First things first: Harry Potter loves Zambia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/6934997.stm
(thanks to my Aunt Laura for sending this along :) )
Less cheery news: I just dropped my sister off at the bus station in Lusaka. She is riding down to livingstone where she will hop on a plane tomorrow afternoon. Its a bummer. I really enjoyed having her visit. We saw victoria falls (twice. the first time we went at night b/c the full moon creates a lunar rainbow in the mist from the falling water. it was pretty awesome, an almost complete circle of white light that curved into the cascading water, appearing to become an integral part of the falls.). We went on a walking safari where we didn't see an elephant (to my dismay) but we did see giraffe (to sara's squealing delight), wildebeast, bush buck, impala, monkeys, and a whole bunch of birds. Then we went to Kundalila falls in Serenje district, much smaller than victoria falls, but gorgeous. On the second day, we tried to blaze a trail to a different view of the falls and ending up forging through brush and trees walking up the side of the lower river for 3 hours. It was a little stressful at the time (we had no idea how far we had to go, and we kept thinking we had arrived only to see it was a smaller cataract.) but we stumbled across some really beautiful areas we wouldn't have seen otherwise. On our walk we kept being stopped by almost walking into these huge communities of spiders with tons of webs spanning huge spaces in between the trees. The spiders were pretty big, but somehow we could never see them until we were almost right on top of them. It never got less shocking to find a big spider a few inches from your nose when you could swear there was nothing there before. We tried to go swimming under the falls but it is "winter" here and the water was frigid. We couldn't really stay in for more than 40 seconds at a time. We went and spent time in my village, and sara got to meet daisy, the best dog in the world. and then we spent a few days here in lusaka. in lusaka she got to meet my homestay family, and they were absolutely thrilled to meet her, it was almost comedic how excited they were. now she's on her way home.... I know that's a really really brief synopsis, but oh well. I am sending sara home with a bunch of pictures on a cd and she took a bunch w/ her digital camera, so hopefully w/in the next couple of weeks, i will have becky put them all online so you guys and girls can look at pictures of my house, mountain, dog, travels, and really anything else you want to see.
Now, for the first time in about 3-4 weeks, i am going to go back to my village and be alone again. And that is not all a bad thing. I really enjoyed my vacation and it was wonderful to see sara but i am really looking forward to taking harry potter (which i think has arrived) into the village and reading it 5 or 6 times in the next week. I don't think i could come up with any more perfect plan. to top it off, there is no school this month, so i couldn't really do any work if i wanted to. Just beautiful.
well, that's about it from me now. Be well, and i will talk to you soon....
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Vacation vacation....
Hello everybody.
I am fresh off of a week spent on the shores of beautiful beautiful lake malawi. The transport was a hassle, and through an obvious bias i feel that the average Zambian is more friendly than the average Malawian, but once I arrived at Myoka Village (not a village but a resort right on the shore of the lake) I had an amazingly wonderful time. I think that I will provide bulleted highlights of the trip, just because i feel like i won't remember to mention everything otherwise.
* I got horrifically sick the first night due to severe dehydration the day of traveling. I woke up in the middle of the night with a bad fever, body aches, headache, and a little delirious. But the nice thing about dehydration is that it is easy to cure. several bottles of water and a few hours later, i was feeling much much better. I was still kinda out of it the first day though, but it wasn't a big deal.
* Good beer. You can find two types of beer in zambia, and neither are anything to write home about (hence I haven't mentioned them before) but this place had a wide selection of really good beers for about half the price of either of the beers in zambia.
* The lake was absolutely amazing, even though i probably have schistosomaisis now. The water was perfect temperature and clear and blue and you could see the bottom long after you ceased being able to touch it.
* I spent a good amount of time trying to master the art of traveling in a dugout canoe. You sit on top of a hollowed log, a cross section of which would look kinda like your tongue if you brought the sides together, and do your best not to fall off. This is considerably more difficult than in sounds, b/c due to the circular nature of the log, the vessel itself doesn't help you at all with balancing. You shift a little too much to one side and you are finished. The really amazing part of this is how good the locals are. They stand on it, dive off of it and hop back on without blinking. Every day, one of the employees at the lodge took one of these canoes across our little bay to town to pick up crates of sodas and beer, balanced them in the little crack in the top of the canoe and brought them back, not even stopping to think that if he lost his balance he would dump several hundred dollars worth of supplies into lake malawi. it was wild. The picture i am about to put up is me on of the canoes...
* we took a little boat ride along the coast of the lake for a while and the two main highlights of the ride were jumping off of a 30-40ft rock into the lake (i seem to have lost a lot of my sense of immortality since i have turned 24... its too bad really... i only jumped once) and getting to see a fishing eagle up close. The people who ran the boat trip (we were in a skiff-life boat with and outboard motor so it wasn't very large) would throw fish speared on little shafts of bamboo into the lake and the eagle would swoop down out of the tree on the cliff on the shore and sweep past us and grab the fish. It was an amazing site. The bird is just so huge. He always attacked the fish at a certain angle (which is due to the position of his eyes in his head, this angle allows him to approach the fish at the highest possible speed without ever having to move his head to either side or lose sight of the fish) and once that angle took him so close to our boat that i could have dived off the side and shook his talon.... it was unbelievable.
* the sunsets and sunrises over the lake were amazing. I took some pictures, but i need to develop them to see if any turned out alright.
* i was with a really good group of people and i really enjoyed it. The staff was very friendly (they were great at their job. they made you feel welcome and like their best friend after only 1 day, and they do it with every guest... i hope they get paid a ton) and they would dance (on the bar) with us and play games with us and built a bonfire with us and it was an amazing amazing time.
Welll..... that's about it for my malawi trip. I am heading to southern province really shortly, and tomorrow I pick up sara!!!!! woohoo!
all my best, take care.
I am fresh off of a week spent on the shores of beautiful beautiful lake malawi. The transport was a hassle, and through an obvious bias i feel that the average Zambian is more friendly than the average Malawian, but once I arrived at Myoka Village (not a village but a resort right on the shore of the lake) I had an amazingly wonderful time. I think that I will provide bulleted highlights of the trip, just because i feel like i won't remember to mention everything otherwise.
* I got horrifically sick the first night due to severe dehydration the day of traveling. I woke up in the middle of the night with a bad fever, body aches, headache, and a little delirious. But the nice thing about dehydration is that it is easy to cure. several bottles of water and a few hours later, i was feeling much much better. I was still kinda out of it the first day though, but it wasn't a big deal.
* Good beer. You can find two types of beer in zambia, and neither are anything to write home about (hence I haven't mentioned them before) but this place had a wide selection of really good beers for about half the price of either of the beers in zambia.
* The lake was absolutely amazing, even though i probably have schistosomaisis now. The water was perfect temperature and clear and blue and you could see the bottom long after you ceased being able to touch it.
* I spent a good amount of time trying to master the art of traveling in a dugout canoe. You sit on top of a hollowed log, a cross section of which would look kinda like your tongue if you brought the sides together, and do your best not to fall off. This is considerably more difficult than in sounds, b/c due to the circular nature of the log, the vessel itself doesn't help you at all with balancing. You shift a little too much to one side and you are finished. The really amazing part of this is how good the locals are. They stand on it, dive off of it and hop back on without blinking. Every day, one of the employees at the lodge took one of these canoes across our little bay to town to pick up crates of sodas and beer, balanced them in the little crack in the top of the canoe and brought them back, not even stopping to think that if he lost his balance he would dump several hundred dollars worth of supplies into lake malawi. it was wild. The picture i am about to put up is me on of the canoes...
* we took a little boat ride along the coast of the lake for a while and the two main highlights of the ride were jumping off of a 30-40ft rock into the lake (i seem to have lost a lot of my sense of immortality since i have turned 24... its too bad really... i only jumped once) and getting to see a fishing eagle up close. The people who ran the boat trip (we were in a skiff-life boat with and outboard motor so it wasn't very large) would throw fish speared on little shafts of bamboo into the lake and the eagle would swoop down out of the tree on the cliff on the shore and sweep past us and grab the fish. It was an amazing site. The bird is just so huge. He always attacked the fish at a certain angle (which is due to the position of his eyes in his head, this angle allows him to approach the fish at the highest possible speed without ever having to move his head to either side or lose sight of the fish) and once that angle took him so close to our boat that i could have dived off the side and shook his talon.... it was unbelievable.
* the sunsets and sunrises over the lake were amazing. I took some pictures, but i need to develop them to see if any turned out alright.
* i was with a really good group of people and i really enjoyed it. The staff was very friendly (they were great at their job. they made you feel welcome and like their best friend after only 1 day, and they do it with every guest... i hope they get paid a ton) and they would dance (on the bar) with us and play games with us and built a bonfire with us and it was an amazing amazing time.
Welll..... that's about it for my malawi trip. I am heading to southern province really shortly, and tomorrow I pick up sara!!!!! woohoo!
all my best, take care.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Reasons to avoid Marriage
So I am not completely aware of the scientific criteria to classify a country as "tropical". I believe that is lays somewhere in the 15-35 degrees on either side of the equator. Either way,
I mention
I was heading down a slightly steeper than gentle down slope, rapidly inventing and as rapidly rejecting several ideas for ensure that all of my fingers would be functional upon my arrival to Mkuhsi. I was coasting in a relaxed position on my bike, comfortably resting on the left pedal at the most extreme point of its downward motion when, quite unexpectedly, the aforementioned pedal stopped. Just stopped. Well, to be accurate, stopped at the point of contact with a stone just barely sticking out of the path. The next to links on this particular chain of events would be none other than the entire bike stopped in accordance to the wishes of the pedal and my body continuing in its motion in accordance to the law of inertia. Quite luckily, my body continued its motion in a slightly upward direction, and therefore the rapidly approaching – or, I suppose, the patiently waiting – junction of the handle bars to the rest of my bike did NOT come into swift and painful contact with the junction of my legs to the rest of my body. However, my thighs were soon introduced to my handlebars, thus beginning the summersault motion with which I continued over the bars onto the less than forgiving ground and down the hill a few meters before skidding to a quite undignified halt. I stood up, my hands feeling much less cold with the introduction of the pain in my left knee, and walked back to my bike. I thought about kicking the offending stone, but deciding that would not help in matters at all, I clambered back up on my bike and – gingerly at first – rode on through the dawn chill to manansa, where I climbed into the back of a truck with 23 other people and made the trip to mkushi.
OK. Now on to the subject of this post. Daisy, my best friend and the love of my life in the village, is in heat. She is driving me insane. I could handle all of the boy dogs coming at all hours of the night. I could handle the blood that she is spreading around my yard, kitchen, and occasionally my pants. But she is an emotional wreck. She has no idea what’s happening to her right now and I don’t think she has quite figured out exactly how to handle it. Sometimes she runs away from me when I try to pet her, sometimes she even growls, a feat of which I knew not that she was capable, and sometimes she runs towards me when I am sitting in my insaka reading a book and , crying and whining, insists on climbing up into my lap and resting there for an hour or so. She was crazy before, but geez louise!
In any case, I am having trouble with my dog in
Other than Daisy. Life is splendid. I am starting to do education-volunteer-type-things (surprise surprise) and it makes me feel good about myself. I am learning how to get around my area quite well, and I am amazed at the amount of little things I am able to do. I still worry about the large goals of my project and whether or not I will make any progress towards meeting them, but as I tour the various government and community schools around me I have been able to help in numerous little ways like taking a letter here, or providing advice on submitting a budget there. There is really just very little communication in the bush, and often times schools are unaware of things that are going on (classes, workshops, meetings, district deadlines) that they can or should attend and that very may well benefit. But none the less I always feel happy when I am able to help. I feel like I am doing something other than just sitting and spending two years reading… although wow! I am getting a lot of great reading done. I am certainly enjoying it. I wonder if I will keep it up when I am finished, or if I will just go back to sportscenter.
My little brother twisted (and maybe broke) his ankle playing football and had to go to
So I am trying to find this book “The White Farmers Bemba English Dictionary” A fellow volunteer has it and it is glorious. I found a copy online, but when I ordered it, it turns out that it was mistakenly listed. So if any of you happen to see a copy around, tell me!!! Or just send it (wink wink)
Ok. It is about time for me to go eat lunch and accomplish a few other things. I am heading back home today and so I don’t really have all that much time here.
I love you all… be well.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
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!
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!
Friday, April 27, 2007
"Maybe Next Time I'll Walk" "the Impashi" and "Just call me Steve"
Ok. first things first. The Pirates are .500. The Pittsburgh Pirates, owners of 14 consecutive losing seasons are 10-10 at (very close to) the end of April. This isn't like me being excited when they started 2-0. This is a full of month of average (which is pretty stellar in the land of pittsburgh baseball) performance and yet another harbinger that this is indeed the year when we win 82 games. Glory glory glory. Part of me wonders if they knew i was coming to the internet and so they won those 4 straight games just for me, but the other part doesn't care. i love it no matter what... Go Buccos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, i noticed that yesterday i was so concerned with telling you all about my different cultural problems and nostalgic remembrances that i completely forgot to convey the anecdotes for the first month of village life! How terrible of me. An update without anecdotes is like a trip to the ocean without body surfing. I, just like CNN, am vulnerable to the age old trap of only reporting the bad news, because that is first on everyone's mind. I guess these anecdotes could be considered not great news... but i hope they will at least elicit a chuckle or two from the audience.
1) "Maybe next time I'll walk"
ahh... the trip from the village to the BOMA. I was super excited about coming here to Mkushi and so i had little trouble waking up at 4am in order to make it to the market in time for the transport leaving. Transport generally leaves with the sunrise, so there is no exact time for when it takes off. So I woke up without problem. My bread which was to be my breakfast was covered in mold, but my dog Daisy wasn't going to get fed for a day or so while i was away, so that didn't bother me too much and i just gave it to her. The walk through the 6 km of woodlands in the pitch dark (for much of it) was the first slightly uncomfortable experience. I had only my head lamp and i kept hearing things (probably just lizards, but small velociraptors in my imagination) moving through the bush. Then my headlamp would occasionally flicker and catch the glare of some creature in the forest looking at me. yikes. But the sun started to rise when i was about 1km away and with it so did my spirits.
I arrived at the market at about 5:45am. There was a minibus waiting for me there and i was excited. After I woke the driver (ha) him and the conductor started getting everything ready and i was hopeful for a quick departure. In the meantime 2 other vehicles had arrived and moved on, after the conductor of the minibus informed them in no uncertain terms that i was traveling with them. I didn't mind this much at first, because i was assuming we were leaving soon. But instead we proceeded to sit around doing nothing in particular for about 45 minutes. I am mostly keeping my zen at this point until we are about to leave and the driver announces that he just decided he needed to change the front tire! after we had been sitting twiddling our thumbs for about 40 minutes, NOW he notices that the tire needs changed. So he does that (and faster than any Triple A driver ever could... i have a feeling he has a lot of practice) and we move on our way. Great! except that we stop every 5-15 minutes at some tiny market or another to pick up ground nuts or empty coke bottles or more passengers and each and every time we stay and chat with whomever is around for an extra 20 minutes. At this time the minibus is packed full. There are 3 other people with me on our 2 person seat and my foot area is taken by a 50kg bag of ground nuts. fantastic. This continues on until I finally come to my stop in Mpula, 3.5 hours covering 1 hour worth of distance. As I am getting off, another minibus is pulling up to take me to Mkushi! cheers and jubilation's!! except that minibus is determined to make the entire trip at 55kph, roughly half the speed of all other traffic. At one point the driver pulled over onto the side of the road and took off his button down shirt and jeans to reveal a different complete outfit underneath. More stopping. more chatting. More gnashing of my teeth. Then finally finally we come to the mkushi turn off and as he stops i am leaping out the window (easier than crawling over the 4 people b/n me and the door.) and running towards the turn off, where i got a ride into mkushi in a car that had run out of gas, but that was coasting very effectively down the gentle slope towards town. I arrived at 11:30. Distance traveled: 80km. Time of travel: 7 hours and change... yikes.
Ahhh... I really want to tell you about the impashi (the fire ants of africa) and how then invaded my house one night and i spent an hour in flip flops, boxers and a headlamp sweeping the godforsaken ants out of my house. I also want to tell you about my second day at the village when i went exploring for the path to my mountain and i found a crocodile instead. A small one... but still a crocodile. (the "steve" in the subject was referring to the late great steve irwin.) But again there is a really long line behind me and i just can't get over the feelings of guilt and i need to let some one else use the computer. I will stop by as i am heading out to get my ride, and perhaps try to tell another story.
But i just wanted you to know, that even though i whine about cultural issues there is so much more good than bad and i am happy where i am.
please write and i love love love you all...
p.s. i now know how to jump start a vehicle... about 1/2 of the vehicles i travel in make use of this method of ignition... what wonderful knowledge to have :)
Anyways, i noticed that yesterday i was so concerned with telling you all about my different cultural problems and nostalgic remembrances that i completely forgot to convey the anecdotes for the first month of village life! How terrible of me. An update without anecdotes is like a trip to the ocean without body surfing. I, just like CNN, am vulnerable to the age old trap of only reporting the bad news, because that is first on everyone's mind. I guess these anecdotes could be considered not great news... but i hope they will at least elicit a chuckle or two from the audience.
1) "Maybe next time I'll walk"
ahh... the trip from the village to the BOMA. I was super excited about coming here to Mkushi and so i had little trouble waking up at 4am in order to make it to the market in time for the transport leaving. Transport generally leaves with the sunrise, so there is no exact time for when it takes off. So I woke up without problem. My bread which was to be my breakfast was covered in mold, but my dog Daisy wasn't going to get fed for a day or so while i was away, so that didn't bother me too much and i just gave it to her. The walk through the 6 km of woodlands in the pitch dark (for much of it) was the first slightly uncomfortable experience. I had only my head lamp and i kept hearing things (probably just lizards, but small velociraptors in my imagination) moving through the bush. Then my headlamp would occasionally flicker and catch the glare of some creature in the forest looking at me. yikes. But the sun started to rise when i was about 1km away and with it so did my spirits.
I arrived at the market at about 5:45am. There was a minibus waiting for me there and i was excited. After I woke the driver (ha) him and the conductor started getting everything ready and i was hopeful for a quick departure. In the meantime 2 other vehicles had arrived and moved on, after the conductor of the minibus informed them in no uncertain terms that i was traveling with them. I didn't mind this much at first, because i was assuming we were leaving soon. But instead we proceeded to sit around doing nothing in particular for about 45 minutes. I am mostly keeping my zen at this point until we are about to leave and the driver announces that he just decided he needed to change the front tire! after we had been sitting twiddling our thumbs for about 40 minutes, NOW he notices that the tire needs changed. So he does that (and faster than any Triple A driver ever could... i have a feeling he has a lot of practice) and we move on our way. Great! except that we stop every 5-15 minutes at some tiny market or another to pick up ground nuts or empty coke bottles or more passengers and each and every time we stay and chat with whomever is around for an extra 20 minutes. At this time the minibus is packed full. There are 3 other people with me on our 2 person seat and my foot area is taken by a 50kg bag of ground nuts. fantastic. This continues on until I finally come to my stop in Mpula, 3.5 hours covering 1 hour worth of distance. As I am getting off, another minibus is pulling up to take me to Mkushi! cheers and jubilation's!! except that minibus is determined to make the entire trip at 55kph, roughly half the speed of all other traffic. At one point the driver pulled over onto the side of the road and took off his button down shirt and jeans to reveal a different complete outfit underneath. More stopping. more chatting. More gnashing of my teeth. Then finally finally we come to the mkushi turn off and as he stops i am leaping out the window (easier than crawling over the 4 people b/n me and the door.) and running towards the turn off, where i got a ride into mkushi in a car that had run out of gas, but that was coasting very effectively down the gentle slope towards town. I arrived at 11:30. Distance traveled: 80km. Time of travel: 7 hours and change... yikes.
Ahhh... I really want to tell you about the impashi (the fire ants of africa) and how then invaded my house one night and i spent an hour in flip flops, boxers and a headlamp sweeping the godforsaken ants out of my house. I also want to tell you about my second day at the village when i went exploring for the path to my mountain and i found a crocodile instead. A small one... but still a crocodile. (the "steve" in the subject was referring to the late great steve irwin.) But again there is a really long line behind me and i just can't get over the feelings of guilt and i need to let some one else use the computer. I will stop by as i am heading out to get my ride, and perhaps try to tell another story.
But i just wanted you to know, that even though i whine about cultural issues there is so much more good than bad and i am happy where i am.
please write and i love love love you all...
p.s. i now know how to jump start a vehicle... about 1/2 of the vehicles i travel in make use of this method of ignition... what wonderful knowledge to have :)
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Hot Showers and Chicken.
Ahh... These are the luxuries of life.
Well, I can certainly say that Zambia rarely fails to keep you on your toes. I have spent the last day and change in Mkushi, the closest thing to a modern city near me (80km away) with all the wonderful amenities I could hope for including a hot shower, eating meat, drinking a cold beverage (i don't mean to imply any particular sort of beverage... but nothing is cold in the village.... there is lukewarm, tepid, and "i've been sitting on the floor in the corner of the hut for three days and hence am moderately cool"), and of course, using the internet.
But then, after my 7 hour, 80km journey (more on that later), I find that the power for the entire town is out. When returned to town from the lodge this morning we found that the power was still out, but that the store with the (singular) computer in the town had managed to obtain a generator. Being that this is my only opportunity to use the internet since the beginning of april and until the middle of march, this was the cause for much rejoicing. First I had to visit immigration b/c the government is taking its time in providing me with a permanent work permit and my temporary one expired today and, to tell the truth, i am not terribly fond of the idea of being deported. After immigration we (a fellow PCV emily and I) returned to the internet. She went first because she had to leave, whereas i am staying an extra night here. I managed to stay patient as she typed for 2 hours because, i reasoned, I would have plenty of time to not only read emails and update this blog, but also to catch up on sports news! Woohoo sports news! However I had been on the computer for 20 minutes when the owner approached me and informed me that the generator was being removed and I would have to finish up within 5 minutes. OH NO!! I signed off, feeling very remorseful that I would not be able to provide updates for another 3 weeks. But then, as I was moving to the counter to pay.... the power came back on! So here I am telling you all about the wonderful unpredictability of life in Zambia.
Now... on to the actual meat of the update. Most of you have not really heard from me since before I was posted in the beginning of April. I am living in a small village called Chikupili in Mkushi district in central province in zambia. I am about 15km east of the Mita Hills dam, which is a large man made body of water south of the mkushi boma (city... a leftover from the colonial days: "Brittish Overseas Management Area"). I am the only foreigner for about 30 km. I am living in a small mud hut that is about 7 paces by 4 paces. I have a large insaka (an open air kitchen/pavilion type thing with a grass roof, and my own bathing shelter and icimbusu (pit latrine). My hut is about 30m away from my "family"s. I have four mango trees (i can't wait until mango season!) and a moderate size wooded area immediately around me. I am please with the trees, although the villagers in my area have a distinct knack for turning forests into fields, so I am not sure how permanent this scenery will be. I am about a 15 minute walk from Katukutu, which is a startling mass of rock that juts apparently out of nowhere on an otherwise mostly flat landscape. It is roughly 180m tall, and i climb it most days due to the exercise, the beautiful view (watching the sun set over mita hills dam is wonderful), and the fact that I get cell phone reception no where else.
My family consists of my Ba Maayo (mother), ba tata(father), and three boys: Kazito (18 and maayo's youngest son), Junior (15 and her oldest grandson), and john (12 or 13). MY bataata however, has been at their house in kabwe and hasn't been around since i arrived 3+weeks ago. This is a little awkward, because he is the one that provides the money for things like grinding corn for mealie meal to make nshima and paying for other food items. So at times, my family is struggling to find food everyday... which is horribly rough on me because i have plenty of food, but i am not in a position to (nor should i attempt) feed my family in my father's absence. What has generally been happening as a result of this is that I eat every night with my family. They provide most of the meal from whatever they have harvested from their fields and then I provide whatever they cannot find in the fields, for example tomatoes, cooking oil, or even a little money to grind corn. This has turned out to be a very good compromise and it fails to start the dangerous precedent of giving lots of money/food to my family.
My family is super super nice. Ba maayo is always trying to help me and make sure I am comfortable. Junior is my saving grace. He helps me figure out how to find places, how to do various tasks, and is becoming my Bemba coach. My bemba is coming along well, although every thing i learn seems to illustrate just how much i don't know and don't understand.
I have been doing about average when it comes to adapting to the new culture. I am very good at greeting and talking to people. But what I should be doing is biking around my village, getting lost on the bush paths and trying to get to know the area and meet as many people as I can. This is very important in having the villagers come to trust me. but i am having a lot of difficulty motivating myself to get up and do it. it is certainly not from lack of free time, just an uneasiness about being lost out in the bush where all paths look the same and the directions from locals tend to follow the vein of "go straight for a bit and then turn at the tree."
My other main issue as far as adapting culturally is the sense of communal ownership prevailing in the village and in Zambia in general. Stealing from Don Quijote who was, I believe, stealing from the journal of a 16th century Spanish Conquistador, the people here have little concept of "mine and thine" and instead there is only "ours." It is simply expected that you share what you have. The above paragraph, where I described the food situation, probably would not make much sense to my family if they read it. Their viewpoint is more likely to be of the trend that "We have nshima and vegetable and Ted doesn't, so we share. Ted has cooking oil, and we are short right now, so we share."
This is, all and all, a great way of looking at material possessions, but I am having a significant amount of trouble adjusting my american viewpoint of personal possession. For example, often times when I am cooking my lunch, some one will approach me and just sit down. We sit in mostly silence for however long it takes me to finish cooking (sometimes up to an hour) and then they watch me eat. then when I finish, they leave. Now, culturally speaking i should really give some of my food to anyone who happens to be around when i am cooking. But at times I feel very irritated at a person seeing that i am cooking and just expecting me to feed them. I have more than sufficient means to feed myself, but no where near sufficient means to feed the village.
One of the most difficult things for me occurs when my family asks me for something like medicine. There is no (or very little) medicine at the clinic, and my Ba Maayo has her share of health problems. I am not allowed by peace corps to give out any medicine. The medicine they provide is for the two years I am here in Zambia and I simply am not able to be supplying my family with medicine whenever there muscles hurt. But they still come and ask it, and I have a terribly hard time saying no. The situation is also complicated by the fact that i believe the previous volunteer had been giving them medicine on a fairly regular basis.
I have had precious little work to do yet. The Zambian education system runs on three 3 month terms with month long vacations in april, august and december. therefore... no one is at any of the schools that i will be working with. This has led to an extreme amount of free time. I have spent a lot of time learning how to do basic daily activities, and a lot of time reading. I am hoping that work picks up considerably once school starts in may, because with all the free time I have too much time to feel lonely or to miss friends, family, and the availability of lunch meat and cheese.
I am still a little uncertain about exactly what i will be doing. I will be serving as a link between the community (non state sponsored) schools and the government Ministry of Education. I will also be working with the government schools to help organize and facilitate training sessions and to perhaps help them begin income generating activities to provide them with a sustainable way to make money to pay for improvements to the school and perhaps to provide more services.
Now... this is what i am supposed to be doing. What i will actually be doing might be considerably different. So far, to keep myself busy I have built a compost pile and am working on starting a garden so i can have the vegetables that can't be bought in the market. But we will see.
I am sorry.. I would like to write more, but there is a line for the computer i have been hogging for 1.5 hours and i am feeling terribly guilty. I will be briefly back in town tomorrow before i return to the village, and i will try to include anything i forgot.
For now let me say that i love the emails and letters i have received so far. Reading letters from home is one of the things that never fails to bring a smile to my face, no matter what my mood. So please keep them coming. things here are far more good than bad, and i am sorry if i have come off a bit negative. I love you all. very very much. and i hope to hear from you soon!!!
Well, I can certainly say that Zambia rarely fails to keep you on your toes. I have spent the last day and change in Mkushi, the closest thing to a modern city near me (80km away) with all the wonderful amenities I could hope for including a hot shower, eating meat, drinking a cold beverage (i don't mean to imply any particular sort of beverage... but nothing is cold in the village.... there is lukewarm, tepid, and "i've been sitting on the floor in the corner of the hut for three days and hence am moderately cool"), and of course, using the internet.
But then, after my 7 hour, 80km journey (more on that later), I find that the power for the entire town is out. When returned to town from the lodge this morning we found that the power was still out, but that the store with the (singular) computer in the town had managed to obtain a generator. Being that this is my only opportunity to use the internet since the beginning of april and until the middle of march, this was the cause for much rejoicing. First I had to visit immigration b/c the government is taking its time in providing me with a permanent work permit and my temporary one expired today and, to tell the truth, i am not terribly fond of the idea of being deported. After immigration we (a fellow PCV emily and I) returned to the internet. She went first because she had to leave, whereas i am staying an extra night here. I managed to stay patient as she typed for 2 hours because, i reasoned, I would have plenty of time to not only read emails and update this blog, but also to catch up on sports news! Woohoo sports news! However I had been on the computer for 20 minutes when the owner approached me and informed me that the generator was being removed and I would have to finish up within 5 minutes. OH NO!! I signed off, feeling very remorseful that I would not be able to provide updates for another 3 weeks. But then, as I was moving to the counter to pay.... the power came back on! So here I am telling you all about the wonderful unpredictability of life in Zambia.
Now... on to the actual meat of the update. Most of you have not really heard from me since before I was posted in the beginning of April. I am living in a small village called Chikupili in Mkushi district in central province in zambia. I am about 15km east of the Mita Hills dam, which is a large man made body of water south of the mkushi boma (city... a leftover from the colonial days: "Brittish Overseas Management Area"). I am the only foreigner for about 30 km. I am living in a small mud hut that is about 7 paces by 4 paces. I have a large insaka (an open air kitchen/pavilion type thing with a grass roof, and my own bathing shelter and icimbusu (pit latrine). My hut is about 30m away from my "family"s. I have four mango trees (i can't wait until mango season!) and a moderate size wooded area immediately around me. I am please with the trees, although the villagers in my area have a distinct knack for turning forests into fields, so I am not sure how permanent this scenery will be. I am about a 15 minute walk from Katukutu, which is a startling mass of rock that juts apparently out of nowhere on an otherwise mostly flat landscape. It is roughly 180m tall, and i climb it most days due to the exercise, the beautiful view (watching the sun set over mita hills dam is wonderful), and the fact that I get cell phone reception no where else.
My family consists of my Ba Maayo (mother), ba tata(father), and three boys: Kazito (18 and maayo's youngest son), Junior (15 and her oldest grandson), and john (12 or 13). MY bataata however, has been at their house in kabwe and hasn't been around since i arrived 3+weeks ago. This is a little awkward, because he is the one that provides the money for things like grinding corn for mealie meal to make nshima and paying for other food items. So at times, my family is struggling to find food everyday... which is horribly rough on me because i have plenty of food, but i am not in a position to (nor should i attempt) feed my family in my father's absence. What has generally been happening as a result of this is that I eat every night with my family. They provide most of the meal from whatever they have harvested from their fields and then I provide whatever they cannot find in the fields, for example tomatoes, cooking oil, or even a little money to grind corn. This has turned out to be a very good compromise and it fails to start the dangerous precedent of giving lots of money/food to my family.
My family is super super nice. Ba maayo is always trying to help me and make sure I am comfortable. Junior is my saving grace. He helps me figure out how to find places, how to do various tasks, and is becoming my Bemba coach. My bemba is coming along well, although every thing i learn seems to illustrate just how much i don't know and don't understand.
I have been doing about average when it comes to adapting to the new culture. I am very good at greeting and talking to people. But what I should be doing is biking around my village, getting lost on the bush paths and trying to get to know the area and meet as many people as I can. This is very important in having the villagers come to trust me. but i am having a lot of difficulty motivating myself to get up and do it. it is certainly not from lack of free time, just an uneasiness about being lost out in the bush where all paths look the same and the directions from locals tend to follow the vein of "go straight for a bit and then turn at the tree."
My other main issue as far as adapting culturally is the sense of communal ownership prevailing in the village and in Zambia in general. Stealing from Don Quijote who was, I believe, stealing from the journal of a 16th century Spanish Conquistador, the people here have little concept of "mine and thine" and instead there is only "ours." It is simply expected that you share what you have. The above paragraph, where I described the food situation, probably would not make much sense to my family if they read it. Their viewpoint is more likely to be of the trend that "We have nshima and vegetable and Ted doesn't, so we share. Ted has cooking oil, and we are short right now, so we share."
This is, all and all, a great way of looking at material possessions, but I am having a significant amount of trouble adjusting my american viewpoint of personal possession. For example, often times when I am cooking my lunch, some one will approach me and just sit down. We sit in mostly silence for however long it takes me to finish cooking (sometimes up to an hour) and then they watch me eat. then when I finish, they leave. Now, culturally speaking i should really give some of my food to anyone who happens to be around when i am cooking. But at times I feel very irritated at a person seeing that i am cooking and just expecting me to feed them. I have more than sufficient means to feed myself, but no where near sufficient means to feed the village.
One of the most difficult things for me occurs when my family asks me for something like medicine. There is no (or very little) medicine at the clinic, and my Ba Maayo has her share of health problems. I am not allowed by peace corps to give out any medicine. The medicine they provide is for the two years I am here in Zambia and I simply am not able to be supplying my family with medicine whenever there muscles hurt. But they still come and ask it, and I have a terribly hard time saying no. The situation is also complicated by the fact that i believe the previous volunteer had been giving them medicine on a fairly regular basis.
I have had precious little work to do yet. The Zambian education system runs on three 3 month terms with month long vacations in april, august and december. therefore... no one is at any of the schools that i will be working with. This has led to an extreme amount of free time. I have spent a lot of time learning how to do basic daily activities, and a lot of time reading. I am hoping that work picks up considerably once school starts in may, because with all the free time I have too much time to feel lonely or to miss friends, family, and the availability of lunch meat and cheese.
I am still a little uncertain about exactly what i will be doing. I will be serving as a link between the community (non state sponsored) schools and the government Ministry of Education. I will also be working with the government schools to help organize and facilitate training sessions and to perhaps help them begin income generating activities to provide them with a sustainable way to make money to pay for improvements to the school and perhaps to provide more services.
Now... this is what i am supposed to be doing. What i will actually be doing might be considerably different. So far, to keep myself busy I have built a compost pile and am working on starting a garden so i can have the vegetables that can't be bought in the market. But we will see.
I am sorry.. I would like to write more, but there is a line for the computer i have been hogging for 1.5 hours and i am feeling terribly guilty. I will be briefly back in town tomorrow before i return to the village, and i will try to include anything i forgot.
For now let me say that i love the emails and letters i have received so far. Reading letters from home is one of the things that never fails to bring a smile to my face, no matter what my mood. So please keep them coming. things here are far more good than bad, and i am sorry if i have come off a bit negative. I love you all. very very much. and i hope to hear from you soon!!!
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