Sorry Sorry! That's Bemba for I apologize profusely for not making a blog post since July. Turns out life here happens and gets in the way of keeping to any type of schedule or plan. ZAMBIA happens. There are power outtages in Mpika, internet network is down for a week or so, yours truly runs out of kwacha for internet use...I should stop making promises to update regularly. Suffice it to say I shall update my blog 'if the will of god insists'. Now I've truly become Zambian. :)
I'm not sure if I can fit the past 2 months of my life in one post, but at the risk of sounded long-winded I'll give it a try. My family visited for two weeks in August! We had an amazing time traveling around together and I feel so incredibly lucky that they were willing and able to embark on the gong show that is a trip to sub-saharan Africa. Zambia isn't considered the most popular of tourist destinations when it comes to relaxing, care-free travel. But the fam proved to be troopers and for most of the trip everyone was a happy camper. Literally. For the two weeks in between hug attacks in Livingstone and some tears at the Lusaka airport, we swung over gorges, slept amongst leopards and hippos (actually incredibly terrifying...armed guards circle your tent all night), traveled at night over crater-filled roads, danced in the middle of 100 villagers, drank locally brewed beer (and many a mosi lager!), soaked in hotsprings under the starry african night sky, and so much more. My family left Zambia with 3 added layers of dirt. But at least it looked like a tan. :) It was really difficult seeing them off at the airport but their visit oddly re-energized me for my final 6 months of life here. The quote of the trip came from my mom. We were sitting under my insaka on the day of the big village party. My father was in shorts with a bandana wrapped around his receding hairline (sorry dad!). My mother turned to him completely nonchalantly and stated, "Len, put your pants on and take your headdress off. The party is about to start." :)
The week following my family's visit I stayed in Lusaka to help out with training the newest group of volunteers as a Resource Volunteer. Ideally this would entail facilitating sessions every day and being busy in general...but this is Peace Corps. In Africa. Which translates to consistent schedule changes and no one really knowing what's going on at any given moment. It was nice to get to know the new volunteers, though, and I had a chance to camp over night at my homestay family's compound from when I was in training. It was crazy to see how my little host brothers grew in a year and a half, as well as carol, who was about a year old when I arrived in Zambia. They had one new addition to the family, Naomi, and I really enjoyed hanging out with them. Crazy how fast time flies!
In September I attended Ukusefya Pa Ngwena, the Bemba cultural festival that takes place annually in Kasama. We hitched a ride out to the festival in the Maximum condom truck. You know it's gonnna be a good day when that's how it begins. :) Past presidents, most notably Kenneth Kaunda, were in attendance, as well as the current vice president. I went to the festival last year and expected it to be a lot of the same types of tribal dances. However, due to the number of politicians a big chunk of the festival was speeches. In English. A language which most Zambians living out in the bush don't understand. There was some dancing in the morning, the highlight being a lady riding around in circles on a bicycle with a jug of water on her head, drinking from it with a big spoon while cycling. We tried really hard to score some free t-shirts, which we finagled(sp?) a few days later in town. But we left in the early afternoon heat to hitch-hike back to Kasama.
My treck back to the village began with a Tanzanian truck driver attempting to kidnap me and steal the birthday package from America I had just picked up at the post office in Mpika. We never discussed a price when I got into the cab of the truck, and I often get free rides to my turn-off because semi-trucks are so incredibly slow. However, this guy refused to let me out of the truck until I paid him, and as he kept driving past my junction he took my America package and threw it in the corner of the windshield. This guy should have known better than to mess with this girl on transport days. I went off on him. I was speaking really fast and using many 'french' words. But I think he got the point. I gave him some money to make him stop the truck so I could get out, but I wasn't about to go down without a fight. He's lucky I didn't smack him upside the head with my bday package. But I knew there was a chance there could be special fragile candies in there you can't find anywhere on this continent. And he was not worth the risk.
Life in the village as of late has been just ok. I've been trying to work with my agricultural officer in hopes of meeting some farmers groups and possibly doing some composting and permagarden workshops. I've also met with the headteacher at the basic school and we are hoping to put together an IGA (income-generating activity) workshop with the P.T.A. Much like the Rural Health Center, the school doesn't receive adequate funding from the government so they need to organize activities in the community to help them raise money for basic materials like chalk and paper. Right now they work a maize field but I am trying to link them with the local agricultural officer to possibly start up a chicken coup. Yet I think I reached the pinnacle of my frustrations with development work in the village a few weeks ago. I was meeting with some farmers in another village not too far from mine. I was helping them with an action plan, and they were coming up with the resources needed for activities they were planning. With each resource they had to also write where it was coming from. They had one column for internal resources, those that are contributed by the community, and one column for external resources such as coming from Mpika. Instead they kept turning to me and saying "you will give us this, and you will give us that". You would think that after a year and a half living in the village, not handing out money or resources but instead trying to link people to them, that I would not be seen as a walking dollar sign anymore. Sadly that's not the case, and I'm beginning to think that I never should have expected that mentality to change. By doing so I was setting myself up for frustration. What disappoints me the most is when the same people I have been working with for so long continually expect me to just give them things, as if my hut is a bank, money grows on my mango trees, and I'm hoarding valuable resources under my bed. What gets me through the times when I want to throw in the towel and head home is dinner with my neighbors when we end up singing and dancing; the simple beauty of mud-hut living; and coming to the point where I cycle through my village and everyone knows my name and greets me a smile. I've fallen in love with Zambia. But I've lost a lot of my passion for development projects at the rural level. If a well-educated Zambian isn't willing to live in the bush for two years and work with the rural clinic to educate people on basic healthcare, then what am I doing? This country will only develop when those who are fortunate enough to have received a good education realize that Lusaka Zambia and rural Zambia are two separate countries. Foreign aid is useless unless the citizens of a country are willing to help eachother out. My main counterpart, the clinic In-Charge/Midwife is amazing. He is one of the most active members of the community, is well-trusted, well-educated, and works really hard to make small changes at the very rural level. My personal belief is that Zambia could use less american peace corps volunteers and more people like him.
Right now it looks like I'll be returning to the states in April/May. I believe my 'close of service' date is April 21st, but that can always change. I would love to do a little bit of traveling before flying home but will cross that bridge when I get to it. If I do travel it probably won't be for very long. I'd like to make it up to Rwanda and Uganda, but if I don't that's ok too. Where I really want to be right now is back in America. :) I am anxious to get back and try to figure out my life. But I'm too stubborn to leave Zambia early, I know it would be difficult to get a job right now stateside, and through all the ups and downs I'm still happy over here. I'm not quite ready to leave just yet.
A few weeks ago I was biking out of my village when I noticed a man about 50 meters ahead of me on the path look up into a big tree on the side of the path and immediately start running. I could see some object moving up in the tree, too large to be a bird but definitely not an animal...once I reached the tree I looked up and saw something I'll never forget. A man had braced himself up in the tree. He was wearing a cape and a string bikini/loin cloth. He was picking fruits from the tree, pounding them on the trunk, and staring right at me. Keep in mind that it was around 5:30/6 in the morning. I greeted him in bemba while preparing myself to haul ass if he jumped down. I had my headphones in and was listening to music, but I'm pretty sure his response was 'mpeleniko 3pin' (give me 3,000 kwacha). I thought he might decide to begin target practice with the fruits so I took off and never looked back at crazy. But I continued to laugh about this incident for another 2 hours and the rest of my day on transport. How can I leave this country early and miss out on random events like this one that make me feel like I'm in the twilight zone? :)
So it's the thick of hot season here. And believe me sub-saharan africa doesn't mess around in the hot season. It is HOT. I tend to rise and shine a good 2 hours earlier than during the rest of the year. It's pretty scorching by 7/8, so I try to get up around 5:30/6 to run.
Some random noteables:
I think my dog is knocked up. For real this time. She was in heat last month and a steady stream of male suitors came to my compound to try and get with her. It was extremely intriguing, but also pretty gross. Needless to say, according to science, she has got to be pregnant by now.
Also, I was lucky to celebrate my 25th birthday with friends in Kasama. We made delicious pizza. But before eating it, we sent someone outside with it, called them, and had them deliver it. It was nice because we had coupons. :) The next night about 8 of us camped at the hotsprings. It was luvly. :)
Amy Odland, one of my friends from college, is flying in TODAY to visit me for a month! I spent the weekend in Lusaka with my 3 best friends in the country, and we are all headed to Livingstone today for bunjee jumping, rafting, gorge swings, ziplines, booze cruises...as much fun as we can pack into two days down there. Then it's a couple weeks of traveling around Zambia with Amy and up to Tanzania in November to meet up with another friend from college, climb Mt. Meru and return to the paradise of Zanzibar for a few days. :) aaahhhh.... life here is rough. wink!
I hope life in Americaland is good. Yay for Obama and peace. :) All my luv from the land of Zam!
katie
Saturday, October 17, 2009
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