I dont want to be a negative nancy.

I feel like my last post didnt completely convey how much I love being here and my life right now because there was a bit of complaining. However, I must say that I feel terribly sorry for all of you who dont get to take an outdoor bucket bath (its warm) under the Zambian stars every night. The sky here is truly amaizing. You can see so many stars with such breath taking brilliance that it ALMOST makes me never want to leave this place. Although then I start thinking about American food and well I know that I will inevitably return home, if just for ice cream...I realized that I hadnt shared that yet and its something I am truly grateful for every night...

No clean clothes and an ear infection

The title of this post pretty much stop up my life at this exact moment. Foot get me wrong overall I love love love being here. However the recent bout of rains weve had have not only prevented me from washing my clothes but have also insured that all the clothes i have are covered in a solid layer of dirt. And I mean solid layer. As for the ear ache I definitely did not get that when I did not in swimming in a local dam. Eh I have some medicine for it so it should in away soon. In other news my bug net and I had a serious bonding moment the other morning when I awoke to fine a palm sized black spider atop my net. As long as its out of my sleeping space its fine by me...

I am my mother's daughter.

After being in Zambia for about three weeks I think it may be safe to say that I have developed a somewhat serious addiction to peanut butter. In the US I have always enjoyed a good apple with peanut butter or a pb and j sandwich on occasion. This is different. I seriously crave peanut butter at every meal and you know, throughout the day as well. I always thought my mom was absolutely nuts for eating the amount of pb that she did while I was growing up and by the spoonful no less. However as with many other things as I grow up I am starting to see just how right she was all along. My diet here besides peanut butter consists of a lot me shima which is made from ground cornmeal that is ground until there is no nutritional content left and them boiled with water to make large lumps of thick tasteless porridge. On top of the shima there is usually a vegetable like rape, pumpkin leaves, or cabbage. Sometimes there is beans or a meat like chicken. The food isnt bad persay just greasy (because using oil is a sign of wealth and you always want to impress visitors and guests) and bland. Sometimes rice is thrown into the mix but thats about it for variety. And then there's really good peanut butter readily available. I mean as far as coping and adjustment mechanisms go peanut butter dependency is on the healthier side of things... Besides the food everything is going great. I have a great homestay family. I live with an older couple where children are all older and have moved away from home. It makes for a very quiet home life but they are really open minded and supportive so I have no complaints. As far as training goes its been refuty intense. I an learning nyanja for my language which means I will be placed in the Eastern province come May near the Malawian border. Language training takes up my mornings 6 days a week and I have technical training in the afternoon as it relates to different aspects of being a L.I.F.E volunteer. So life is busy and somewhat monotonous but the days are really flying by. I am trying to write a lot me letters while I am in training but I know it will be a lot easier once I get to my site at the beginning of May and have more free time...

Its good to be back

Ok so I am going to try and sum up the past two weeks as best as I can. So I met the other incoming 48 peace corps zambia in Philly on Feb 15th. We were there for about 36 hours for some preliminary paperwork and then proceeded to hop on a bus to JFK and then flew to South Africa and then took another flight to Lusaka. When we got off the plane in Lusaka we were told to be dressed in business casual attire because there would be a lot of people coming to meet us and that first impressions are considered very important. And that would have been totally fine except there wasnt anyone to meet us. Apparently they thought our arrival time was 7 hours later...well in case I had forgotten the continent on which we had just arrived I was quickly reminded t.i.a. this is Africa. After about an hour and half we were picked up and taken to istt which is a college/training center. The next two days were filled with medical and logistical stuff i.e. bike fittings, program overviews etc. We were then whisked off to the bush in small groups for 4 days. I got to visit a currently serving volunteer in central province. His site was so beautiful but the fact that he had to basically climb a mountain to get cell service was a bit disconcerting. But some volunteers do have service at their site so it totally depends on placement. Being in the bush was pretty great though because it really actualized the reality of this experience. I got to create a small cookstove out of river clay which is pretty awesome and I will definitely do again. After we got back from our site visit we moved into our homestays which is where I am now...

Oh I so made it

Hey so I am alive and oh so well in zambia. Its been a crazy almost three weeks but so great. Ive got to get to my training now and promise to give a real update soon