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)

It's 3 am...

and I think i'm finally done packing.

" When you go on a big trip with a group of people, you feel a bond with them that lasts for months or even years. The bond is especially strong if it's a dangerous sort of trip, like canoeing in white water or hiking into a particularly sketchy and remote piece of wilderness. I think that bond forms because the people in the group know they're doing something new and perhaps uncomfortable, and they associate their fellow participants with that great rush that comes from being brave, from going all the way out."

- Steven Rinella, The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine

To my friends: thanks for the rush!

7 days...

In exactly one week I'll be boarding a plane to begin my next adventure. I will be joining the Peace Corps to serve 27 months in Zambia as a Rural Fish Culture Extension Agent. If there's anything i've learned in the last year of my application (yes, really) it is that PC is all about acronyms and fancy titles. I have no idea what i'll be doing. I think it's got something to do with raising fish... and no, i do not know anything about fish. I may have caught a fish once, i'm not sure. Anywho, i'm not going to sit here and bore you about my application process and how i was supposed to go to the Pacific Islands and blah blah blah. However, being flexible is definitely key and as patient as i am, there were plenty of times that i just wanted to punch someone in the face.

Now that i'm one week away the question is: Am i ready? I'm going to go with no, I am definitely not ready. That said, I do have a plan. The plan is to go all Maverick style and fly by the seat of my pants.

If there is anything you need to know about me, it is that i love, absolutely love (borderline obssessed with) gadgets and gear. Let's just say, I think i'm ready to take on the apocalypse and/or be on the next mtv hobo cribs. Perhaps I'll get around to posting pictures and stuff, but i'm really busy.

So, what do you do with yourself when you're one week away from catching a flight or two to the middle of nowhere, Africa? It's a tough life i tell ya. I've been balancing watching movies (every night), practicing my sewing skills, peace corps journal stalking, hanging out at costco, and hanging out in child's pose as Shaun T's INSANITY plays in the background.

Alas, I'm off to LA and for a few days and will check back in when i've run out of movies to watch.