Plucking the Chicken

My experiences here in Zambia are already so numerous and surreal that I'm going to have a hard time describing them in the very limited time I have online.

So as I said in the title of this post, I helped pluck a chicken that was my dinner. I was supposed to help slaughter the chicken as well, but missed the opportunity because I was taking a siesta in my tent. After traveling on mini-buses with chickens, shooing chickens off of my stoop, and cursing the mixed up rooster who hollers at 3:00 a.m., I have no trouble at all with murdering chickens.

I am living in a village outside of Chongwe with a very lovely family. I have far more time to myself than I expected because my family is older and all their children have children of their own. I eat with my ba mama in the evenings, but she speaks Nyanja while I'm learning Kaonde and so we do a lot of smiling and pointing and staring at the wall opposite of each other. The two girls in my language group have huts in the same family compound, so we end up seeing a lot of each other and talking about our experiences with roaches, rats, and flies.

These are the fine creatures currently living in my home. The PC is supposed to send someone to spray our houses next week, but until then I will spend quality time with different species of insects, a couple of lizards, and one moderately large rodent. Fortunately, I can crouch like a giant baby under my mosquito net and feel thankful that I have not had any of them nibbling on me. The night after I spotted the rodent I moved over to bunk with a friend, but now have made my peace with the great outdoors that lives indoors. I've also found text messaging from underneath my mosquito net makes me feel better:)

Chongwe is gorgeous! We have our language classes every day under a mango tree and my skin is already a crispy red from the exposure to the sun. I am learning Kaonde, which only a small population of people in the Northwestern Province speak. I am ridiculously slow at the memorizing the language and am the dunce in my 3 person class, a terrible pride buster for me, but we have a fabulous language instructor who keeps the four hour sessions very amusing. We break for a lunch of nshima, a Zambian maize staple that tastes like a cross between mashed potatoes and cream of wheat, and then come together again for technical training about my job.

I'm still not completely sure what my job entails. Right now I'm memorizing acronyms and we talk a lot about "sensitizing" our communities and what "development" means.

My time here at the internet cafe is almost up. PLEASE send letters. Mail call here is like Christmas. If you do send a letter, please remember to put AFRICA on the bottom line of the address. Sometimes the postal service does not recognize that Zambia is in Africa and our mail can get routed around the globe before we actually receive it.

Also, I have a new list of things that I would love in gift packages. I am having a hard time with some of the food, so any food items would be awesome. Beyond awesome. I also will need some envelopes and batteries in the next few months. My headlamp goes through AAA batteries like crazy and I have to use it to see in my house:)

Please know that I'm thinking of you all during this time. I'm doing well and I'm looking forward to hearing from you all soon. I will sit down this week and write an interesting entry with some stories for all of you for the next time I'm online.

I'm off to catch transport on the crazy packed minibus into the bush!

Until next time...
SJ