When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses. ~Joyce Brothers

Let me tell you something….what a joy it is to have your family come and visit.  In july my mom and sister came and I loved it!  It was so refreshing, nice to show them a bit of my life and soooooo nice to see them and get a little TLC.  Living on the Peace Corps budget can be difficult but I got to treat myself while sharing some of my favorite things with 2 of my most favorite people in life.  But that is to say that it didn’t come with its difficulties.

The first biggest difficulty was waiting for them at the airport!  How come they weren’t the first ones off the plane?  I kept seeing more and more people get off and no sign of them (I think they liked to  torture me).  Mom was wicked brave and decided to rent a vehicle for the visit up to my site.  My site is a good 12 hour drive if you are lucky from the airport to the village (usually it takes longer).  So she hops off the plane and then jumps straight in to the drivers seat (I am not allowed to drive in country unless I get special clearance).  So she drove the whole way to solwezi (being stopped twice I think but I used my sweet talking to get us out of one of those situations) right after she had just flown for 2 days straight.

The next day I got to show them a bit of the local market, the town of solwezi then we went to Nyansonso.  It was great having them meet my African brothers and sisters and mom and dad and good friends in the village.  The village really enjoyed it and they still ask about them all the time.  They got to help me was h laundry, hear the rats in my house, cook on a brazier, draw water, basically have a glimps into my daily life.  Now when I say a name of they know who I am talking about.  I absolutely loved it I only wish they could have stayed longer.

After the village we made the long journey to Livingstone, the opposite end of the country.  There we got to go on a safari, see Victoria falls, stand at the top of the falls and look down, eat delicious foods, have high tea, and spend that time with people that I have been missing for so long that I was waiting for.  Basically the trip was awesome, refreshing and I am so so grateful to have had them here.  IT is great to share a bit of my experiences with others, especially people who mean so much to you.

Here are some pictures from the adventure.

me mom and amy on the boat safari

mom and some hippos

getting ready to do the game drive

amy is being eaten

elephants!

giraffes fighting

I love African sunsets

Amy at Victoria Falls

Mom and I at Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls

Mom and Amy enjoying the mist from the falls

The three of us

Mom enjoying the sights

Mom looking over Victoria Falls

Oops Amy almost got kicked by a Zebra

in and out

So I suppose it is time for another update.  My life in Zambia has been super busy these past few months.  I have many different programs which have brought me to various places in Solwezi.  I feel like I have not been in my village that much, alas, most of them I think will be very beneficial to the community.

Also I have had a visitor from the states, Rachel.  You should totally check out her blog because it does a good job of going over the every day facts of life which I am not going to write about in this post. http://bendrothtravels.blogspot.com/

One of the greatest joys that I have in the village is the children.  They are amazing.  If I am having a frustrating day then I go home and the children can cheer me up in a heart beat.  They are so joyful and thankful for what they have.  They know how to make me smile.  With that said they are also becoming more and more like my brothers and sisters and figuring out how to push my buttons more and more but I still love it.

This is Lozi while I was doing my laundry she decided to wear clothes pins as earrings.  Precious.

The kids they even help me out

This is Millie who is in second grade and I swear can carry more water than I could ever imagine I would be able to.

Lukatazho and Evans helped me to catch a mouse in my house.  Here is the successful catch.

Lukatazho playing with a tire. Who knew they could be so fun.

Giravi after he had been dancing...how can this not cheer you up?

Oh no there are 6 puppies in my village.  They are so adorable.  I am in love.

So many of you already know but I got an African hairstyle for a few weeks.  It was painful at first and hard to sleep on but it made the villagers so happy.  I am glad the five hours of sitting on a stool was worth it.

before

 

after

after after...in the process of removing the braids...boy was that a task.

I just wanted to share a picture of my bamaama and bataata.  These are my Zambian parents.  They are amazing.  He is a senior headman which means he is the traditional leader of the village.  Currently they are rebuilding their house so they built a temporary grass shelter in the middle of the bush by their farm and they sleep there at night with their kids.  I think that they are crazy!  I would not want to do that especially sleeping on the ground I would be too afraid of things crawling over me.  I miss them but I have gone to visit them a few times it is about an hour walk one way.

Bataata is the one on the right.  They are drinking Monkoyo a traditional alcoholic drink made out of fermented corn.

This is at one of their fields, they have 2.  It is currently time to harvest the maize.

So as I said since April I have been in and out of my village alot.  One of the programs I participated in was Camp E.L.I.T.E. which is a camp where each volunteer who is participating brings 2 boys in Grade 7, 8 or 9 and then one teacher.  At the camp we play football in the morning and in the afternoon teach about different health issues, gender equality and other things.  At night we watch movies or we shared what smores were.  IT was crazy to see the boys reactions to the movies.  Many of them only watch TV at teachers houses and they usually are charged.  The EE!s and Mamamamas! were hilarious.  But one of the best activities is we did a gender really race.  Where the boys had to do the tasks that many of the girls are required to do before even going to school (fetching firewood, water, washing, shelling peanuts, sweeping) all while carrying a "baby" (5 liter water jug) on their back.  It was awesome.  Here are some pictures below.

 I also attended a nutrition program training.  This was about starting a program where we use mothers of well nourished children to teach mothers of those with not so well nourished children how they cook and care for their child.  It is called PD Hearth or Mama lumieres.  This was really exciting because it was a program that I had written a paper about while in grad school and now I am going to be carrying it out in my village.  Also my counterpart has the cutest baby ever who was there.  I love spending time with this baby and I am going to kidnap her and bring her to America with me.

Minata, my counter part, and me

I also attended a PEPFAR training with Mr. Mafewshi who has turned into a key person in my village.  He helps me with just about every thing I want to do.  He is amazing because he is a new headman and he isnt afraid of upsetting some people for helping out the entire community.  He has been really supportive and receptive to me and new ideas.  We are going to start a health drama group where one week we will learn about a health topic and the next week the group will do a drama about this health topic.  I think this could be really successful.  I hope we can get it up and running.

 So I think that I have figured out my four projects which I want to focus on for my service that I  think will have the potential to be really successful.  One is that drama group that i was just talking about.  The other is the nutrition program that I talked about.  The next is the Womens Group. There is a group of ten women in the community that want to start a women's group.  Right now we are working on starting a garden to help with food security and sell the produce to other villagers.  The next project is going to be sewing school uniforms for the children.  I just want to throw a shout out to the Mighty Oak class at Acorn School for helping to raise money for these women to start out these projects.  We have been raising money by buying talk time for phones and selling that in the village but it is a slow process.  We also are considering starting a small "bank" within the group so when there is an emergency and someone needs money or maybe wants to start a business there will be a small pot of money for them.  The last one is the nursery school.  Unfortunately for this term the school did not open, there was some difficulty.  The teacher, Precious, went for a job interview but has yet to return because she doesn't have enough transport money to get back.  Another women was asked to teach but she refused because she was so busy. The community wants this but no one was willing to step up when the teacher was missing.  I hope that we can figure this problem out because I think that it is a good program.

So that has basically been what I have been up to.  I think it is crazy how my service is finally beginning to come together.  I am really excited for what is to come and being able to really dive into these projects.  Service definitely has its up and downs but I definitely am happy that I am here and  I can not imagine leaving my village.  I realized the other day how sad I would be if I never saw some of these children again.

There is hippo snot on my tent

just chillin with the kids in my village while trying to fix my bathing shelter so that i could begin bathing again

School shmool

Education in many American communities is a normal part of children's lives. The law says that children must be receiving education until 16, if i am not mistaken. In many families parents are actively involved In the schooling. In m village this is the exception not the norm.

Children are not required to go to school.Often times there is not enough money ,for school fees and if there is children are sent home because they dont have shoes to wear or the proper uniform, or soap to clean their uniforms. If the children are able to sit in the classroom many times they dont have notebooks and pens. Families will often pull their children out of school to help on the farm or perform other daily tasks. Food security, daily survival, and alcohol are more important than schooling.

The children also only go to school for half a day. Maybe from 7:30 to 12:00 through grade 7 and during grade 8 and 9 they may stay an extra hour. Half the students have classes in the morning and the other half in the afternoon because there is only 5 class rooms for grade 1 through 9. The children are also required to do manual labor. In the mornings you will often find children sweeping the classrooms and the surroundings of the school. Certain days children are required to bring hoes to help clear the drive way and paths to the toilet or you will find them slashing grass for the soccer and netball pitches as well as the surroundings. There are no janitors and the teachers aren't responsible for the cleanliness the students are.

The children take similar subjects to those in America. They learn English, math, science, writing, social studies, kaonde, civics and all children are required to take religion as a class. Students are tested at the end of each term in each of these subjects. The school calender is a little different here. There is 3 months of classes and then a one month break then 3 months of classes again.

So that is an overview of school life at Nyansonso Basic School.

Thank you seatbelt

So yesterday I was traveling to Lusaka to go on a short holiday...however on the way a small incident happened. I was in the cab of a pickup truck and we were traveling over the speed limit, like all drivers, there was another car trying to change lanes that did not see us coming. We hit them and spun around. There car spun and flipped over into the median. Thankfully everyone was alright in both cars. I had my seat belt on and there was no one in the bed of the truck. The driver had refused a few people who wanted to hitch to the next city from getting in the back of the truck.

After the incident I called PCMO (the peace corps doctor) and was asked to come to Lusaka for a check up. I was feeling fine but they wanted to just make sure. A little while later my chest and neck were sore. My chest from the seat belt, my neck from the impact. I finally arrived in Lusaka just before the PCMO was supposed to knock off, but thankfully she saw me. Everything was okay I received some ibuprofen and was asked to stay within the PC compound so I could be seen in the morning.

So today I went in the morning..there is some swelling but nothing to serious. I got x-rays taken no fractures seen in my neck from the inital examination, a more specialized doctor is going to look at them later. I have to wear a soft neck brace and take some anti inflammatory and pain medicine for the next few days. But i was so pleased with the way that I was taken care of. It definitely makes me trust in the doctors here and I do know that if something serious was to happen I would be well taken care of.

This accident has definitely made me think more carefully about the hitches I take. Sometimes after you have been standing on the road for 4 hours without a ride you will take just about anything. I am so lucky that i was sitting in the cab of this truck with a seat belt, it was probably one of my safer hitches. You never can predict when a car accident is going to happen and I will be more conscientious of this now.

I am grateful that Leanne was already in Lusaka so she could come and take care of me, I am even more grateful she was not in the pick up truck traveling with me, and I am even more grateful that I can leave for holiday this afternoon.

Cheers to holiday! Hope you all are finding this well.

ny bad

Okay so i had been really bad with this. I apologize but I am going to try to catch you all up to speed. For Christmas vacation I did a few things. For Christmas itself I spent the day at the provincial house with other peace corps volunteers. The next day we went ti the orohanage in solwezi where we gave each child a toy and then left some community toys for the children. It was so humbking. Although I would say that this Christmas was my least commercial yet...the joy in each chikds eyes from some toy cars or small dolls was...I don't know the right word, humbling, heartbreaking. I am nit sure. It makes you appreciate things alot. At the end as we were leaving the children and staff sang us a song which was wicked moving, it brought tears to my eyes. There is a video floating around somewhere, if I can find it I will share it. You could hear in their voices ans are by the movement just how grateful they were. The next day me and a couple others from my province met up with two of our friends from a different province. We went to a chimpanzee orphanage when we literally got to hold some of the chimps and feed them. There was one chimp that was not fit for the human interaction so she was in a seperat enclosure and she was sourtung at us and throwing rocks at us as the guide was telling us about chimps and the program it was so awesome. I was also peed on by a chimp.I was sitting on a log and the chimp was in a tree and decided he had to pee. It was coo. How many people an say they have been pee on by a chimp? I posted some pictures on Facebook. We also went to a waterfall and just relaxed and then to solwezi to celebrate the new year.

For my birthday I spent it in solwezi with some friends. It was nice and relaxing although I did have an infected cut on my foot that made it swell alot and eventually the swelling spread to my ankle. It was difficult to walk. But I am healed now and only had to stay in solwezi a few extra days.

When I got back to my village from my birthday addventure I was confronted by my community saying that they had organized the nursery school and that I would begin teaching it the next day. Needless to say I was a little over whelemed, still not 100% but I was very apprefiative of my community's effort and so we began. It has been going really well different from schools in the united states. The resources are just not there, no paper, crayons, sissors, chalkboard But it is not only the resources but also the parental involvement. I feel that in many places I the US parents know what the children are learning about at school and reinforce it, but here most of the time the learning stops once the child leaves the class, especially the english which is what the parents want the children to learn the most. It has been challenging but rewarding.

I also have gone to a training in Lusaka which was nice. I got to go to the movies, eat some good food, see everyone that I did my training with and learn a few things. One bad thing that happened was one of the girls I trained with was sent home after being hit by a drunk driver while walking, causing her to break her foot. Her recovery time was too ling so she was medically seperated.


Right now Leanne, Kim,and I are in the proecess of writing a grant for a joint Netball and football tournament where we will have VCT, which is great since it is not availablin my community and people don't know there HIV status, and HIV/aids educational events. It will require some work but it will be nice if we can pull it off.

This Monday is youth day so we had one of the neighboring villages over for a celebration of dancingm, poems, songs, questions in English and track and field events. Sometimes I have a moment of "wow I really am in Africa this is awesome" and the definitely occurred during these events.

That is a quick update. Hope all is well with you.