Almost Official!

I am now finished with pre-service training! I will swear in tomorrow and become an active Peace Corps volunteer and then move straight up to my new home in Chadiza. My new mailing address is PO Box 520103 Chadiza, Zambia - in case I didn't post that last time and anybody wants to send me mail :) I'd love it if everybody could send me some good photos to put up in my hut, I didn't bring any except for the ones in my scrapbook. I want to say thanks to Katie McCormick for sending me an awesome package which included dark chocolate covered espresso beans!

PST ended with a final language exam consisting of a 45 minute conversation with a native speaker that I'd never met before, and it was recorded. I actually did well! So now that PST is over, my entire intake group is staying at a super nice hotel outside of Lusaka. We have a swimming pool, 3 bars and air conditioning. No joke. We'll start shopping for our new homes tomorrow and then each provincial group will drive up to their respective capitals on Saturday where we will finish shopping and then I'll be posted on Tuesday. That will start my 3 month isolation period for community entry. We are required to stay in our district to familiarize ourselves with the community and vice-versa. I will be able to access internet maybe once during that time which is scary but kind of exciting.

Yesterday we celebrated PST completion with our host families, I was one of the speakers during the ceremony which was kind of cool. I started my speech with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." It didn't really translate well. This is a photo of my family from Mwampikanya. I'm really going to miss my Amai, she's done so much for me. The woman to the right of me is my sister Edina. She's the strongest woman alive.







I'm going to miss life in Mwampikanya in general. Everyday we had group sessions I'd have a 30 minute walk to the training center, where I'd get to walk across this gem of a bridge...

I'm just saying, it was awesome. I'll try to post more photos before I begin community entry. I'm at Peace Corps HQ right now for some last minute swearing in details. My lunch is ready so I'm just going to end like this. Peace!

PO Box 520103/ Chadiza, Zambia

In Lusaka again today to prepare for my second site visit, this time I am going to my actual village that I will live in for the next 2 years! My site assignment is in Chadiza District, Kozele village. I am staying on the Headman's compound surrounded by the family farmlands. My hut apparently has a front porch and is surrounded by crops of maize. I am 3k from the school that I will be working at, which is next to the Boma (town) and 73k from the Provincial Capital where the Peace Corps has a house for all of the volunteers in the province. I am 12k from the next closest volunteer and I have 5 others no more than 25k away. I'm very thankful for that. Tonight, my entire intake group is sleeping in tents at FTI where we have most of our group tech sessions. It should take about 8-9 hours in a cruiser to get to my site, so we are leaving around 6am. I met my head teacher, Mr. Tembo, this week for a 2 day seminar in Chongwe Boma at the Graka Lodge. He has already worked with PCVs and is very excited to have a fresh face in the school.

My Nyanja is coming along quite nicely. I took my second language simulation exam this week and got only a half a point off. The exam was based on situations I will find myself in, buying food, bartering for items at a market, explaining who I am, where I come from, what Peace Corps is and what I plan on doing in my village. I've been practicing with all of my neighbors in Mwampikanya. The photo below is my language group, the woman in the center is our Language/Cultural Facilitator (LCF) A Peggy. She's the best! Her dream is to live in America. To the left is Maeve, she comes from Washington State but has been teaching English abroad for a few years. She's lived all over, in Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam to name a few. Next to me is Andrew, he's my next door neighbor. He's from New York and had been working with special needs children before joining the Peace Corps. We all work really well together. In the photo we're standing outside of A Peggy's house where we usually have our language lessons for 3-4 hours each day.

So now, trying to post more photos but I have already used most of my internet time loading the one above. It's ridiculous how long internet takes to load here! My foot is fine, thanks for the comment Mom and Dad. And yes, Mercedes, I wear sunscreen :) Thank you everybody for staying in touch through my blog, I get really excited seeing comments! My new address is PO Box 520103/ Chadiza, Zambia. I will be swearing in on April 13 and then moving straight up to Kozele. I'm so excited! That's all for now, I hope all is well for everyone reading! Wish me luck!

My Penthouse Suite

Hello!

This is my hut (nyumba) for now, I'm living in Mwampikanya near the training center. Everyday on my bike ride home I sing 'My mud hut ain't much to talk about.. But it's home you know.' I took this on Sunday after amai and I finished my laundry. I tried for a little perspective so you can see some of my bafa/samba (bathing structure), to the left and my chimbudzi is on the other side of the bafa.


Here I'm with my amai and her granddaughter Roberta. Roberta just got some new hair braided into her real hair, she usually doesn't have such lavish locks. She's not even 2 and she clears our dishes most days! The brick behind us is my amai's house where I have my breakfast and dinner every day. The pots and pans to the left are on top of the drying rack where amai also does some of her meal prep. My hut is about 90 degrees to the left and we have our kitchen (insaka) right in between. Inside amai's hut you can see her daughter, Atrasela. I probably spelled that wrong.



Not much is new since my last post! Still training every day, language class, etc. It takes a long time here to upload a photo so I'll try to get some of my intake group for next time. We are now on our way back to FTI and we have a cultural analysis day on Monday so I get to stay home and cook!
If anyone wants to send me any cool things, feel free! Dark chocolate is my favorite, almonds, coffee, whatever... Get creative :) Letters are also more than welcome! My address is Jacqueline Walsh / Peace Corps / P.O. Box 50707 / Lusaka, Zambia

I hope all is well in the States. Thank you everybody for the support!

Adventures in PST

I am completely unprepared to post right now, I just had a surprise visit to the PCMO (medical office) to get a nice little cut on my foot looked at. Apparently I need stitches but the doctor doesn't want to close the wound in case of infection since it's on the inside of my foot. But all is well! I just had a little biking incident on a path that was not meant for bikes. Woops.

Since my last post, I have been to my first site visit in Chilobwe, which is in Eastern Province and I had a great time! The cruiser ride took about 7 hours. There is only 1 road in Eastern, it's called the Great East Road. People and animals line the sides of the road, there are many ups and downs around turns and the drivers are insane. It was an interesting ride, I'm glad I don't get car sick. When we got to Chilobwe, my group of 4 was greeted by the children in the village and our host volunteer, Alex. After we settled into Alex's hut and ate some PB&J, the kids swarmed the porch and wanted to dance for us. The villagers drummed on water jugs and sang songs and danced in a big circle with each girl taking turns in the center. It was incredible to watch. One thing led to another and I ended up learning some of their moves and showcasing some of my own. These kids could not stop laughing at me. Then the boys got up and did a warrior dance with sticks in place of spears. I also tried that one, it was not as easy.

We stayed in Chilobwe for 4 days and experienced a lot. We met the chief, spoke with him extensively on his hopes for development and the history of his village and got a general idea of how the village is run. We then went to Alex's school (she is also a RED volunteer) and we met with the head teacher, visited a few classes and got a feel for our future projects. Every class stood to greet us in English. There is obviously a lot of structure and children here are taught from an early age to show respect to their elders. There is not a lot of motivation for students to learn in the rural villages and the resources are extremely limited so teachers face a lot of challenges. It will be interesting to see what I can come up with as far as lesson materials, projects, etc. Alex was a real inspiration. She is starting up a pre-school in her village so there were parents coming to her hut all day to sign their kids up. Alex recruited 4 volunteers from her village to run the preschool so the entire thing is completely sustainable, even after she leaves. She also leads afterschool programs to incorporate football into learning about HIV/AIDS.

I was so excited to see what life is like in the village. We have bathing structures called sambas or bafas (corrupted English words are pretty common) where we take in our buckets and get clean under the open sky. It's very liberating. The chimbudzi is actually not so bad, as long as you check first for snakes and other creepies. I camped out in my tent in Alex's front yard and we cooked all of our meals on a braizer. You can make so much on one of those. We also made peanut butter out of ground nuts! It was honestly the best I have ever had. Village life is slow but so open and welcoming. Everyone is family and you spend all day outside with kids running around and animals are everywhere. I'm planning on getting some pigs to keep in my future yard to entertain me. I can't wait to see my own site and meet my coworkers at whatever school I will be working at! The suspense is ridiculous.

This is a picture of me with some of the kids outside on Alex's front porch. I'm definitely investing in building a front porch if I don't have my own. Look how well I blend in!

 

So now, I'm living in a village called Mwampikanya and learning Nyanja. My host mom (my amai) is Judith Chongo and she is an incredible woman. If I were prepared, I would have a picture of my hut to post. It's nice, I promise. I sleep under a mosquito net of course and the lighting isn't great but I have tables and shelves and I'm completely organized so it feels homey. I'm learning Nyanja with 2 others from my intake, Maeve and Andrew. We're a special little group, we have a lot of fun even though language classes are 3-4 hours, 5 days a week and 2 hours on Saturdays. We also have either safety/security or technical training for the same amount of time either at a local elementary school or at the farmer's technical institute (FTI) which is 5k from my hut.

My amai has my breakfast ready by the time I'm up at 6-630 and I'm off to school by 715. This morning I had homemade bread, peanut butter and pineapple jam. Sometimes I have jungle oats with pb. The fruit here is unbelievable. I eat lots of mangoes, bananas, apples, and really whatever comes my way. I come home for lunch everyday that we aren't at FTI. We bike everywhere. I'll eat nshima twice a day sometimes. The vegetarian soya is delicious and I have it pretty much everyday. Also lots of beans and veg. I love the food. When I come home amai has my bafa water ready (bathing is my favorite time of day, so fresh and so clean) and then I'm ready for dinner. After dinner I sit and talk with amai for a couple hours, practise my Nyanja and share stories. I taught amai's grandaughters to play war. They're really impressed with my card shuffling skills, no big deal. I also color with them a lot.

I'm really happy here and looking forward to making it through training. Nyanja is beautiful when spoken correctly. Here's a little taste of what I'm learning... "Mwachoma bwanji? Dzina langa ndine Jacqueline. Ine ndine waku America, ndine wodzipeleka". Every letter is pronounced, there is no ph=f sound or silent letters. It's interesting to say the least. Sindikamba chinyanja kwambiri koma ndifuna kuphunzira. I want to learn.

So now, I'm about to get picked up and head back to my hut. I made some friends here who let me online! My foot is fine, really, I just have to take antibiotics and keep it clean and use butterfly stitches. Tomorrow Zambia's football team is in the Africa Cup Finals! Kind of the African Super Bowl for soccer. Pretty big deal here. I'm going to be watching with some of the other volunteers, so I look forward to that!

For now, pitani bwino, tidzaonana.

Muli bwanji from Zambia!

I am currently writing from an internet cafe in the capital of Zambia and do not have much time so I will try to fit everything in.

Everything has been incredible! I am having so much fun. During staging in Philadelphia, I sat in a conference room with 35 other volunteer trainees where we went over everything. The trainers laid out what is expected of us, the history of the program (which made me incredibly proud to be a part of the legacy of John F Kennedy and the original mission of the Peace Corps which started 50 years ago) and we all had some really candid talks about our anxieties, fears, ambitions and overall what we expect from the next 27 months.

We all had a great night out in the city, singing karaoke and getting in some last minute Yuengling (vitamin Y of course) before we bussed up to JFK at 2am. I was actually 1 of 4 group leaders, the head counter and the one to find where we were going once we got to the airport. Our flight did not depart until 10:40 so it was an interesting time to sit around and wait. The flight was over 15 hours from JFK to Johannasburg and another 2 hours from there to Lusaka. I slept almost the entire way to South Africa, which was well needed as I hadn't slept in almost a week. And it's safe to say I have the biggest bag of all the intakes. Thanks Mom and Dad for that monster duffle :) I'm sure my back pain will go away soon!

We arrived in Zambia mid-day and I was immediately taken by how beautiful and green and fresh everything is. Everyone made it through all of the airports with nothing lost, nobody had a single problem. We were picked up by the volunteer leaders (PCVLs) so of course we immediately bombarded them with questions. It is really nice to know how many people extend their service. The current volunteers are all very happy, friendly and more than willing to share their experiences.

It still hasn't hit me that we are in Africa and that this is a 3rd world country. Honestly, what I have seen is like paradise here. Zambians are incredibly friendly and they are always smiling and laughing. The hotel they have us staying at is incredible, I wish I could upload some photos. The meals have been delicious, they have soya options for vegetarians and everything. And the intake group honestly is already a family. Everybody here has such a big heart, we're really looking out for each other and can't wait for what is to come. We went to PC headquarters yesterday to meet the country director, etc and had a ringing in ceremony. The majority of the time so far has mostly been medical stuff, what to look out for and going over our jobs. We had a pannel of current volunteers in today to talk about diversity in volunteers and how each of them deals with questions from their host village.

Tomorrow will be our first site visit. I am going with 3 others to Eastern province, we are staying with a volunteer who arrived this time last year. We'll be there until Wednesday, doing everything a trained volunteer does and staying either in the volunteer's mud hut or in our own tents. It's time for pit latrines! When we get back, each of us will find out what language we will learn and from there they will place us in our provinces. Apparently there is no bad province but they are all quite different. Victoria Falls is in the Southern, which would be nice but Eastern is the biggest. I hope I'm not too far from Lusaka so it isn't hard for friends/family to come and go.. You guys are visiting right?

I just finished up a delicious meal of Indian food and we are all about to catch the bus back to the hotel. I look forward to a good night's sleep and a long bus ride through Zambia bright and early. Thanks everybody for making my last few months in the States wonderful! I wish I could have made it a few more places but I am so happy to be here and can't wait to begin some actual work!

Hello family and friends!

Hello family and friends!

I’m starting this blog as a way to keep everyone who would like to know up to date on what is going on in my life. A lot has been happening and the best is yet to come. I will be joining the Peace Corps and moving to Africa at the end of January. After an extensive application/interview/nomination process, I was finally invited to serve as a Rural Education Development (RED) volunteer in Zambia.

What that means (from Peace Corps Zambia Welcome Book):

RED Volunteers work in six provinces to support the Ministry of Education (MoE) staff to improve the quality of, and access to, education in all types of schools. Together with counterparts, Volunteers assist in implementing educational initiatives, zone-based teacher trainings and other continuing professional development opportunities, school monitoring visits, community literacy classes, and school clubs for HIV/AIDS, girls' empowerment, and environmental awareness. They also engage with interested rural communities to develop and support their education infrastructure through sensitization and training of parent- community school committees.

I have received a tremendous amount of support from my family and friends. My parents in particular have been amazing and helpful every step of the way. I also tend to get curious looks and the same question over and over again. Why do I want to join the Peace Corps? Why do I want to leave the comfort of everything that I know for 27 months in a third world country?

I’ll start by saying that I have no clue what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’ve had that same notion since graduating high school. I wasn’t sure what I wanted out of college other than a degree and a sense that I would be better suited for a career once I finished. As many of you know, I transferred between East Carolina and Penn State University a couple of times. I also changed my major a few times more than that. I finally decided to get my degree in communications because A) I would graduate within 4 years and B) communications is a solid foundation for any future endeavor I can think of.

I began seriously looking into the Peace Corps sometime during my junior year. First off, everything I’d learned about the Peace Corps had been positive and inspiring, and rightly so. But it was still at the time just a fun “what if” idea that I was kicking around. As it happened, I was taking a course in journalism and my professor mentioned one day that he was a returned Peace Corps volunteer so I took the opportunity to learn more from him. I had read a lot of in depth information about the organization and after I spent some time hearing about his service I could really see myself going for it.

Now, as far as my reasoning goes, I have this: I’m an adventurous girl as it is, with an over-active imagination, and I’ve always wanted to travel. My parents did their best to teach Brian, Stephanie and I to put the needs of others ahead of our own. Mom and Dad both truly lead by example every day. I possibly was a bit slow on the uptake, but I think I finally got it. So, as a young adult looking to utilize my education and my ideals, I decided to apply for the Peace Corps.

The application took me a couple of months to get through. It involves personal information, basically your entire background, official transcripts, loan information and a couple of essays. I finally submitted it sometime in December of my senior year and was certain that soon after graduation that May, I’d be on my way to a new country, a new culture, and a new way of life. Then I got my rejection letter. I was blindsided by the information that somewhere around 15,000 current applicants were competing for 3,700 available positions.

At that point I was low but still gearing up to graduate, so I found a great internship that would involve first hand experience in sales. I learned a lot from that internship but my most valuable lesson was that, although I applied myself, I did not enjoy that the work focused solely on the bottom line. And I confirmed to myself that I would not be looking for any “corporate America” jobs.

So I moved home, spent a little time job searching but more than anything I was soul searching. I had an idea of the direction that I wanted to go, so I continued looking for ways to travel and work within a non-profit organization. I was dreaming more than ever of the work I could be doing if I was a Peace Corps volunteer, so I decided, why not reapply and really dedicate myself to this dream. I went in for my second round of the application process, and this time I received a follow-up letter asking for my background check. At the time I had been travelling around quite a bit. I spent a few weeks with my friends in North Carolina followed by some time on my Aunt and Uncle’s horse ranch in Florida, which I had to cut short for an interview in NYC at Peace Corps headquarters.

Not long after that, I received my nomination to depart for Central or South America as a primary education volunteer. This was exactly what I had wanted! I had been studying Spanish for years and I couldn’t wait to become fluent in the language. The nomination came with a few requirements, so after I spent some time in Houston with my sister, I came home and got to work gaining experience as a teacher’s assistant in Media Elementary School while I earned my certificate to teach English as a foreign language.

After that I sent in my newly updated resume, and all that I had left to do was wait. I spent the summer with a good friend in Ocean City, NJ and had the time of my life down the shore. I got a phone call one day that turned out to be my informal invitation, asking me how I felt about Africa. I knew they probably wouldn’t be speaking much Spanish, but I was ecstatic to say the least and I accepted right away. My formal invitation soon followed, but the work hasn’t exactly slowed down since I officially accepted.

Today I got my final vaccination before my departure. I have a sore arm, but a renewed hope that everything I’ve been through will be worth it. I have been chatting through a Facebook group with my future Zambian counterparts and I feel such a sense of comradery with them already. I’m sure the next two months will fly by as I get everything I need together for my new adventure. It’s going to be one hell of a Christmas list, I can tell you that.

So, wish me luck as I prepare myself for this life changing experience and I hope to see all of my loved ones before I go. I will be posting throughout my 27 months abroad but hopefully, for everybody’s sake, it will not be as long as this one.

Happy Holidays!!