Greetings from Zambia! It has been awhile since I've been to Kasama when the internet is working, but I'm here now, and perfectly happy after just having inhaled an ice cream cone. Life at site is great, I'm enjoying settling in to my new home in Mungwi. Tonight I'm staying at my friend Ellyn's house, where we'll be making spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread for dinner. Sometimes it's great to have American food and speak in English with my fellow PCV's. Thanks for the spaghetti sauce packet in my last package, Dad!
The teachers at my school were on strike for the last month, and just began teaching again on Monday after some threats from the government. I did my best to stay out of it, so I did a lot of work on my house! I finally got cement on my floors, and spent almost a week painting the inside walls to seal in the dust. Next up is making some shelves for my clothes and books, I'm ready to be finished living out of my suitcase.
I went to my first Zambian funeral this week, which was an interesting cultural experience. A woman in my village just a few compounds away passed away after being in the clinic for a week or so. After she passed away, everyone in the village visited the house to pay their respects. All of the women, including me, wore citenges (a piece of cloth in various colors and patterns worn like a beach towel around your waist). We entered the house where the body was, and sat with about 15-20 other women singing. Then, we went outside, and sat in silence outside the house for another 30 minutes. Many people remained at the house all day and night long, until burial the next morning. My Ba Mayo, who is the headwoman of the village, spent the entire day, night, and next day with the body and the family. It was an interesting experience, and I'm sure it will not be the last in my two years here!
I have two favorite children in my village. Their names are Ubulanda and Trusting. Ubulanda is actually not a child, he's a 22 year old with Down's syndrome. He's absolutely wonderful to hang out with, and I've been working on counting with him, so far he's only at 2. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to go to school, there is neither a teacher, nor the resources to get a teacher for him to learn. Lucky for me, he loves hanging out with me, so I get to see him on a daily basis. I've also taught him to high-five, which he, and the rest of the children love. Trusting is a two year old who lives one house over from mine. Every time he sees me, no matter how far away I am, he shouts "Ba Lola!" and usually comes running to me. Lately I've been giving the kids "sweeties" (the term used in Zambia for anything sweet), which is raisins. They come in my cereal and I don't like them, but the kids love 'em. It reminds me of Halloween in the states when the neighbors tried to be healthy and gave us raisins instead of candy. Luckily Zambian children will take anything I give them that's even remotely edible.
Work is the topic I'm procrastinating writing about. That's because there's not much of it, and it can be very frustrating. I won't complain about the difficulties, but instead, I'll tell you about the good parts! There's a school in Kasama that's I've been visiting every time I come to town, where my fellow PCV friend works, for kids with special needs. It's absolutely wonderful, and have gotten to know some of the students and really enjoy coming to town to visit. I've recently spoken to the head teacher about working with the physically disabled kids in their physiotherapy center. They have tons of equipment, and no one to work with the kids. There is a PT who comes about every 1 or 2 months, but they really want me to keep the program going, and even teach some of the teachers how to work with the kids as well. It will be great experience, especially since I've been contemplating going back to school for PT after the PC. First, I've got to figure out what I'm doing, but I'm very excited, even if it is a 30 km bike ride from my site!
Other work potential includes helping my school start a library, helping a community school (15 km deeper in the bush from me) finish their school building, and painting a giant mural of the world on the side of my school. Although work can be frustrating, I know things will come along, but everything just takes time here.
I'll be back in Kasama next week to celebrate America's independence with some other volunteers, so I'll try to get another post up with photos! Other than the rainy weather, I hope everyone is enjoying the summer!
ps. I LOVE getting snail mail here...hint hint!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
One month down!
Hey everyone! I apologize for taking so long to get another post up! It's been a month now at my site! Adjusting to life at site has been pretty good, and work is coming along rather quickly, which I was definitely not expecting. My village is great, I've been making lots of friends, and my house is slowly coming together.
As far as work goes, I've been spending a lot of time at the school near my house, and traveling by bike to visit some of the other schools in my zone. One day a couple of weeks ago I biked over 100 km with my counterpart to visit 4 schools. I was extremely unprepared, and only brought one water bottle, and no food. It was pretty tough, especially on one part where we were carrying our bikes up a cliff! It was wonderful to arrive home to find my host family waiting with a hot bucket bath for me and some fresh nshima! Other work has involved teaching some of the teachers how to use the computer. My school has an old desktop computer with windows 98 on it, but at least it's something! I've also made a new friend at the school, she's an 8th grade student named Fridah. She has recently moved to Mungwi from Lusaka after her mother passed away. She speaks great English, and is the only student I can really communicate with, beyond small conversations about food, school, etc. She is very smart, and I'll probably be helping her with science, as she helps me with my laundry...and I definitely need it!
My village is fantastic! I live right on the compound with the headwoman and her family, so there's always something going on. They have a big insaka behind their house, which is used for meetings and other village gatherings. Recently, my village has started a dancing and cultural club, with drums and singing! I took some video footage, which I'll try to get posted up here if possible. They also had a blood donation drive, and some other workshops and meetings. I'm usually invited to most meetings, although I have a hard time following as they're mostly in Bemba. I've also made friends with tons of neighbors, and of course the kids. There are usually about 15 children hanging around my house, they love looking at my photos I brought (especially my calendar of the Boyd side of the family, thanks Mom!). They call them snaps, and have a lot of fun picking out Ba Laura in a sea of muzungus (white people).
So I'm in Kasama right now for our provincial meeting which happens every 6 months. When I left on Saturday, there were 5 people working to put cement on the floors of my house. I'm very excited to return to my new floors, I sure am sick of sweeping my mud floors multiple times per day. My time in Kasama has been great, tons of American food, and catching up with friends I haven't seen in a month. We had one meeting this morning, and another tomorrow. One of the PC staff from Lusaka is here to meet all the volunteers in Northern Province. Wednesday night we're heading out to camp at Chishimba Falls, some beautiful waterfalls about 45 km from Kasama.
There's a big football (soccer) match coming up on June 6th, Zambia's playing to qualify for the world cup...I expect you all to be watching. I will be, along with the rest of the country. I've been invited to one of my teacher's houses to watch the game, should be a ton of fun. Zambians love football!
I'm definitely getting used to life in Zambia, and enjoying every adventure! I hope summer is wonderful at home! I hear that camp started yesterday, it's strange not being there, I want to see tons of photos! Congratulations big bro for graduating from law school, Marigny from Vandy, and all the Trinity 09ers! I'm loving all the mail, please keep it coming, getting mail and emails is one of the my favorite things! I wish you all the best, happy June!
As far as work goes, I've been spending a lot of time at the school near my house, and traveling by bike to visit some of the other schools in my zone. One day a couple of weeks ago I biked over 100 km with my counterpart to visit 4 schools. I was extremely unprepared, and only brought one water bottle, and no food. It was pretty tough, especially on one part where we were carrying our bikes up a cliff! It was wonderful to arrive home to find my host family waiting with a hot bucket bath for me and some fresh nshima! Other work has involved teaching some of the teachers how to use the computer. My school has an old desktop computer with windows 98 on it, but at least it's something! I've also made a new friend at the school, she's an 8th grade student named Fridah. She has recently moved to Mungwi from Lusaka after her mother passed away. She speaks great English, and is the only student I can really communicate with, beyond small conversations about food, school, etc. She is very smart, and I'll probably be helping her with science, as she helps me with my laundry...and I definitely need it!
My village is fantastic! I live right on the compound with the headwoman and her family, so there's always something going on. They have a big insaka behind their house, which is used for meetings and other village gatherings. Recently, my village has started a dancing and cultural club, with drums and singing! I took some video footage, which I'll try to get posted up here if possible. They also had a blood donation drive, and some other workshops and meetings. I'm usually invited to most meetings, although I have a hard time following as they're mostly in Bemba. I've also made friends with tons of neighbors, and of course the kids. There are usually about 15 children hanging around my house, they love looking at my photos I brought (especially my calendar of the Boyd side of the family, thanks Mom!). They call them snaps, and have a lot of fun picking out Ba Laura in a sea of muzungus (white people).
So I'm in Kasama right now for our provincial meeting which happens every 6 months. When I left on Saturday, there were 5 people working to put cement on the floors of my house. I'm very excited to return to my new floors, I sure am sick of sweeping my mud floors multiple times per day. My time in Kasama has been great, tons of American food, and catching up with friends I haven't seen in a month. We had one meeting this morning, and another tomorrow. One of the PC staff from Lusaka is here to meet all the volunteers in Northern Province. Wednesday night we're heading out to camp at Chishimba Falls, some beautiful waterfalls about 45 km from Kasama.
There's a big football (soccer) match coming up on June 6th, Zambia's playing to qualify for the world cup...I expect you all to be watching. I will be, along with the rest of the country. I've been invited to one of my teacher's houses to watch the game, should be a ton of fun. Zambians love football!
I'm definitely getting used to life in Zambia, and enjoying every adventure! I hope summer is wonderful at home! I hear that camp started yesterday, it's strange not being there, I want to see tons of photos! Congratulations big bro for graduating from law school, Marigny from Vandy, and all the Trinity 09ers! I'm loving all the mail, please keep it coming, getting mail and emails is one of the my favorite things! I wish you all the best, happy June!
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