PACKAGES!!

Right now I am just about the happiest I have been in quite some time. Why? Because I just got packages!!! And a veritable bunch of mail to top it off! As it turns out, our registration for the post office box had expired and no one had bothered to tell us about it. So our mail had continued to come in, but they were holding it until we came to pay the yearly registration fee that we didn't know about. we paid it today and the shower of mail came like manna from heaven. The timing is absolutely perfect as well. I was starting to feel a bit down b/c my birthday is on monday and i am going to be spending it absolutely alone. Zambians don't really celebrate birthdays in the same way as we do in america, so even if i tell some one that my birthday is on monday they say "oh, ok." and pretty much leave it at that. Now that I have all this mail I will be quite able to make myself feel better on my birthday. I have all these letters! and reeses cups!!!!!!!!!! And Jessie Oram you are fantastic. When I saw the picture of us in Longman hall I almost lost it. and drag ball! and meg's cheeks! And Moram!!

Ahhhh, life is beautiful when I realize just wonderful it is to have the friends and family that I do and when I am reminded of how many happy times I have shared and how many are still to come. It is a comforting thought when I face the isolation and occasional loneliness of my village. and these pictures and letters do amazing things to keep my spirits up.

Now that I am finished being sappy I can move on to an actual update.

Life continues on at its regular unhurried pace. I learned a great bemba word the other day. It is ukuwayawaya, which means "to linger, to deliberately not hurry" and it seems to be an adequate description of what I do on a day to day basis. Work is picking up though. I am going to several meetings at the school and I may starting helping on a HIV/AIDS program that is being run through the ministry of health. It is a radio program broadcast twice a week that helps people to live positively, to encourage people to go for testing, and to remove the stigma and discrimination against people who are positive.

My work at the school is moving along as well, but at times I wonder if I am actually going to be able to accomplish anything. Many of the meetings that I attend don't really seem to go anywhere. I think that in part I have just not readjusted my goals and standards of success to coincide with the reality of working in zambia and trying to improve the school and education system without any real access to resources besides our ingenuity. However, at the same time, my experiences here have led me towards the belief that a good deal of the aid money being sent to africa is doing more harm than good and that while aid is most definitely needed, the system for deciding how the money is to be spent and monitoring to make sure if fulfills its purpose needs a serious overhaul.

In any case, right now I am trying to help the school plan and implement an IGA (income generating activity) so they can make some money to improve their facilities. They are in the process of trying to build 5 new classrooms. Even though I received a good amount of training on IGAs I still feel like I am in a lake in the dark flailing around for a floatation device. I just don't really know very much about fish farming or animal husbandry or beekeeping. Once a particular IGA is chosen I think I will be able to help with the organization and implementation, but as far as giving figures about how much different IGAs will cost to start or how we should decide, I am hopeless. And this is the kind of information that my counterparts are asking of me...

I guess a simple summarizing of the last paragraph would be that I can help to make an IGA successful and well run, but I have none of the local know how that helps in the choosing of an IGA. So I am in a little bit of a tight spot here, and I am not exactly sure how I am going to approach the problem at my next meeting.

In other news, I am coming home next year!!! Just for a visit at the end of july and beginning of august. Nick Lehman (my roommate for the last 1.5 years and one of my best friends for those of you who don't know him) proposed to his girlfriend of 8 years and he asked me to be the best man! So I just had to say yes. I will have to be a little frugal in order to be able to buy the plane ticket but i don't mind. So when I come home next year I want to see you. yes you. because i miss you. ;)

Speaking of being frugal, I think I am taking a little vacation to malawi after in service training in july. It should be a really fun trip and I am excited to be able to spend some time with the people from my intake group that i haven't really spoken to or been in touch with since i was posted.

Ok. I guess i don't really have much else to say. life is good overall and i don't have too much to complain about. so i will leave off here and continue to bask in the glowing happiness of my mail.

(I hope that this post has made all of you slackers who haven't written me yet fell sufficiently guilty to get off your bum and do so.)

I love you all!