The Office on my iPod makes me so happy. If anyone at the guest house can hear me laughing, they're probably creeped out because my room is otherwise silent.
It's hard to write about Zambia after 12 days in this nice part of Pretoria, basically = America. So, I decided I'd just try to remember things I thought were worth sharing.
The super sweet nurse in Zambia (who was taking care of me the Thursday I was in the clinic there, waiting to fly to SA on Friday) told me I had a beautiful abdomen when she was cleaning me up from the ultrasound. She seemed really disappointed that it would soon be blemished by an appendectomy scar.
Zambians used "corrupted" English words a lot, mostly for things that there wasn't a word for in the local language, also for telling time. They use a 24 hr clock, military time, so I get home from training at seventeen thirty or eighteen hours. Often things get Bembalized. (Bemba is the language I'm learning. Not sure, but I think it's probably similar in the other languages, too.) For example: spoon=supuni, clinic=kiliniki, wheelbarrow=wilubala, cabbage=kabeji. It seems that no one uses numbers past 3 in local languages. I tried to practice counting in Bemba with the little girls in my host family, 5 and 9 yrs old. They started counting with me in Bemba but... "chimo, fibili, fitatu, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten"
People also sometimes have strange names, seems like their parents just picked English words that sounded cool. My host uncle is named Try Well, my language instructor is named Golden, another is named Rave. Now, I just heard these from another volunteer, but there are kids named: Talktime, Computer, Suitcase, and my fave, Made In Usa (pronounced made in oosa).
Also, people tend to mix up L and R sounds, so strange for us english speakers who think that L and R sound completely different. I think it's because they don't seem to have a hard R sound, it's more of a rolled R, which I guess can kind of sound like L. "Kerry, Kelly, what's the difference?" they say to my fellow trainee friend, Kerry. But Blair? Yeah, right, try pronouncing that one if you don't distinguish between L and R. Needless to say, no one can pronounce my name. Sometimes it comes out Blah, but I think my host mom has settled into something like Bryah. I'm looking forward to being given a Bemba name.
Oh, when I was in the clinic in Lusaka, I watched Zambian tv, which from the little I've seen, not so great. All the commercials are like bad local ones in the US. The most crazy show I saw was called Ready for Marriage. This tv personality guy interviewed several young women about themselves, I think advertising themselves as "ready for marriage" but I'm not exactly sure. He was asking very probing moral questions and all the women seemed very shy and uncomfortable. One woman had a child as the result of being raped and the host was like, aren't you lying about that? People sent text messages in about another girl who was shy and quiet on tv, but they said she was really loud and cheeky in real life. They were outting her for presenting herself falsely on tv. I also watched American music videos but I'd never seen or heard of any of them.
I had a follow up appointment with my surgeon on Friday and we were running late because of bad traffic. My South African Peace Corps driver says, don't worry, we will not be late. I thought, ok, but how's he going to do that? Silly me, he just put on his flashers and treated red lights like rolling stop signs.
I'm going back to Zambia tomorrow! I leave the guest house at 6am, fly out of JoBurg at 10:30am and get into Lusaka at 12:30. Not sure what happens after that, but I think I'll first go to the PC office, then see what they say. I'll probably be pretty busy after I get back, catching up with training and such. I'm excited to be going back; though it's been nice and relaxing here, it's been tough to make myself study Bemba on my own. I can't exactly make up farm visit field trips, and I miss my training group.
And I'm still really excited about being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia. (but I have enjoyed 2 weeks of pizza and ice cream :)
Friday, March 19, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
1st post from Africa--not what I thought it'd be
Well, well, well. Guess I'll break the silence. So, if you've been facebook stalking me or reading my dad's ridiculous blog of my every move, you'll know that I'm in South Africa right now recovering from my appendectomy. Only 3 weeks in Zambia, and now I'm back in luxury before I even missed it. I don't really know where to go with this blog because I don't want to duplicate info or post every detail, but I also feel like I need correct my parents misinterpretations of things. Maybe I'll just comment on their blog to correct the grevious errors. Ah, I suppose I'm being dramatic. I just don't think anyone would be interested in what I had to eat at the hospital, and it's pretty hard to condense even a day of jam-packed new experiences into a phone call or a blog post. So if you're reading my parents stuff, just keep in mind the filtering process it goes through. And that I didn't think my emails would be copied directly onto the blog. Oops, there I go again, contridicting myself, irritated because the info is filtered and irritated when it's direct. I guess the deal is that right now, I just want to be in Africa: living, learning, experiencing, taking it all in. I'd almost rather be completely disconnected than worrying about trying to report everything, in a clever and interesting way, of course. At the same time, I'd still love to hear from you. I'm much better with replying to individual emails or having phone calls. I guess I like the personal, one-to-one connection rather than this mass broadcast thing. Ah, I should stop whining; let's just say I have no desire to be famous. (Yet at the same time, I'm awfully wordy so when I do post you should have plenty to read, if you're actually interested. Also, I like run-on sentences, fragments, too.)
Oh, so that whole surgery thing: Had the appendix out Friday night, was in pain Saturday morning, then sleepy and dizzy from pain meds Saturday afternoon. Everyone at the hospital kept speaking Afrikaans to me, presumably because I'm white, but once I figured out why I couldn't understand them, I just started telling them I only speak English. One of the nurses (black South African) told me she liked my tone of voice when I speak English. The other nurse (also black South African), was basically like, that's because she's not Afrikaaner. I realized this week that I don't know very much about SA. So now that's added to my list of things to learn about when I have free time in my village after training.
Much better on Sunday but still really sore in my abdomen from surg. My surgeon (who is very nice) drove me from the hospital to the guest house around noon. He lives near it and it was faster/easier than trying to get a PC vehicle on Sunday. The area of Pretoria around the guest house (Brooklyn) is very nice, like America but with big walls with electric fences at the top around every house/compound. There are multiple malls within walking distance, and it's near the university. I walked to the mall (5 blocks away) on monday with 2 other PCVs who are here, to see where it was and get groceries. Probably a bad idea as I was still really sore and crashed for 2 hours after. Yesterday's trip to the mall was much better. Had a frappacino and saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D. The mall is big and very nice. So I'm having a very relaxing time, but pre-service training (PST) is a pretty lousy time to be gone for almost 2 weeks. (just talked to the PC doc and it looks like the earliest I'll fly out is Tuesday)
PST is jam packed. 4 hours of language training every morning M-W, F and some on Sat. Technical (ag/forestry) training in the afternoon. Thursdays we all get together (environment + education trainees) all day for cross cultural and medical training. But free time is training time, too. While my bamaayo is cooking dinner, sometimes I'll sit with my language notebook and ask her my homework questions or go over what we did that day with my host brother or just ask the Bemba words for things. And since we have so much to cover in only 8 weeks there's always something I could be studying, mostly language. But now with internet on my phone, email and facebook are pretty tempting, and I haven't exactly been writing many letters. My stomach has been upset for a good chunk of my free time so that makes me just want to lay down instead of studying or chatting with my host family. And of course I want to hang out with all my fellow trainee friends (the education trainees just found out their villages yesterday!). So despite the relaxing luxury of recovery here in Pretoria, I want to get back to Zambia ASAP. I know I'll catch up once I do get back, but it's pretty tough to make myself study this language on my own--removed from intense training everyday, a teacher and people to practice with. 3 weeks without running water and electricity was not enough to make me ready for a vacay; I think it's just interrupting my culture shock process. But maybe it'll make my enthusiasm last longer than everyone else. I'm still pumped about being in Africa and definitely happy to be here. I can't wait to get back to my Zambian adventure, but I guess I do have a crazy story about the time I had my appendix out in South Africa.
(maybe I'll try to post more later about Zambia during my time here with internet)
Oh, so that whole surgery thing: Had the appendix out Friday night, was in pain Saturday morning, then sleepy and dizzy from pain meds Saturday afternoon. Everyone at the hospital kept speaking Afrikaans to me, presumably because I'm white, but once I figured out why I couldn't understand them, I just started telling them I only speak English. One of the nurses (black South African) told me she liked my tone of voice when I speak English. The other nurse (also black South African), was basically like, that's because she's not Afrikaaner. I realized this week that I don't know very much about SA. So now that's added to my list of things to learn about when I have free time in my village after training.
Much better on Sunday but still really sore in my abdomen from surg. My surgeon (who is very nice) drove me from the hospital to the guest house around noon. He lives near it and it was faster/easier than trying to get a PC vehicle on Sunday. The area of Pretoria around the guest house (Brooklyn) is very nice, like America but with big walls with electric fences at the top around every house/compound. There are multiple malls within walking distance, and it's near the university. I walked to the mall (5 blocks away) on monday with 2 other PCVs who are here, to see where it was and get groceries. Probably a bad idea as I was still really sore and crashed for 2 hours after. Yesterday's trip to the mall was much better. Had a frappacino and saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D. The mall is big and very nice. So I'm having a very relaxing time, but pre-service training (PST) is a pretty lousy time to be gone for almost 2 weeks. (just talked to the PC doc and it looks like the earliest I'll fly out is Tuesday)
PST is jam packed. 4 hours of language training every morning M-W, F and some on Sat. Technical (ag/forestry) training in the afternoon. Thursdays we all get together (environment + education trainees) all day for cross cultural and medical training. But free time is training time, too. While my bamaayo is cooking dinner, sometimes I'll sit with my language notebook and ask her my homework questions or go over what we did that day with my host brother or just ask the Bemba words for things. And since we have so much to cover in only 8 weeks there's always something I could be studying, mostly language. But now with internet on my phone, email and facebook are pretty tempting, and I haven't exactly been writing many letters. My stomach has been upset for a good chunk of my free time so that makes me just want to lay down instead of studying or chatting with my host family. And of course I want to hang out with all my fellow trainee friends (the education trainees just found out their villages yesterday!). So despite the relaxing luxury of recovery here in Pretoria, I want to get back to Zambia ASAP. I know I'll catch up once I do get back, but it's pretty tough to make myself study this language on my own--removed from intense training everyday, a teacher and people to practice with. 3 weeks without running water and electricity was not enough to make me ready for a vacay; I think it's just interrupting my culture shock process. But maybe it'll make my enthusiasm last longer than everyone else. I'm still pumped about being in Africa and definitely happy to be here. I can't wait to get back to my Zambian adventure, but I guess I do have a crazy story about the time I had my appendix out in South Africa.
(maybe I'll try to post more later about Zambia during my time here with internet)
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