9.28.10
1:45AM Local Time, Zambia
As I write this it is the eve before posting. Tomorrow I will begin the next chapter of my life as I get posted to my permanent site for the next two years. It's hard to believe that nine weeks of training has come and gone and now I'm no longer a Peace Corps Trainee, but a Peace Corps Volunteer. How does one prepare for the journey that I'm about to embark on, for the village life, for the life where the simplest tasks will have to be relearned? I struggle with my thoughts and emotions of what an impact this experience will be on me. I do, however, revel in the fact that a new life awaits me - a life where mistakes will be made and lessons will be learned.
/ [] Schedule of events []
THU 23/9: Moved out of homestay
FRI 24/9: Sworn in as volunteer
SAT 25/9: Travelled 12 hours upcountry the Northern Province from Lusaka
SUN 26/9: Rest day spent at chishamba falls some 30 minutes from the Northern Provincial house.
MON 27/9: Shopping for life in the village (yes, everything!)
TUE 28/9: Posting to permanent site (2 hr journey via land cruiser
//
I'll do my best to best describe the life that I will live. What I do know is as follows:
- I teach people how to keep fish for food security and income generation - that's the gist
- I have no electricity or running water
- I poop in a hole
- I fetch water from a river in 20 litre gerry cans.
- I live in a brick hut with a thatch roof.
- There is malaria.
- My project will on average be within a 20km radius of where I live.
- I have to travel 38km if I want ice or a nice cold coke/beer
- A Trek mountain bike will be my main source of transportation.
- I teach people how to keep fish for food security and income generation.
If you are following this blog and have any questions for me, please feel free to post a comment and I'll do my best to respond to all those questions and give you the opportunity to dictate the direction that this blog will embark on.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
video log 1
Here's my first vLog. I'll try to create more of these as I begin to figure our my technological limitations... you know, the whole no electricity and internets thing. Also be sure to be on the look out for my gear reviews.
p.s. Thanks Henry for the suggestions/inspiration.
vlog 1.
end post.
p.s. Thanks Henry for the suggestions/inspiration.
vlog 1.
end post.
T.I.A
I hitched into Lusaka last week to post the blog that follows. However, it turns out that the internet cafe was closed due to "lack of internet." Whatever that means, the internets is never down! The following post was written around 10 days ago. Following the blog you'll find a photo series.
/begin post
We have only just returned from second site visit where, if we were lucky, we had the chance to stay a few days. My site is wonderful and I cannot wait to be placed. I am only 3 km off the great north road (yes, there is only one paved road that goes North in Zambia to Tanzania) and only 38 km to the nearest internet connection and I'm just about as far to the nearest volunteer. The final stretch is upon us. It won't be long before we are sworn in as volunteers and we'll no longer be trainees. That said, the journey is only about to begin. Come 24 Semptember, we'll have spent 9 weeks of training, 6 1/2 days per week. Suffice it to say, I am tired... and am anxiously awaiting placement to my permanent site. I am ready for training to be over.
As I begin to reflect on my experience thus far, I have to say that I am glad that I am here in Zambia. Zambia is definitely not the most glamorous of African countries. The transportation is pretty much non existent and what transportation they do have is absolutely aweful. The food is not exsactly the most exciting (but I like it - then again I'm not very picky). Personal space is a foreign concept along with our concept of time. It turns out that waiting in Zambia is in itself its very own activity.
However, if there is one thing that I am certain of it is that the people are just absolutely phenomenal. Zambians are good people, plain and simple. I am constantly in awe of their generosity, genuine good nature, and overall sense of humor. I have been welcomed with open arms time and again. I look forward to the next few months where my time will be spent in community integration where I can truly begin to better understand this culture.
/end post
photos: My life so far
A Zambian wedding. I'm convinced that everyone is born with rhythm.
My counterpart/host dad for my new village of Masamba in the Mbala district (where I'll be living for the next 2 years).
A stones throw from my new home in Masamba. I'll take another once we get the first rain and the slash and burn is done.
Zambians for some reason love to walk in the middle of the road. This is on the great North Road with plenty of truckers driving recklessly...and sometimes drunk.
This is my home for the next two years. Rather quaint and cozy...
This is my host dad, John-Well Silwamba (sic?)
This is my hut. My room during Homestay in Chishiko Village, Chongwe (40km from Lusaka).
/begin post
We have only just returned from second site visit where, if we were lucky, we had the chance to stay a few days. My site is wonderful and I cannot wait to be placed. I am only 3 km off the great north road (yes, there is only one paved road that goes North in Zambia to Tanzania) and only 38 km to the nearest internet connection and I'm just about as far to the nearest volunteer. The final stretch is upon us. It won't be long before we are sworn in as volunteers and we'll no longer be trainees. That said, the journey is only about to begin. Come 24 Semptember, we'll have spent 9 weeks of training, 6 1/2 days per week. Suffice it to say, I am tired... and am anxiously awaiting placement to my permanent site. I am ready for training to be over.
As I begin to reflect on my experience thus far, I have to say that I am glad that I am here in Zambia. Zambia is definitely not the most glamorous of African countries. The transportation is pretty much non existent and what transportation they do have is absolutely aweful. The food is not exsactly the most exciting (but I like it - then again I'm not very picky). Personal space is a foreign concept along with our concept of time. It turns out that waiting in Zambia is in itself its very own activity.
However, if there is one thing that I am certain of it is that the people are just absolutely phenomenal. Zambians are good people, plain and simple. I am constantly in awe of their generosity, genuine good nature, and overall sense of humor. I have been welcomed with open arms time and again. I look forward to the next few months where my time will be spent in community integration where I can truly begin to better understand this culture.
/end post
photos: My life so far
A Zambian wedding. I'm convinced that everyone is born with rhythm.
My counterpart/host dad for my new village of Masamba in the Mbala district (where I'll be living for the next 2 years).
A stones throw from my new home in Masamba. I'll take another once we get the first rain and the slash and burn is done.
Zambians for some reason love to walk in the middle of the road. This is on the great North Road with plenty of truckers driving recklessly...and sometimes drunk.
This is my home for the next two years. Rather quaint and cozy...
This is my host dad, John-Well Silwamba (sic?)
This is my hut. My room during Homestay in Chishiko Village, Chongwe (40km from Lusaka).Tuesday, September 7, 2010
My Zambian life in 2 photos...
This is how we roll. A land cruiser with ten people and 3 mountain bikes on top. By the way, this is about 6am of a 13 hour drive...
This is me at my site for the next two years. Rough life i tell you. BTW, the EXPED Scout Hammock is a great travel hammock, just my 2 cents.
Monday, August 30, 2010
On the road...
It's hard to believe that I've already been in country for a month - or is it more? or less? - i'm not really sure anymore. That said, there's something about time here that i can't quite wrap my mind around. It was just the other day that we were in Atlanta for staging and yet i often find myself counting the minutes that feel like hours.
There's plenty of stories to tell of the last month but I would be here all day writing about it. I'll do my best to paint a picture of my experience here. Zambia is known for being "the real Africa" and Peace Corps Zambia in every way embraces that philosophy. They say that if you're looking for the "real" Peace Corps experience - Zambia is the place to go. You hear stories of PC volunteers across the world with electricity, running water, toilet seats, and even internet not to mention beautiful beach front property. Well, you get none of that here in Zambia. We have candles, long treks to the water hole, we poop in holes, and we share living spaces with mice. However, we do get a mean mountain bike and my phone has internet...
I'm currently at the Provincial House in Kasama, the Northern Province of Zambia waiting to be transported by Land Cruiser to a current volunteers house where my days will be filled with learning Mambwe (one of 73 bantu languages...another post in itself) and seeing first hand how I will be trying to apply all the technical knowledge of fish farming that I've obviously mastered in the past 4 weeks along with the mambwe i've also mastered. I'll be posted about 38km from Mbala which itself is about 40km from Lake Tangynika. I should mention that Kasama is about a 12 hour Land Cruiser drive on good roads from Lusaka (the Capitol).
My time here is about up and should stop hogging the only computer in the house. Training is pretty hectic as PC tries to adequately prepare us for life in the village. Until I swear in as a volunteer (I'm currently a trainee) and I figure out how to live my new life (about 3 months from now) I have a sneaky suspicion that this blog will be quiet for some time.
kacili akasanya (translate: the day is still young...i think)
There's plenty of stories to tell of the last month but I would be here all day writing about it. I'll do my best to paint a picture of my experience here. Zambia is known for being "the real Africa" and Peace Corps Zambia in every way embraces that philosophy. They say that if you're looking for the "real" Peace Corps experience - Zambia is the place to go. You hear stories of PC volunteers across the world with electricity, running water, toilet seats, and even internet not to mention beautiful beach front property. Well, you get none of that here in Zambia. We have candles, long treks to the water hole, we poop in holes, and we share living spaces with mice. However, we do get a mean mountain bike and my phone has internet...
I'm currently at the Provincial House in Kasama, the Northern Province of Zambia waiting to be transported by Land Cruiser to a current volunteers house where my days will be filled with learning Mambwe (one of 73 bantu languages...another post in itself) and seeing first hand how I will be trying to apply all the technical knowledge of fish farming that I've obviously mastered in the past 4 weeks along with the mambwe i've also mastered. I'll be posted about 38km from Mbala which itself is about 40km from Lake Tangynika. I should mention that Kasama is about a 12 hour Land Cruiser drive on good roads from Lusaka (the Capitol).
My time here is about up and should stop hogging the only computer in the house. Training is pretty hectic as PC tries to adequately prepare us for life in the village. Until I swear in as a volunteer (I'm currently a trainee) and I figure out how to live my new life (about 3 months from now) I have a sneaky suspicion that this blog will be quiet for some time.
kacili akasanya (translate: the day is still young...i think)
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