Mwli shani!
So the internet in Zambia is extremely SLOW, and we probably won't get much access to it for the next 2-3 months, BUT we just wanted everyone to know that we have arrived safely and soundly and are doing well. We have begun training outside of Lusaka and learned many things such as safety and security, cultural customs, etc. We have 39 people in our training group from all over the U.S. Tomorrow, we go to visit small towns all over Zambia at our first site visit, and then go to a training center outside of Lusaka where we will live with a host family and begin language training. We HAVE found out that we'll be living in either Northwest or Central province, and will be speaking either Bemba, Lunda, OR Kaonde. They actually give us our language on Wednesday, so we'll have a better idea of WHERE we will be living by then.
We did get cell phones, which are MUCH more efficient than internet, so if you need to reach us until the end of the month, just call our US home phone number or Gina's cell phone number, and we will check messages on those up through the end of the month. Leave a message and we'll give you our Zambian numbers.
MANY pictures to come, but it will probably be via us mailing a photo chip to a friend who will have to upload it to the internet. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a mental image that we saw while on a walk outside of our training center yesterday: Two Zambian men and a women dressed in high heels with a hot pink belt around her waist carrying a cage made out of sticks carrying about 15 chickens. And this was in the outskirts of Lusaka. The people are very friendly and have awesome handshakes :).
Before we have more regular internet access, we would LOVE snail mail, and out address is in the top right of this blog. They said it gets there best if you label it in RED ink with Bible verses or religious quotes written on the outside of the envelope. Yes, Zambia is a very Christian country. We will definitely reply via snail mail!
Take care,
Gina and Scott
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Two More Days
Gina's post:
We officially have less than two days until our plane officially leaves for South Africa and then Zambia after a brief period in Philadelphia where we get to meet about 35 other PC volunteers from the health program (Scott will meet his group from the fish program 2 weeks later).
This past month has been a whirlwind of packing, moving, leaving work, and saying goodbye to friends and family in different parts of the country. This week has been a blessing with some much needed R&R with Scott's family in Virginia and Delaware and even a day at the beach!
With all of the stress of moving behind us and the anticipation ahead, I wanted to post one of my most vivid memories of our second to last night in Yakima one week ago:
The house was completely empty except for a few boxes in the living room as remnants to go to storage the next day. We had just taken down the bed, which was replaced by therma-rests in our bedroom. The kitchen shelves had some food left, but all of our pots, pans and eating utensils were packed. And then we had the "Zambia room" in the basement . . . the place where we put everything that just MIGHT go to Zambia that we found during our move and had to consolidate to 80 pounds each.
Other than that, the house was completely empty. The house that Scott lived in for the last 5 years and we shared for the last 3. The house that we lovingly painted by the summer after we got married and that hosted plenty of dance parties, summer barbecues, and bonfires. The house that we crammed 16 friends and family into for Christmas dinner and hosted dozens of out of town visitors. The house where Scott dug irrigation ditches by hand and we zealously planted a garden. The house that we sat by our cozy gas fireplace on cold November days and watch from the window the leaves falling from our tree-lined street. The house that we will leave in exchange for a mud hut in an unknown area of Zambia that will become our new home for two years after we finish training.
On the second-to-last night, we had one last hurrah for the friends that have come into our lives during Scott's past 12 and my past 5 years in Yakima. We saw co-workers that have worked with us since we started our jobs, neighbors, my former business partner, and lots and lots of friends. Their children picked berries from our bushes, chased the neighbor's cats, played baseball and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs in our fire pit. We gave friends free reign of our kitchen to take any leftover food from our fridge and pantry. The evening was simple but memorable with many of our closest friends a few tears, and good long hugs.
As the evening progressed, Scott and his friend Brad started some African rhythms on the djembes and we burned the last of our piles of no longer-needed documents that pertained to the past few years of our lives as we chatted, said goodbyes, and drank wine around the campfire. We were basking by the fire in the carefree Yakima summer night.
The evening as I saw it was a bridge to our upcoming lives, as we will most likely have plenty of opportunities for drumming, fires, and new friends. Although the fires will most likely be for cooking real food or burning almost all trash, or warmth during cold winter nights and the new friends may not speak English. And we won't be surrounded by irrigation systems that turn on with timers and gas fireplaces and tree-lined streets. Instead, we'll be able to see glorious stars and beautiful skies. We'll listen to sounds of voices joining in unison in song for the sheer joy of celebrating the night. What I do hope, is that when we leave our new village, the hugs, the children's laughter and the tears will penetrate us no less deeply than they did the second-to-last night in our Yakima house.
We officially have less than two days until our plane officially leaves for South Africa and then Zambia after a brief period in Philadelphia where we get to meet about 35 other PC volunteers from the health program (Scott will meet his group from the fish program 2 weeks later).
This past month has been a whirlwind of packing, moving, leaving work, and saying goodbye to friends and family in different parts of the country. This week has been a blessing with some much needed R&R with Scott's family in Virginia and Delaware and even a day at the beach!
With all of the stress of moving behind us and the anticipation ahead, I wanted to post one of my most vivid memories of our second to last night in Yakima one week ago:
The house was completely empty except for a few boxes in the living room as remnants to go to storage the next day. We had just taken down the bed, which was replaced by therma-rests in our bedroom. The kitchen shelves had some food left, but all of our pots, pans and eating utensils were packed. And then we had the "Zambia room" in the basement . . . the place where we put everything that just MIGHT go to Zambia that we found during our move and had to consolidate to 80 pounds each.
Other than that, the house was completely empty. The house that Scott lived in for the last 5 years and we shared for the last 3. The house that we lovingly painted by the summer after we got married and that hosted plenty of dance parties, summer barbecues, and bonfires. The house that we crammed 16 friends and family into for Christmas dinner and hosted dozens of out of town visitors. The house where Scott dug irrigation ditches by hand and we zealously planted a garden. The house that we sat by our cozy gas fireplace on cold November days and watch from the window the leaves falling from our tree-lined street. The house that we will leave in exchange for a mud hut in an unknown area of Zambia that will become our new home for two years after we finish training.
On the second-to-last night, we had one last hurrah for the friends that have come into our lives during Scott's past 12 and my past 5 years in Yakima. We saw co-workers that have worked with us since we started our jobs, neighbors, my former business partner, and lots and lots of friends. Their children picked berries from our bushes, chased the neighbor's cats, played baseball and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs in our fire pit. We gave friends free reign of our kitchen to take any leftover food from our fridge and pantry. The evening was simple but memorable with many of our closest friends a few tears, and good long hugs.
As the evening progressed, Scott and his friend Brad started some African rhythms on the djembes and we burned the last of our piles of no longer-needed documents that pertained to the past few years of our lives as we chatted, said goodbyes, and drank wine around the campfire. We were basking by the fire in the carefree Yakima summer night.
The evening as I saw it was a bridge to our upcoming lives, as we will most likely have plenty of opportunities for drumming, fires, and new friends. Although the fires will most likely be for cooking real food or burning almost all trash, or warmth during cold winter nights and the new friends may not speak English. And we won't be surrounded by irrigation systems that turn on with timers and gas fireplaces and tree-lined streets. Instead, we'll be able to see glorious stars and beautiful skies. We'll listen to sounds of voices joining in unison in song for the sheer joy of celebrating the night. What I do hope, is that when we leave our new village, the hugs, the children's laughter and the tears will penetrate us no less deeply than they did the second-to-last night in our Yakima house.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Q&A: Let the adventure begin!
People have been asking us a multitude of questions before we leave, so we thought we’d do our best to answer them using information from Peace Corps materials including the Zambia Welcome Book, other volunteers’ blogs, talking with returned volunteers, and our own experience in Tanzania and Zambia in ’06.
1. Where are you going?
We’re going to Zambia, which is a landlocked country in South-Central Africa. Neighboring countries include: Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Angola. Its land area is slightly larger than Texas. As of now, we know we will be training in the small villages a few hours outside of Lusaka until mid-October. More on training in a bit (#19 to be exact). After that, we will be assigned to a rural placement in one of the provinces of Zambia. We will not know our exact site until mid-training. We do know that we will be placed in a remote village in Northern, Luapula, Central, Eastern or Northwestern province.
2. What will you be doing?
2. What will you be doing?
Here are our program descriptions from the Welcome Book:
Scott: Rural Aquaculture Promotion (RAP) Project
Volunteers are helping the Department of Fisheries to develop
fish-farming projects that will improve livelihoods in rural
communities. After determining rural farmers’ needs and
resources, Volunteers provide technical assistance in establishing
dams, furrows, fishponds, and integrated agriculture. In addition
to providing an excellent source of nutrition for rural families,
surplus fish and agricultural products are sold to provide
substantial supplementary income. Volunteers provide training in
small agribusiness skills to assist farmers in applying a business
orientation toward their farming activities. Volunteers also help
build the organizational development capacity of fish-farming
associations.
Gina: Rural Health Project
In the fall of 2008, Peace Corps/Zambia combined the
Community Action for Health Project (CAHP) and the HIV/
AIDS Project (HAP) to form a new comprehensive rural health
project. The project, delivered at the district and community
levels, focuses on improving rural health in the areas of malaria,
maternal health, child health and nutrition, and HIV/AIDS
awareness, education, prevention, and nutrition. Being a rural-
based project, Volunteers work to facilitate the formation and
training of community-based organizations that spearhead the
planning, implementation, and sustainable management of
community-led intervention in malaria, maternal health, child
health and nutrition, and HIV/AIDS mitigation and management.
The project is implemented under the Ministry of Health and,
therefore, the primary contact for the Volunteer is the Rural
Health Center and it staff. The Volunteers also work with
other line ministries and other sector organizations to mobilize
resources for the training and implementation of sustainable
health interventions in the above stated health areas.
3. What language do they speak there?
English is an official language, as Zambia was a former British colony that recently gained independence in 1964, so English is widely spoken in the cities and urban areas. That said, all or almost all of the people living where will be placed will speak a tribal language only. We will know which tribal language we will learn within the first few weeks of training.
4. When do you leave?
We report for staging in Philadelphia on July 18th, 2011 and arrive in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia July 20th.
3. What language do they speak there?
English is an official language, as Zambia was a former British colony that recently gained independence in 1964, so English is widely spoken in the cities and urban areas. That said, all or almost all of the people living where will be placed will speak a tribal language only. We will know which tribal language we will learn within the first few weeks of training.
4. When do you leave?
We report for staging in Philadelphia on July 18th, 2011 and arrive in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia July 20th.
5. When will you return to the US?
We will be gone for about 27 months, with 3 months of training and 24 months of service. We will be finished around October 7th, 2013 unless we extend our placement or for some reason have to leave early. We also may travel for a few months before heading home.
6. Do you get vacation?
We get two days of vacation for every month we serve. Plus we also get the Zambian holidays. However, we cannot leave our site/country for the first six months of service (that includes training) and the last three months of our service.
7. Can you leave the country?
Yes, (except for the first six months of service and the last 3 months of service). Of course any travel we do will be at our own expense.
8. Can people visit you?
YES! Please do. However we’re not supposed to have visitors for the six months of service and the last 3 months. The best time to visit would be during the dry season in Zambia, which lasts from May through October. This coincides very nicely with US summer 2012 and early summer 2013. Besides visiting us in our bush village, there are many amazing tourist opportunities such as safaris, tribal festivals, and the famous Victoria Falls that can be found at: http://www.zambiatourism.com/. For those planning trips to Zambia, you should definitely let us know when you might be thinking of coming so we can plan OUR vacation time accordingly. You will also need to plan ahead by asking for at least two weeks off work to give ample time for jet lag on both ends and slow transportation in Zambia, as well as visit a travel doctor to get all your shots.
9. Does the Peace Corps pay you?
6. Do you get vacation?
We get two days of vacation for every month we serve. Plus we also get the Zambian holidays. However, we cannot leave our site/country for the first six months of service (that includes training) and the last three months of our service.
7. Can you leave the country?
Yes, (except for the first six months of service and the last 3 months of service). Of course any travel we do will be at our own expense.
8. Can people visit you?
YES! Please do. However we’re not supposed to have visitors for the six months of service and the last 3 months. The best time to visit would be during the dry season in Zambia, which lasts from May through October. This coincides very nicely with US summer 2012 and early summer 2013. Besides visiting us in our bush village, there are many amazing tourist opportunities such as safaris, tribal festivals, and the famous Victoria Falls that can be found at: http://www.zambiatourism.com/. For those planning trips to Zambia, you should definitely let us know when you might be thinking of coming so we can plan OUR vacation time accordingly. You will also need to plan ahead by asking for at least two weeks off work to give ample time for jet lag on both ends and slow transportation in Zambia, as well as visit a travel doctor to get all your shots.
9. Does the Peace Corps pay you?
Yes and no. Peace Corps expects its volunteers to live at the same level as the people they serve, so a living stipend for food, clothing, and housing will be paid in kwacha, which is the national currency. This ends up being about $200-300 per month, USD for each of us. Peace Corps pays for our medical and dental care while we are serving as well as our round-trip ticket to Zambia and travel within the country. A recently-returned volunteer just told us she was able to live very easily on her given allowance and that married couples are sometimes able to save more for a little spending money since they will be sharing a house. Additionally, we will accrue a small allowance each month that we can only withdraw when we finish our service. This is called a readjustment allowance and will help us buy essentials when we return to the States.
10. What is the food like?
10. What is the food like?
From the Peace Corps Zambia Welcome Book:
Your access to Western-style foods may be very limited, but you
will soon become familiar, and even enamored with, nshima
(cornmeal porridge), cabbage, and kapenta (fish), as well
as other staple foods like local leaf sauces and smoked fish.
Fruits such as mangoes, guavas, and especially bananas, can
be found commonly everywhere, but mangoes are seasonal;
vegetable variety is generally good, but can be seasonally difficult,
and meat is not readily available for Volunteers while at their site.
Most likely, we will be cooking on a charcoal-powered stove called a brazier. I remember when I visited Zambia in ’06 that peanuts were also quite common, and local peanut butter was a staple. Processed foods are quite a novelty and will only be available when we visit the larger towns.
11. What kind of living arrangements will you have?
For the three months of training, we will live with separate host families at our training sites, which will be good because it will help us learn the language. After training, we will move to our village, and live together, most likely with yet another family for the first month or two to get adjusted to our village. After that, it will depend on circumstances, but we will either stay with that host family or move into our own mud hut on a family compound.
12. Will you have electricity?
No. Not in our hut, possibly somewhere in our village, but most likely a good biking distance away from where we will be living. We have bought a solar charger which we plan to use to charge our cell phones that we will buy when we get to Zambia.
13. Will you have a western toilet?
No. Although Peace Corps requires that all volunteers have their own personal pit latrines (fancy for a hole in the ground surrounded by a thatched screen) for sanitation purposes. Do you think they will let Scott and I share one?
14. Will you have running water?
No. We will most likely be fetching our own water from the village well. This might be very near our hut or a kilometer two away. We will treat our own water using a gravity-fed filter and chlorine drops provided by the Peace Corps. We will boil our own water for bathing and take “bucket baths” in a personal shower stall (read space in the backyard with a straw fence) that is also mandated by the Peace Corps for sanitation reasons.
15. Will you have Internet?
12. Will you have electricity?
No. Not in our hut, possibly somewhere in our village, but most likely a good biking distance away from where we will be living. We have bought a solar charger which we plan to use to charge our cell phones that we will buy when we get to Zambia.
13. Will you have a western toilet?
No. Although Peace Corps requires that all volunteers have their own personal pit latrines (fancy for a hole in the ground surrounded by a thatched screen) for sanitation purposes. Do you think they will let Scott and I share one?
14. Will you have running water?
No. We will most likely be fetching our own water from the village well. This might be very near our hut or a kilometer two away. We will treat our own water using a gravity-fed filter and chlorine drops provided by the Peace Corps. We will boil our own water for bathing and take “bucket baths” in a personal shower stall (read space in the backyard with a straw fence) that is also mandated by the Peace Corps for sanitation reasons.
15. Will you have Internet?
Obviously not in our village since there will be no way to power a computer. We will bring a laptop that we will leave at the provincial house of our district. That said, we will probably be able to access it once a month at the most, and the connection speed will be very slow. If need be, we may mail a picture disk to folks back home so they can upload photos to our blog occasionally. During training, internet will be especially limited as we will be on a very tight schedule and will be very infrequently in the larger cities. There is a very small chance that we may be able to get some e-mail through our cell phones, but we’re not counting on that. So, for those of you who like to write REAL letters, snail mail will be the way to go.
16. How do I contact you?
16. How do I contact you?
Our REAL mail address during training will be:
Gina and Scott/PCT
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 50707
Lusaka, Zambia
You can also send us an e-mail, but access might be limited. We will have a cell phone and will send you the phone number if you request it when we get there.
17. What is the weather like?
Taken from the Zambia Welcome Book:
The huge valleys of the upper Zambezi and its major
tributaries, including the Kafue and Luangwa rivers, cut into this
plateau. The climate consists of three distinct seasons: a warm,
wet season from November to April; a cool, dry season from
May to August; and a hot, dry season in September and October.
The relatively high altitude tempers the humidity, providing a
generally pleasant climate. The diversity of climatic conditions
also allows for the cultivation of a wide range of crops.
18. Do you plan to come back to the US at all during your visit?
We hope to make it home once, although we don’t yet know if it will be to Washington, Delaware or Colorado. It will most likely depend on what our budget looks like and what is going on with our families.
19. What exactly do you do during your training?
Training is three months of immersion in technical and language skills to prepare us for two years in the field. Gina will complete her health training (CHIP program) in Chipembwe which is several hours from Lusaka, and Scott will complete his fisheries training in Chongwe, 40 minutes by bus from Lusaka. We will train 8-10 hours per day, typically with half the day of language training and half the day of learning how the Peace Corps health and fisheries programs are set up. Training will consist of many site visits of current volunteers so they can show us which programs are successful. We live with host families and participate in cultural activities to help get accustomed to the rural Zambian way of life. The Zambia program officer stated that we will probably get to see each other every two weeks or so in training. We’re not too worried about this separation, as we’ll be pretty much joined at the hip for the following two years.
20. Is Zambia safe?
Zambia is an incredibly friendly and peaceful country, and Gina felt extremely safe traveling there in 2006. That said, like any developing country, there are risks for crimes, and the most common one that occurs to volunteers in Zambia is theft, which happens to about 6% of volunteers according to their data. Peace Corps states that the most important facet is volunteer safety and security, and we will go through extensive training to minimize safety risk.
21. What are the people like?
This might be a better question to answer once we get there, but from traveling there before, they are for the most part extremely friendly and welcoming as well as receptive to volunteers. The rural Zambians belong to various tribes, although tribes enjoy a healthy relationship with one another and there are no warring factions as in other parts of Africa. The majority of Zambians are Christian, and they can sure sing and dance.
22. How will you get around?
As Peace Corps volunteers, we will not be allowed to drive motorized vehicles while in country. We will take local transportation, and because that is often scarce or non-existent in the rural areas, we will probably hitch rides on flatbed trucks or with local NGO’s or missionaries. Peace Corps Zambia issues all of its volunteers mountain bikes (yay!), and we were told we will get them within the first few weeks of training to get around at our training sites as well as our village placement. We plan on bringing some of our bike gear such as panniers.
23. What will you wear?
We’ll likely wear many of the clothes the villagers wear. We’ll probably have some clothes made out of chitenge (printed fabric) at the local tailor. Women especially are supposed to wear skirts or trousers below the knee, so Gina will have some of those made. Zambia has lots of thrift stores of leftover thrift store items from the US, so we will not be at a loss for t-shirts and that kind of stuff.
24. What will you bring with you?
Judging from above, probably not that many clothes as we can get them easily there. We’ll bring stuff like sturdy shoes, sandals, books, and lots of outdoor gear like a tent and bike stuff. We’ll also bring a solar charger to make up for the lack of electricity. We each get an 80 lb. weight limit, so we may also ship ourselves some stuff. And . . . we definitely wouldn’t mind care packages once in awhile from friends and family.
25. Donde esta Zambia?
Please go back to question #1.
LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!!!!!!!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
On the homefront: counting down the days
Gina's Post:
Scott and I have been busy lately preparing for our Peace Corps adventure. I'm in Denver this week getting ready for Diana's wedding, although have had a little time to update our blog and sort through pictures. Today's REI and Office Depot visit yielded essentials that we can use in the bush as we prepare to live off the electric grid. Some of my favorites include:
In the meantime, Scott is holding up the fort in Yakima with getting our house up to snuff to be rented for the next 2 1/2 (or more?) years. Some things to do still include painting the fence, repairing and re-staining the deck, re-leveling the patio, and re-painting the bathtub. Looks like we'll have some busy days ahead of us before we leave. Fun times. Thank you Scott!
Scott and I have been busy lately preparing for our Peace Corps adventure. I'm in Denver this week getting ready for Diana's wedding, although have had a little time to update our blog and sort through pictures. Today's REI and Office Depot visit yielded essentials that we can use in the bush as we prepare to live off the electric grid. Some of my favorites include:
- a new pair of chacos
- a big sun hat for my little head (found in the children's department)
- a solar charger for ipod and cell phone, which I am still figuring out how to use
- I pod battery-powered speakers
- a surge protector for when we do have access to electricity at the provincial house
- an awesome little lantern that you hand crank to power
In the meantime, Scott is holding up the fort in Yakima with getting our house up to snuff to be rented for the next 2 1/2 (or more?) years. Some things to do still include painting the fence, repairing and re-staining the deck, re-leveling the patio, and re-painting the bathtub. Looks like we'll have some busy days ahead of us before we leave. Fun times. Thank you Scott!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The Invitation
After over a year of the application and medical review process, we were all set to receive our Peace Corps invitation to Central or South America leaving in 2011. Scott had been brushing up on his Spanish skills, and he and Gina even played an April Fool's joke on friends and family about being assigned to Africa and leaving at the end of April. Little did we know that our words became a self-fulfilling prophecy as we recently received our official invitation while vacationing in Iceland:
Assignment: Rural Fish Culture Extension Agent (Scott) & Community Health Development Extension (Gina)
Region: Sub-Saharan
Departure: July 18
So . . . part of our prophecy came true in that we are indeed going to Africa and we're leaving much earlier than expected. Although we are a little bummed about not using our Spanish skills, we are excited for the opportunity to work in Zambia for the next two years as Peace Corps is very well established in Zambia with various projects. Gina had the opportunity to visit her friend Colleen who was a PC health volunteer in Zambia five years ago and had a small taste of life in the rural Zambian bush; lots of bicycle riding on dirt roads, friendly greetings from the locals, lots of ugali or nshima (corn or cassava porrige) and most likely fetching our own water from the well and possibly cooking by wood stove and reading by candlelight in a very rural area. We will trade in our cute little house on a tree-lined street for a mud hut with a thatched roof.
Here is what one of the current Zambia fish volunteers describes in the info packet that we got: "The RAP program (Zambia fisheries) is one of the best. You get results after being at site for just a few months and your villagers live you. Fish is one of their favorite foods, and it is often hard to get or not very fresh. You will live in a small village in either Northwestern, Northern, Central, or Luampula. . . You will have to learn about one of the local languages. . . You will come to Zambia in July and then will be sent quickly into the bush for a few days so that you get your feet wet. It is normally a good time. Then you will have 5 weeks of training in Chongwa (near Lusaka). The trainers will pump you full of tech stuff and some language trainers will get your Bemba, Lunda, or Kaonde up to par. Then you will be sent into the bush with your trainers again for two weeks and get some more hands on training. . . You will be teaching small scale farmers to dig earthen ponds. You will be biking to these houses and helping out with what you can."
Here's what one of the health volunteers says: "The health program is one of the most challenging and exciting programs in Zambia. With one in five Zambians infected with HIV, some people having to walk or bike for over 30 km to reach the nearest clinic, and life expectancy in the thirties, it's difficult to overstate the importance of health education. As a volunteer in a rural village where little, if any support is available, you will be on the front line in the fight against HIV, malaria, and malnutrition."
So . . . we are getting physically and mentally prepared for 11 weeks of training and then two years in the Zambian bush. In the meantime, we have lots of things to do Yakima including renting out our house, selling many of our worldly possessions and putting the rest in storage, finishing our jobs, and saying goodbye to friends and family.
You can see Gina and Scott's pictures of Tanzania and Zambia (traditional Zambian village life is featured on the last 40 or so pictures) from five years ago at: https://picasaweb.google.com/
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