The Last 3 Months

Let's see...

Well, the building of my house has unfortunately overshadowed everything else for me so let's get that out of the way. A summary: My village made an action plan that said my house was supposed to be done on Sept. 8. I moved in Dec. 16. (and left for vacation 2 days later) I just spent so much time having the same conversations over and over with the same people, different people, pushing and pushing to get things done. I've never been so frustrated about something in my life. Frustrations with my house were also mixed up in some other frustrations, but the house, and things tied into it, have been the only things I've gotten upset about. It's a long story, but in brief, people I trusted in the village lied to me and tried to manipulate me. But now the house is finished and I've moved in so I'll do my best to move on with my work and just spend time with the people I really like in the village. I am excited to finally live in my permanent house after 8 months at site, and I hope to be able to post pictures after I finally settle and make it my home.

On work stuff:

1. I had several good Chongololo Club meetings. It's the environment club we started at my school. So far it's mostly just 5th and 6th graders because the way the schedules work. We talked about trees-why they're important, what we get from them. Tried to stick to simple things in the beginning, hopefully to help them understand why we made the tree nursery.

2. With the Club and lots of other pupils at the school, we planted our tree nursery of nitrogen fixing trees, maintained it, and planted trees around the school the last week of the term! I was pretty pumped it actually got done, and in the end they had even more places for trees than we had seedlings--so we plan to do more next year! They wanted a windbreak but it didn't work out. For the height that our tress will grow they would've needed to be planted right in line with the flag pole, in the middle of the school yard, right where cars drive through. That is, if the problem wind even comes from that direction, which was in disagreement among the teachers. Maybe next year. Also plan to do some fruit trees, especially mango because we'll be able to collect plenty of seeds this time of year. (excited to go back to mango season!)

3. We started a beekeeping training with one of my women's groups that my amazing counterpart Lewis works with. But, we didn't finish. The women's club paid themselves for a local Zambian beekeeping expert to do a 5 part theory training plus practicals. They learned to make modern hives out of mud, with molds, like bricks, so then all they'll have to buy are the top bars which are only about $4. They mud hives aren't very durable but they're cheap and easy and theoretically, you can raise money with the honey from them to buy more durable wood hives. The training started out so well, only about 10 women, but they were really excited. But then training days kept getting postponed, rescheduled, cancelled. Then the busy farming season was coming so the women decided to stop for now. I'm hopeful that we'll pick back up in few months but it has to be the women who want to do it, not me or my counterpart telling them they should do it. So we shall see.

4. I held a little workshop in October on how to make compost. It was well attended, and went well, despite my agreed translator being extra late, my back up translator not showing up, and a long debate between the attendees, in Bemba, about how to do part of the process that I had to cut off, somewhat rudely. Don't know if anyone has actually made or used compost for themselves. I'm going to attempt to follow up.

5. Peace Corps volunteers all over the world host Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), and some other PCVs in Central Province led one in Dec. I wasn't involved with the camp but I sent 2 8th grade girls and a community mentor to participate. They loved it and we're excited to start a girls club at my school this coming term. The goal is to share all the knowledge the 2 girls gained--about self esteem, being assertive, protecting themselves from HIV and early pregnancy, staying in school, opportunities after school, and more--with all the girls in Mambilima.

We got 4 new volunteers in Central and they're all really cool.

I've had lots of good times with my PCV friends.

Thanksgiving at our PC house with the whole crew was really great. We're our own PC family.
It's really weird that I've been in Zambia almost a year now. The new group of volunteers comes in Feb, and it's crazy to think that was me a year ago.

I really love getting letters in the mail. My address is on the side. :)

Ok, I think that's enough to catch up for now.