Well, hot season is just around the corner here in Northern Zambia, I’ve heard rumors of the daytime temperatures reaching the upper 80s already. So far I’ve at least sampled a bit of all the seasons except the hot and dry season, so let’s do this Zambia!
I returned to Kasama last night at about 2:30 am after a very long day of hitch hiking. I had been away for about 2 weeks for our in service training, followed by a short vacation to Victoria Falls. It felt surprisingly home-y driving through the streets of Kasama, hopefully not only because it was the middle of the night and there was no traffic or people shouting at the muzungus. It is very good to be back though, although I still haven’t been to my site since August 7th.
After our PEPFAR training, the 6 of us in my intake headed down to Lusaka for our in service training. The Northern Province cruiser took us to Serenje, where there’s another PC house and we met up with all the volunteers from 3 different provinces (Northern, Central, Luapula). From there, the PC bus took us the rest of the way to Lusaka. This was very overwhelming after being in the village for 3 months, 20 loud Americans excited to see each other again, perhaps you can imagine. Our training was much like our pre-service training: long days stuffed with lots of information, and even longer nights socializing with my fellow volunteers. The last two days of IST were for the permagarden workshop. This is an extremely efficient type of garden that produces high yield in a small space year after year, and doesn’t require massive amounts of fertilizer, which Zambians typically rely on. I’m very excited to bring this idea to my village, as the hunger season is right around the corner.
As soon as IST was finished, 11 of us headed even further south, to Livingstone. We stayed at a great backpacker’s hostel called Jolly Boys, just in case you are interested in traveling to Zambia any time soon. Our first morning there we headed straight to the bridge that separates Zambia and Zimbabwe over the gorge below the falls, without even seeing the falls first. Then 5 of us proceeded to bungee jump off the bridge. After bungee jumping, I decided that wasn’t enough thrill for one day, and did it again on the “gorge swing,” which is just like bungee jumping, but you swing instead of bounce. It was awesome! We also got to see the falls and lots of baboons! The next night we went on a booze cruise on the Zambezi River just above the falls. This included dinner, snacks, and drinks, all while watching the sunset. We even saw some hippos in the water next to the boat!
Today I’m heading back to site, which I’m excited and a bit nervous about as well. I’ve been very disconnected from village life for almost a month now, so it might be a bit of a challenge to get back into the swing of things. I am excited to see my family and sleep in my own bed! Now that community entry is over, we’re supposed to get down to work. I can’t believe I’ve been in Zambia for over 6 months now!
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