Friday, May 14, 2010

An infected toe...OH NO!

So I am currently ALMOST two weeks into my stay at sight. Monday will be my two week anniversary, although honestly I feel like I've been living in the village A LOT longer than that...but it has gone by really quickly. I've made some new friends- namely the RAT that enjoys coming to visit my hut every night at about 11. I dont have any food in there, so I'm pretty sure he just comes around to hang out with me, which would be totally fine if I wasnt ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED OF RATS. Although the fear is slowly leaving me, and its being replaced with extreme annoyance- apparently this is something that all volunteers go through soo I'm just getting broken in for my service right. Thank-you Peace Corps. for making me face all of my greatest and worst fears- in the course of one week. From living by myself for the first time, to getting my phone stolen (happened last Friday right after I posted my blog), to visitors by rats, to an infected, pussing toe- I've had a pretty eventful week but I guess the main take home message of all of it is that I survived all of it. Although I'm not gonna lie I did get a bit stressed out there for a bit. Especially when my toe started oozing and waking my up in the middle of the night for some drainage (dont worry I am on antibiotics now and everything is chabwino -Nyanja for fine)

I have done some cool stuff in the past week though so I cant say it was all bad, because really, rarely is anything all bad. I visited one of the local schools and saw their garden nursery and beehives. I went to track down a rural health clinic- ended up finding it, although the person I was looking for that worked there has since left his position and no one at the clinic spoke English or Nyanja so that made communication interesting. Even though I didnt find the clinic I did find some really really cool baobob trees (google them) so that was a highlight of the day. I also went out to the fields with the farmers in my village to harvest some groundnuts (peanuts). My village is super dead till about 3:00pm everyday because everyone is out in the fields picking their crops (for the year!) so that makes it a little weird in terms of trying to get to know the community and holding meetings for projects but hopefully next month people will be around more. I have already been approached to help with a local community preschool (up to age 7) that is meeting under a tree, and to help with business skills for a carpentry project. I'm planning on visiting another local clinic next week to see how it runs and operates and again trying to get acclimated to my community and doing some exploring.

Right after I post this blog I'm planning to ride out of Chipata for the first time on my bike. Its only about a 35k ride but I havent really attempted any long rides since Ive been back in Zambia so we will see how it goes...I'm not sure when the next time I'll be able to post will be but until then...

Friday, May 7, 2010

Omg I live in a mud hut

Ok so I have officially moved into my own mud hut. I moved in on Monday and have successfully lived in the village for four whole days. I know to some of you that may seem like absolutely nothing. However, I'm pretty excited about it. Every day counts when you are taking it one day at a time. Overall I feel really really overwhelmed but generally good about the whole situation.

I feel llike I've got so much to do and everything takes so much time (sometimes unexpectedly). Like yesterday, I had aimed to go for a quick exploratory bike ride around my village just like 20k or something to get a feel for the place, when I got two flat tires in the matter for 25 minutes. No, I didnt have my repair kit with me. Yes, I was at the very farthest point that my ride would take me from my village. So three hours later I arrived back at my village with a broken bike, and ready to completely fix my bike, despite the fact that I have never changed or patched a bike tire before. Ok so Peace Corps. does give three bike maintenance sessions during our training but due to my social nature and general inability to focus when I'm with a large group (especially my PST group!) I may or may not have goofed off during allll three...whoops. Oh and rats attacked my food the night before (at least they were in my separate hut where I DONT sleep). So my general disposition was a bit off its usual sunny self... oh and the medicine I'm on for malaria prevention is causing third degree burns on my nose and hands (yes, even with sunscreen, and even with hats and gloves). So before I could do anything I had to take a bit of time to cool off (my hands mostly), and take a deep breathe...but the moral of the story is that I fixed it- on my own and that just when I was getting super frustruated the ambuya (grandmother) who lives behind my house brought me a bowl of  bananas and groundnuts-just because and once again I had renewed faith in the world.

So one of the things I really like about my village is that its super sports oriented. Almost everyday at then end of the day the men father for soccer practice (they're really really good) and the women play netball (think water polo meets basketball- no dribbling). Ive been playing netball the last couple of days and I really like it I feel like its one of the things I can do to bond with my  community knowing very little of the language.

Hmm other than playing netball I've been trying to get my daily schedule down, and get a routine started. I sleep an incredible amount here. Its wonderful. I go to bed around 8 and sleep till 6- the best part is that I am no longer a slave to an alarm clock! I'll probably start waking up earlier once I get going with projects but until then sleep sleep it is.

I've hung up some pictures on my walls to remind me of home and they make me so happy whenever I see them. So...SEND ME MORE PICTURES of everything thats going on while I'm gone. I'd seriously seriously love it. And letters these first three months of community entry (when I'm not techincally working but just getting to know my community) are supposed to be pretty difficult so any letters between now and then will be extremely appreciated

Right now I'm in Chipata, I was supposed to go to a meeting today but surprise surprise it got postponed till next week...surprise surprise.