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

bye bye hut! Shalenipo.

 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.

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.

imyaka imo

one year

soooooo fast it was.

The new LIFE (the ag/forestry program, =my program) trainees arrived in country this week. they come on first site visit tomorrow, to see how we live. not to my village but to my friend's so i'm going for a few days, to meet some new kids and to help out. that's a lotta water gotta be fetched for baths for 5-6 people.

the year's gone so fast, i feel like i can still remember what it felt like to be new and see a village for the first time. just gotta remember to cut them LOTS of slack. i'm so used to everything now, gotta remember it's ALL new for them.

As for me.....
Really excited about the girls club at my school! It's called Girls Power. The girls chose the name. Lots of girls are coming every week and they seem really interested, both in the fun stuff (songs, games, a party later) and the serious stuff (we talked about "sugar daddies" last week, how maybe they give you money or a nice dress but they can also give you a baby or HIV). It's not as cool as my friend's girls club where the girls are actually leading it themselves, but still going really well so far.
Chongololo (my environment club) is ok. we didn't meet the first 3 weeks because the teacher i was depending on kept being busy or out. but last week we talked about bees and they seemed interested and asked lots of good questions, from 5th graders up to 9th.
I taught about recognizing and using your personal and local assets to a women's club. Showing them to look to themselves and their local community first instead of looking for outside assistance, when starting any project. Asset mapping we call it. I've done it with a few other womens groups and it's gone really well everytime. It's really simple, so it's easy to teach and understand, but also seems to have an impact. at least gets them excited and aware of all the resources they already have available to them, without anyone from my "donor country" giving them anything.

My community just started back up their "youth" club. In Zambia, "youth" goes up to age 35. I need to find out if there's anyone as young as even 20 or 21 in the club. kinda doubt it. but it's good nonetheless. since they're just starting, I think maybe they can benefit from me teaching/encouraging project planning. starting with the abovementioned asset mapping. encouraging them to think things through before diving in deep to a project that might crash and burn. setting themselves up for success. i hope. problem is they meet the same day as the girls club. youths at 14:00, girls at 15:00. so i told them if they actually start at 14:00 (a major feat really), i can come for an hour, but if they're late (as normal), too bad, i'll be leaving for girls club. The "youths" might want to do beekeeping. i hope so. it's something i now feel confident i can help with and that can actually make money without much labor.

Enjoying my new house! finally. i'll try to remember to take pictures. it's big, much cleaner, virtually rat free, and now decorated. even have a few zinnias blooming in pots out front. Blair's Guest House in Mambilima is ready for visitors! (one is coming in March! soooooooo pumped!)

I got an oven made in the village. It wasn't really what i asked for and it needs some modifications, but i baked mango bread and no-flour peanut butter cookies. Mango bread was delicious! I'm sure sad mango season is over already. loved it for sure. guava season is coming but i don't love them so much.
Women's groups and the youths want to learn about cooking and baking different things. yes, i made mango bread, but no, if you know me, i am NOT a cook. especially when anything i'd make involves ingredients not available where i am or to people in my community. it was kinda stressing me out trying to find time to first practice cooking/baking then collecting materials and going to teach it. i have some recipes using locally available stuff. so now i've decided just to copy them and give them to the women. they know how to cook and bake much better than me anyway. hopefully just give them some new ideas.

So i'm doing some other projects, but right now kind of focused on the clubs at my school. i like my regular schedule and (semi) reliability. I like having something set every week. gives me work but not overwhelming and it's predictable. of course, also predictable that it'll get cancelled for any number of reasons. but now i am used, as they say. when someone tells me they're going to do something or come somewhere, I say ok, good. but don't really believe it til i see it.

There. I blogged. New years resolution kept through february, at least.

Don't forget--I love letters and granola bars.

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.

Christmas Vacation

Just got back from my first big vacay in Africa: Mozambique for Christmas and New Years.

It was just lovely. Yes, I missed being at home and with my family for Christmas. But I really hate the cold and really enjoyed the beach and traveling. And, as a Christian, the true meaning of Christmas is still true no matter where you are. That makes it much easier for me to be away. I was sad I wasn't able to go to church for Christmas Eve or Day, but I had some quiet time and listened to a Christmas-time sermon podcast and Christmas music on my ipod.

2 PCV friends and I flew from Lusaka to Joburg, took a bus to Maputo, then a shuttle to Tofo beach. We had a lovely day at the mall in Joburg. Not that I'm sitting in the village missing the mall, but it was awful nice to spend a day shopping and eating good food. Also, I would definitely recommend Ghandi's Backpackers in Joburg.

Tofo was just ok. We stayed at the party hostel and didn't enjoy the music with it's soul-rattling bass every night, including Christmas Eve. Just not our ideal place for a relaxing holiday. The beach was beautiful though.

So we went up to Vilankulos, which we loved. (After taking the ferry to Maxixe, we got a ride with 2 very nice Turkish men who live in Canada, but were in Mozambique to check on their mattress factory. They drove us 20km out of their way because it was raining.) We had a great little bungalow right on the beach at Baobab Backpackers. It was so nice to sit on our little porch, read or chat, and look out to the beach, watch the boats and tides come in, and enjoy the ocean breeze. We shopped around the market, went on a horseback ride on the beach and went out to the Bazruto Archipelego. The islands are beautiful and there's only really fancy resorts on them so we took a day trip, my friends went snorkeling and enjoyed the view from the top of a dune on Bazruto Island. I went scuba diving! A little nervous since I hadn't been in a while, but great once I got down. Visibility was terrible, but I had fun and saw lots of pretty fish. The New Years Eve party at Baobab was fun, despite that the music was terrible. The cast of characters around Baobab was quite interesting and we were thoroughly entertained by them.

(Side note: Our fabulous beach vacation site--Vilankulos--is also the site of a Peace Corps Volunteer. I live in the bush. Almost no PCVs in Zambia have electricity or running water. Don't get me wrong, I love PC Zambia and don't want to change, I just think that gives us a few points for being way more hardcore than other PC countries.)

Then we headed down to Maputo for a few days as tourists in the capital. It was weird driving down as our ride pointed out places we were driving through that used to be war zones. Can't tell at all now. We enjoyed Maputo, went to the art museum, the Fort (excellent tourist attraction, don't miss it if you go. j/k. but seriously), and the cathedral--really cool, built in the 40s. You can definitely tell the cathedral is in regular use-the nativity scene was complete with flashing rope lights.

We had a day in Joburg before flying back to Zambia so we went to the Apartheid Museum. It was REALLY good. I knew virtually nothing about South African history before coming to Zambia so I learned a ton. It's so hard to believe things were like that so recently. Of course there are lots of places where people still live in unjust conditions, but it's crazy that it was all so official and regimented.

It was great to get away, relax and see new things, but I'm glad to be back. It felt great to feel comfortable coming in to the Lusaka airport. I love being able to understand people again and be confident about how things work. And Zambia is beautiful, so green in rainy season. I'm glad to go back to the village tomorrow but slightly apprehensive since I've been gone so long. But I know once I get there I'll get right back into things. It's going to be strange being at site and just being able to work--so glad I no longer have to pester people about building my house! Excited to finally put things up on my walls. That means you should all send me pictures so I can put them up. :)

Sorry Sorry

Dear people who care about me or are mildly interested in my Peace Corps service,

I apologize for being a terrible blogger. To make it up to you, I've made a half-hearted new years resolution to blog more often. But you know how new years resolutions go...

I realized that one of the reasons I haven't blogged is the same reason why I think some people haven't written me: By now so much time has passed, there are so many things I/you should tell about that the task of blogging (or letter writing) seems too big. It'd take forever to catch up on everything, but it seems weird just skipping all those months.

Well, I would still very much like to receive a letter, even if it just has a few highlights of the past year and then tells me what's going on now. Therefore, I resolve to attempt to get back to blogging. I figure a little something in January is better than nothing since September. Hopefully you agree.

My apologies (in Zamlish: Sorry sorry),

Blair

a bit about work and a bit about other stuff

So, a comment from AZ wants more about my job. Thought I gave a few examples of work related things but guess I should explain more about the Peace Corps program. PC Zambia has 9 weeks of Pre-Service Training (PST) before being officially sworn in as volunteers. Then we go to our sites and begin our 2 years of service with a 3 month community entry period. We’re supposed to get to know our area, our community and people there. Basically get to know people, let them get to know you, figure out how to live in rural Zambia and start trying to figure out how you’re going to work there, what kinds of things seem feasible and weeding out who’s actually interested in working with you from those who just want to be friends with the white girl. We’re not really expected to work much or start any projects, just get to know people and explain what it is we’re supposed to be doing. We’re also not really supposed to leave our villages during those 3 months, not supposed to leave our district except for 1 official provincial meeting, and no vacation or anything. The point is to try to integrate into the community, learn about the problems there, and about what the people’s needs and wants are, not just come in and start telling people what to do. So when I posted those last posts I had just finished that 3 month community entry period. I think I said but I was at In-Service Training (IST) also known as Reconnect because we get to reconnect with our training group that we haven’t seen for 3 months.

So now that I’ve been back at site for a few months I’m trying to get the ball rolling on some projects and trying to start planning things. But dealing with getting my house built is still eating more of my time than I would like. Not much happens quickly here-not house building, not arranging meetings, not starting or doing projects. And I think it would be a mistake to rush into a (big) project without planning. That’s one reason why I haven’t posted about my work-it’s just starting.

But things are moving.
I’ve taught short nutrition lessons at the Under 5 Clinics-baby weighing mostly but they/I “sensitize” the mothers on various health topics before the weighing starts. And sometimes the clinic staff comes (from 17km away) to do vaccinations and such.
So far I’ve been talking about trying to eat a balanced diet with all the food groups and how young children need to eat multiple times throughout the day. I hope to encourage gardening some through talking about nutrition, like that a way to have a variety of different foods for a balanced diet is to grow them, thereby also diversifying your crops. Then I also plan to talk about soybeans (referred to as soya here), about how nutritious they are, different things you can make from soya, and then encourage people to grow it so they have it for nutrition, to sell and to add in crop rotations for improving nitrogen in the soil.
I taught about and made a compost pile with the 8th and 9th grade agriculture science classes. When it’s finished rotting (and if we make more), we’ll be able to use it instead of fertilizer on the school garden, maize field and when we plant our tree seedlings in the field during rainy season.
Hopefully I’ll be starting a tree nursery with my school this week. We’ll plant some trees around the school boundary and for a windbreak. I’ll also plant a few of several different (leguminous) nitrogen fixing trees, at least to have examples of them to show people the different types and, hopefully, also show the benefit of soil improvement.
I’m helping the headmaster at my school come up with a basic business plan for the small shop he’s starting.
I hope to work with a few groups on beekeeping. It’s a good income generating activity because there’s a good market for both honey and wax, mostly just requires good management (though sometimes that’s easier said than done), and the few outside materials needed are fairly easily obtained from the forestry department or NGOs who also promote beekeeping and have expertise to offer. The forestry department will even come out to villages and purchase the unprocessed honey, avoiding the difficulty and cost of transport but not always giving beekeepers the best price.

So those are some examples of things I’m doing or hope to do. I’m still spending too much time trying to get my house finished (though it’s started now), so I’ll be glad when that’s finished.
Though they ran out of bricks and have to make more so who knows when it’ll be done. I’m fairly confident it’ll be done before rainy season though I’m afraid it’ll be down to the wire. I got frustrated with the whole process for a while, but I’m trying to go back to just being patient now.

Thanks for the packages everyone! It’s so nice to know people are thinking about me and sending me treats and useful things. You all (especially my mom) have been taking such good care of me with packages that really I get more excited about nice chatty or newsy letters than I do packages. Not that I’m asking you to stop sending packages, I just really love hearing from friends and family. I don’t always have enough cell phone battery or time in electricity to type emails, but if you write me a letter I’ll do my best to reply. That said, my request for granola bars is still standing. :)

Oh yeah, I went on vacation to Livingstone/Victoria Falls. I’ll just say that Vic Falls definitely deserves it’s place on the list of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. I’m also happy to report that Livingstone is a really nice place. That’s a bit of a relief to me since I anticipate going there quite a few times if all my potential visitors come and want me to accompany them to see Vic Falls. If you’ve looked up anything about Vic Falls maybe you’ve seen something or heard about Devil’s Pool. We walked out to swim in it. Don’t want to try to describe it, but it’s hands down the coolest thing I’ve ever done.

I have to say I really don’t like blogging, but I suppose my potential readers (=my parents) are in luck today as I’m sort of in the mood for it. I’m at the provincial house basically by myself enjoying electricity and a mental break from the village. But now I’ll try to do a little work to prepare for planting the school tree nursery.

Oh, the other thing I wanted to say is that if you’re looking for a way to support me, you can also support Peace Corps, my fellow volunteers and their communities by contributing to their projects. Volunteers and their communities can apply for a grant to be funded by you, our loving friends and families. I don’t have one myself as I’m still new, and don’t really plan on it, but it’s a possibility in the future if the community is motivated to do a worthwhile project. If you’re interested, check out the Peace Corps website and click on Donate to Volunteer Projects. You can look for projects in Zambia, or any that you think are worthwhile. My friends, Zambian and PCV, will thank you!

(I wanted to post pics but they won't upload. sorry sorry)