpart got up and left... Otherwise it went decently and I have an action plan to give to the district forestry officer who will then determine how many seedlings we can receive and whatnot.

Later in the day I went to visit the Chief of Luchembe for the first time. The last chief died almost a year ago so this new one has yet to really take office. He lives in Chongwe (near Lusaka- where I did my Pre Service Training) with his family as a teacher. There is a temporary 'palace' set up right across the road from my house in Kambe. He is here visiting now because there is a big Bemba Ceremony up in the provincial capitol of Kasama this weekend. There are all kinds of rules about meeting chiefs here and I wasn't sure I would get them all right. Usually you're supposed to bring something to him like money or sugar or chickens--- so I had 20,000 with me just in case. Then you're supposed to kneel on the ground as you approach where he is sitting and clap three times slowly. He will then acknowledge you and you can stand up. So I did just that and it turned out well. I didn't have to give up my 20 pin which was nice since no one asked for it. He was meeting with some of his aids I guess (my neighbor is the Chief's Representative- so he was there and helping me out). The Chief already knew my name which was surprising(my Bemba name that is...) and was very pleasant. Him and his wife are both teachers so they speak great English. They are wanting to build a permanent, modern palace eventually but not sure where in the chiefdom yet. Too bad it won't be right across the road from me. It would be nice to have him as a resource. Anyways it was a nice visit- I just hope he gets out to Luchembe permanently sometime soon- but it doesn't seem like he's in much of a hurry.

Otherwise I am preparing for my big 'thank you spaghetti lunch' for all the community members who helped me work on my house. Poulin and I will lime the old room tomorrow and the community's work will be officially over. (other than the holes in my insaka roof that need repaired). My closest PCV neighbor Chris, and a volunteer with the Mpika diocese are going to come and help me cook and whatnot. It should be a good time

Living Large!

2010-09-04T01:26:00.000-07:00

My hut officially has two rooms now! I can't even describe how great it is to finally have more than the one tiny room to store all my junk. I really thought I'd be getting away from the mess of 'things' that always seem to clog up my room in America. Somehow that has not seemed to escape me. I don't even know where all the stuff has come from but it seems as though I just have books and papers and other chotchkies hanging around the house. Either way- it is great to have the space.

The people who have been working on my house did a great job. The roof building was quite interesting- it only took two days. They had to tear off part of the existing roof, add new supports for the new room, and then put the grass thatching back on. Peace Corps is nice enough to provide us with black plastic to put in between the grass of the roof to prevent leaks in rainy season. Then we have big plastic sacks nailed up to the roof on the inside to prevent dust and such coming in. It's hard to believe how much dust accumulates in that house on a daily basis. I mean I guess it's imaginable since the house is made out of dirt- but still. So after the roof was complete- Poulin and I limed the inside of the new room. Well it was more like Poulin limed and I pathetically attempted to help. We used village brooms (essentially a bunch of grass tied together) as brushes. Now I've done a lot of painting in my day, so I figured what is a paint brush if not a small broom of sorts? No problem right? Wrong... My broom had fallen apart weeks ago so it was in bad shape to begin with. Poulin had finished an entire wall with hers while I was working on one corner. Oooh well.

Next week we still have to 'plaster' the wall of the old room (smear it with cement and lime) and then it will be truly done. I'm also still waiting on shutters for my windows--- no there are is no glass- it's just an open hole with a shutter. I put wire mesh over my original window to try to keep out bugs and such. TRY being the operative word.

In not so positive news- I had a tree group meeting go horribly awry this past week. In fact it didn't even start. Apparently there were too many meetings going on that day so everyone was confused and wouldn't show up. I was quite upset considering I had invited the District Forestry Officer and he had come all the way from the boma to attend. Luckily he wasn't upset and agreed to come to a make-up meeting this coming week. We are hoping to get some tree seedlings from the Forestery Department for this group. We still have to decide what the group wants to do with the seedlings (start a woodlot, sell them, do seed multiplication, etc) but it is a very positive step.

I'm in town now for a going away party for a French volunteer who has been working with the Mpika dioceses. I've hung out with him a few times in town. It's quite interesting meeting these other international volunteers- I know people from France, Germany, Brazil, and Korea- right here in Mpika! Quite a cosmopolitan place we are!

GLOW

2010-08-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I want to include this link for everyone to peruse. It's a place where you can donate to the Mpika district camp GLOW run by Peace Corps. It's a week long camp for girls grade 7-9. We will be promoting leadership, growth, and discussing all sorts of female issues. It will be an amazing opportunity for girls to get out of the village for a week, meet other girls, and learn how they can be leaders in their community. BUT we need YOUR help. It is all donor funded and we need funds for the site (a private girls school), food, transport, motivitional speakers, crafts, etc etc.Please consider donating:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=611-062

So I'm back in the village and doing quite well. I must admit that my trips into town are getting better. While it originally took me about an hour and forty minutes, it is now down to an hour twenty. It may be partly due to the winds- Mpika is notoriously windy so it changes daily. The status of my bike also changse my trip times. PC gave us really nice bikes but I swear mine is out to get me. I've fallen off twice now (the major fall, and then a minor one I had kept to myself until just now). My parents sent me an odometer/spedometer which is amazing. Since I got it in mid July I've done over 400 kilmoeters of riding. It's all on rough roads so obviously there is a lot of wear and tear on this thing- but I swear this is always something wrong. I have a small bike maintenance manual that I read cover to cover anytime something is wrong with the contraption but never seem to make much progress. The best I can do is pump of the tires, wash it off, and oil the chain! As if I'm not already a huge nerd with my bike helmet, gloves, and giant back- I really wish I had mirrors on this bad boy. I am constantly turning around and ending up in ditches because I am looking for cars approaching me from behind. Maybe that will be my next major purchase... bike mirrors- never thoug that would be in my vocabulary....

Up by my site right now it's like a wind tunnel! The weather is warmning up here--- I'm getting nervous for hot season! While it's still cool during the evenings and mornings, days in the sun are getting quite warm. Another change in my village has been the traffic. When I first arrived there were quite a few trucks coming by my road (Kopa road) heading towards a giant palm tree plantation called ZamPalm. They are setting up housing there for workers and basically making a huge complex for this plantation- there's even talk of Zesco (the state power company) coming out there and putting in electricity. However of late, there have been fewer ZamPalm trucks passing by. There have been a few tankers and semi trucks but it's a bit sad not to see the trucks full of people heading out to work in Kopa.

What else... Oh I just finished a great book by Dave Eggers- 'what is the what'. It's about the Lost Boys of Sudan during their civil war. Quite a different Africa than I'm used to here. I love Dave Egger's style of writing (especially his 'Hearbreaking work of Staggering Genius')- and in this he is writing a novel, but it is essentially a biography. I have to admit it's strange hearing abuot all the violence and tragedy happening in other parts of Africa. Right now there is a sad story about a mass rape of over 150 women and children in Congo. Peace keepers there didn't even find out about the incident for a couple days after it happened. Strange to think that some of my fellow PCV's are only kilometers away from the border of the DRC.

Anyways- lots of reading being done lately. I'm diving back into the Harry Potter series again also- LOVE those! It will be difficult finding all 7 but I think we have about 5 of them at the house right now. I'm on book two- wish me luck for the others!

6 months in and look at me now!

2010-08-23T01:17:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from 2 weeks of training int he capitol of Lusaka. I had a blast being able to reconnect with all my friends from Pre-Service Training. While Lusaka is quite expensive, I definitely wouldn't mind spending 2 years around all the folks from my intake. It's a great group of people and I look forward to going on vacations with some of them in the future.

In Lusaka I was able to get a taste of the night life which was quite interesting... I also was able to see the movie 'Inception'. Whether the lack of new movies in my life for 6 months has made me more appreciative of any new flick, I can't be sure, but I loved this film! It blew my mind, and I highly recommend it to everyone! Other indulgences in Lusaka included pizza, ice cream, and Chinese food. I've already had a village tell me Lusaka has made me fat and I can't necessarily disagree. On our one free day during training I went back to Chongwe to visit my host family. Sadly, my 2 favorite sisters were in the Copperbelt visiting family, but it was great to see Ba Mayo, my aunt, Mowriah, and others. They are hosting a fish-farming volunteer from the newest intake right now. They have made some improvements to the house and have had some children move out and new ones move in.

While hitching for a ride back to Lsuaka from Chongwe (about 45k), a friend of mine and I got picked up by a very 'buana' car (very nice and upscale). 4 men were in the car and took us for beers on the way back. Like any Zambian with a phone they asked for our numbers and haven't stopped calling since. Zambians with phones make for a strange combo... Most villages barely ever have talk time (all phones run on a pre-paid deal) so they will Zam-page you if they want to talk. Essentially they call and let it ring once with the expectation that you have talk time and will call back. I don't know if it's just the excitement of having a misungu's phone number or what- but once they get my number - it's not stop calling. Quite annoying after a while.

While in Lusaka I was also able to officially register 2 of my schools in the 'chongololo club' (environmental education clubs)organization. The Zambian Wildlife Federation gave me posters and work books to take back to the clubs- they will be SO excited... Speaking of excited children. Before I left for IST- my parents sent me a soccer ball, volleyball, and a playground ball to share with the kids of my village. Like most of the world- people here LOVE football. So while they are still pretty timid and shy around me, and my house- the children are always asking for the 'bola' (soccerball). Hopefully I can get some girls to play net ball with me- a school game similar to basketball but played mostly by girls.

Before leaving for Lusaka I also ordered some shelves and stools for when the extension to my house is complete. I had employed a local carpenter to make 4 stools for me way back in early June, but he was obviously not taking things seriously. I grew frustrated with his excuses and finally decided o use a carpenter in town. The big problem now will be getting the furniture to my site (yet again returning to my arch enemy of transport in Zambia). I am extremely excited at the idea of not having to live out of my duffel bag anymore. While I was gone, the father from my family, Phillip, took it upon himself to start a fence for my garden. I was pleasantly shocked at this as I was expecting to have to hire someone to do it! There are only posts right now for the grass fence, but I am thrilled and can't wait to start. My family from home sent me loads of seeds and now with all my new knowledge about perma-gardening from IST, I should have a great garden (or at least potential for a great garden).

Now for a funny little story... my favorite part. Upon returning to the village Saturday morning- I was looking for my cat Lucy. Poulin took care of her while I was away but apparently Lucy now likes to spend tiem at Ba Mama's house (my closest neighbor and Phillip's mother). Anyways Lucy was hanging out at Ba Mama's with her and Ba Anna (another really old grandma we call Bambuya- Nyanja for grandma). These 2 old ladies were brewing African beer- ubwalwa. It's made from millet, so it's kind of thick and has a consistency of vomit. Tasty huh?!?! Well I had my first taste of it and haven't gone blind yet so I guess that's good. What's more is that they were also firing up their snuff- don't ask me what it is because I have no clue. I'm glad they didn't offer that up to me... They said it would make me sneeze by the looks of it - it would probably erode a hole in my sinuses as well. Haha- I love the Ba Mamas!

Babies Babies Babies!

2010-07-24T03:12:00.000-07:00

This past week I have been inundated with baby after baby. I was helping the nurse with the monthly Child Health week. I know I mentioned it before but one week out of every month is dedicated solely to the health of children under 5. It's known as the Under 5 clinic. The nurse travels 6 days out of the week to a different health post in her catchment area (and by health post I mean some sort of building the community has erected for the nurse to hold these clinics in). Usually the clinic consists of weighing the babies and recording it in this under 5 card all the mother's have for each of their children. It keeps track of their weight, the vaccines they've been given, etc etc. The nurse will do some sort of lecture on child health like infant nutrition, hand washing,etc. and that's usually it. This month however, was solely focused on measles. There has been a pretty bad outbreak of measles in Zambia so the Child Health week was geared just towards giving information about measles and then giving the vaccine to kids 6 months to 4 years 11 months. My job in this process was to write down the child's name and age on a pink card. It was pretty hectic, and at times overwhelming. One of the saddest parts was that sometimes if the mother didn't have the under 5 card, she didn't know the day, month or even YEAR her child was born. Just as bad- many of the mother's couldn't spell their children's names. I understand they do not have to write it very much- but it is still pretty sad that they give their child a name they can't spell. The positive is that hundreds of kids are now protected from measles.

Speaking of babies... I have to mention how funny it is when the kids in the village get bathed. You know when a child has recently been bathed because they are literally GLOWING. The mothers here SLATHER the kids in either glycerin or petroleum jelly after being washed. It looks nice until the kid rolls around in the dirt then looks like a ghost because the dirt has stuck to them like flour! Quite hilarious.

The construction on my house is going slow but well. One day a week... Last week one of the wives of a man who was helping made some nshima for us. Since it's usually only about 5 or 6 of us working- it gets tiring. The people here strongly believe that eating nshima gives you power. When they found out there was no nshima in America they laugh and say "oh how do you have power then without nshima?!?" I told them we eat other food that give us energy but they simply cannot accept it. You MUST eat nshima in order to have any power here. Well hate to break it to you folks...

Another thing many of the people here that I meet always suggest is me getting married in Zambia. "Oh you will stay after two years and get married yes?". When I tell them that I probably will not - they get very huffy and upset. "What is wrong with Zambia?! Why can't you marry here?!". I try to explain my parents would be pretty upset if I got married in another country and they weren't there to watch, but this isn't a good enough excuse. Sometimes if I tell them I came to Zambia to work, not get married- that will pacify them. But then they will usually say, "oh you are too old". Haha- thanks!

I had another mishap with my bike involving a broken seat. Let me tell you it is not fun riding standing up. The bolt that holds my seat on completely snapped in half on my way back to my site from town last week. It was quite a hassle trying to get a lift into town to get a spare part. There are pretty much no bolts in town so Peace Corps had to bring me an entire new seat. Ugh. The transportation here in Zambia is pretty upsetting an quite possibly my least favorite thing about being here so far. It's no one's fault really- but it's just really difficult to get around.

The newest intake of volunteers has arrived in the country! They are health and fish farming volunteers. Apparently they missed one of their connecting flights though so they arrived late. A few of them will be coming up here to Mpika for site visit with a volunteer who stays near town. I'm here now to help her host the newbies and hopefully give them the perspective of a new volunteer. Pretty excited to meet some new folks!

hot springs & holidays

2010-07-10T02:17:00.001-07:00

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!

Check out my pictures from the hot springs and such here

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=32404959&l=4e4f0911c2&id=33102518

hot springs & holidays

2010-07-10T02:17:00.000-07:00

WINNER WINNER

2010-06-25T02:16:00.000-07:00

One of the most exciting things that has happened since I last wrote was my international radio debut! I am glued to my shortwave radio a lot in the village and I listen to a show called Border Crossings on VOA that starts at 5 every weekday. It's a request show hosted by this goofy dj- but pretty cool since it's mostly American songs. Anyways there was a contest going on and if you emailed in you could win some cds! Well I emailed in along with a request for a song and I was a winner! Only sad part is the day it was announced I had stopped listening to the show with 20 minutes to go! Luckily a lot of PCVs listen to it so I had a bunch of texts messages the next morning. Apparently there are 3 CDs being sent to me now!

The other big news is I officially adopted a kitten. Lucy is all black and was probably born sometime near the beginning of June or end of May. She is still quite small but has been an exciting addition. While I still don't consider myself a cat person- she will hopefully grow on me and kill all the mice in my hut and the surrounding area.

If that wasn't enough- the most exciting news is my community has started building bricks! We made 300 of them on Tuesday and they are drying in my yard with grass over them to prevent cracking. Next Tuesday we will make 300 more. First we will start building walls on my insaka (the gazebo type thing every yard has). It will basically become a kitchen and place to sit when people visit. Then we will add on a room to my house! I feel like it's getting smaller everyday- especially with the kitten now.

Yesterday I visited the last village in my catchment area that I hadn't been to. I've gone to 12 now and given my little spiel on who I am and what the Peace Corps is. It feels good to finally see my little area where I'll be working. Although it's really not so little.

Not much time left now so I'll end it here. Getting excited for my boss to come visit in a few weeks. Will then be heading up to Kasama for the provincial agriculture show.

Nervous, Obvious, Precious

2010-06-12T02:04:00.000-07:00

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.

small thoughts

2010-05-15T02:35:00.000-07:00

Still in Lusaka- have been here for a week now and getting a bit bored. If my leg weren't still oozing - I would try to go out and explore the city. For now I've just been splitting my time between the PC office and the two local malls. Have seen 2 movies now and spent too much on taxis. It's pretty interesting here how getting lifts works. Walking down the road cars will pull over or honk to see if you want a lift- not free of course- but still a lift anyways. One gentleman actually gave me his phone number and I've called him a few times now to pick me up from my guesthouse and take me to the mall and back.

I thought of one strange facet of being an American here in Zambia. While us PCVs are taught a local language (mostly Bemba, Nyanja, or Kaonde), many develop a sort of Zam-glish accent. When talking to a Zambian in English, it becomes common to develop a simple speech pattern with small words and strange grammar. In essence it is emulating the way the Zambian is speaking- but I tend to find it a bit disrespectful. However I must admit that I have caught myself falling into this Zam-glish trap. I suppose it is because we are trying to make it easy for the other person to understand us when in reality it kind of makes us sound mean and dumb. I'm not sure how the Zambian's feel about it- but I am personally trying to stop myself. Interesting also because many of the folks in my intake told me when they first met me that I have one of the thickest accent's they've heard (midwestern). I can't say that I've ever thought of myself as having a midwest accent, but it made me laugh.

Another idea I've been thinking about lately (while sitting in bed with my leg up watching horrible tv) is that of personal identity here. We were taught a great deal about being a Zambian during training. In the village, we are essentially supposed to become someone that the community accepts and trusts: a Zambian. While I am very excited about the opportunity to be accepted by my community and treated as an insider- I want to make sure that I maintain my American identity as well. I have heard stories of PCV's becomming different people while serving and then feeling isolated when they return back home. It's completely understandable to me now how one could get lost in the culture here- or anywhere for that matter- and loose the internal self. I really think it is the little things that will have to keep me grounded to myself and to my home.

All of this talk makes me get really anxious to get back in the village. Hopefully sometime at the beginning of next week I can get back to Northern Province.

time to kill in lusaka

2010-05-10T05:27:00.000-07:00

So I'm still in Lusaka. Looks like at least another couple days here. Kind of hard to fill time here not really knowing whats around and where to go. I did see a movie yesterday which was great as always. I also went to the casino with some of the other PCVs. It's a tiny little place but it was fun and I doubled my original pay in (50,000 kwacha).

It's always interesting to me meeting other misungus (white people)and/or Americans here in Zambia. Obviously in Lusaka they are much more prevalent than anywhere else. Last night at dinner we met a man who works for the embassay. He was with some Zimbabwean folks who lived down in Southern Province and knew TONS of PCVs. Living in a country like Zambia, I find it really interesting how other American's wind up here.

Not too much else to report on. I feel like I always have something I want to put up here and then forget about it the minute I sit down to a computer. Maybe inspiration will strike later on...

Questions, Cuts, and Community Entry

2010-05-09T03:47:00.000-07:00

So less than a week into community entry and I'm back in Lusaka...More on that later though. After swear in, the 9 of us newbies being posted in Northern Province travelled up there with our PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leader- this is a volunteer who has finished his two years of service and extended for a 3rd year. There is one in every province. He lives in the provincial house and acts as a resource for us volunteers in Northern Province). We got to stay at the provincial house in Kasama for a few nights which was a lot of fun. We got to meet some of the other volunteers from Northern province, made big meals, and watched movies. We also took a little field trip to Chisembe Falls. It was about an hour from the house and really beautiful. We went swimming, and of course I cut my foot while jumping off a platform (I swear I am more injury prone here than anywhere). While in the provincial capitol of Kasama we tried to set up our bank accounts and do some shopping. We had to buy all the stuff we would need for our site. Since there is a grocery store (Shoprite) in Kasama we did most of our grocery shopping there. Then the 6 of us who are posted in Mpika took the 2 hour drive to Mpika district to do other shopping. We stayed at a guest house one night because it took a little longer than we thought to buy all of our goods. Here are some of the thing I bought in the Mpika markets:
-a brazier
-3 big plastic tubs for washing (dishes, laundry, bucket baths, etc)
-bulk toilet paper & candles
-enamel cups
-forks, spoons
-a reed mat for the floor of house
-two pots for cooking
-huge plastic airtight container for food
-3 basket plastic shelf for clothes and such

Other things purchased in Lusaka or Kasama:
-knives
-lots of pasta and sauce mixes
-bulk rice
-cooking oil
-spices
-tupperwear containers
-lantern

Coming to Africa- I definitely did not think I would have so much stuff. It was almost embarrassing unloading all of that plus my two big bags and backpack out of the cruiser. My hut is so small that all of this barely fits with my bed, desk and chair. I'm still pretty much living out of my suitcase which sucks... but once I get the addition on the hut then I can have the carpenter make me a shelf of some sort.

So ever since we arrived in Zambia we were told that one of the most surreal moments would be when we were dropped at site with all of our stuff and watch the cruiser drive away. I'm happy to report it wasn't quite as bad as I thought! I got all settled into the village and the counterpart that the PC set me up with has been showing me around and such. I went to a PTA meeting for a local school and introduced myself which was nice. I was also taken a few villages over and had a meeting with the community there explaining my project and whatnot. I've met something like 8 different headmen so far. It's pretty overwhelming because each village/headmen has different needs and will be wanting me to help in different ways. It will be really difficult figuring out where I should start work once August rolls around. The LIFE project is both good and bad in the respect that I have a lot of freedom deciding what kind of work I want to do in the village. I got to speak to the District Forestry Officer of Mpika who told me that a main environmental problems in Luchemebe (my chiefdom)is deforestation. People are cutting down trees for charcoal and for harvesting caterpillars (which are a very popular relish here). Other people have told me they just want help in increasing the yields from their fields. Right now it's groundnut harvesting season so most of my neighbors are busy with that. Soon will come maize harvesting as well- a HUGE deal here in Zambia.

The family who has "adopted" me has been really great. Poulin is the 27 year old wife, and Phillip is the 37 year old husband. They have taken me to their groundnut fields to help them harvest, and then also showed me how to make peanut butter. They have me over for dinner every night but I'm still trying to figure out how this relationship is going to work. Poulin makes dinner, prepares a tray for me and then sets it inside for me to eat while the rest of the family eats outside. I think she considers me a guest and wants me to be seated at a "proper" table and whatnot. She and Phillip ask me questions about my family and America all the time. My favorites have been "is the moon in America?" and then at one point Poulin pulls out her breast to ask me if women breast feed in America. I told them that my parents would probably be coming to visit me eventually, and now they like to as me what my dad likes all the time. Does he like nshmia? chicken? watermelon? etc. I think they are preparing for his visit already! Poulin is also great in helping me get water. I have two large jerry cans for water. An aid agency DAPP is in the process of building a well near my site, but currently our water source is about a 8 minute walk away- a natural spring of sorts. I almost passed out the first time I tried to carry a jerry can filled from the spring to my house. Poulin can carry one on her head with ease.

My other neighbors have also been helpful in showing me around and helping me sweep my yard. There is a little compound of huts in front of and to the left of my house. While their huts do not face mine, the family has made a habit out of sitting on the back stoop and watching me. I will sit in my insaka and read for a few hours and they will continue to just sit and stare. I wave at them thinking they may pretend to look away- but they just wave back and keep on staring. Ahh life in a fish bowl.

So this past Thursday I was on my way to an HIV/AIDS support group meeting in the next village over. I was to meet the headman who would take me to the meeting. I was cruising down the road pretty fast on my bike and tried to avoid some rocks in the road. I hit a patch of sand and loose gravel and wiped out hard. While my leg was bleeding quite heavily, I didn't want the village to think I was ditching their meeting so I kept going. I arrived at the headman's house in tears from the pain. Him and his wife helped wash out the cuts and I decided to bike back to my house (about 15 minutes away). I didn't realize the severity of the wounds until I got off my bike. I quickly took some advil, told Poulin I was going to the clinic and biked the 4k to see the nurse. She was very comforting and gave me numerous hugs ( a rarity here for Zambians). I was told I would need stitches, so I called our PC medical officer. She told me I would need to get to a real hospital. Long story short, the nurse at the local clinic cleaned out the wound, wrapped it up and I went home. The next morning our Northern Province PPC (Provincial Programing Coordinator) picked me up in the cruiser and took me to Lusaka. If I would have arrived within 24 hours I would have needed stitches on a deep cut on my knee. However I missed that window of opportunity and just have to deal with bandages. It's pretty painful, and I'll have a pretty nasty scar, but I'll live. I'm currently staying at a guest house in Lusaka. It's nice because there is tv, hot showers, internet, and meals provided for me.

I'm a bit bummed because I had only been in my village for about a week. I missed another organization's meeting this weekend, along with going to church to meet other people, and having a Bemba lesson. I am working on finding a Bemba tutor, but it is proving to be pretty difficult. I have explained to my counterpart that I need someone who can speak fairly decent English and who has taught Bemba before. Right now they have suggested a man who keeps calling me Mr. Gordon. I think he's trying to say Courtney- but it doesn't come out quite right. In fact, I was given a Bemba name on my second site visit: Chileshe. So I tell people they can call me that if they can't pronounce Courtney (which most cannot).

So for now, I'm in Lusaka and trying to go see a movie later today. Not sure when I'll be back in the village. Looking forward to opening 2 packages that I've saved for my birthday next week- the big 2-3!!! Then at the beginning of June we have what are called 'Provincials'. It is when all the volunteers from Northern Province (about 20 or so) go to the house in Kasama and have meetings. It will be about 4 days away from the village and a chance to catch up my friends from my intake, and meet the rest of the crew up in No.Pro. Looking forward to that a lot!

Trainee No More

2010-04-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

So I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. We swore in this afternoon at the house of the ambassador. Only there isn’t an ambassador for Zambia right now just a charge’ de affairs or something of the sort. It was a really nice house and a fun little ceremony. It feels strange that I am only now going to begin my life as a PCV, but this is it. We are now in Lusaka doing some shopping before all 46 of us newbies head off to our own provinces to begin our service. Most of the necessities we will need to purchase will be available in the provinces, but some things will only be available here in Lusaka. I feel like I’m shopping for college again, only instead of bedspreads and home furnishings, I’m shopping for braziers, charcoal, and food supplies for 3 months at a time.
There was a flurry of activity at my homestay the last two weeks we were there. Last week Wednesday, my bashekulu (grandfather) passed away. He had been ill since I arrived, but told me he was doing his exercises every day to get stronger. He had a doctor’s appointment in Lusaka not too long ago and I was told he was going to need surgery in June. Eventually my Bamayo said he would not undergo the surgery after all. Beginning Monday of last week he began to deteriorate drastically. I’ve been meaning to describe the Zambian funeral here for quite some time since we have heard so much about them. Now however I have first hand knowledge of this tradition unfortunately. My bamayo woke me up Wednesday evening around 11 to tell me the news, but promptly told me to go back to sleep. However shortly after I shut my door, I heard a sniffle then some crying. Soon another woman joined in the crying, and within 5 minutes there were neighbors from everywhere in the house wailing. When someone dies here it is customary to cry loudly and at great length. While I have heard these funerals throughout the village the past 9 weeks, I had never been close enough to really understand the severity of the wailing. Being inside the house and hearing this very erie and harrowing sound was horrible. Thankfully, someone went to the nearest language trainer and told him of the death and that he should come and take me away from the house for the night. We ended up deciding it would be best for me to stay at my Bamayosenge's (aunt's) house. She is my bamayo's sister and lives only 80 yards away or so. My language partner, Bart lived with her, so it was like staying with family. The next three days, the funeral proceeded. The house was emptied of all furniture and people from all over came visiting at all hours of the day. The women would sit inside the house on the ground and whenever a new lady arrived, she would begin wailing. The family members would wail with her for a while and then they would just sit in silence until the next person arrived. The men stayed outside in the yard sitting on the furniture around fires. I stayed at my aunt's house until Friday night because this process continued 24 hours a day. My sisters would come and cook for Bart and I at my aunt's house, but everyone stayed and slept at my house. The funeral was Saturday because the family was waiting for one of my uncle's to arrive from South Africa. The body was brought to the house and there was a small alter set up in the yard. Because my bamayo is the treasurer for the local Catholic Church, there were many church members and clergy people there to officiate. The yard was FILLED with at least 150 people watching the funeral. Then we walked to the family bur rial plot near by. They buried him right there and then called up people to put flowers on the grave. The order of people called up was this: the grandfather's siblings, his children, then me and Bart. We felt a bit out of place, but it was nice that they thought we should be included. Eventually the rest of his grandchildren were called up as well, followed by all other members of the family and community. One interesting aspect of funerals here is that the tribal cousins of whoever has died is supposed to take care of all the cooking, digging of the grave, transporting the body, etc. For my case, we are Bemba's therefore our tribal cousins are the Nyanjas. There is a very fun tribal rivalry usually involving taunts and teasing from each side. For instance us Bemba's are monkey eaters while the Nyanjas are rat eaters. However when it comes to funerals, each tribe takes their job very seriously. Because so many people were coming in and out of the house, the yard looked like a refugee camp: huge campfires set up throughout the yard, people sleeping on the ground, giant pots of nshmia being cooked, etc. It was very interesting to witness this cultural event however also very sad. While I wish I would never have to experience another one, there will unfortunately be many in my future here.

On a lighter note, I passed my Bemba test as "intermediate low". This was the level we needed to be at to pass, so I just got by (along with everyone else in my intake). We had a cultural day on Wednesday that involved us trainees cooking American food for our host fa miles (I didn't do much cooking, but rather watched the soccer match going on between us trainees and the trainers). It was a lot of fun to have our families come up to the training center all dressed up. My family gave me 4 enamel bowls, a coffee mug, a broom, and a nshima spoon. They were very generous in that. I had bought them some candy from the states, a few buckeyes for good luck, postcards from Chicago, and a headlamp. My bamayo went NUTS over the headlamp and didn't take it off all night long. I had to remind her that I only gave her one extra set of batteries so she should turn the light off and stop blinding everyone. Ha! I just feel so bad for her because when she walks home from the market at night it is always so dark and she has to use her phone to light her way. Also when the sisters are cooking they are always struggling for light. Hopefully the lamp will help them out a bit.

As for now, we are spending the night in Lusaka and getting up bright and early in the morning. I am going to miss everyone so much! However we all get to see each other in August for In Service Training in Lusaka -- something to look forward to. There are 9 of us going up to Northern tomorrow. We have SOO much stuff, the two cruisers are going to be PACKED. We will spend the next few nights at the provincial house in Kasama while we do the rest of our shopping. Then we will get dropped off at our sites one by one beginning Tuesday and ending Thursday (not sure when I'll be dropped). As our LIFE boss, Ba Don, says, the cruiser will dump our stuff in the yard, drive away, and watch us cry. haha- he's a great guy- really! Anyways, I appreciate all the support I've received thus far. However these next three months (the first three months of my being at site is called "community entry") are going to be rough. I will have my first birthday away from home and am not looking too forward to that. Please keep in touch and let me know what's going on back home! Stay well and take care!

2010-04-11T00:32:00.000-07:00

I have finally broken down and paid the 10 kwacha for a full hour of internet time. I am in Lusaka with some friends on our own which is a pretty big deal. Saw a movie yesterday which was absolutlely fantastic (the movie wasn't that fantastic, but the whole situation of being in an air conditioned movie theater and escaping for an hour and a half was ideal). We stayed in a guest house last night that came highly recommended from current PCVs. It is close to the PC headquarters, has tv in the rooms, and has great water pressure so we were all thrilled.

I put some pictures up on facebook so hopefully people can check those out and see what I've been seeing the past two months. I haven't really used my nice camera yet so the pictures aren't of great quality. I'm hoping to get some great shots of the sunsets here and my host family before I leave- so next time the pictures will be better.

Not much has happened since I got back from my site visit, so I thought I would just kind of recap on my life in the village of Chongwe and thoughts in general.

One of the most touching experiences I have had thus far came when my host sister Mowriah (age 17) was listening to some American music with me from my ipod. I bust it out maybe once every other week and put on the speakers so everyone can hear and dance around the yard. Mowriah loves American artists like Mario, Beyonce, Celine Dione, and Shania Twain (odd combination-- I know). She told me that when she gets to listen to the music that I play, she feels very hopeful for the world and optomistic for her future in Zambia. In her words, "I feel like nothing can go wrong". It was hard to grasp the meaning of this for me at first, but it gave me just a glimpse into the life of a Zambian teenager. Just listening to some American music inspires her enough to want to do better in the world than her parents did... Quite a realization.

I will be truly sad when I have to leave my homestay family. Being away 12 days on my site visit really made me realize how much I rely on them and appreciate their hospitality. I am spoiled because they speak much better English than the people in my future village do. It is such an interesting family dynamic with all of the cousins living with us and family coming in and out daily. My batata (father) is a continuous source for funny stories. Partly because he is just a jolly man in general, and partly because of his fondness for shake shake (a locally brewed maize beer). My fellow trainees always look to me for a funny batata story.

Another rather humorous story came when I went to get a chitenge dress made for the swear-in ceremony coming up. Chitenge is basically a material here that comes in all sorts of beautiful patterns. They usually come in 2 meter lenghts. Women use it for everything from creating slings to carry their babies on their back, to wearing as a skirt/apron, to tablecoths, etc etc. It can also be sewed into clothes obviously.. Apparently my oldest brother sells chitenge so my ba mayo told me to purchase mine from him. However when she said he sells chitenge, she really meant he has two patterns you can chose from... They were not the greatest patterns so I was a bit disappointed--- and I just couldn't tell her I didn't want one of them. I bought the recommended 4 meters of chitenge for a dress and ba mayo took me to the taylor that she uses (right across the market from her stall). He had no patterns or pictures for me to chose a dress from so we had to go to another taylor's shop to explain what I wanted. Thankfully my sisters were with me to help him figure out what I wanted. However he is blind in on eye and kept insisting there be a large collar on my dress...I am quite fearful as to how this frock is going to turn out. Hopefully good since I'm pretty sure I also got ripped off on the price... Oooooh well.

Right now I am just anxious to finish training and do well on my final language test. Unlike the previous tests, this one will be basically a conversation with a language instructor. They will record it and just ask us questions about our life and what we know about Zambia untill we can't continue in Bemba anymore. The level we need to acheive is "intermediate low" which does not sound like much but will be tough. This will be in two weeks so wish me luck! We also have to do a presentation on a cultural aspect of Zambia so me and my buddy Anna are going to present on Netball- a popular game played here.

I am looking forward to being on my own and setting my own schedule once I get to my village. However my counterpart/host (Lawrence) is very eager to get me out into the fields and start working. Technically I am not supposed to do any work for the first three months of "community entry". We are basically just supposed to get to know the community and scope everything out and plan our projects. I'm not sure I want to do all of my work with ba Lawrence, but hopefully he will prove to be a helpful host. I am still very excited about the nurse that I met in the village- Regina. The clinic has so much potential because there are two brand new buildings on the compound. They are yet to be furnished, but apparently some aid agencies have pledged to fill them... I really hope my instincts about Regina are right and that I can spend a lot of time there helping her out.

Well my internet time is running low so I should be going. Thanks for reading and please keep in touch- I will really need some contact from home once I am dropped at my village by myself!

Site visit

2010-04-08T11:37:00.001-07:00

My second site visit proved to be exponentially better than my first. There are three of up LIFE volunteers being posted in northern province (in fact we are the very first intake of LIFErs in no. pro.) so we all went to stay with a current volunteer couple. Their closest pcv neighbor came to stay as well and we had a great time. One of the highlights was the great food we ate courtesy of the energy efficient stove they made. After a few days with the seasoned vets up newbies were taken to our future respective villages. I will be posted in Mpika district of northern province (which is apparently the largest district in the country). I'm about 17k off the main road but only 200m off a dirt road. My village welcomed of with open arms-literally when i stepped out of the land cruiser a bunch of my neighbor ladies came running up to give of hugs. This is a pretty big deal because hugging is not a big custom here. There was some sort of mix up with my original site a while back and pc had to scramble to find a place for me to live. Therefore my hut is a 6x6m one roomer. The village had knocked down half of it a few weeks earlier for unknown reasons but they are going to have to bed on now after the rainy season. There are not yet cement floors in the house, toilet, shower, or insaka, i have a reed slatted door which needs to be replaced by a solid wood door, and there still needs to be plastic in the roof. Hopefully this should all be completed by the time i move in but i do have myself a fixer upper. I live very near a family which will ultimately be my 'host family'. The wife is 27 so instead of calling her ba mayo i Will probably call her bankashi (sister). She and her husband have four kids and are considered well off because their home has glass windows and a tin roof. The pc set up a farmer in the village to be my host and show of around. I met 3 head men, the head teacher of the local school, and the nurse at the local clinic. In fact i'm extremely excited at the opportunity to work at the clinic. The nice thing about pc is that even though my program is mainly focussed on agriculture i can do any type of work i think would benefit the community. Back with my honestay family now for a few more weeks till swearin. Getting very anxious to get out on my own.

Northern Province

2010-03-27T06:17:00.004-07:00

It is true... I am officially going to be spending the next two years--beginning the end of April-- in the northern Province of Zambia. More specifically in Mpika district which is in the southern area of the province (google it!!). My site is about 25k from the boma (marketplace/town area) and I am 30 k from the closest volunteer. THe provincial capitol is Kasama and this is where the provincial Peace Corps house is-- about 150k from me. I am leaving tomorrow to stay with 2 other LIFE trainees at a current PCV's home in Northern Province. We will stay there 4 days then be taken to our villages for two days. This will be our first taste of what our life in the bush alone will be like. I am nervous and excited.The RED volunteers in my intake already visited their sites. There are a few of them posted in my district also and they had all good things to say about Mpika.

Now back to life in Chongwe. The most exciting event of late was a cobra being found in the 7 meter deep hole being dug in our backyard for a new toilet. My cousins spent 2 hours trying to catch and kill it. Thankfully I never saw it alive. The day it was found was the day of our "snakes and crawlers" session where we learned that if we are bitten by a snake we will automatically be med-evacuated to South Africa because Zambian hospitals don't have antivenom.

Otherwise we have been learning abuot dating and marriage in our cross culture sessions. It is entertaining because our language trainers (who are all Zambians employed by the PC) put on great skits for us depicting cultural norms here. For instance, did you know that a man's family must pay a woman's family a dowry type gift before the two can marry? :o)

Other bizarre cultural norms I notice revolve around food and cooking... Women here cook on charcoal braziers and will often pick up white hot coals with their bare hands. Zambians apparently develop a "nshima glove" or very tough skin on their hands from years of balling up scalding hot nshima to use as an eating utensil with every meal. Another popular trend is creating a "soup" with every mean which is essentially the oil from the meat boiled with cooking oil or water and tomatoes. This is basically just a sauce you then soak up with the nshima to add flavor.

I will end with yet another acronym that for once didn't come from the Peace Corps (in fact I think it came from the movie "Blood Diamond"). Whenever we are delayed because a Zambian is on "African time" (a much slower pace of life and disregard for being on time), or when we learn about another disease, plant or animal that may kill us, or when we see the amazing sunsets here with clouds like you have never seen before, or when we experience any other bizarre event that would never happen in the states, we simply say TIA... This is Africa

2010-03-27T06:17:00.002-07:00

It is true... I am officially going to be spending the next two years--beginning the end of April-- in the northern Province of Zambia. More specifically in Mpika district which is in the southern area of the province (google it!!). My site is about 25k from the boma (marketplace/town area) and I am 30 k from the closest volunteer. THe provincial capitol is Kasama and this is where the provincial Peace Corps house is-- about 150k from me. I am leaving tomorrow to stay with 2 other LIFE trainees at a current PCV's home in Northern Province. We will stay there 4 days then be taken to our villages for two days. This will be our first taste of what our life in the bush alone will be like. I am nervous and excited.The RED volunteers in my intake arlready visited their sites. There are a few of them posted in my district also and they had all good things to ssay about Mpika.

Now back to life in Chongwe. The most exciting event of late was a cobra being found in the 7 meter deep hole being dug in our bakcyard for a new toilet. My cousins spent 2 hours trying to catch and kill it. Thankfully I never saw it alive. The day it was found was the day of our "snakes and crawlers" session where we learned that if we are bitten by a snake we will audomatically be med-evacuated to South Africa because Zambian hospitals don't have antivenom.

Otherwise w ehave been learning abuot dating amd iarriage in our cross culture sessions. It is entertaining becase our language trainers (who are all Zambians employeed by the PC) put on great skits for us depicting cultural norms here. For instance, did you know that a man's family must pay a woman's family a dowry type gift before the two can marry? :o)

Other bizarre cultural norms I notice revolve around food and cooking... Women here cook on charcoal braziers and will often pick up white hot coals with their bare hands. Zambians apparently develop a "nshima glove" or very tough skin on their hands from years of balling up scalding hot nshima to use as an eating utensil with every meal. Another popular trend is creating a "soup" with every mean which is essentially the oil from the meat boiled with cooking oil or water and tomatos. This is basically just a sauce you then soak up with the nshima to add flavor.

I will end with yet another acronym that for once didn't come from the Peace Corps (in fact I think it came from the movie "Blood Diamond"). Whenever we are delayed becaus a aZambian is on "african time" ( amuch slower pace of life and disregard for being on time), or when we learn about anothe disease, plant or animal that may kill us, or when we see the amazing sunsets here with clouds like you have never seen efore, or when we experience any other bizarre event that would never happen in the states, we simply say TIA... This is Africa

Kitchen party

2010-03-20T10:40:00.001-07:00

Today i attende what i hope will be the first of many kitchen parties in zambia. This is essentially a bridal shower, only women allowed. My ba mayo and her committee pooled money to buy the couple a stove so 25 plus women and myself rode to the party in the back of a mid sized flat bed semi with said stove. The ladies were singing at the top of their lungs for the whole 20 minute drive. We did stop a few times to pick up others and a few bottles of wine. The party was held at a local lodge. Chairs were facing a porched building and there were probably over 100 people there. I was the only misungo (white person). The bride to be was ushered to tin porch under a chitenge (colorfully patterned piece of cloth used for anything from clothing to a baby sling). There was lots of singing and praying led by two women. Eventually a bunch of the guests escorted the groom to the area and he unveiled the bride and left. She was seated on the floor and looked down the whole party. My ba mayo said she would look up after she got married next week. There was a buffet for the guests and to my suprise no nshima. Then the two mc's went through and opened all the gifts. When each one was opened the giver was supposed to go to the porch and dance for the bride. In the meantime other friends of the bride were going around collecting money. My ba mayo gave me 500 kwacha to put in but when the lady got to of she said 10 pin (10 thousand k) from the misungo jokingly. The gift giving took a long time because there was so much stuff. This bride made out better than any american bride i've seen. I'm talking piles of pots, numerous major appliances, and a full set of kitchen cabinents and drawers. Them came time for the misungo to dance. Women in various states of inebriation pulled me up to the porch, tied a chitenge around my hips and made of dance. Zambiams mainly move their hips in various ways similar to hula dancing. Apparently i did a satisfactory job because women began shoving money down my shirt (in the least creepy way possible). I ende up with a few thousand kwacha and numerous compliments. Most just told me i would make a good wife. It was a fantastic experience and one i will never forget.

Small post. Answers to you!

2010-03-15T09:16:00.001-07:00

I really just want to put a few random tidbits about my life out there to answer some of the questions i have recieved from home. Most of my classes are outside in insakas (essentially gazebos with thatched roofs). Children are called iwe and when they see a white person on a bike they usually a) run away and hide b) chase after you untill you stop on a dime which scares the daylights out of them or c) Yell 'how are you' over and over untill they cant see you. Speaking of bikes we all have to wear helmets and therefore get made fun of by all locals. We are required to take malaria profylaxives and were given nets to sleep under (no worries dad). It is the end of rainy season here and now its very hot. Cold season starts in june. When available we drink zambiam beer: mosi or castle (usually 4000 to 6000 kwacha. Exchange rate is about 4.7 k to 1 usd). I have yet to see any cool animals. Mainly chickens, dogs, cows, toads, and bugs. Bemba is a tough language but i did fairly well on my first assessment. Things i miss include my family, molli my dog, ice, and dairy products. I listen to BBC africa on my short wave radio. I have yet to see a trash can in this country. Open garbage pits are all the rage. My host sisters love to braid my hair because it is 'smooth'. And showing skin above the knee is very risque. Things i appreciate are emails and letters!

Nshima maker

2010-03-07T06:58:00.000-08:00

I made nshima today (with the help of my sisters of course). Its not a difficult process, more of a timing thing... Adding mealy meal (ground maize) to boiling water and stirring. I also roasted some ground nuts which are quite delicious. Yesterday we were taken to the capitol to see the parliament building and where president Banda lives. We were given a lecture by the daughter of one of the main freedom fighters for zambia. He came up with the name of the country and was the first vice president. I am learning lots everyday and trying to retain as much bemba as i can. It is a tough language though and i have a horrible memory. I an hoping to get some pictures up next time i get to lusaka. Thanks for reading and as always please keep in touch. Emails are great and so is real mail! :o)

Training

2010-02-25T11:39:00.000-08:00

I am sitting under a mosquito net sweating and trying to figure out my new nokia africa internet phone. Met my host family today: 4 brothers, 3 sisters, mom, dad, grandpa, 2 grandkids, and a mess of aunts and cousins. Training officially starts tomorrow. The people in my intake are fantastic. Thumbs hurt so thats it for now. Keep in touch!

Philadelphia

2010-02-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

Well I made it to Philly!! After a sad goodbye and last minute frenzy
to lighten my bags I got on a plane heading east. On the shuttle to the
airport I met two girls in the same boat as me: strugglig with luggage
and nervous as ever. We checked into the hotel and found a place to
eat some Philly cheese steaks. After a little more down time we had to
check in with pc people and turn in some forms. We were given our per
diem and our old passport. Everyone who was there ( probably about 35
of us) headed to a bar for dinner and drinks.

It has been really great meeting everyone and hearing similar stories
about packing, the application process, and freaking out about leaving
for two years. There are a lot of folks from the east coast, but also
some from Texas and Washington.

This morning we woke up unneccesarily early and walked to a federal
building. Everyone had to get a yellow fever and an h1n1 shot. After
being poked a few of us decided to go see the liberty bell and
independence hall. Philly seems like a great town and the history here
is really interesting. Meetings start in about an hour so me and my
roomate are just hanging out in the room for a while.

I feel much more relaxed now and look forward to the next step. We
leave for jfk airport at 2 am for a 10:30 flight... Not sure what
we're leaving so early but oh well!!

T Minus 12 hours

2010-02-14T20:17:00.001-08:00

I am just about 12 hours away from leaving home and heading for my first step in what has already been a long journey. Currently, I am having mixed emotions about leaving. I am thrilled at the opportunity to meet all these new people and see a new place, however I am sadened with the thought of missing out on two years with my family and friends here at home. Of course two years is really nothing in the grand scheme of things, but I am extremely blessed with a fantastic family and a great support system of friends.

I've said most of my goodbyes now- the hardest being tomorrow with my mom and dad... We're hoping the snow will hold off here in Chicago as I have an 11 am flight tomorrow morning. I was told recently that my internet access during my 9 weeks of training will be limited. Therefore I want to thank everyone now for reading this and keeping in touch. I will try to update this silly little blog as much as possible, but keep in mind I will be in a remote location. My cell phone service will be turned off as of February 26, but I will be purchasing a phone once I arrive in Zambia (hopefully!). Please refer to my address on the RIGHT > for mail. Anything would be greatly appreciated and I promise to write back. Thanks again for all of the support- every bit of it means a lot to me. Best wishes to all, and catch you on the flip side...

LIFE

2010-02-09T08:58:00.000-08:00

I realize now that I have yet to explain the title of this little blog. (Packing seems to remind the most bizarre things- like oh I forgot to pack socks, or I need to add my parents to my e-mail list!). L.I.F.E is the program I will be working under in the Peace Corps and it stands for "Linking Income, Food, and the Environment" (PC is all about acronyms ). My official title is "forestry extension agent", and I can thank my experience at the family farm in Chillicothe, Ohio for being placed in such a project. On the PC application, it asks for any types of skill sets you may have (from computers, teaching, and business skills to agriculture and beekeeping skills). You basically have to put down anything you can that would be considered valuable. Many of my skills included things like operating small and medium sized tractors, mowers, and weed cutters, along with routine structure maintenance (mending fences, painting barns, etc.), mixing and laying cement, and planting and tending to small gardens. Really not a big surprise that I have been placed in an agro-forestry project in Zambia.

The handbook that I received about my project explains the main goal of LIFE as conserving biodiversity. It describes my duties as follows: "As a forestry agent you will focus on working with community members, local traditional leaders, community based organizations, individual households, groups and government extension agents to conserve forest resources in order to sustain the environment". My work catchment area will be about 20 kilometres , and while I will be focusing most of my time on LIFE, all volunteers must participate in HIV/AIDS prevention activities. I have heard from current LIFE volunteers that the project is nice because it is very open ended. This means each volunteer can customize the program to her village's needs. My handbook (and by handbook I mean a 15 page leaflet) mentions working in schools to begin environmental clubs and such which is something I am REALLY looking forward to.

Something I am NOT looking forward to: re-packing for about the 3rd time now... This is tough business.

Attached are a picture of me in action on the new cement floor in the pole barn, and a picture from the front porch of our house at the farm.

Packing

2010-02-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

I've officially hit my first wall in terms of packing. My family is notorious for being the polar opposite of "light packers". With an 80 lb restriction on what I can fit into two bags, it is an extremely tough process. A lot of people have asked me what I will be bringing, so I thought I'd give you a small idea of what my life in 80 pounds will look like:

-solar charger (for my ipod and phone to be purchased in Zambia)
-solar shower
-sleeping bag
-sleeping mat
-microfiber towels
-solar powered head lamp/ wind up flashlight
-batteries
-multiple pocket/utility knives
-books (crossword puzzles and novels)
-my new Nikon D60 camera and lenses
-lots of photographs of family and friends
-my Cubs 'W' flag

Obviously I will be packing other essentials like gallons of contact solution, and a plethora of chapstick, but those are less interesting. I will be cramming all of my stuff into a large camping backpack and a duffel bag (I'll also have a regular backpack as a carry-on). The volunteers I have been in touch with who are currently serving in Zambia said to worry less about clothing, and more about bringing things that make you feel like you. Apparently used clothes markets are incredible in Zambia and clothing should not be hard to find.

Packing will continue tomorrow as I am worn out from this process today. I'm looking forward to a great weekend- a few of my friends are coming to visit from out of town. Last weekend I took a road trip down to Kentucky to see some other friends on my "farewell tour". It's getting quite sad, but such is life.

less than two weeks

2010-02-02T20:06:00.001-08:00

I feel a bit egotistical even having a blog at this point. I'm not in Zambia yet, and who's to say anyone will read this? For those of you who I've duped into thinking that I am even remotely interesting, the joke is on you! I will try my best to keep an entertaining log of what my next two years in Africa will bring, but I make no promises. Internet will be a luxury once I arrive in Zambia, so I'll try to start off strong while still in the technologically addicted USA. I thought I would start off with a bit of timeline on how my whole Peace Corps experience began:

Junior Year of college (2007): I began contemplating the idea of applying for the Peace Corps because I had no clue what "I wanted to be when I grew up", and I did not want to go into Grad School right away. The two essentials of any job that I do want to pursue in the future are: being able to travel, and being able to help people. I figured the Peace Corps would be a great place to start.

August 2008 (on the eve of my great European adventure): filled out and turned in first stage of Peace Corps application

September-October 2008 : was given supplemental forms from PC to fill out about my skill experience (mainly agricultural skills from my family farm in Chillicothe, Ohio)

January 2009: was given a phone interview

February 2 2009: was nominated for a position in the agricultural extension program of the Peace Corps in Sub-Saharan Africa (being nominated to a position does not mean that a nominee will go to that specific place or be assigned in that particular field- it is all subject to change. I was lucky that mine stayed the same). Being nominated meant I had to then be medically and dentally cleared by the Peace Corps (ie going to almost every type of doctor imaginable).

March 24, 2009: Dentally cleared

June 5, 2009: Medically cleared (yeah, that was a LONG wait)

October 10, 2009: Received my long awaited invitation package in the mail. Being sent an invitation to serve meant that I was officially "in". I accepted the invitation three days later by phone, and have been anxiously awaiting my departure ever since.

I leave February 15 for Philadelphia where "staging" occurs (getting inundated with shots and information). At 2 am on the 17th we are bused to JFK airport and take a flight to Johannesburg. From South Africa, we're off to Lusaka- the capitol of Zambia. Training is supposedly taking place in a town about 45 minutes east of the capital, called Chongwe. I say supposedly because I have not officially heard this from anyone associated with the Peace Corps headquarters. Much of what I have heard comes from current volunteers in Zambia who have been nice enough to begin a correspondence with me (mainly consisting of me badgering them with emails full of questions), and other volunteers like me who are leaving this month. As you may imagine, there is a lot of speculation going on. But, if I've learned anything from this experience thus far, it is that you cannot plan or count on the unknown. And what LITTLE do I know??