Back in Lusaka

Gina's Post:

Didn't think I would be writing this for a few weeks, but I was able to get e-mail access due to an unexpected guidebook falling on my pinky toe from the top bunk of the provincial house this morning.  After 10 days of living in small villages, fetching my own water, and biking up to 60k per day on dirt roads, a little broken toe from that darn book was the last reason I thought I'd end up in the PC medical office.  The doctor wants x-rays tomorrow just be sure, but he said it should heal nicely, and I don't think it'll interfere much with upcoming training, as we'll really be focusing on language the next few weeks.

On a better note . . . thanks everyone for the birthday wishes for both myself and Scott.  I was able to spend my b-day at another health volunteer's site gawking at waterfalls and initiating a game of red rover with the kids hanging around at her clinic.  I then made my way to our future home, which I included in the last post.  We live on a family compounding consisting of a pastor and his wife and some of their six children as well as various friends/family members that I am unable to keep track of quite yet.  There are SO many things I could write about for my first impressions, but I thought I'd leave you with two for now:

Ant/Termite Hills:
The further up into Northwest Province you go, the bigger and more mountainous they get, sometimes towering upwards of 30 feet high.  At first they just dot the landscape like crazy little mountains, until you realize that entire villages are actually centered around them, with about one ant hill to each family compound.  When you take a closer look, you can tell these hills serve at least 3 very essential purposes for human bush existance:
1) I guess the soil they dig up is very clay-like and perfect for making mud bricks.  In fact almost every ant hill in my new village has a hole cut out of the side of it and a brick oven kiln within several feet of it.  I found that the handmade bricks in the huts up there are much more solid than the Lusaka area ones, especially after they have been fired in the kiln.
2) The numerous goats and sheep up where I live love to climb on the hils and make little paths all around them . . . almost like pseudo-mountains.  The sheep here are almost hairless and at first I thought they were goats except for their long tails and their baa-ing, so that took a little adjustment.
3) The two best places to get cell phone coverage in our village are of course by walking halfway up the anthills, so if you ever decide to call, you can just picture where we'll be standing as there is no network coverage inside our hut.

Food:
Our area is 19 kilometers on a very hilly dirt road from the nearest BOMA, or town, so it is very difficult for villages to buy almost any products.  They are truly subsistence farmers, but that said, they take pride in the diversity of foods they are able to grow/cultivate.  I think the next two years will truly be a lesson in how to eat locally.  Here are some foods that I tasted at site during my time there and their rating in Lunda:
1) Chawahi Nankashi (Very good)- freshly-cut pineapple almost every day, sweet potatoes in 2 varieties, freshly pounded coffee off the tree in our family compound, a small fruit that tastes like a mango, chinese cabbage and rape (a green leafy veggie).
2) Chanti Chanti (Just okay)- sweet potato and cassava leaves, goat/sheep meat, fresh sugar cane (delicious, but hard to eat), nshima yamakamba--that play-dough like substance that is made out of fermented cassava root instead of corn up in the Northwest.  It's the staple and eaten with every meal, so I better learn to love it!
3) Nakenga Wanyi (I don't like)- dried fish--although depending on how it's prepared I can actually like it, my swallowing a fish bone a few weeks back as well as eating the heads made me a little more weary of these things, dried catepillars--at first I thought I would try those, but for some reason I just couldn't stomach them when they were offered to me without any other relishes or other foods.

Yes, living in the bush will be quite a culinary adventure.  I also hear there are bananas, avacados, mangos, squash and fresh honey available depending on time of the year :).  And . . . lots of the villagers are interested in some of the foods we grow in America, so we'll definitely also have our own little garden.

That's about it for now.  Scott is still on his second site visit learning about fish farming implementation in action, and we will both be at our training sites for the upcoming national elections, which happen September 20th.  We'll probably have some interesting stories after those happen, but I don't want to jinx anything, so we'll save that blog for after.

I'll be in Mwnilunga area (our official site for the next two years) in mid-October, so feel free to start sending mail to our new address in the corner as it takes about a month and it will probably reach us by then.  Off to bed so I can get some x-rays tomorrow morning!

Take care,
Gina

Home Sweet Home

The two guys on the roof are putting the finishing touches on our soon-to-be house!

One of the dancers at the traditional ceremony, Chisemwa Cha Lunda

This is one of the fish ponds near our future house.  Scott's job will be to consult with the fish farmers to increase their capacity.

These guys finished thatchng the roof of our future pit latrine in just a few hours. Notice the large anthill in the background.

~ Halfway through training!

I am surprised I've been able to have internet access this frequently in Zambia so far.  Alas, it is because we are near Lusaka and as Gina pointed out in the last blog we have been posted near Mwinilunga, just about as far from Lusaka as you can get.  From our site, she has to walk down the road and to a bridge to get cell phone service, so I am predicting much less frequent blogging once the end of October hits.
Gina is solidly halfway through training and I am nearly halfway, and both of us are ready to go to Mwinilunga right now.  It is not that training is that bad, more so we are just really excited about going to our site and getting started. Whether it is meeting with fish farmers to see how motivated they are to move 150 cubic meters of soil by hand, learning how to make a Zambian drum, weighing babies, or learning more Lunda, we just want to get started already!
If you didn't see the comment from Yuki Reiss, here is the link to pictures that she and Chris Landreau posted for us:  https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=yuki.reiss2&target=ALBUM&id=5647393945325363057&authkey=Gv1sRgCJ6ChaS5xYqWTg&feat=email
Thanks Chris and Yuki!

Some highlights since Scott's last blog:
* I went to a zambian Baptist church with my host father.  It was mostly in a language I am not learning, but since my host father was one of the preachers he did throw a little bit of English in there for my benefit.  He also put me on the spot by having me read some verses of John IN LUNDA to the congregation.  First imagine reading something that you've never read before, and then imagine it being in a language you have been learning for about 3 weeks. I was very nervous, but there were big smiles as I stumbled through it so it was one of those experiences I'll cherish forever.

* During our 1.5 hour drive from the training site to Lusaka, I have seen a giraffe, 2 zebra, several monkeys, and an ostrich.  Nothing like the safari in Tanzania in 2006, but still pretty exciting to see free of charge.

* I learned to cook nshima (the thick polenta-like corn flour mush that goes with every zambian meal), wash my clothes, and fetch water from the local borehole.  As I pumped water my host sister asked "Are you tired?" I said no.  Apparently when you say "no" in this case you are offering to pump the water for everyone else.  After I filled a few more cans and containers at the pump that did not belong to my host family,   I conceded "OK, I'm tired".

* My 40th birthday in Zambia was good.  We went to Lusaka for a museum trip early in the morning and some of my co-trainees strongly encouraged me to have a drink with them.  Cheap rum-like alcohol on an empty stomach at 7:30 in the morning is a great way to start your birthday in Zambia!  Then I met Gina for lunch in Lusaka and returned to her training site in Chongwe for a quick american birthday party with her host family.  It was great to see her though the visit was less and 18 hours since she had to go to Mwinilunga to see our site.

* Later that week I met my fish farmer host in Lusaka (yes another visit to Lusaka), Martin Malichi.  He is very quiet so far, but speaks pretty-good English and was interested enough in meeting me that I am looking forward to getting started in Mwinilunga.  I also met another man from the same area named Harrison Lupasa.  Lupasa is LUNDA for "cup".  I instantly was reminded of Randy Kupp from Yakima as I met his counterpart family in Lusaka.  This also reminded me of all the great friends I have in Yakima.  I miss you guys!  If anybody is keeping any non-facebook blogs of their lives, please email me the link so I can catch up with you!

 * About once a week the trainees in Chipembi get lunch served to them by the Peace Corps.  There has been nothing quite as satisfying as the cheesy pasta that comes in a huge metal warmer tray.  Cheese and pasta are practically unheard of at zambian meals.

* One of our trainers talked to me about all the different kinds of drums and associated dancing there are in Zambia.  He also sang a couple of tunes while he picked away on a Peace Corps volunteer's guitar.  He's got talent!  I can't wait to learn more from him about zambian rhythms.

*The Zambian presidential election is coming up on September 20^th.  There is a lot of campaigning amongst the 2 major political parties.  Meanwhile the road where I live is being completely redone all the way to Chongwe.  Those Zambians who support the incumbent swear that the road repair has been planned for a long time and will be completed soon.  Those supporting the opposition party swear that the road repair is just  ploy to attract votes for the incumbent candidate.  After seeing how poorly constructed the new road is, I have to agree there might be a bit of a popularity contest going on.  On the other hand nothing gets done quickly here in Zambia.  We will see on September 20^th.  

* When giving their name to someone for the first time, Zambians always give their surname first, then their first name.  This has lead to a bit of confusion when trying to keep track of names.  

I will be headed to Mwinilunga tomorrow for a week, and then back to my village since the Peace Corps does not want us to travel during the election week, and then back to Mwinilunga for another 5 days, so I probably will not be blogging for a while, though I never really know about the opportunities.  Wish me luck as I join the Peace Corps trainees’ soccer team against the Peace Corp trainer’s team this afternoon. Meanwhile, Gina will be returning to her training site on Tuesday the 13^th, though I don’t know I she will have time for internet or not on her way through Lusaka.