Lusaka

IST (in service training) has finally come to an end. While it was fun to see the other volunteers from my in-take, it has also been semi stressful. Not to mention two weeks of in tense training and partying will wear you out. I am definitely ready to go back to my nice quiet and calm village life although my departure from the city has been slightly delayed. It turns out that I chipped a crown on my molar which allowed food to get caught in the crevice and cause periodic infections and over time (this has been going on for the past 6 months)it began to cause a cavity in the tooth next to it. Sounds strange and complicated but the point is I needed to have the crown replaced, therefore while all the other volunteers headed out for home/vacations this morning, I went to the dentist and for almost 3 hours of drilling and pounded and other less than fun aspects of the dental procedure. Fortunately that part is all over now and I have a temporary crown in place. If I'm careful it is supposed to last for 2 weeks, at which point I will have to return to Lusaka to have the real crown put in (it has to be made in a lab in South Africa so it will take at least 2 weeks for them to get the impressions, make the crown and ship it back.) You probably don't care to read all this about my dental experience so I will move on, but I was plesaently surprised to find that the dentist is super legit and even better than the dentist that originally put the crown on.

Lusaka actually has all kinds of crazy nice things. Before coming to IST I was reflecting on how traveling in Zambia is like travelling through time because the villages are really isolated, lacking modern technology and the typical lifestyle there is not much diiferent from that of 2000 years ago. Then as you go to the bomas you make your way all the way to the late 1950s/early 1960s. There are cars and bikes but not much else (of course you have to substitute cell phones for land lines). Then when you get to Lusaka its almost like you're in the 1990s which is really exciting if you recently came from AD 100s. You might think I'm exaggerating, but not by much. We were all a little shocked and overwhelmed to be back in Lusaka and my excuse all week was I'm in Lusaka which allowed me to eat all sorts of junk food and spend much more money than I normally do. This week I've had lasagna, a smoothie, a salad, chinese food, indian food, pizza, a burger, and a lot of soft-serve icecream just to name some of the delicious treats available in the capital. Also I went to see a movie for the first time since I left America and the experience alone was fabulous, but the movie was the hangover which is one of the best/funniest movies ever to it was awesome. I stocked up on spices and food supplies to bring back to my site. I went out to Kareoke one night which was really fun and I went to a few clubs which can be fun, but are also pretty sketch at the same time. Yesterday I wandered around two of the main markets and the down-town area with a friend. It was nice to actually see a different part of Lusaka and get an idea of what you can get at the markets and what the average prices are but it was a bit overwhelming with all the people and loud music playing on speakers everywhere. It's been a while since I was at a big and crowded market. As we were walking along one of the streets near the City Market a man grabbed my left shoulder and tried to turn me around to face him- I said "iwe Leka...Fuma" or you stop/let go...go away(iwe means you litterally but its usually used for children almost like calling the person a child is they are and adult). I added the Fuma because he was still touching me after the Leka and I was annoyed. Then another guy (his friend) shoved his hand in my right front pocket and tried to grab my phone/money. (Purse cutting and stealing as well as reaching into purses is a problem so I decided just to bring my phone and a few bills in the very bottom of my front pocket knowing that my jeans are tight enough to make stealing nearly impossible.) I wipped around and slapped him on the shoulder pretty hard grabbed his hand to ensure he didn't have any of the small change from my pocket (I could feel that the phone was still in my pocket and the big bills were under the phone). I don't think I have ever taken out so much anger on a person...excluding family members of course. I yelled at him and his friends in a mixture of Bemba and English which they thought was hilarious and their laughter only fueled my anger. Finally I walked away but it took a few minutes for me to calm down. Not exactly a fun story but stuff happens and you're a really obvious target as one of the only white people to venture into the "sketchier" area of the city.

As for training, I did learn some helpful information. We talked more about conservation farming, agroforestry, seed multiplication projects, animal husbandry projects, and premiculture gardening. We actually spent the last two days building a permiculture garden which was great. After sitting in classes the whole time it was nice to get out and do physical work especially when we could see the end result as a nicely landscapped garden. It was also somewhat interesting because our LIFE project made a garden and so did the RED rural education development project and there was such a huge different in the approach. They spent more time planning and tryuing to organize whereas we all tried to grab a hoe or rake and start digging. Also they were all dressed up in leggings, running shorts, sports bras, athletic shirts and many expressed concern about getting their clothes dirty. Us LIFE volunteers on the other hand were wearing the same things we wear any other day jeans or comfortable pants with tshirts or tank tops. Some RED volunteers were avoiding work as much as possible but most of the LIFErs were eager to jump in and trying to find work wherever possible (I'm not trying to say anything bad about the RED volunteers I'm just saying you could tell who was in their element for the most part.) Another aspect of the week was a counterpart workshop where we each had a counterpart of our choice come to Lusaka from our village to learn about how to best work with their Peace Corps volunteer to promote development in the village. Ackson came which is nice because he's my friend, but overall those 2 days of the workshop were so stressful! The first day we had to work in a group pf all the volunteers and counterparts from Central Province to determince the biggest issue in our district. It started my each counterpart naming 2 issues from their area, then we picked the 5 most common issues and tried to rank them acording to how much of a problem it is, how important it is to fix it, and how easy it is to fix it. We tried to rank each of these categories on a scale of 1 to 5 but the Zambians couldn't understand the idea of rating and it was really frustrating to try to explain it. After awhile we gave up and just voted on which was more important comparing 2 at a time but even that was problematic. I asked are there many people in your village that are ill? Raise your hand if there are many people in your village that are ill..I got blank stares and no responses. I said "so poor health is not a problem in our area" and eventually they said yes it is a problem, when asked to explain how it is a problem they just stared again. Despite all the rephrasing and translating we were getting no where and we took twice as much time as all the other groups and still didn't manage to finish even half of what we should have. The group work was far too frustrating but the idea of picking a problem and mapping out a potential project to address the problem and going through all the steps of project development and management is good. I will say the the RED group had very talkative and interactive counterparts that probably got more out of the workshop than the LIFE counterparts did. Also the RED volunteers were all dressed very professionally for their workshop whereas us LIFE volunteers thought it was enough to put on a nicer and clean shirt for a change but otherwise still wearing mostly jeans or comfortable pants rather than slacks or skirts.

I think thats all I have for now I am attempting to hitch back tomorrow but I guess now I will be back in the city soon so I should be able to update in 2 weeks if not before then.

If you are interested in reading about other volunteers in Zambia check out this website becuase it has a list of blogs
Peacecorpsjournals.com/zambia

Return to Lusaka-land

I just travelled back to Lusaka yesterday for in-service training. Fortunately the Peeace Corps decided to send a bus to collect all the people from northern, luapula, and central provinces and we rode together it was quite disorganized and inefficient but it was much more convenient than hitching. I will say that it seemed a little sketch when they dropped the 2nd half of our group off at a guest house that was locked with absolutely no lights on and no staff anywhere that we could find and the PC driver just drove away leaving us all there. It reminded me of the movie touristas which I recently watched at the PC house and I was just hoping to wake up with at least 1 kidney and most of my liver still inside me-haha don't worry someone eventually turned the power on and let us unto our rooms and I woke feeling fine, in my bed (not a tub f ice) and no scars or other indications of organ harvesting. Already I have had chinese food, doughnuts, icecream, yoghurt, pepsi and several other exciting treats that I can't get in my area. Also I bought some jewlery and enjoyed looking at the craft market and just hanging out today.
As for village life: I got a lift back from the house instead of biking (after the last blog I wrote). The last week at site I managed to buy two rabbits, a white female named sugar and a speckled gray male named spice. They are adorable and it's really fun to have them around. Sugar is already pregnant and I can't wait to have little baby rabbits, but I hope it won't happen until after I get back in about 2 weeks. Also I took a field trip to a brittish prep school 32km away and it was amazing! I felt like I was back in 3rd grade as the farm manager showed me around the pig pen, chicken house, garden, orchard, tree nursery, dairy house, butchery, athletic fields, dorms and classrooms. I was very impressed because the farm is used to supply most of the food for the student cafeteria and the entire system is very self-sufficient. Also they have some extras that they sell and they use the farms for educational purposes as well. I really enjoyed seeing everything and they fed me a delicious lunch with chicken, but the main purpose was to inquire about their pig keeping. My counterpart and I are hoping to start a pig project sometime over the next year (but we have a lot to do before then) and it was very helpful to get ideas and learn more about dietary needs. Also he offered to host a workshop for a small group of farmers and to sell them at least 3 piglets at some point. We finished cementing the floor in my house and I still have extra to put in my insaka, bathing shelter and cimbusu. Also I requested that the metal maker in my village make the metal parts I need to build an oven so hopefully I can do that when I return. Plus we made bricks that should be dry in a few days and I'm told they will finish the insaka and cimbusu (that were supposed to be finished in April) while I am gone but I'm not sure if I believe that. Also on the horizon: my counterpart and I are hoping to start a poultry project with 50 layer hens and we want to try a garden planting plan that should supposrt all their dietary needs without the expensive supplements and if it works we can encourage other villagers to try it as well; a small vegetable garden so me and my rabiits can have fresh healthy treats; and I hope to collect worms if possible and start a vermiculture project at my site so I can use the compst for a small herb garden. We'll see if/when any of this happens or if it will even work. Overall I'm really wexcited to have so many future plans and goals and to have started at least a few of them (the rabbits and a tree nursery where we planted about 80 jatropha plants. My counterpart, Ackson is coming to Lusaka for a few days of this training so it will be exciting for him to get more information-I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am to have such a wonderful counterpart and friend (especially because my host/counterpart person from the first 3 months was so horrible!) I will enjoy our time back in a city but I think we have decided not to do a vacation right after this and we will wait for another time. More to come later- probably this week or the next

biking fun

Dear all,

I last left you after my biking into Mkushi BOMA, well it turns out I have been doing a lot of biking since then. That day we went to visit these small but pretty waterfalls nearby. Cindy and I biked to visit Daphne and Tyson (a married couple of volunteers) the next day and it is only 10km from Cindy’s, but after eating pizza and a delicious salad and enjoying the company of other Americans we decided was were really wanted cake. We probably should have been satisfied from all the other wonderful food but we couldn’t get over the craving for cake so we decided to bike all the way into the BOMA over a sketchy log bridge pretty high over the river, past a mine and a pretty manmade lake and bought the margarine and flour we needed to go bake the vanilla cake which burnt a little but was well worth it. Whenever I go the BOMA I eat so much junk food that I practically make myself sick and you think I would learn my lesson, but no, I still seem to do it every time. All the sugar and fried things, but they are so good! The day after I biked back to my site which is only a 60km ride, but it is a bit more uphill on the way back and unfortunately that day was intensely windy and at some points I was biking as hard as I could and barely going 10km/hour because of the wind. I will say that I regardless of the wind that wore me out it was a nice ride and I’ve decided that I really do like biking especially on the road where I only have to worry about the occasional passing car (and not the mud, rocks, sand, holes etc which are a lot of fun in their own way) and I find it’s wonderful time to think and clear my head and ultimately be alone. You would think that living alone in a small rural village would afford more than enough alone time, but I’m finding that there are always people around walking by greeting you, or children staring at you, not too mention the goats, chickens and dogs pestering you and making a lot of noise. All in all I’m really taking to this biking thing and wondering why I never did it before-also, my parents sent me an odometer/timer/clock/speed detector thing for my bike which makes it even more fun. Back at site I have been reading as usual and I’ve done a bit more work on the rabbit house but it’s still not quite finished. I’m hoping we will finish it soon because I am supposed to go buy the rabbits on Monday August 10th. Also my insaka is supposed to be finished by the 10th and then I’m hoping to use a few of the extra bricks to make an oven if I can have some metal sheets made. Finally, my front room should be cemented on the 14th right before I leave for Lusaka. We’ll see, things are mostly just wait and see around here. I am looking forward to visiting Lusaka, seeing other volunteers from our intake, learning more, stocking up on a few things they don’t sell in Mkushi and then after the training I think I am going to Lake Kariba for a few days with Mary and Cindy. It will be nice to get away and see another part of the country. Despite living here for almost 6 months now, we have seen relatively little because we have been stuck in training and community entry so this mini-vacation should be nice.
Currently, I am at the PC house in Serenje with a few other volunteers. I biked in yesterday-I thought it was about 90km according to the signs, but my odometer said it was 113 start to finish (it has been very accurate before, but it seemed to run about 11km per 10km on this trip which would put the ride at around 100km still I’m not really sure) I stopped a little more than half way and had a mid-morning snack and a sprite then kept going. I thought I could do the whole thing in 5 hours and I made really good timing at first but when I got to the last 15-20km I was starting to get tired, I took a 5 minute rest then kept going. Then 10km away I came to a really steep hill and though there was no way I could make it the last 10km. I had to walk halfway up the hill and then a biked a bit on the flat part before coming to another equally steep hill and had to walk at least halfway up that one too. Luckily at the top of that hill is the turn for the BOMA and from there its all downhill. And downhill enough that I coasted the entire way even hitting 65km/hour at one point without pedaling. It took me about 5 hours and 30 minutes of biking plus 15 minutes of walking, 15 minutes of snack time and the second 5 minute break. I was so exhausted but we just hung out yesterday, talking and baking (I made cinnamon rolls, rosemary, basil, oregano bread, no bake cookies, carrot cake, and stir fry which was fun) Today most of the other PCVs are coming for a goodbye gathering-two volunteers just finished their service and are leaving soon. Overall everything is good and the biking and visiting other people has definitely put me in a better frame of mind and I am no longer so frustrated with my village. Also, My District Forestry Officer came to visit me and we had a community meeting to discuss the needs of the community and how we could achieve these and even set vague time frames and tried to give specific people responsibility. It was really good and the first 2 needs were income generating activities and improved crop yields so that’s exciting because those are two things I should be able to help with and I met many important community members that seem willing to work with me. It was inspiring and encouraging and I really needed that. However, his parting words were “now I hope that you are adequately prepared to star your projects, I didn’t want you to have any hindrances, but now I have opened Pandora’s Box for you and you should be able to take it from here, but we are always there if you need more support.” Very nice and helpful but the reference to Greek mythology troubled me a little (if you don’t know there was a box that securely contained all the evils and Pandora’s curiosity led her to open it and unleash the evils on the world forever) it sounded a little too prophetic in a way, but I’m hoping he just mistakenly referenced it incorrectly and that the meeting didn’t symbolically unleash a load of evil into my village haha.
On a side note a Zambian guidebook advertised accommodations in thatched brick chalets that sound wonderful and peaceful for a get-away, but technically our mud huts are thatched and mud bricks so maybe not so wonderful if you think about it-it made us smile.
I guess that’s all the news I have for now, but I should be able to update again within the next 2 weeks. Also I'm pretty sure I'll bike back in a few days and it should be easier because its more downhill, but we'll see also then maybe I can figure out the exact distance in km.