Music videos improve life quality- its a fact

Lately Ive been feeling like someone who doesn't particularly have a lot to say, because it seems that, especially with people who don't have the pleasure of being in Zambia, I talk about the weather... a lot. Generally I think of weather as being a topic best associated with just getting to know someone, awkward pauses, and a lack of general command of local language (although I think all of those fit with awkward silences). I know in my letters I always include something about the weather and sometimes it is because I feel like theres not much else going on and if I am going to send a letter alllllll the way to Americaland I might as well fill up some space on the paper. But weather is a truly integral part of Zambian life. I know that you could make an argument that weather is a crucial aspect to every part of life in every culture but I've come to appreciate its importance in Zambia.

It finally rained in Chipata, about a week ago. Until then I was really starting to doubt whether it actually did rain in Eastern Province because my friends in other provinces had been talking about rain at their sites for weeks. It just seemed to be getting hotter and hotter. However, then the rain came and its been raining and cloudy every day for over a week which I here is also unusual. Apparently usually at the beginning of rainy season it doesn't rain every day. Maybe the sky had just been saving up...

The rains are integral in terms of planting crops here. The planting season, at least in my catchment area, coincides almost perfectly with the holiday season in the US. Starting from the very end of November through the entire month of January most people will be very busy planting their fields with maize, groundnuts (peanuts), sunflower, and potentially some other crops like soy and beans (the exception to this is cotton which is planted before the rain). Maize is the particular crop of importance in Zambia because well, its what everyone eats. Its important only to plant maize after you are sure that there is going to be a steady amount of rain coming to your fields. If you plant too early then the seeds wont be able to germinate and you will lose a great deal of your yield. If you plant too late then the rain can also have a negative impact on your crop yield and you can lose some of your crop. Ideally its recommended that farmers in Eastern Province plant their maize between Dec 1 and Dec 15. This planting season I am working with one of my neighbors to use his field as a demonstration plot for a few conservation farming techniques. Conservation Farming is a method of farming that has been introduced into Eastern Province in the past 3-4 years (Im told by other volunteers that we are a bit ahead of the curve here in EP and that CF is just being rolled out in other parts of the country).  CF aims to minimize environmental degradation, reduce workload on the farmer, and mamxmize crop yield. Sounds amazing right? Well it can be, but its difficult to get people who have been doing something one way for their entire lives to completely change and switch their ways. And its not like we're talking about something superficial like the color of your hair or your house, but rather we're talking about an entire families food source. It can definitely seeem like a bit of a gamble.Its an integral part of my program as a LIFE volunteer here so I will keep you updated on my progress with CF in my catchment area.

Switching gears here, I have been in Chipata for the past week participating in a workshop focused on HIV/AIDS education, prevention, care and support. The nine other volunteers in my province that I came to country with and their village counterparts (as well as my own counterpart from the village) have been staying a super nice lodge in Chipata and working pretty hard (8-4! everyday!). Usually the volunteers stay at our bunk house in Chipata, however right now our house is having some "difficulities" so they put us up at the nicest guest house in Chipata (mainly because it was a last minute decision and its the only place in Chipata that PC in Lusaka can pay electronically). But I've had AIR CONDITIONING for the past week as well as a TELEVISION (ok the channels are few BUT there is a European music video channel that I've been watching pretty nonstop I feel so culturally relevant and cool again- I know some new music!!).

The workshop overall was really good. Although I do think the volunteers get a lot out of it I think that the Zambians get so much information that they would otherwise not necessarily hear. The current HIV rate in Zambia is 14% but that varies amongst provinces and districts. In Chipata district its pretty high at 22.6%. I've got some work to do. Although many people have a bit of HIV knowledge and there are many NGOs that have been very active in trying to provide information about the disease throughout the country this is another case where the rural areas are behind the rest of the country in terms of dispelling myths about the disease  and overall education and knowledge about HIV. As Peace Corps. volunteers we are all expected to do some HIV work whether its working with groups of those who are living Positively and trying to help them establish income generating activities or helping to educate people about proper nutrition and care for those living with the disease or even condom demonstrations. And now ideally we have Zambian counterparts who are trained with us to help us bring all the information we have back to the village...I'm lucky in that I have a great counterpart and I know that we are going to do a lot of great work together.

So thats generally what I have been up to as of late, rain and learning about HIV. This will be my last blog post before my epic Christmas vacation to Mozambique. I leave in just over a week and will be gone for until the beginning of January. I am backpacking around Southern Mozambique (Maputo, Tofo, Vilankulo, Bazaruto Archipelago, Xai-Xai)  with two of my good friends here. I am So excited. So until then...

I miss the rain down in Africa...

Epic fail on blog posting in October. My excuse - it was hot? No, but really it got to the point where I didn't want to move anymore, let alone bike somewhere to do anything. I would sit and sweat it out on the daily in my hut. Cara can testify to that because she decided to use her vacation days and leave a beautiful DC fall and come visit me to make the month of October slightly more bearable. It was pretty great having her here with me for 11 days. She got to see the village, Chipata, and Livingstone (yeah, I went back...being a tour guide is a rough life). We hitched, took buses, and semi's so I really feel like she got the full Zambia experience. And now I am lucky enough to have someone from home understand some of the things that go on here- even if that one person works legit 60 hour weeks for the US government and has little to free time...but anyway is was awesome having her here and I hope that I can expect more visitors in the future.

So Cara came, I sweat (and apparently this hot season wasn't even that bad), and the US Ambassador came out to my site- because I'm probably the best volunteer that Peace Corps. has in Zambia...well that annnndddd my site is legitimately the easiest site to get to from Chipata boma. All Eastern PCVs were invited to have dinner with the Ambassador the night before at the best restaurant in town- the burrito place.  The funny thing about our dinner with the Ambassador is that somewhere, someone sent up a list of dos and donts in term s of meeting the him. We, as PCVs, were told to read this list because it was presumably sent up by his office. So we did...it was quite a comprehensive list that ranged from DO greet the Ambassador "Mr. Ambassador, Sir" at all times to DON'T wear flip flops or spaghetti strap tank tops (hello high school dress code) to if you MUST drink in the presence of the Ambassador limit yourself to ONE. Men were told to wear ties and women were encouraged to dress as professionally as possibly. Formalities are not always the biggest things of concern to a Peace Corps. Volunteer, mostly, because, well, we live in the village...and the overall feeling was that if we were meeting another American he should understand our complete and utter need to wear flip flops and drink beer. Needless to say we were a bit apprehensive about meeting this figurehead when our dinner finally came around. However, I think most of that apprehension vanished when we sat down and he, along with the other members of his entourage ordered a round of beers. So much to our dismay the Ambassador turned out be a pretty good guy. He encouraged us to ask a lot of questions (although I can't say we came up with too many hard hitting questions) and was overall pretty encouraging about the work that we are doing and receptive to the ideas that we had.

The following morning bright and early in a caravan 5 SUVs strong I headed back out to my village to show the Ambassador a typical Peace Corps site and model Peace Corps project- the carpentry project that was started in my village by the volunteer before me. I was a bit nervous bringing so many vehicles into my village because I don't know if there ever have been that many vehicles in the village at one time. Where would we put them all? Luckily, its just about planting season so the whole village, besides the carpenters, who we told to stay behind, were in the field and thus the chaos that could have ensued did not. The Ambassador also brought his two sons out with him which was pretty neat, because even though they have had the opportunity to live all over the world they had never been out to an African village before. They got to see my hut and where I live and also were able to ask me questions in a pretty casual setting about life in the village which I think is pretty cool. After taking the tour around my huts we walked up to my carpenters, who had set themselves up with some of their furniture and their tools in a corner of the village and they were able to give a short presentation about how the project came to the village and how they benefited from it. I think it was important for him to see how Peace Corps. can impact a community and mutual benefit both the volunteer and the community get from the program. Hopefully he will prove to be an ally to Peace Corps. Zambia.

After the Ambassador visit, I had some other PCVs come out to my site and hang out for a few days and then we all came back to Chipata for a Halloween celebration. Now I am just waiting for the rains to come to take some of this heat away. They look like they are coming everday but so far my village hasnt seen much action yet. Which I probably shouldnt be complaining about because my roof needs to be tarped and thatched but I would like it to cool down just a bit...

Its getting hot in here

So I believe the last time I left off with this blog was about a month ago when I was just about to embark on my first Zamcation. Just to let everyone know, Victoria Falls is a major let down and no one should ever go. Period. And by that I mean it was absolutely incredible and I cant wait to go back in oh, just about 2 weeks (more on that in a second). So it took about 16 hours to get from my site to Vic. Falls. One bus took me from Chipata to Lusaka and the next took me from Lusaka to Livingstone, in the Southern Province of Zambia. I met up with my friend Blair, whos in Central Province, in Lusaka and we were able to watch a phenomenal Zambian production entitled "White Powder" on our bus to Livingstone. Plus they gave us snacks, so all in all it was an enjoyable, yet slow, ride.

Once we got to Livingstone we checked into our hostel, Jolly Boys, which was a really cool place and is where almost all Peace Corps. volunteers stay when in Livingstone (mostly because its abour $8/night) but it had a pool and a cool central sitting area and the best coffee that I've had since being in Zambia.

We crashed pretty hard our first night in Livingstone, because, well, we had both just traveled on Zambian busses for the better part of a day. The next morning though we were up and ready to take in all that Livingstone had to offer. We headed off to the bridge that connects Zimbabwe and Zambia in order to do some bungee jumping, ziplining and rope swinging. Its funny because bungee jumping was always on my list "Ehh I dont think I'm going to do that..." but with a small amount of peer pressure from Blair I was absolutely ready to go. It was pretty amazing experience and I definitely had a long free fall of 111 meters. The rope swing was pretty much the same as bungee jumping except instead of standing up you sat down. I think that I liked that just a little bit more because I had a slightly better idea of what the heck was going on.

After that pretty epic morning we decided to head to Mosi-o-tunya National Park- aka to see Victoria Falls. Even though its dry season now, they were absolutely incredible. Because of the mist that always came off the falls and the sheer altitude at which they dropped there is almost always a rainbow that can be seen at some point on the falls which makes them even more spectacular. We walked around the Zambian side of the Falls and definitely got a good view of all of them. We then heard that you could go to the top of the falls so instead of looking across at them you would be looking down from the top. So we walked around to the other side of the park to the river where the water begins to flow over the top of the falls. For fear of scaring my parents, grandmother, etc I am not going to go into a lot of detail about the end of our day, however a few phrases spring to mind and one, if they were interested might want to google/youtube them (especially the second one)- "coolest thing I have ever done in my life," "Devil's Pool at Victoria Falls" and "hippo".

Also, while we were on our second adventure of the day we met three women who are currently serving as missionaries in Sudan. After talking to them for the afternoon/over dinner I realized that Peace Corps is probably the most cushy experience ever. Ok, not really, but these women are in the bush. They only leave their village once every three months and thats to get more supplies so they can continue staying there. They had some pretty incredible stories about their time in Sudan and I'm so glad that we were able to meet and share our experiences. I still think about them often.

Needless to say after this day, we were again quite exhausted although we did manage to run into our friend Bart, who is in our intake, and his visiting girlfriend Bree, who were also in Livingstone on vaca at the time. It was nice to be able to hang out with them considering that again since they arent in Eastern Province (and Bree is from America!) that we don't really get to spend all the much time together.

The next day we went on safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana. We were able to do a river safari in the morning and a game drive in the afternoon (even after we started off 2 hours late!). Even though safaris arent my favorite thing it was really cool to see elephants (swimming and playing in the water), giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, zebras and water buffalo.

Finally to round out our trip in Livingstone we hung out for uninterrupted hours by a pool (this never happens 1. because pools are few and far between and 2. because people ALWAYS want to interrupt you). That evening we went on a river cruise our last night with some PCVs who ran the Victoria Falls marathon that day it was really fun and again we got to see some hippos and elephants and the sun set on the mighty Zambezi.

All in all it was a really great vacation and definitely re-instilled the travel bug back in me. I really like Livingstone, there is a lot to do and a lot to see, although its not as built up as Lusaka which is nice. My friend Cara, who I studied abroad in Uganda with is coming during the middle of October and she really wants to see Vic Falls as well so I'll be headed back soon enough (although this time I think we're going to go white water rafting!)

But for the time being I am back at my site, pounding away trying to maybe do some work one of these days, just kidding. I've been working with two schools a lot recently to try to improve their gardens although that work is sloooow, mostly because its hot season and its hard to do a lot of manual labor when the temperature is getting up there. Ive also been helping out at my clinic and working with community health workers to come together and form an organization that will focus on IGA's so they will make some income for all the work they do in the community. And I've also been having a lot of meetings (or scheduling a lot of meetings that dont happen) with various groups in the community. Work is there albeit its going slowly, even though I feel like I am super busy all the time. Which is a good thing. Definitely a good thing.

Bright Lights, Big City

So for the past 2 weeks I have been in Lusaka partaking in what is officially called IST (gotta love the Peace Corps. acronyms) -In Service Training, with the group of people that I came into country with. The thought behind these past two weeks is that we've all been at our sites for approximately three months and therefore should know what our villages want to focus on the most. We then go to Lusaka and learn more about those subject areas. Its also really great to see everyone and see how much everyone has changed in the past three months and to take a little breather from the village life. As a whole most of the men got a a bit hairier and skinnier, and the women, well, the women stayed exactly the same...therefore further staking our claim as the more resilient of the two species. All 46 of us who remain stayed in dormitory style housing-together- shared bathrooms and all- for the two weeks. Needless to say, no one got enough sleep and at the end almost everyone was sick, just like in college. There are some many things about this experience that remind me of a mix between college and summer camp...

We also had a counterpart workshop during the two weeks where we got a bring a villager to Lusaka and spend time with them in a project design workshop which was cool because it was able to bring Peace Corps. to another level in their eyes. My counterpart, Patrick, and I made big plans during our workshop sessions of many things we want to carry out when I get back to the village (like a soya cooking demo and a demo permagarden plot). I think it definitely got him hyped up to do work with me when I get back and that makes me excited too.

So the general topic that Peace Corps. volunteers talk about the most is...FOOD. You become pretty obsessed with food while out in the bush. And Lusaka, being the bustling metropolis that it is does have quite a variety to choose from (chinese, thai, indian, "western", mexican), all of which were extremely exciting for those of us who've been lacking variety and/or spices in our diet. I was most excited about ice cream, however the only thing that made me sick both times when I had it was- Ice Cream. I dont think I can live being lactose intolerant or ice cream sensitive so I am just going to pretend that those were isolated incidents that will never happen again. Seriously.

As fun as being with a bunch of muzungus in Lusaka was I was ready to get back to my home sweet hut. I missed my village and my kids. A lot. Which I think is a really really good sign because there was a time where I couldnt have imagined getting so attached, but its official I am pretty much obsessed with my village. And Chipata for that matter. Listening to other volunteers complain about their boma's/Provincial capitals made me realize that even though I may not have any Peace Corps. neighbors I still have the best boma in all of Zambia because Chipata has EVERYTHING (I'm not being bold here. I am legit speaking the truth). We've got delivery pizza and burritos, which is absolutely unheard of in Zambia, outside of Lusaka. And beautiful views, and amazing people. This is starting to sound a little bias, but I promise you that its not. Its the truth.

As excited as I was to go back to village I only got to be there for a few days because I am off again to go to Victoria Falls for a vacation (think safari, gorge swing, SWIMMING-even though the last thing I want to be wearing about two weeks in Lusaka is a bathing suit, and sunset river cruise). But then I am back in the village for awhile and will be excited to be there

Well some more firsts have happened since I made my last post. One of them being that I killed my first scorpion. After I white washed my house, the new termite tracks (I dont really have a better word for it) became really visible and therefore pretty easy to destroy with some spray poison...however there was a large group behind the bookcase in my hut, and feasting on those termites was a scorpion. I was really taken aback by it, and it wasnt even a big guy. I'm a little nervous here because I thought I had the fear of creepy crawly things in the bag, however my Sunday morning enounter with that guy proved me wrong. And then theres always the snakes to think about. I'm really hoping those stay hidden in the fields until I am almost done with my service (just for bonus points I would like to have a big snake story to tell and command respect for when I venture back to the states, but not for awhile).

Last week the Country Director for Peace Corps. came out to see all the new sites in Eastern Province so it was pretty cool to show him around and then all the volunteers who could make it had a big family dinner with him in Chipata. After that my friend Sarah, who is my closest neighbor (not counting the Peace Corps. house) biked back to my site and then biked the 55k to her site at the beginning of the week. I also got to see some other PCVs who stay out by her. And their area is absolutely beautiful with these huge rock formations and mountains. It was definitely worth the trip and it was only like a 2 hr 30 min bike ride which in Zambia time is like 30 min.

In fact the 55k out to her site is way easier than the 30k ride from my site into Chipata. The last 10k leading up to the city are the absolute worst! But my hitching luck has been out lately so Ive been biking it more frequently, even though I always curse myself that last 10k. To give you an idea of how different the incline is, I'll just say that it takes me 1hr 30 min to bike into Chipata and 50 minutes to bike out. But it is nice to have my bike for running around Chipata once I get here, which is always what I feel like I am doing. I used to get so excited to come to town but now I kind of dread it because I know that its just going to be crazy busy.

In other news, my parrafin stove ran out of wicks these week so I had to start cooking with charcoal, which compared to parrafin takes FOREVER. And I am not a patient person, especially when I am hungry. To add insult to injury the charcoal I got is really slow burning and takes over 30 min to heat up. Peanut butter and jelly and I are getting to be quite good friends. Other than that I've been pretty busy meeting with different groups and people and trying to improve my language skills so I can communicate with even more people. I think that they are getting better slowly...

I ended up buying the netball and I am so glad that I did because we've been playing a lot in the village. We had a game this past Saturday and won, which is always great. One thing I find really interesting about the women and netball is that before the game they bathe, and rebraid their hair. Then they put on some of their newest and best clothes to play the game. And the other teams do the same. Whereas I show up in the dirtiest clothes I have because it doesnt make sense to me, when I am just going to get absolutely filthy running around and kicking up dirt (the court is loose dirt) for 2 hours. But its one of the few occasions that the women and girls actually have for dressing up and showing off so in that sense it does make sense to me, but its just another example of a cultural difference.

And now Ive got to cut this blog entry short because I have about a million things to do in town today. But hopefully I will update again soon. And thank-you to all the letters Ive gotten. They make me so happy! And the packages too! Ive been pretty good about responding to everyone so hopefully if you havent heard from me in awhile you will soon soon!

Its Winter here...No I mean it, its really COLD

Ok to preface this post I would like to let everyone know that the apostrophe is not working on the keyboard that I am typing on so I am not being a lazy typer...ANYWAY:

So I hear that the East Coast is currently in the midst of a tropical heat wave. Thats awesome. I was so cold this morning that my toes were numb. Lets send some of that warm weather back to Zambia where it belongs. Actually the weather has been amazing lately so I really cant complain, its breezy during the day and cool enough to sleep with blankets at night, which is my FAVORITE sleeping weather. I realize that I havent posted in about a month but to be honest I think its because not that much has happened well and I havent really come to Chipata all that much.

 Well ok a bit has happened but not too much that I want to write home about. I had a few firsts. My first REAL bout of homesickness for a few days, where I was just pretty miserable and wanted to be ANYWHERE but rural Zambia. My first episode of real sickness that made me stay in bed for a few days (dont worry it wasnt malaria just some good ole food poisoning, at least thats what I think it was). And my first big fall off my bike while going down a hill with too many things on my the back of it. Im gonna go ahead and say that I would be completely and totally fine if none of those experiences ever happened to me again but I am also 100% that they most definitely will. I just try to keep my negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions off of the internet- they go into letter form instead!

I also had my first feelings of torn allegiance during the US v. Ghana match. Of course I ultimately decided to roots for the US if only because I was the only one in the room, rooting for them (and lets face it I was born and raised in Massachusetts and those are the types of sporting situations I live for). But I was going to be really sad if Ghana got knocked out because the hopes of the continent rested on their shoulders...and they did end up getting knocked out the next round but still...

But as of right now life is good. Im in Chipata today, running around like crazy trying to do a bunch of errands and failing a few of them. I want new seat covers for the cushions on the benches in my hut, but I cant seem to find the right material. Yes, I can be picky in Zambia. Im also supposed to buy my village a new netball (which is the same as a soccer ball) but am hesitant about it because they are pretty expensive and by habit dont like just giving things away, although we havent played in about 2 weeks because our ball is completely destroyed and I really really miss it so I guess I am compromising my morals for my own personal fun and I feel like this may not be the last time I do that...

So all in all life is good, even though I still feel a bit lost as to what I am actually supposed to be doing, but everyone says that becomes more clear and focused with time, so I think thats just what Ive got to give it. I know that a bunch of people have sent letters and packages...or so they say but the Chipata post office is being a bit slow these days but I'm confident that they will come soon soon.

The Sound of Settling...

I must say the village is definitely starting to feel like home. My bed is definitely starting to feel like my bed, which is great because in America I LOVED my bed, so I take this as a concrete sign that I am beginning to really adapt to Zambia. This past week I had Provincials, which is where every province has a group meeting where you get to meet everyone in your province and address issues that are affecting you all. It was cool to finally meet everyone in Eastern and great to see some of the people from my intake again and compare stories and adjustment issues. But even though it was great to spend some time out of the village and meet some awesome new people I was ready to get back to my village after those four days and have some time to myself again. Its weird, because I thought the downtime would be a really big detriment to this experience and that I would go absolutely crazy with "nothing to do" but its actually the exact opposite- I love it. And there is ALWAYS something that I could do, like hoe my garden for instance or wash my sheets, or clean my bike.

Ive just started some serious work on my garden although the soil is crazy hard so its going to take a lot of work and a lot of love. My hands hurt pretty badly now from the blisters Ive given them over the past two days. I have blisters in places on my hands that I didnt even know got blistered and muscles in my hands that I didnt know got sore, are sore, but hopefully this will all lead to a beautiful and productive garden in my backyard (my village is pretty doubtful considering the soil quality but I am hoping to prove them wrong). Other than that Ive started to plan some meetings in my community as the harvest is beginning to wrap up and people are starting to have more time to spend on other activities. So Im excited to be doing a bit more with my community members and see what their ideas for our work together are, although Ive had a great time just hanging out and playing a lot of netball so far so I cant complain.

In other news its the first day of the World Cup, which is super exciting here. My hitch into town was coming from Lusaka and going to Malawi and they had South African decorations all over their car and were dressed from head to toe (literally hats to socks) in World Cup gear. I guess Lusaka is pretty loud with people blowing fan horns all over the streets. In Chipata, business as usual is taking place, but I'm sure that will change once the games actually start taking place, especially if its an African match. I'm hoping to be able to watch at least a few matches on TV but its hard considering, since I am in community entry, that I am not supposed to really leave my village so we'll see, maybe a tv hooked up to a car battery will make its way to the village....

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...

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.

I'm NOW an offical Peace Corps. Volunteer

Ok, to say that this past week was one of the craziest of my life would be an understatement. I got back to Lusaka, Monday night after a pretty uneventful and very sleep filled couple of plane rides. I slept in the Peace Corps. bunk house that night and then back to the training center, where I have been staying for the past two months where I got to reunite with my fellow trainees.  It was absolutely incredible to see everyone again. I missed them so much. I've been apart of some pretty incredible groups of people in my life (college, study abroad, etc) but this one may just be the best. They are some of the most supportive, funniest, nicest, and all around amazing people that I have ever met. I went back to my homestay family that night and it was good to see them again. I had felt so bad that I left without saying goodbye the last time because I was on site visit. They were very relieved that I was bac even though I was only going to be staying with them for two more nights. On Wednesday we had a cultural day for our homestay families where they came to our training center to eat a variety of American foods that we prepared for them and to listen to speeches in the local language by the fellow trainees. It was a pretty big production and I am really glad I came back in time to be a part of it.

Thursday morning we moved all of our things out of our homestay families homes and to another hostel type place in Lusaka province in order to get ready for swear in. We had meetings all day Thursday at Peace Corps Headquarters and got ready for our official swear-in ceremony on Friday. We got to go to the ambassadors residence for it  that was pretty sweet. Everyone had local clothes made and looked very Zambian and clean. 46 of our original 49 swore in as official volunteers. After our swear-in ceremony collected our Peace Corps. moving in allowance and headed out to Lusaka to do some shopping for our sites, although I didnt really do any shopping because I'm headed back to the training center for a week to make up the language lessons I missed (but I am still an official volunteer!). We then got to actually go out in Lusaka which was really fun and definitely needed before we said goodbye the next morning. I think we got home around 3 am and everyone had to be up at 5:30 in order to load their cruisers and to head out to their respective provinces. It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone. I think everyone else was ready to get to their site and start their real Peace Corps. experience, but I was bummed because I just got back and had to say goodbye again. Such is life in Peace Corps. though. Now we wont see each other for three months, until our in-service training conference. But hopefully it will be fine I'm sure it will be. Now I've got a pretty low-key week of make-up stuff before I head back to Eastern province to move-in to my site!

Americaland

So as most of the people who read this know, I have been home in America for the past week and a half.  My stepfather passed away after a long battle with cancer a week ago today and I came home for my two weeks bereavement leave. Its been a pretty difficult experience but its been really great to be surrounded by my family and friends again. I didn't realize how much I missed everyone and everything before I came back.  But I am headed back to Zambia on Sunday and to be honest I can't wait to return as amazing as it has been to spend this time with my family and friends again I really do miss Zambia and especially the other volunteers in my intake, I keep seeing their updates on facebook and it makes me realize how much I really want to be apart of that.

So right before I left Zambia I was on my second site visit, meaning that I got to actually see the site where I am going to be living for the next two years. I am a third generation volunteer which means that I am the third volunteer to be living at my site. There both are positives and negatives to this. I do get a pretty much furnished hut because the other volunteers have left behind a lot of their furniture and other essentials that they don't want to bring with them back to America however, my village is also going to have a preconceived notion of what a volunteer is like who I am before I get there. For example one of the the volunteers before me didnt allow children in her yard so therefore none of the kids in the village will come near my house which is something that I'm defintitely going try to undo while I am at my site, I'm thinking coloring books and some crayons and bubbles might help undo that one. As for my actually dwelling space I've got two separate huts. One has two rooms, a bedroom (aka a room that just fits my double bed) and a small sitting/misc. room. My other hut is small cooking space. I really like the set-up for my site because I had quite the traumatic experience with rats when I was studying abroad in Uganda so I like the idea of having all my food (and the critters that might be enticed by that food) in one place and sleeping in a completely separate dwelling.

I also got to spend a few days with the volunteer that I am replacing and that was pretty great. It was nice to have the perspective of someone who has been in the village for awhile and to see some of the projects that he has done during his service and some of the schools that he has worked with. I also got to see the Provincial House for Eastern Province which is like the headquarters for Peace Corps in my province where volunteers can spend a few nights each month to hang out with each other and have some of the finer things in life like electricity and indoor plumbing. Second site visit as a whole got me really excited to move to my village and start my service although I'm not sure how my move-in/site placement date with be affected by my time at home but thats not something that I am really going to worry about right now- at least not until Monday when I am back in Lusaka.

Oh and just a quick note I was looking at some old posts and saw some gross spelling mistakes and I just wanted to clarify that most of the time when I am updating my blog I am doing via my cellphone which has an old school small keyboard and I use text prediction so any weird spelling things/words can be attributed to that. I just had to clarify that to make sure that my grammatical integrity remains intact.

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

Ugh, I have a blog...

I can't believe that I am writing in my  "blog" right now. I've never thought I would be one to log my thoughts on the interweb...aka "blog", this is mostly because I don't generally feel as though I have all that much important information to share with the world- well information thats fit to print anyway...generally the things I feel that are super important to get off my chest come out in the form a some sort of angry rant, therapeutic rant- but as I'm going to be out in the bush for the next two years- in Zambia, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the LIFE project (Linking Income, Food, and Environment) I thought it was important to create one for a few reasons. As far as I understand it I'm going to have limited access to internet (like once a month-ish) and since my departure is going to leave a GIANT black whole in the lives of just so many people I thought that this would be a great way for me to let everyone know what I'm doing, what its actually like in the bush etc, etc.

Also, there has been quite a bit of social research showing that people generally connect personal stories a lot better than they do generalized descriptions of events- ok so that was a really wordy way of saying that there is a better chance of people caring about the Peace Corps., the type of work I will be doing, and the issues that affect the Zambians in the community that I will be living in if I am able to give a first hand account/personal story of what's going on and since this is something that I am passionate and care a lot about, I feel like this is the best way for me to share that with you, rather than say, sending angry emails, . in this case you dont have to read if you dont want to.

Thus ends my blog explanation, hopefully I'll have a lot more interesting information in my future posts.