not terribly exciting.

Hello hello hello.

I am once again in the rocking metropolis of Mkusi. Tonight there is a concert in town. A guy named K'Million is coming in and he is a superstar in all senses of the word. I'm pretty stoked to see a live Zambian show, although i have also heard that he sometimes forgets to come to his concerts, so I am a little worried about him not showing up. But, hey even if he doesn't come, at least I get to use the internet.

Over the last few weeks I have become quite enamored with Zambian music. The musicianship is not really all that great, it is almost entirely drum machines and other synthesized instruments, but the songs are fun, and they are my new approach to learning Bemba. I listen, transcribe and translate a song at a time. (well, as of now I have only finished one, but i plan to continue) This works out really well for me because it not only teaches me new words and language patterns it also goes a long way to help me pick out words and understand the language as it is spoken, which is my biggest problem right now. Oh, and I guess that the other huge benefit is that if I am walking through the market and I am able to sing along with the song being blasted on the radio, the Zambians think it is just about the most hilarious most fantastic thing ever..... major brownie points.

How did I get all of this Zambian music you might ask? Well as it turns out the Mkushi radio station just got a brand new computer system that they don't know how to use. It also turns out that the computer came with itunes. Thus comes the exchange of my computer knowledge for the opportunity to transfer music from a cd to my ipod. It's brilliant. Quite the symbiotic relationship.

In other news, the village life is great. I have gotten used to much of what was bothering me before and I am finally feeling comfortable in my day to day life. I still get frustrated, like when i was following a neighbor home from a meeting and I was starving and we stopped to chat with various people on the side of the road no less than 7 times, each for between 5-15 minutes. These are times when I really should be interested in talking to people and making more friends, but i could think of nothing other than the leftover rice and soya pieces i had at home and how good it had tasted the night before and how good it was probably still going to taste (it did, by the way, still taste remarkably good. curry, paprika, salt pepper and cinnamon... delicious).

I also finally got a table for my house, which is great for all reasons except that now i have no excuse for my terrible penmanship. To all of those whom i promised increased legibility in future letters... sorry, you are still going to have to decode all my messages home.

Other good news is that I have a digital camera coming my way! Becky is sending me one, so hopefully in the next month or so I will be able to give you guys a visual of what my life is like.

Sophie-- Congratulations!!! I got some graduation pictures from your mom, I wish I could have been there.

Well.... I don't really have too much more to say... not a great update, but life has normalized to such an extent that i really don't have that many new exciting stories. I mean, even transport has improved. Now that I bike the 30km to masansa to get direct transport to mkushi, it only takes me about 4 hours (including the biking) to get to town.. and yesterday the 6 foot bed of the pick up heading to mkushi only had 16 people and 4 babies.... positively spacious! :)

Ok. I hope everyone is doing well... and maybe the next time i have access to the internet (everything is closed on sundays) I will be able to tell you some great stories about the concert.

all my best.