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