Thursday, March 3, 2011

Somewhere over the rainbow

I realize that I havent been the most prolific blogger since being in Zambia, nor have I updated with astounding frequency and thats mainly because, well I live in rural Zambia and my internet – where I can actually use a keyboard- is infrequent at best (ok sometimes it borders on weekly frequency but those weeks are becoming few and far between). I started this blog a year ago with high hopes of it being an effective communication tool between myself and people back home in order to try and convey my experiences in Zambia. Although I don't think I've done a good job of that hopefully I've provided a bit of insight into what my life has been over the past year.


I am definitely infinitely more comfortable in Zambia, in my village, and in my role as a volunteer. I am currently working on organizing Camp GLOW, (Girls Leading Our World) a camp for village girls in grades 7 and 8 for all of Eastern Province in August (much more on that at a later date), with some other volunteers in my province. I am also in the middle of applying for a grant from Peace Corps. for a 6 month series of farming trainings with a farming association located in my catchment area. This is somewhat amusing to me because when I first got to my site I didn't think that there was anyway that I was going to do a grant funded project, I absolutely wanted everything I did to be knowledge transfer and to come from the community itself. However, this project was presented to me by the farming association and together we have worked really hard to come up with a training schedule. The community also has to contribute 25% of the total project cost so its not a complete gift and they are right with me as I am writing the grant proposal and that's always a good exercise to do with people in rural areas and something they very much request. So those are the two big work things that are keeping me pretty busy these days.

My village had a scare for the past 2.5 weeks- the rain went away. A break for a few days during rainy season is a really nice change of pace. A break for a week or more and people really start to worry about their crop yields. My Community Development Officer told me that for every week in rainy season that there is no yield each farmer loses 5% of their total maize yield. So by those standards the farmers in my village would have lost 15% of their maize. I don't know if the damage is that catastrophic but I do know that some of the maize did turn brown and that a proportion was lost. As farming is the main livelihood activity out here even the smallest percentage lost can make a big difference in terms of household food security. Today however, the rain came back! Its been raining for about an hour and its feels so nice. Everything has cooled off and I feel like there's a collective sigh of relief being echoed throughout the village. Probably, throughout the whole of Eastern Province.

The newest intake of L.I.F.E volunteers flew into Zambia today (or yesterday, or maybe 2 days ago...time isn't really my thing anymore- as Salman Rushdie states “any culture that uses the same word for yesterday and today doesn't have a firm grasp on time”). Its almost hard to remember what that was like seeing as how I feel so comfortable now. I will get to meet some of the new intake when I go to my neighbor's site (70k away- we're neighbors in the fact that we both live in the same district) for “First Site Visit” she's hosting and I'm going to help and answer about a million questions. First site visit gives people a chance to see what living in the village is actually like to make sure that they want to go through with the whole training thing. Generally at least one person leaves during first site visit or shortly there after but for most its a great experience to see how your life could look for the next two years. I'm excited to be on the other end of site visit this year with some much more confidence on the way things work- what a difference a year makes.

Of course now that the rain has come back its probably going to rain for the whole 3 days that they are here but I guess that's just part of the experience. And at least it wont be so hot anymore. It was getting pretty steamy with the rain gone. I know I shouldn't be complaining considering the winter that New England has had (no, I don't think my body will ever readjust to sub-zero temperatures). But I am, living in a temperate climate (minus October and November) is pretty great I have to say. Plus rainy season has brought rainbows to my almost daily life. I literally see rainbows ALL the time (ok not so much during the drought but besides that). Laying asides whatever political context they may or may not have rainbows are pretty wonderful to see. You can't really be angry or upset when you are biking home from a meeting (even if that meeting has been unexpectedly canceled). I feel like I didn't see them all that often in Americaland but here I appreciate them all the time. My kids, my iwe (ee-way), aren't too impressed with them though. Like, the other day there was a double rainbow spanning the circumference of my village-it was kind of incredible- (sidenote I went to take a picture of it and thats obviously when I realized my camera was broken...good thing I'm meeting my Dad in April) but the kids were so unimpressed, they barely glanced up and then immediately wanted to resume playing Ring Around the Rosie and alternating giving me high-fives at increasing heights. Oh well...until next time