Community Entry...almost

Merry Christmas! I hope there is snow on the ground and good food to be eaten.

So for the past almost three months I have been in community entry, which means that I am supposed to be integrating into the community, getting my hut feeling like a home and figuring out what the community wants and needs. It also means that I am only allowed to be in my district, like a county, except for thanksgiving and Christmas which is why I have Internet access now. I am not going to talk about anything in any particular order so bare with me.

Thanksgiving:
For Thanksgiving we had provincial meetings which is when everyone in the province comes to the house and we go over different issues and Peace Corps updates etc... It was the first time that I met everyone in my province which was a little overwhelming but nice to do. As for thanksgiving day the two things that made me the most happy was getting to skype with my family and listening to the song "Alice's Restaurant" which at home we do every year. The food was good, there was a lot of it but it did not compare to the food that we have at our celebration at home. I missed meat stuffing and Aunta's cake and Mom's pies...but I was grateful for the fact that I was able to celebrate the holiday with other Americans and we did make the turkey hand drawings, where you trace your hand and make it into a turkey and write what you are grateful for on it (it was my idea). So all in all you can't compare it to a thanksgiving with your family but it was a nice day with my new friends.

Thanksgiving food

Life in the Village:

I am not exactly sure what to say about this...It seems fairly normal and repetitive so I will tell you about a typical day.

I usually wake up around 6:00 but I refuse to get out of bed until close to 7:00. Then I will eat breakfast (oatmeal or granola), wash my dishes, go to the borehole and get water, sweep my house and dump my ashes from cooking the night before on my garden or in my pit latrine. I am usually finished with that by close to 8. From 8:00 to 10:00 I have free time where I play with the kids, weed my garden, take some me time, maybe go for a walk to see who is in the village. Then around 10 I will go to the clinic until 12:00 maybe see 2 patients and just chat with the clinic workers or read. From 12:00 to 14:00 i eat lunch hang around my house, play with the children, read, work in the garden, nothing special. Then if I decide to go back to the clinic i will head there around 14:00 or if I am going to visit people I will leave around 15:00. I like to be home by 17:00 because there is a radio program on called Border Crossings which I like to listen to. I will bath and cook around 18:00. Eat dinner around 19:00 and kill time before bed usually by reading or playing solitaire and have my hut door closed around 20:00 and read for a half hour or so and go to bed.

Right now, however, most people over the age of 7 in my village are in the fields and are there until 15 or so so the young children are just hanging around taking care of themselves. This is so different since they will cook over a fire climb trees, get in fights, the 7 year old are taking care of children who aren't even one. There is no supervision, and I can end up being their entertainment which can be frustrating. Also discipline of children is not consistent and usually includes hitting a child which I dont feel comfortable to. So it can be hard with some of the more difficult children.

Oh I was also given a Kaonde name by the children. It is lukatazho. This means trouble or problem and now I am occasionally being called ba Lukatazho (ba is like Ms. or Mr.) by adults and children. But you see I gave this nickname to one of the children, one of my best friends in the village, and so they were not very creative but I have embraced it.

Giravi a boy a few houses away from me
Lukatazho/Bene and Ronica

Bene, Lozi, Me

Finase

The 2 Lukatahos

The children Dancing

So my community has identified some needs. They think that the biggest problems in the village are no market, no nursery school, not enough fertilizer, body aches for older adults, malaria, upper respiratory infections and eye infections for children, the ability to attain school uniforms as the major problems and no hammermill. A hammermill is used to ground the corn into basically corn flour which they use to make nshima. Nshima is basically like grits of mashed potatos that are in big lumps that stick together sort of. Now if a Zambia does not eat nshima for a meal it means they haven't eaten. So if I was to make my neighbors some food for lunch with rice and veggies and beans and that is all they ate for the meal then they would tell someone that they had not eaten lunch. The closest hammermill is 7kms away in one direction. Could you imagine carrying a 10 lb bag of corn on your head 14km just so you can eat..pretty crazy. So solutions that we are hopefully going to attempt are to start a nursery school, I am hopefully going to begin health talks at the clinic and I am going to talk to the representative to see if it is possible to get a hammermill, there used to be one but it is broken, or talk to an NGO that does this. We will see what projects are actually successful and what are not.

Rainbow

Sunset

My hut:

So I live in a two room hut with a thatch roof that has a few leeks and mud walls. I have a pet. His name is Larry the Lizard, he has a short tail that was bitten off I am assuming and he likes to run into my hut and eat the bugs on my floor but I let him stay. Since it is the rainy season there are many bugs, spiders, ants, insects I have never seen before, termites...it is an adjustment but you learn to pick your battles. I also caught three mice in one day with a mouse trap but haven't seen any since. Anyway below are some picture and a video of my hut

My hut from the road

There are also these really cool flowers that are like upside down... Check it out. When I ask the children what they are they just say Christmas and Happy New Years. So I think that they just come out around this time of year but they are so nice.

Really random but while hitching to Solwezi from my village I was with Ryan and Charlie two friends and we were in the back of a truck and Charlie decided to braid Ryan's beard...look at how beautiful it is. It was a great way to pass the time. Ryan isn't shaving or cutting is hair until the next hot season.

Other than that I am just hanging out trying to stay busy and keep positive. I know that I will begin some neat projects and learn a lot. I hope you all are well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

Waiting

So there was a small problem moving into my site on tuesday which means that I am back in Solwezi for a few more days but I willl explain about that later. I figured I would write a proper blog post for you all.

I don't know how well you can see it but Leanne is standing in the middle of the picture and that hill behind her is an ant hill...now I understand why they call it an ant hill. They are everywhere in the Northwestern Province.

First off I wanted to share some pictures from my first visit to my village, Nyansonso.

This is a picture of my host, Precious, and her son, Douglas.

A picture of some of the landscape.The basic school is the buildings in the background.

Okay so after visiting my village me and three others, Charlie, Jon, Leanne and myself all hitched back to Lusaka from Solwezi. It is about a 10 hour drive, or at least that is what is should be. The morning started out uneventful we got two rides from Zambian buisness professionals and then stopped for lunch. However, at this point I was not feeling well, so I didnt eat more than a bite of my sandwich and then had some soda. We then had to wait a while for another hitch to pick us up. We ended getting picked up by a Zambian who worked for an NGO, DAPP. At this point I had taken some anti nausa pills, stomach antacids and more medicine but I could not sleep...it was a rough end to the day but we made it safely to Lusaka albeit a little late but

The end of training was rough. It was hard because we had seen our sites and it was so close to being finished but there were still many exams and celebrations to prepare for. Below is a picture of my language class on our last day of classes.

Charlie, Frank (teacher), Leanne, Me

Language class had its ups and downs and some days I wanted to throw things at Ba Frank because I was so fed up with learning the language but other days we would joke and tease and try to get Ba Frank to teach us inappropriate words (like poop and pee) and I would learn a lot. I am definetly greatful towards him. I learned so much and the class was not unbareable which I think would be quite difficult in such an intense program with so many Peace Corps guidelines on what needs to be taught and how quickly. I will miss the class although he said he would come and visit us.

This is a picture of Leanne, Jennifer, Sarah and me after we finished our LPI (language proficiency something that begins with an I, basically language final) It was such a releif to finish that. It was stressful to study for everything and after that exam we only had one test left and a weekend to study for it...although tha weekend proved to be problematic. Lets just say I joined the "club" multiple times. The club is when you poop your pants. I had some crazy diahhrea and barely got any sleep and what was the most frustrating was that it was my last weekend in Chongwe so I just made sure I was close to a bathroom or pit latrine at all times. I still made the most of it, considering how poor I felt. This included hitching to Lusaksa in the back of a truck!

Charlie, Me and Lizzy

I also wanted to show you some pictures of my host family in Chongwe.

This is Erria and his mother which they call mother erria. I am not exactly sure how they are relaetd to the family but they moved into a house on the compound that my sister was staying in with about 1 and a half months left in my stay there. My sister moved into what they were using as the kitchen.

This is Charity and Baby Hanson, not her child. I am not sure how she is related but she moved in a few weeks before I left and lived with my sister. She was going to school close by but the strange thing is that her grandmother lived a few compounds down, so I am not exactly sure why she was staying at my familys compound.

This is my host sister Erissa.

Bataata (father), me and Bamaama (mother)

Bamaama and me

Bataata and me

To celebrate the end of training and the end of staying with our host families we had cultural day, which i talked about in the previous blog post.

Here is a video of some of the entertainment

Let me tell you a funny story about Bamaama...these ladies were dancing and in the middle of the dancing she got up and stuffed some Kwacha (Zambian money) down the girls shirt. Then many other people started doing this. Apparently this is completely normal but i felt uncomfortable about it. It kind of reminded me of a strip club...oh well something I will have to get used to.

Bataata, me and Bamaama

Me and Ba Charles, one of my favorite tech trainers.

So all of the Kaonde ladies and our teacher got matching dresses...none of us are sure exactly how this happened, but it did.

After that we headed into Lusaka to tie up some loose ends and then have our swearing in ceremony at the Ambassadors house. Which by the way is spectacular and they had delicous food like chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies and muffins. It is the little things I swear. So this ceremony is when we officially become volunteers and are no longer trainees. So you can now refer to me as Ellen Taetzsch, Peace Corps Volunteer.

This is me giving my speech.

Me, Sarah, and Jennifer

Me, Ba Frank, Leanne and Charlie

The CHIP 2011 volunteers

So the next day we traveled up to Solwezi to do some shopping for our sites. We bought buckets, food, brasiers (the things we cook on), gerry cans (to carry water in) etc...

On Tuesday Leanne and I packed all of our things and headed out to Mufumbwe to move into our huts. We first dropped off Leanne at her site. I helped her move her stuff in but we didn't stay long because Ba Patrick (the driver) was afraid it was going to rain so we moved on to my site. We unloaded everything and put it in my hut, which is huge fyi...perfect for visitors ;). Then Ba Patrick took a look around and realized that my pit latrine was not finished and neither was my kynzanza (out door kitchen). My pit latrine had a hole but no structure around it for privacy and my kitchen only had poles stuck in the ground. PC has a policy that we cant share pit latrines so we loaded my stuff back into the cruiser and ended up locking it up in the storage room at the clinic. So hopefully everything will be finished by saturday and I will be able to move in then. But it was nice to come back because I ordered some furniture for my hut. There is more I want to get but I figured I need to save some money and there needs to be room to transport it out there. Anyway I will just be hanging out in Solwezi until my hut is ready enjoying warm showers, flushing toilets and electricity.

Stay well.

My New Addresses

So I found out my address for the next two years but it is alittle confusing for the beginning of my time here.

You can send all letters for until November to:

Ellen Taetzsch
Peace Corps
PO Box 130050
Mufumbwe, Zambia.

All packages and letters after November can be sent to

Ellen Taetzsch
Peace Corps
PO Box 110264
Solwezi, Zambia

I hope this isnt too confusing.

The end of the beginning

I am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer! I have completed training and will be posted to my site on tuesday! It is bittersweet I am going to miss my host family and friends and the ability to speak english and vent and the comfort of the known but I didn't sign up for the PC for that so now the real journey begins...

The past few weeks of training were pretty uneventful..I had more classes and lots and lots of tests which I am happy to say that I passed all of them. Our last day at our training site was cultural day in which the trainees (us) get to cook for our hosts.Many of them were not fond of the food. We had a cook out where there was hamburgers and sausage and a bunch of different salads. However, Zambians don't seem to enjoy when there is a bunch of things mixed together (i.e. most salads) or when things need to be chewed so I think that the Americans enjoyed the food more than the Zambians..but I suppose cross cultural exchange took place. I got a little teary eyed saying good bye to my family...they just did so much for me and really cared and took care of me when I was sick. Which I got pretty sick twice in the last few weeks of training with some explosive diarrhea for a few days.

I was also chosen to give a speech at the swear in ceremony in front of the ambassador and both Zambian and American government officials in kaonde that was being broadcast on the national television station...i dont like doing this sort of stuff and was not to pleased about not having a choice in the matter. I can't say I did a a great job, I definitely pronounced some words wrong, but it wasn't awful. It was a nice day and there were some great food.

Below is a link to all the pictures I have taken so far some are more relevant than others but I figured I would share:

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7361150008/a=53767593_53767593/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

I am excited to move to the village and not live out of a suitcase, eat what I want when I want, bathe when i want. I am a little anxious but starting anything is nerve wracking to me and i need to look forward to the many rewards that are coming in the future.

I know this was a quick to the point post so I apologize, I am borrowing someones computer to write this so I dont want to take too much time. I hope you all are doing well. Stay in touch!

Niya ku Nyansonso

So I am currently sitting in Solowezi, the provincial capital, at the peace corps house after vi sting another CHIP (the health program) volunteer in the province and then traveling to my site. It was neat to see another volunteers site and what things she has done. I think her situation is going to be very different from mine. She is close to the mines and hers is definitely more "urban". We ate very well while we were there went to her clinic, went to the school, attended a community meeting while having language classes in the afternoon. All in all it was very nice and a very needed break from training.

I learned that if a pregnant women follows around a person for along time then her baby will begin to resemble that person. Pregnant women are not allowed to eat eggs, not good since that is a good source of protein. Men who eat ground nuts increase their "strength". Women are not allowed to add salt to there cooking when they are menstruating, totally a way for men to control women. Also, there are little monsters with backwards feet that if a child sees they will die but adults are safe. Those are just some of the beliefs, I thought I would share.

Next I headed to my village. English is not spoken by alot of people so I will have to improve my Kaonde skills. I couldn't communicate well with the villagers. There is no market, carpenter, or seamstress in my village so I will have to be diligent about my food and other supplies that I need at site. I think that once I get a garden going it will be easier to get fresh fruits and vegetables. Some of the staple vegetables I can buy from people that farm them if they have extra.

The clinic that I will be working at has three rooms, and intake room, a storage room, and a "ward" (room with beds). They do have a fridge, however, there is no electricity which means that we can't give out vaccinations. Also basically anyone who comes in to the clinic is diagnoses with malaria which I don't think is actually the case. If you have sores on your mouth I am pretty sure that you do not have malaria. The catchment area that the clinic serves is very small so the clinic is not busy ever, apparently, according to the clinic coordinator. There is supposed to be another worker at the clinic but he went to Solwezi in July and has not returned. They aren't sure what happened to him or if he is coming back.

I also met with the committee who is responsible for bringing me to Nyansonso and one of them is the deputy teacher and he asked me to bring back a library in October, I can guarantee you that wont happen. I am a facilitator not a enabler. They also do not have enough teachers at the school so they want me to teach science to the students. I am not sure if I have a good enough grasp to teach in Kaonde or if the students have a good enough grasp of English. We will have to see what happens.

My host was very concerned that I would be able to walk long distances or carry things. She wanted to make sure that I did not get tired. It was very sweet but I she definitely underestimates my ability. On the other hand she over estimates my appetite. She wants to get me fat. I would finish a meal and then she would bring 4 hard boiled eggs for me to eat or for breakfast a bowl of porridge. I had trouble finishing all of this. I definitely know why I have gained weight since being here. These Zambians like to feed me.

The area that Nyansonso is in has many trees and is really quite beautiful. I took a few pictures but haven't been able to upload them. As soon as I do I will let you all know.

That is about it. Tomorrow I head back to our training site for more classes and tests. On September 20th there are the presidential elections here so send good vibes for safe and peaceful campaigns and elections. There have only been a few isolated incidents of violence so I think it will all be fine.

Keep me updated on your lives it is always nice to hear from you.

Ellen

August 28th Email

The biggest news i have for you all is that i found out my
site. I will be staying in nyasonso village which is located in
the mufumbwe district. It is 7O Km from the mufumbwe boma, the
nearest 'town' with two restaurants and, some shops the post
office etc. But it is in between the boma and provincial
capital. The closest volunteer is 3O km away on the way to the
boma and she is a girl in my intake group that i know well,
leanne. Apparently the village that i am at is the smaller of
the three sites which i am happy about. It is also not far from
the tarmac which will make hitching and getting places
easier. It is supposed to be close to a protected forest. The
rural health center(RHC) is supposed to have been newly upgraded
from a health post so newer facilities. I am the first volunteer
and my water source is a protected well,not the best source but
cleaner than some, less than 1km away. So that is what i
know. On monday i meet my host who is someone from my village
that is supposed to help me be introduced to the community. They
probably can tell me more and hopefully stuff about my living
sitation like if i am on a family compound or not. Just wanted
to share with you before i send it out to everyone.

My host family as i have already said is super nice. I found out
that my mom is a traditional birth attendant i really wish my
kaonde was better or her english was better so that i could ask
her more about it. Maybe in time. When zambian women are giving
birth they are not supposed to make a sound and if they do the
women in the room(only women are allowed in the room) can hit
her and they dont have pain medicine. Pretty crazy. So my mom
was talking about the baby crying then i attempted to say in
kaonde that i would also be crying and that it would be very
painful. The women almost died laughing at this thought. Now
they love to bring up me giving birth to a child. My mom is
convinced that by the time i am thirty i will have many
children. I think she might be jumping ahead a few steps. The
other night i was sitting outside rewritting my language notes
and noticed a big fire. The roof of the kitchen was burning. It
was crazy. It was so big and there is nothing you can do. The
well is a couple minute walk away and there is no way you could
draw enough water. From what i could figure out from my host
parents acting and kaonde is that mary, about six, took a piece
of straw from the kitchen roof, this is common, and stuck it in
the braiser, what people put fire in to cook on, and then lifted
it up and it touched the roof. The roof caught on fire and she
froze and then it was too late to do anything. Everyone came
over to watch it burn and watch the child be beat. The mom
picked a few branches from a shrub and whipped her wicked hard
multiple times. It was really uncomfortable. After someone
stopped her from hitting her mary ran away. Apparently it was
the evening entertainment. Training itself is going well, it is
tedious. Because of my background i know alot of the health
information being given but it is good to hear again. Next week
we have mid terms. Then the week after that we leave for second
site visit where we first visit a health volunteer in our
province then spend a few nights at our future site.

Send good vibes for peaceful elections next month. That is it
for now..sorry about the formating one day i will type this up
on a computer.

August 13th email

This is a copy of an email that was sent on August 13th

So i wanted to give you all an update now that i have been in country for over two weeks. But first i am going to warm you that i am typing
this on my number pad phone. Here are some highlights.I am living with a host family who are all very sweet. They do everything for me like heat up my bath water, cook, do my laundry etc.

Anyway the first night i was here i went to go use the pit latrine and
noticed some ants on the ground. There ants...what is the worst they
can do? It turns out these ants bite. They climbed up my legs up my
shirt and one even made it to my head. Since they bite you have to
individually pick each one off of you and them squish them. It was
quite a welcome to the host family. The next morning my mom swept them
up and burned them. The food here isnt awful. There is very little
variety and everything is drenched in oil and salt. Basically for
breakfast i have bread and peanut butter. They noticed i was only
eating two slices of bread and so they started giving me two of the
thickest pieces of bread. Each slice is equivalent to about three
normal slices. For lunch and dinner there is a combination of oil salt
tomato potato onion rice or nshima with some sort of protein at at
least one meal, egg fried or hard boiled then fried or meat or soya
pieces. I eat it but i am looking forward to cooking for myself. The
language i am learning is kaonde which means that i will be in the
north western province. The group that is going there is very nice. So
i am happy about that. We have four hour language lessons five days a
week which is pretty intense but i just try to keep up with it. Our
training is five and a half days a week so i stay busy. Sundays i dont
know what to do with myself with the whole day off. Other than that i
have internet on my phone so you can send me emails and i will see
them. My phone number here is +26O979688319 which you can call or
text. Skype isnt too expensive. some people have asking about things
to send. Here are a few things i have thought of: food( gum chocolate, dried fruit, sweet things, trail mix, granola bars snacks) pictures music books or magazines if anyone has an old cd walkman lying around it could come in handy but you cant write it on the customs form or else it might get stolen.
Letters are always great. padded envelopes are cheap and get here relatively quick too. I hope you are all doing well. Keep me updated on your life.

Stay well. Ellen

Preparation

I still have 1 month and 13 days until I begin this adventure but people have been asking if I was going to do a blog. Now I am not guaranteeing that this will be a regular occurrence, or that I will even update this again. I have no idea what my internet access will be like. I figured, though, you have to start at some where. So here is my attempt. This is where I will try and blog.

People have also been asking if I know my address, which I do, at least for the first few months that I am there. It is:

Ellen Taetzsch/PCT
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 50707
Lusaka, Zambia

Beware that it takes a while for things to get there so don't be too worried if I haven't received anything in a month. But please mail me. Also send me your email addresses so if I send an email out then I can send it to you as well.

Also rumor has it that things sent to PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) are tax deductible. I am not exactly sure how to check that out, so one of you smart accounting people will have to confirm or deny this.