A little bit of this n a little bit of that

I wanted to title this post, Happy New Year, but then I looked at the date and realized that we’re already an entire month into the New Year. Perhaps my New Years resolution from February on should be to update my blog more than once every 3 months!

I guess I’ll try to catch you up on my life since December 22. I spent the holidays touring Malawi, which was really nice to lounge on the beach and eat delicious food. It was a welcome break to life in the village, but it definitely wasn’t the Colorado Christmas I am used to. Christmas was spent on the north end of Lake Malawi with a huge group of volunteers. The highlight of the trip was the “kayak” race on boats made of hollowed out tree trunks. For New Years a smaller group of us headed to another beach on the south end of Lake Malawi. Here, we played with the guest house’s pet monkey and admired the sun sets on the beach.

I spent most of January enjoying my time back in the village. Peter (pronounced Pitah), the baby on my compound, started walking, and loves walking to my house to hang out. His older brother, Lombe, started grade 1 at my school, and we’ve been walking to school together in the mornings. My garden has squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, onions, and tomatoes growing, and will likely be ready for eating next time I’m at site. And finally, I’ve deemed my house “finished,” in that I’m no longer living out of my suitcase, and it’s furnished and decorated to where it feels “homey.”

The Rural Education Project (RED) underwent a review in December. They looked at what was, and wasn’t working about our project, and made the necessary changes in order to ensure volunteer happiness and satisfaction. Basically, now we’ll actually be in the classroom teaching. I’m very excited about this, and have made plans to begin teaching science to the grade 9s! The greatest challenge I’m anticipating is the language barrier. Even though the children are supposed to be learning in English beginning in grade 2, most teachers teach in both English and Bemba, knowing that the pupils won’t actually understand a topic until it’s translated into Bemba. I also have a different accent than what the pupils are used to, but hopefully my students will get used to it, and actually learn English as well as science! We’ve also started a conversational English club at 2 schools, which will be fun activities to get the kids speaking in English.

This past weekend I attended a Project Advisory Committee (PAC) for the Education project, where we worked out the logistics of the new project. We have 27 new Education volunteers flying in on February 18! I’ll be hosting 4 of them on their first site visit, which will be their first impressions of life in Zambia and the village.

Unfortunately, I’m headed back to Lusaka today after just coming from there a few days ago. I’m going to see the doctor, as I’ve been suffering from a WAD (weird African disease) for about a week now…but I’ll spare you the details. I am really looking forward to getting back to the village to see my family, and starting some work at school!

I hope everyone at home is enjoying the New Year and not too sick of winter yet! If you’re ever feeling too cold, there’s always an African adventure waiting for you in Zambia…balmy temperature and a smiling host. What more could you ask for in a vacation?








J