Muli Shani!
That is “How are you doing?” in Bemba; the language that I am learning here in Zambia. I suppose saying that I am learning is an understatement, its more accurately being shoved down my throat. I have 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours of language training a day, not to mention I am living with a family who’s first language is Bemba. They are such wonderful people, but more about that in a few minutes!
Well, I have made it to Zambia all right. After being thrown into a group of 42, a few ice breakers, hours of paper work, some flip chart presentations, and of course a few more shots (vaccines, not alcohol); Peace Corps head quarters in DC felt we were finally able to leave and become part of PCZ (Peace Corps Zambia (and I thought that TFA (Teach For America) had a thing for acronyms, they have nothing on Peace Corps or so it feels!)). On my 18.5 hour flight to Jo-burg my new best friend and I really became close, Ambein. I am never going to travel long distances without it ever again!
To be perfectly honest the first few days were all a blur, I was assigned a roommate to stay with the first few nights. She was nice, she is in the other group (there are two groups with in the one big group, myself in CHIP (Community Heath Interactive Partnership) and RAP. I’m not really sure what it stands for but I know that they are working on building fish ponds within their assigned communities (which we don’t know yet) and teaching the people of the community how to keep them up and sell their profits. It’s all about Sustainable Development. This is the first time I am typing these words for this blog, but here is a little warning: It’s not going to be the last. That is our over all, end all job; to create Sustainable Development everywhere we go.
After Being in country for about 2 days, we were split up into groups of 5 or 6 within our trainee programs and left for our first site visit. We were told that the province that we went to for our first site visit was not going to be where we ended up. I went to Eastern. It was beautiful and wonderful, and gave me a great opportunity to get to know 5 people very well. To be honest, I really didn’t need to know one man so well, but was forced too, since his snoring at night left me no choice but to stare at top of the tent and think about how great I would be, not to mention how much better I would be sleeping, if there was not someone one sleeping bag down from me snoring at a disable level above and beyond a screaming police car. I really wish I was exaggerating right now. I’m not. However, the site visit give me a look into what the next two years are going to hold for me. The kind of house I will be living in, where I will be cooking my meals, how I will be getting my water (a bore hole), where I will bathe (behind a reed fence with a plastic bucket full of water I have warmed up over the fire), where I will be going to the bathroom (a hole about 4.5 inches in dynamiter in a cement hut), and the kind of work I will be doing. And to tell ya’ll the truth. I came back from that site visit more excited and ready to start the next two years then I was building up to my departure.
1 comment:
Wow! This blog is awesome, it makes me feel so connected to you and your PC experience. Love you E! Will make you a disc. Just got some fresh music in on Friday.
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