Before I begin, let me first give a big thanks to my pops for getting my first Zambia photos uploaded! Please click on the photo log to see the first views of my new home. I have taken more than 100 new pictures and will be sending them home again soon.
Back at the house for the third weekend in a row! Yesterday we left our sites a little earlier than expected because of a major demonstration in Mufumbwe over a power outage in the boma that has lasted more than two weeks. There’s no real cause for concern as I never felt in any danger, but the road between my house and the boma was extremely exciting. I will not go into the politics of the situation, but it was extremely interesting to watch the progress from my tiny town’s student body staging a peaceful demonstration over perceived injustice to an active protest with tree blockades in the road, tear gas, and vandalism. Mufumbwe called in police from three other districts to help contain the activity. Bizarre.
My 28th birthday was Monday and a few Peace Corps friends came by my house to celebrate. A new Zambian friend brought over a huge rooster as my birthday present and pulled me aside to see if I wanted to eat it for dinner. At first I was a little shaken. I had anticipated eating soya piece tacos, but soon enough I found myself with a knife in my hand sawing through a chicken’s jugular. There are moments when I have a feeling of being out of body and wondering who I am! I did actually apologize to the chicken for taking its life and thanked it for letting us eat him before I slit its throat. I’m not sure that helped my emotional state. I did, however, actually help gut, dress, and fix the chicken tacos and I have pictures to prove it. We had a diverse and interesting group for dinner: four Peace Corps volunteer friends, the post man, my friend who goes to the high school, my friend from the water & sanitation department, and a Spanish Father from the Catholic church.
The celebration was great, but I certainly missed my friends and family! I received a birthday package Monday that said “don’t open until June 25th,” and the timing was perfect! I had a present to open by the bonfire!!!
I’ve also had the distinct displeasure of having pig fleas in my feet this week. After making fun of a friend for being “dirty” and digging the nasty things (“jiggers”) out of his feet, I found my own. These nasty things burrow in under the skin and lay eggs. I never knew they were there until I discovered odd blisters that ended up being giant egg sacks. (Sorry if that’s too graphic.) Disgusting. Fortunately, I have been around people who have skillfully dug them out for me.
This week I travel to Central and Northern province to visit friends. I’ll be back next weekend to check in. And I’ll be at the house until tomorrow night if you want to chat!
Lots of love,
Stacey J.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Sun Damage and Shopping
My trip to Solwezi has been relaxing, but much busier than I expected! We are preparing for the next group of volunteers to arrive and have spent the last few days cleaning out the house and organizing. It's amazing just how messy a house can get with 40 individuals using the facilities on a constantly rotating basis. I won't get into the things we found under the beds, but you can well imagine... I've been quite impressed with how everyone pitches in to take care of chores and I really wanted to take photos of the boys doing housework to take back and show my village:)
I also went on a market shopping trip for new clothes since mine are already in a state of abysmal disrepair. I have nary a tshirt without little holes from washing them by hand and everything denim has becomes stretched out and dirt-stained. A friend from this province went with me and we found a couple of decent second-hand tshirts in a store called DAP, a charity store that contributes clothing primarily from Europe and the USA. I was amused to think all you who donate to Goodwill may actually clothe Peace Corps volunteers! I also found a chitenge dress that sort of looks like a 70s mumu and a couple of ridiculous hats to add to the costume pile at the house. I've never worn anything so comfortable as a mumu in my life. It was also very reasonable on the pocket: 25,000 kw or the equivalent of about $6.00 USD.
It's kind of fun to "graduate" from the newest group of intake volunteers to more seasoned volunteers. We get the chance now to brag with the new folks at fly-in a bit about our stories: the snakes, starting fires, cultural mishaps, etc. And now I realize that we do get in the habit of bragging about how hard-core we are when it's amazing just how quickly we can get over a lack of shower or the loss of McDonalds. I certainly complain about it, and I will be absolutely thrilled to come back to comfort, but I don't think about it all the time like I used to in the first few months. I do find, though, that if I'm watching a movie at the house, I get most distracted by seeing American beds. If I see anyone sleeping on a nice bed, I feel absurd jealousy and obsess about it for hours.
We had a mini birthday party for me and my nearest PC neighbor yesterday. He will be turning 26 on Sunday and I will be turning 28 next Monday. I will be back in the village monitoring schools and he will be training new volunteers, so my friends here baked us a cake from scratch and made us giant birthday hats made from poster and toilet paper. I'll upload the photos when I get to Lusaka. Unfortunately, the power has been going on and off all week so they really had to scramble to make the cake one step at a time. We reveled in the cake, even eating the middle portion that had been burned by accidently sitting the pan on a hot burner that was turned on and forgotten during a time of no power.
Zambians do not really celebrate birthdays the way Americans do, so I anticipate kind of a quiet day. My other two PC neighbors are cycling to my house and we are having soya tacos that night. It's been fun telling my counterparts that I'll be 28 this year since they absolutely won't believe it. One fellow observed last week that I look "not older than 12." Ha! This was particularly amusing to me since I've been very concerned about aging lines on my face. I have wrinkles popping out all over the place because I always forget to put on sun screen and now I'm tan and have skin damage. I made a vow for this birthday to daily apply sun screen and take care of my aging face, but completely forgot during the chaos of the morning cleaning binge.
I must leave to pick up my chitenge coulots (never actually spelled that word) and skirt for the village. I've decided biking in a skirt is a complete joke, particularly when it is extremely taboo to even show a shadow of knee and we ride large male mountain bikes. So now I'm going to try wearing chitenge coulots and then tying a chitenge around my waist when I go to meetings.
I will write again either next weekend or the 1st of July. All my love to everyone!
Stacey Jean
I also went on a market shopping trip for new clothes since mine are already in a state of abysmal disrepair. I have nary a tshirt without little holes from washing them by hand and everything denim has becomes stretched out and dirt-stained. A friend from this province went with me and we found a couple of decent second-hand tshirts in a store called DAP, a charity store that contributes clothing primarily from Europe and the USA. I was amused to think all you who donate to Goodwill may actually clothe Peace Corps volunteers! I also found a chitenge dress that sort of looks like a 70s mumu and a couple of ridiculous hats to add to the costume pile at the house. I've never worn anything so comfortable as a mumu in my life. It was also very reasonable on the pocket: 25,000 kw or the equivalent of about $6.00 USD.
It's kind of fun to "graduate" from the newest group of intake volunteers to more seasoned volunteers. We get the chance now to brag with the new folks at fly-in a bit about our stories: the snakes, starting fires, cultural mishaps, etc. And now I realize that we do get in the habit of bragging about how hard-core we are when it's amazing just how quickly we can get over a lack of shower or the loss of McDonalds. I certainly complain about it, and I will be absolutely thrilled to come back to comfort, but I don't think about it all the time like I used to in the first few months. I do find, though, that if I'm watching a movie at the house, I get most distracted by seeing American beds. If I see anyone sleeping on a nice bed, I feel absurd jealousy and obsess about it for hours.
We had a mini birthday party for me and my nearest PC neighbor yesterday. He will be turning 26 on Sunday and I will be turning 28 next Monday. I will be back in the village monitoring schools and he will be training new volunteers, so my friends here baked us a cake from scratch and made us giant birthday hats made from poster and toilet paper. I'll upload the photos when I get to Lusaka. Unfortunately, the power has been going on and off all week so they really had to scramble to make the cake one step at a time. We reveled in the cake, even eating the middle portion that had been burned by accidently sitting the pan on a hot burner that was turned on and forgotten during a time of no power.
Zambians do not really celebrate birthdays the way Americans do, so I anticipate kind of a quiet day. My other two PC neighbors are cycling to my house and we are having soya tacos that night. It's been fun telling my counterparts that I'll be 28 this year since they absolutely won't believe it. One fellow observed last week that I look "not older than 12." Ha! This was particularly amusing to me since I've been very concerned about aging lines on my face. I have wrinkles popping out all over the place because I always forget to put on sun screen and now I'm tan and have skin damage. I made a vow for this birthday to daily apply sun screen and take care of my aging face, but completely forgot during the chaos of the morning cleaning binge.
I must leave to pick up my chitenge coulots (never actually spelled that word) and skirt for the village. I've decided biking in a skirt is a complete joke, particularly when it is extremely taboo to even show a shadow of knee and we ride large male mountain bikes. So now I'm going to try wearing chitenge coulots and then tying a chitenge around my waist when I go to meetings.
I will write again either next weekend or the 1st of July. All my love to everyone!
Stacey Jean
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Productivity, Puff Adders, and Sticky Fingers
My dear friends and family: I have survived my longest stint in the village so far! After 3 ½ weeks, I have finally gained some ground in my projects and feel like I’m forming relationships with my neighbors and counterparts. We are actually in town sooner than expected because we will be moving around a lot in the next few weeks to take advantage of vacation days and attend an in-service training in Lusaka in mid-July. So, if you would like to call me while I have access to a landline, I will be at the house until Thursday morning.
I will celebrate 5 months in country this week and passed the 70 day mark in the village! These were huge markers for me since I feel like I’ve made it over the initial culture shock! I’m sure there are more uncomfortable moments to come, but it’s nice to say the first huge surprises are over and I’m getting far more comfortable with getting around the markets, transport, and conversations. Plus, I finally received parcels in Mufumbwe! Apparently the parcels truck had not made any trips up to town recently, so I received FOUR packages in one day. It was like Christmas and I've been pigging out on American junk food ever since. I've probably gained 5 lbs just this week! Big shout out to my mom, Peg, Andrea, Sis. Bass, and the gang from M&M. Seriously, I never knew dehydrated food packets and granola bars could taste so amazing!
I have lots of stories to write, and will try to do as much blogging as I can while I’m in town. For now, I’ll offer up the highlights.
First, I’m very excited about potential projects in the near future. I’ve been attending some teacher training workshops in the past few weeks and working closely with the schools in my zone and the administration on “school monitoring.” This is essentially evaluating how current curriculum is being administered, how the teachers are functioning in their classes, how effective Ministry of Education programs are at the school level, and also reporting on the state of facilities. I’m working hand-in-hand with the administration to create a streamlined monitoring form and process so that each school is monitored objectively and equitably.
I’ve also been working with an adult school very close to my house. It’s a private school that works most closely with women who have had to quit school for one reason or another and want to return to complete their education. Starting August, I will be helping them with a Life Skills and Adult Literacy program. They have almost 100 motivated men and women who attend classes every day during the afternoon. I’m so impressed with this group of community members who see the value of education and are working diligently to increase their capacity for providing for themselves and their family. I’m also working with a small group of girls in their mid-teens in an HIV/AIDS awareness and life skills program. It’s my hope to work with this small group intensively in the next few months and then establish a peer mentoring program so that these young women can work with other young women in a “straight talk” format that may not be comfortable for older teachers.
In other news, my phone went missing this week. So, if you’ve been attempting to send an SMS, no luck! I was able to get another phone this weekend and will have my old number programmed in on Monday. I’m learning to be more attentive to my things since in just this past week I've had a disposable camera nabbed out of my backpack and 50,000 kw taken from out of my wallet while I was on transport. I’ve had no problem with theft until just recently, but I think I’ve also been a bit less vigilant than I was the first few months.
Finally, in the big news for the past few weeks, I saw my first scary snake! I was home briefly one afternoon for dinner and while I was inside my house munching on amazing pasta, I saw my neighbor fly by my door gripping a giant pole in his hands. I walked outside in time to watch him bash a 2-3’ puff adder to death. My kitty Mio saved the day! My neighbor saw the cat stalking something moving in my yard and came over to check in and noticed the snake. I took a photo of the snake and took it with me on a visit I paid to missionaries near my house and we confirmed in the Africa Snake Book the type of snake. One of the missarionaries, a nurse, let me know that puff adders are quite poisonous, but are very slow and I shouldn’t really worry about them. So, now that I’ve gotten that first encounter out of the way, something I had been very concerned about, I feel a little more at ease with the knowledge of snakes in my area. I actually even felt a little bad for the snake—he never had a chance.
I’ll be back later in the week! Hope all is well with all of you.
Stacey J.
I will celebrate 5 months in country this week and passed the 70 day mark in the village! These were huge markers for me since I feel like I’ve made it over the initial culture shock! I’m sure there are more uncomfortable moments to come, but it’s nice to say the first huge surprises are over and I’m getting far more comfortable with getting around the markets, transport, and conversations. Plus, I finally received parcels in Mufumbwe! Apparently the parcels truck had not made any trips up to town recently, so I received FOUR packages in one day. It was like Christmas and I've been pigging out on American junk food ever since. I've probably gained 5 lbs just this week! Big shout out to my mom, Peg, Andrea, Sis. Bass, and the gang from M&M. Seriously, I never knew dehydrated food packets and granola bars could taste so amazing!
I have lots of stories to write, and will try to do as much blogging as I can while I’m in town. For now, I’ll offer up the highlights.
First, I’m very excited about potential projects in the near future. I’ve been attending some teacher training workshops in the past few weeks and working closely with the schools in my zone and the administration on “school monitoring.” This is essentially evaluating how current curriculum is being administered, how the teachers are functioning in their classes, how effective Ministry of Education programs are at the school level, and also reporting on the state of facilities. I’m working hand-in-hand with the administration to create a streamlined monitoring form and process so that each school is monitored objectively and equitably.
I’ve also been working with an adult school very close to my house. It’s a private school that works most closely with women who have had to quit school for one reason or another and want to return to complete their education. Starting August, I will be helping them with a Life Skills and Adult Literacy program. They have almost 100 motivated men and women who attend classes every day during the afternoon. I’m so impressed with this group of community members who see the value of education and are working diligently to increase their capacity for providing for themselves and their family. I’m also working with a small group of girls in their mid-teens in an HIV/AIDS awareness and life skills program. It’s my hope to work with this small group intensively in the next few months and then establish a peer mentoring program so that these young women can work with other young women in a “straight talk” format that may not be comfortable for older teachers.
In other news, my phone went missing this week. So, if you’ve been attempting to send an SMS, no luck! I was able to get another phone this weekend and will have my old number programmed in on Monday. I’m learning to be more attentive to my things since in just this past week I've had a disposable camera nabbed out of my backpack and 50,000 kw taken from out of my wallet while I was on transport. I’ve had no problem with theft until just recently, but I think I’ve also been a bit less vigilant than I was the first few months.
Finally, in the big news for the past few weeks, I saw my first scary snake! I was home briefly one afternoon for dinner and while I was inside my house munching on amazing pasta, I saw my neighbor fly by my door gripping a giant pole in his hands. I walked outside in time to watch him bash a 2-3’ puff adder to death. My kitty Mio saved the day! My neighbor saw the cat stalking something moving in my yard and came over to check in and noticed the snake. I took a photo of the snake and took it with me on a visit I paid to missionaries near my house and we confirmed in the Africa Snake Book the type of snake. One of the missarionaries, a nurse, let me know that puff adders are quite poisonous, but are very slow and I shouldn’t really worry about them. So, now that I’ve gotten that first encounter out of the way, something I had been very concerned about, I feel a little more at ease with the knowledge of snakes in my area. I actually even felt a little bad for the snake—he never had a chance.
I’ll be back later in the week! Hope all is well with all of you.
Stacey J.
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