I’m alive and well! I’m 2/3rds of the way through my
Community Entry period and currently at the Peace Corps house in Chipata for a
few meetings with all the other volunteers in Eastern Province. Everything in the village is going great! Life is sweet and I’m making a lot of plans for my service. Below is a photo of the fields and mountains behind my house.
I haven't taken many photos so far, I've been really awful about that.
On a typical day I wake up around 6am to the sound of roosters crowing and my Zambian family running around outside. The sun is just rising and lately it has been freezing cold in the morning. I was not prepared for cold season! My breakfast is usually leftover soya and veggies from the night before. A variety of veg is hard to come by in Chadiza so I’m starting a garden with my family, I got seeds for peppers, onions, carrots, spinach and a few others. I’m extremely excited about it.
I have a big family and they are incredible! My Atate, Lazarus, speaks English pretty well. He’s a good guy to have around, he cemented my front porch for me and next we’re going to tackle cementing my bafa. My Amai, Ida, is the most beautiful Zambian woman I’ve ever seen. She works in the fields every day, usually leaving when I’m waking up and won’t finish working until late afternoon when she starts her daily chores- cooking, laundry, etc. I have lots of brothers and sisters. Mada is the oldest, she’s about the finish high school in December. She’s amazing! She just moved to the Boma to be closer to school but I'll see her on weekends and in town sometimes. Jessie is the same age but not technically a member of the family. Her mother lives in Malawi so Jessie’s been living on the family compound for a while. She's also just moved to the Boma. It was hard to see them go but I’m glad they’re focusing on their final months of high school. Then there’s my brothers, Eustace, Loyd and Andrew (whose nickname is Nkhungalume- it means The Bachelor). Nkhungs and Loyd are both in grade 8 and are in the English class that I recently began teaching. Eliza is 12, she’s my best helper and I reward her with sweeties that I got in a care package from my good friend Aaron and his wonderful Mom. Then there’s my babes, Beatie, Alice and Mary. They’re all under age 7 and they are my gang. We sing and do hand-clap games all the time, mostly in Chewa (it a slight variation of the Nyanja that I was learning in training). We also spend every night in my hut coloring and we were having a lot of dance parties until my ipod broke from me sweating all over it. I now have no music and I'm incredibly lonely without it. Hoping to find a replacement soon unless somebody is up to sending me a new one!!! I could also use infinite amounts of coloring books/ fun activities and sweeties...
On a typical day I wake up around 6am to the sound of roosters crowing and my Zambian family running around outside. The sun is just rising and lately it has been freezing cold in the morning. I was not prepared for cold season! My breakfast is usually leftover soya and veggies from the night before. A variety of veg is hard to come by in Chadiza so I’m starting a garden with my family, I got seeds for peppers, onions, carrots, spinach and a few others. I’m extremely excited about it.
I have a big family and they are incredible! My Atate, Lazarus, speaks English pretty well. He’s a good guy to have around, he cemented my front porch for me and next we’re going to tackle cementing my bafa. My Amai, Ida, is the most beautiful Zambian woman I’ve ever seen. She works in the fields every day, usually leaving when I’m waking up and won’t finish working until late afternoon when she starts her daily chores- cooking, laundry, etc. I have lots of brothers and sisters. Mada is the oldest, she’s about the finish high school in December. She’s amazing! She just moved to the Boma to be closer to school but I'll see her on weekends and in town sometimes. Jessie is the same age but not technically a member of the family. Her mother lives in Malawi so Jessie’s been living on the family compound for a while. She's also just moved to the Boma. It was hard to see them go but I’m glad they’re focusing on their final months of high school. Then there’s my brothers, Eustace, Loyd and Andrew (whose nickname is Nkhungalume- it means The Bachelor). Nkhungs and Loyd are both in grade 8 and are in the English class that I recently began teaching. Eliza is 12, she’s my best helper and I reward her with sweeties that I got in a care package from my good friend Aaron and his wonderful Mom. Then there’s my babes, Beatie, Alice and Mary. They’re all under age 7 and they are my gang. We sing and do hand-clap games all the time, mostly in Chewa (it a slight variation of the Nyanja that I was learning in training). We also spend every night in my hut coloring and we were having a lot of dance parties until my ipod broke from me sweating all over it. I now have no music and I'm incredibly lonely without it. Hoping to find a replacement soon unless somebody is up to sending me a new one!!! I could also use infinite amounts of coloring books/ fun activities and sweeties...
My main source of transportation is my bicycle,
which was stolen off of my front porch just after my first week in the vil. I’ve been in and out of the police
station hoping they will be able to recover it... PC issued bikes are easy to
identify but the theory is that it was taken over the border to Mozambique to
be sold. Fortunately, my school and Boma are only 3 kilometers from my house so
I found shortcuts through bush paths that I've been using to walk or run to get where I need to go. The PC staff
finally found a replacement bike for me so I’m back on the road! I’m in the school almost
every day now. I was observing a lot of lessons and getting to know the faculty
but now I have my own class I'm teaching English everyday except Friday. I’ve been
spending a lot of time in the school’s Resource Center putting together the
mock exams for grades 7, 9 and 12. Students have to pass in order to move on to
the next grade or graduate so it’s a stressful time for them. I’m planning on using the
center to facilitate teacher group meetings for continuing professional development and will hopefully
begin working with the assistant director on some HIV/AIDS
informational programs. I’m also waiting for our new library to be finished
so I can paint a huge world map on it. I have all of the paint and supplies ready,
hopefully I can start it within the month. Above is a photo taken of my school grounds. It was on a weekend, which is why there is nobody around.
which was stolen off of my front porch just after my first week in the vil. I’ve been in and out of the police
station hoping they will be able to recover it... PC issued bikes are easy to
identify but the theory is that it was taken over the border to Mozambique to
be sold. Fortunately, my school and Boma are only 3 kilometers from my house so
I found shortcuts through bush paths that I've been using to walk or run to get where I need to go. The PC staff
finally found a replacement bike for me so I’m back on the road! I’m in the school almost
every day now. I was observing a lot of lessons and getting to know the faculty
but now I have my own class I'm teaching English everyday except Friday. I’ve been
spending a lot of time in the school’s Resource Center putting together the
mock exams for grades 7, 9 and 12. Students have to pass in order to move on to
the next grade or graduate so it’s a stressful time for them. I’m planning on using the
center to facilitate teacher group meetings for continuing professional development and will hopefully
begin working with the assistant director on some HIV/AIDS
informational programs. I’m also waiting for our new library to be finished
so I can paint a huge world map on it. I have all of the paint and supplies ready,
hopefully I can start it within the month. Above is a photo taken of my school grounds. It was on a weekend, which is why there is nobody around.
After school I usually go into the market and hangout at a shop named Ebenezer’s. It’s owned by my friend Richard, who is also the mayor of Chadiza. We’re hoping to find sponsorship to buy a grater for the roads. Chadiza has probably the worst dirt road in all of Eastern Province, which is the only way out to the provincial capital, Chipata. I don’t know for sure that it's the absolute worst but this road is awful. The closest paved road is 75 kilometers away in Chipata and takes at least 90 minutes. In rainy season it’s almost impossible for cars to make it to there, where our shops stock up on groceries and other essentials. There isn’t much economic activity that goes in and out of Chadiza so our road isn’t high on the government’s priority list. There are taxis that drive in every morning but they’re 50,000 zmk to hire (that’s a lot of kwacha) and drivers always pile 4 people into the backseat even though the police have checkpoints and will fine them for overcrowding the car. They will often even put 2 people in the passenger seat. When I come into Chipata I usually take a canter truck from one of the shops, which leaves by 6am and won’t charge me much if anything.
I’ve been meeting with my villagers fairly often. The center of my village is about 4 kilometers from my house on my family's farm, which is a unique setup for a volunteer. Our
first official meeting was mostly introductory but we are now talking about specific
developmental needs in the village. Most importantly they would like to build a
dam for their crops/livestock and water security in general. I’m taking some
books from the PC house to figure out the best way to go about planning and building it but
again, funding will be the priority. I’m also working on an adult literacy
class in the village but so far just recruiting interested villagers. I have one
student already who lives with his wife and baby behind my house. He’s in his
mid-twenties and starting from square one. We’ve been working on my front porch
where I’ve painted a makeshift blackboard. I’m hopeful that we’ll get through
the alphabet by the end of July.
In town I usually spend time with my friends that run
Ebenezer’s, Alan (the gentleman on the right) and Bernard (on the left). Alan speaks perfect English and together we are
going to teach Bernard, who only speaks Chewa. It’s nice that English is the
official language here so everybody wants to learn it. I’m spoiled being so
close to the Boma because most people know at least some English. I have lunch
with Alan and Bernard a lot, they love feeding me nshima. There’s also a pool
table right outside so I’ve been playing a lot. I’m hoping to come back to
America a pool shark!I typically go home around 4 and take care of my house, sweeping and whatnot. I bathe using water I put out in the sun to heat and I cook my dinner on a charcoal brazier. Dinner is almost always soya unless I have another volunteer visiting. I’m incredibly lazy about getting my brazier started. When volunteers visit, we go all out on feasting. I have a bunch of PCVs in my district, the closest is about 15 kilometers so a lot of us will meet in the Boma fairly often. We had a Mexican feast a couple of weekends ago, it was a beautiful thing. There are 2 other new volunteers in my district in the LIFE program, so they are working on different agricultural projects that I’m hoping to get involved in.
So for now, I’m about to have breakfast and get ready for a meeting with the Ministry of Education to talk about how the RED program has changed and what we are all working on. I’ve been up since 5 and finally feel like I’m accomplishing something. It’s so nice to have internet and be able to communicate with friends. Facebook is amazing! I love seeing photos and finding out what everybody is up to. Emails have also taken on a whole new meaning for me and getting mail is like Christmas morning. I’ll leave with a good quote that I found, which pretty much sums up how I feel right now. “Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”
- Foster C. Mcclellan.
