Sunday, February 25, 2007

Writing an Email near a Chicken Coop

We have discovered an IGA (income generating activity) that runs two computers with internet in a shelter behind a chicken coop and a brewery. To get here, we have to walk 20 minutes up the tarmac from our huts, turn right at the swing set/butcher store and walk through a corn field.

Yes, I am in Zambia!

My friend and fellow language student is sitting next to me running through Kaonde flashcards since we have just a few days until our next language test and we will need to be able to use all 18 noun classes (agh!) and 5 verb tenses. I’m still trying to understand how we can have a verb noun class, but we do, and I will need to know how to make sure that my sentences are in agreement by Friday. Saturday we leave for our second site visit and I will finally see my new home.

Yesterday the Peace Corps trainees in my village had the privilege of meeting with the Head Man. In Zam fashion, our family was not quite sure when to arrive and had made plans to go into Chongwe to tour the police station, clinic, butcher shops, and family members, but on our way to town we were stopped by the coordinator of the Head Man visit and told to come in and pay our respects in the village court—a mud building we affectionately call “Lizard School” for the families of lizards living there. Since I am learning that waiting is a national pastime, I had fortunately brought a journal and a book, which I took advantage of for the next hour, and we were eventually paid respects by our village leader. The women danced for us and sang and welcomed us and I shook a hundred hands and I thought, “I LIVE here,” which is something I think on and off all the time. Since I'm preoccupied with the necessity of learning my new job, taking tests, and maneuvering the pit latrine, it is a brilliant moment when I really breathe and experience the reality of being here in this beautiful place with these lovely people.

The week had its ups and downs as I am starting to really miss my friends and family! Fortunately, I had a pile of mail finally arrive after weeks of waiting and I've struck up some excellent friendships with my near neighbors. I live in a village "cul de sac" and often spend time with the two ladies in my compound and two friends down the road. One of these friends was unfortunate enough to experience a bott fly in his knee, malaria, and a full body rash from an allergic reaction to fumigation all in three days. We are hoping that he has experienced all of our early African maladies for us! I have only had some vague stomach discomfort from too much vegetable oil and Coca Cola, but otherwise have been healthy and starting to get fit from all the walking!

The rain is pouring down and we may lose power, so I am going to sign off quickly. I love you all. Do write when you can. I write letters every night after classes and will return any mail.

Stacey J.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Lusekelo Signing In

Jezhina Jamie ne Stacey nangwa Lusakelo. (My name is Stacey or Joy)

I have received a new name from my language instructor. He has named me Lusekelo, or Joy, in Ki Kaonde. Since the Zambians have a tremendously difficult time pronouncing “Stacey,” and either say “Tessie” or “Sessie,” I may just adopt Joy for good when I get to my village.

It is Sunday afternoon and we are on a field trip to Lusaka today. It is amazing how quickly my perspective on money and exchange rates has changed. I thought my hamburger today was tremendously expensive at the rate of 18,000 kw (or roughly 4.00 USD) when I pay 2,000 kw in the village for a Coke. I have not enjoyed Coke since high school, but since arrival it’s my greatest indulgence and I look forward to it almost daily. My walk from the village into the boma is about fifteen minutes and no matter how hot it is outside, I willingly take the trek up into town to sit under the shade and sip on a soda. My home stay parents had a stern chat with me about eating a couple of night ago, and feeling like a penitent teenager, I have submitted to eating larger portions of nshima and salady during my meals (veg oil)!

I have tried to post some photos, but the computer here is very very very slow. So I have taken nearly 200 pictures and have not had the chance to get any of them to you. I saw myself in a full mirror for the first time in three weeks and it’s a little shocking. I’m rumpled and brown and bleached and tired looking. I have not figured out how to politely ask for laundry assistance and since I opted to come into town today instead of staying home and washing, I can look forward to another week of ignoring the stench of my well worn clothes. Fortunately, my African parents are tremendously concerned with my well-being, so I don’t worry really much about anything else. They heat water for me every morning, I bucket bathe in a wooden shelter with a few friendly flies, and when I leave the bathing shelter, there is breakfast magically waiting for me in my hut!

I took my first language test and took part in an HIV/AIDS presentation to 12th graders on Friday. It was a nerve wracking experience talking to high schoolers, some of whom are in their 20s, and getting asked extremely detailed questions about HIV transmission and prevention. I’m thrilled to have the first presentation over with since I have a better idea of how to prepare for the next one. I know so little! And HIV is no trivial matter here, many of our students ask difficult questions because they are directly affected by the disease. I passed the language test although I was instructed to know my gardening tools and how to say “beans” for the next test! Wheelbarrow: ngolfwana. (sometimes the things that take precedence in language training are pretty arbitrary).

My nearest “muzungu” neighbors and I went to a coming-of-age ceremony last night with our brothers and sisters. We were escorted by hand through the dark to watch traditional dances from the village women. One of my “cousins” was near me and was able to explain the significance of the dances, which was remarkably helpful. I felt stupidly conspicuous with my glaring headlamp, and yet very priviliged.

The PC keeps us incredibly busy during these first few weeks at training. I have very little down time. On Monday we will have site interviews and then in two weeks I will be headed up to the Northwestern province to see my new site! As soon as I have my new address, I will post it since it takes a LONG time for us to receive our mail. I am really looking forward to having the opportunity to settle into a new home.

Thank you for the letters! We have not received any in the last week and a half or so, but I have responded to the letters I have gotten and really look forward to hearing from those of you who have written, but have had their letters delayed by the postal service:)

I must dash. I have a few more minutes to grab a soft serve ice cream before the bus takes us back to the village Zam-style (five people to a four person seat!). I have never been more aware of the width of my hips.

With All My Love,
SJJ

Sunday, February 11, 2007

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

Friday, February 2, 2007

Arrived in Zambia

I am safely in Sulwezi, Zambia and typing madly while my training group waits outside for me to wrap this up! We have very little time right now for writing and I have no access to the internet unless it's a five minutes stop. So in short, I'm loving my experience here. The weather is fantastic, the people are amazing and I immediately got to meet these kiddos in our village who stole my hearts. My training group is pretty low key and I have spent my last week getting to know a small group of people who are in my program.

I HAVE A CELL PHONE!! I had enough money from the 'walking money' Peace Corps gave us to actually purchase a cell phone, a SIM card, and about $13.00 USD in minutes. It's incredibly expensive for me to call you, but I can send text messages home for about $.28. That's the way most of the people here communicate rapidly. Plus, we have our phones on long enough to send each other text messages. If you would like the number, you can email me or send my mom and email at rfjbosslady@hotail.com

The trip so far has been unbelievable. I could write for hours just on the last few days, but I'm also going to try and upload photos. So, the short is: We are staying in Chongwe, a tiny village outside of Kitwe in a hostel for the time being. It's been an adjustment--we do have water, but it's turned off after 10:00 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. and then it only runs cold. But because the weather is warm and humid, I have to wash my hair every day. So I'm perfecting the 'drip' shower method which consists of nodding under the water enough to get wet, stepping out and soaping, shampooing, etc. and then dashing underneath for a few heart stopping seconds.

We've mostly been getting shots and taking meds and getting information on our jobs. My job is really close to nothing like I thought it was, but far more awesome. Basically, our RED project will be working to implement eduacational development in schools. They have expanded the program to be inclusive of IRI (Interactive Radio), but also includes teacher mentoring, teaching occassional classes, and assisting the creating of educational infrastructure within a specific community.

I am also learning to take advantage of the skills of those around me because I'm rapidly learning that my skills are not useful here:) For instance, we just went grocery shopping for our next week's site camping trip. Our GL (Group Leader) helped us find everything we needed, but we had to ask first...he was going to let us fend for himself.

I chose my community yesterday. It was a very odd process, but I am excited! I'll be living in the North Western province, a province someone called the "Seattle of Zambia." It's the most wet and given a little allergy trouble (nothing huge), I thought this might make the most health sense. However, the area is very rural, so I will be doing a ton of biking! There are three girls in my language group. Keep us in your prayers. We will be speaking Koanda, a language limited to a small population in Zambia. And with my trusty heavy duty bike and my cell phone I feel pretty good to go. Also, we have the largest group of PC volunteers in this province, mainly for Fisheries, AIDS ecucation, and Agriculture. There are 35 of us.

I'm running out of time. I'll write as I can, but my access is very limited. Please do send mail!! I miss you all...