There are no more questions?
After 2 years and 3 months in Zambia, my favorite question I've been asked is still this one from May or June 2010:
From my host father and his friend Mr. Pauda,
"So this Bin Laden, he is American?"
Um, no.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Ndeshako
Ndeshako means I am trying, in the habitual tense. So I may not always succeed, but I am still trying, throughout. All I can do is try and keep trying. However, if I'm honest, it's often more of a reminder to keep trying than an accurate description of my life.(I even guessed right with the spelling. Confirmed it today with a teacher at the local school. Dumb maybe, but I wanted to make sure I had it right before I explained, in case I had to change it.)
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Bushe mulefwaya ukwishiba finshi?
Whatchya'll wanna know?
I'll still try to get better at blogging all by myself, but it's a lot easier if I have a question to answer. So if you want to know something about Zambia, me, what I did or do, then comment it up and ask away!
I'll still try to get better at blogging all by myself, but it's a lot easier if I have a question to answer. So if you want to know something about Zambia, me, what I did or do, then comment it up and ask away!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Naliipika mu insaka
I cooked in an insaka
Funny how I'm finally showing where I lived, now that I'm not there anymore. Guess that's cause I have internet now. Better late than never I suppose.
I cooked on a brazier with charcoal.
So, I didn't actually use my insaka very much. Turns out it was the stage for the musungu show. (musungu is white person if you hadn't got that yet)
I cooked there most of the time, mostly to justify its existence. Eventually I stopped caring and just cooked on my little porch. But I always ate in my house. Though the weather was usually nice out, it was much more pleasant to eat inside, in peace. Eating inside, I still always got a nice breeze, just not the scenery. Inside, I could listen to my radio (at lunch) (I heart BBC and VOA) or watch The Office on my ipod (dinner). Maybe I would've interacted with my family more if I spent more time in my insaka instead of inside my house, but I much preferred inside, alone, in peace.
Outside I would be constantly asked about everything I was cooking with or eating. Or asked about my radio or asked to give them my magazine, newspaper or book. My ipod stayed secret for the entire 2 years. Maybe the constant watching of all my actions and bombardment of questions and requests for my stuff might have died down by the end of 2 years if I stuck it out sitting in my insaka. I didn't have the patience for that. (and I don't think it would've because new kids kept coming to stay with us. Seemed like there were always new little eyes trained on the musungu.) Turns out I like my privacy.
The most important reason for me to have an insaka was that it became my "office". Whenever someone would come to see me, we could sit there and discuss whatever. I wasn't so comfortable with people in my hut. Too many musungu things to explain, and if the visitor was a man, the public insaka was obviously much better than inside.
Funny how I'm finally showing where I lived, now that I'm not there anymore. Guess that's cause I have internet now. Better late than never I suppose.
 |
| This is my insaka (cooking shelter), decked out for 4th of July. |
 |
| in relation to my hut. that's my dish drying rack with laundry tubs and my solar shower on it. |
I cooked on a brazier with charcoal.
 |
| seen here with corn cob charcoal |
 |
| seen here empty with a pretty butterfly |
I cooked there most of the time, mostly to justify its existence. Eventually I stopped caring and just cooked on my little porch. But I always ate in my house. Though the weather was usually nice out, it was much more pleasant to eat inside, in peace. Eating inside, I still always got a nice breeze, just not the scenery. Inside, I could listen to my radio (at lunch) (I heart BBC and VOA) or watch The Office on my ipod (dinner). Maybe I would've interacted with my family more if I spent more time in my insaka instead of inside my house, but I much preferred inside, alone, in peace.
Outside I would be constantly asked about everything I was cooking with or eating. Or asked about my radio or asked to give them my magazine, newspaper or book. My ipod stayed secret for the entire 2 years. Maybe the constant watching of all my actions and bombardment of questions and requests for my stuff might have died down by the end of 2 years if I stuck it out sitting in my insaka. I didn't have the patience for that. (and I don't think it would've because new kids kept coming to stay with us. Seemed like there were always new little eyes trained on the musungu.) Turns out I like my privacy.
The most important reason for me to have an insaka was that it became my "office". Whenever someone would come to see me, we could sit there and discuss whatever. I wasn't so comfortable with people in my hut. Too many musungu things to explain, and if the visitor was a man, the public insaka was obviously much better than inside.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Mukati mu nganda yandi
Inside my house
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| My "sitting room". (That was my guest bed/couch. The mosquito net was only up in my sitting room when I had visitors.) |
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| My kitchen/pantry (didn't cook in there) |
 |
| Panorama |
Sorry I don't have a picture of my bedroom. It's in the middle there.
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| Christmas decorations :) |
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Ndeshala mu Zambia, 1 year futi
I am staying in Zambia, another year
Boy, my blog is terrible.
I may have said that before, though not in so many words.
I'm not going to pretend that I'm really going to make it better, but I am at least going to resume attempting to actually post on it.
Because, now, I have internet!
Briefly (ish): I finished my 2 years of Peace Corps service and have extended for a 3rd year. I moved out of my village
and am now just about settled in to my swanky new digs at Kakulu Farm. I have internet, running water, a hot shower (most of the time), and (sort of) electricity. And no more biking 20km to the road with my big backpack of stuff to go anywhere. I'll be here for a year, til May 2013.
I'm still a Peace Corps Volunteer but instead of working on my own, I now work with The Simon Poultney Foundation. It's gonna be EPIC. wink.
Sigh...I still really don't like blogging.
There's an awful lot of interesting things that have happened to or around me in the last 2 years. Haven't shared a one of 'em. I'll see what I can do.
Or maybe I'll just give occasional, boring "this is what I'm doing" updates. At least pictures will upload now. That should help.
Boy, my blog is terrible.
I may have said that before, though not in so many words.
I'm not going to pretend that I'm really going to make it better, but I am at least going to resume attempting to actually post on it.
Because, now, I have internet!
Briefly (ish): I finished my 2 years of Peace Corps service and have extended for a 3rd year. I moved out of my village
 |
| bye bye hut! Shalenipo. |
I'm still a Peace Corps Volunteer but instead of working on my own, I now work with The Simon Poultney Foundation. It's gonna be EPIC. wink.
Sigh...I still really don't like blogging.
There's an awful lot of interesting things that have happened to or around me in the last 2 years. Haven't shared a one of 'em. I'll see what I can do.
Or maybe I'll just give occasional, boring "this is what I'm doing" updates. At least pictures will upload now. That should help.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
belated half a post
**I wrote this around the 2nd weekend in March. Looks liks I never got around to finishing it. And looks like I'm failing at my new years resolution to blog. oops. figured I'd just post it.
Look-i'm blogging again!
The work stuff I wrote about last time is pretty much the same now. Still going but slowly slowly.
The week before last we had our PEPFAR training in Central Province. It was a great week! The group of volunteers from my intake and the one after mine in central is just awesome. We had a great time together, and the training was good, too. PEPFAR is President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. Started by W Bush and the provider of funding for PC's HIV work and lots of NGOs in Zambia and Africa, at least. So each PCV brings a counterpart from her community for a 5 day training. We talked about transmission, prevention, stigma, the disease itself, and teaching in the community. Trying to get Zambian women to open up and talk about sex was like pulling teeth, even with women only. But that's what we have to try to do, get people to talk about sex, since that's how you get HIV. Some of the female counterparts were teachers who were from a city or had at least been to school in town so they were much more free to talk. It's amazing the many differences between "town Zambians" and "village Zambians".
My counterpart was the community mentor I'm working with on the girls club at school. So even if we don't go out and start "sensitizing" the community all the time, at least we're both now better equipped to teach about HIV/AIDS at the girls club. hopefully.
Look-i'm blogging again!
The work stuff I wrote about last time is pretty much the same now. Still going but slowly slowly.
The week before last we had our PEPFAR training in Central Province. It was a great week! The group of volunteers from my intake and the one after mine in central is just awesome. We had a great time together, and the training was good, too. PEPFAR is President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. Started by W Bush and the provider of funding for PC's HIV work and lots of NGOs in Zambia and Africa, at least. So each PCV brings a counterpart from her community for a 5 day training. We talked about transmission, prevention, stigma, the disease itself, and teaching in the community. Trying to get Zambian women to open up and talk about sex was like pulling teeth, even with women only. But that's what we have to try to do, get people to talk about sex, since that's how you get HIV. Some of the female counterparts were teachers who were from a city or had at least been to school in town so they were much more free to talk. It's amazing the many differences between "town Zambians" and "village Zambians".
My counterpart was the community mentor I'm working with on the girls club at school. So even if we don't go out and start "sensitizing" the community all the time, at least we're both now better equipped to teach about HIV/AIDS at the girls club. hopefully.
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