I've been in country for over three weeks now and I'm happy to say I'm doing well and having a marvelous time. Were I organized, I'd have written this out before and just typed it now, but I'll be shooting from the hip (as one of our Zambian-British medical officers says) so bear with me.
First--ooh, the anxiety of just sitting here, at an Internet cafe in Lusaka, trying to type as fast as possible, is something I am happy not to have all the time. Bleh.
So here's the story so far:
After a great weekend in Philadelphia with my mom, I met my Peace Corps training class on Monday, January 31st. By Tuesday we were on our first adventure--rather than leaving for JFK airport at 2:00a.m. Wednesday as scheduled, we left at around 7pm (if memory serves me) in an attempt to beat a snowstorm. We beat the weather, a bit, but delays at JFK still made us miss our connection in Johannesburg, South Africa. Nonetheless, we made it in to Lusaka by Thursday evening, February 3rd, just a few hours off schedule. We were warmly greeted by staff and the Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders from several provinces, and off we went to a hostel/training center, where we spent the next few days.
I could write pages about the first week alone, but I'll attempt to keep it brief! :)
On Sunday we "rang in" to officially begin our training with a ceremony that included PC staff, U.S. Ambassador to Zambia Mark Storella, and Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson, who happened to be visiting. This was a pretty cool experience. Ambassador Carson himself was a PC Volunteer back in the '60s, so it was very humbling to be reminded of this bigger entity of which we are all now part.
We opened the days after "fly-in," as the initial period in country is called, by site visits. Three other trainees and I rode several hours to visit a married couple near Musofu. They've been here for a year; one is a RED (Rural Education Development) volunteer, like I will be, and the other is in the LIFE (Linking Income, Food, and the Environment) project here. We had a fabulous time camping in their yard, spending a lot of time in their insaka (equivalent to a living room, only it's an open-air mud hut), and climbing "cell phone mountain" to try to get service.
Ah! I have a cell phone. For me, texts are a bit spendy (about 10 cents, but bear in mind that's USD and I'm on a limited income) to send but I can receive them for free. Calls to the US are rather expensive (much more so than texts) but theoretically I have internet on the phone so email will work. I have yet to access Internet on the phone, but I'm a believer. If you'd like to call, my number is +00 26 097 66 99993. I think it's +00, anyway...not sure how to call from the US but it should be fairly simple to figure out. 26 is Zambia's country code.
Zambia is 7 hours ahead of Eastern time, 8 hours ahead of Central, etc.
Returning from site visit on Thursday, Feb. 10 (we had departed on Monday, Feb. 7) was great--all the other trainees had had a great time at their site visits, so it was fun to swap stories. On Friday, we learned our languages. I am learning Mambwe along with one other trainee. This means that there are two sites near Mbala, in Northern Province, where we will each be posted after we swear in on April 21, 2011 (also my brother's 19th birthday).
We moved to our host homes in Chongwe district (about 40 minutes or so from Lusaka) Friday night, just hours after learning our language groups. I was terrified as my host mother ran out of the house with a chorus of "LALALALALALALALA" in a high-volume, high-pitched voice. I was greeted so warmly--the lalalas are just a fabulous display of excitement--and within moments was set up with my mattress, mosquito net, and water filter in a room inside her mud-brick-walled, tin-roofed house. My yamayo, or host mother, got me all set up and then began talking in quite fluent English, so my fears were allayed (is that a word?) rather quickly.
My host family's house, and the house of my fellow Mambwe Mama, who lives nearby, is in the middle of a cornfield. It's pretty exciting. I have my own pit latrine building and thatch bathing shelter, where I take my bucket baths each morning, and my room has a window (no glass, but it locks shut with a wood panel shutter, of sorts) so I'm pretty lucky. We've been in a bit of a drought, despite it being rainy season, but around 3am this morning it started pouring buckets and continued for hours. I was not among the volunteers who got dripped on/evacuated out of their individual huts during the course of the night, so I'd say I definitely lucked out in the host family department.
Language learning is going well. Our first test--a conversational language simulation--is on Monday, so we'll see how that goes. Our other training is a big amalgamation of technical (i.e., general development + Zambian education system + teaching methodologies +++), safety/security, cross-cultural, and medical sessions. So far I've been very impressed. The food has been great overall; I'm learning to love n'shima. I'm excited about getting some dairy today, though. :) Actually, we had one stop at a mall before our first site visit for Internet and grocery shopping for food to take to site, but my 10 minutes at the internet cafe resulted in one email that didn't send and didn't save. :( Today we're back in the city (Zambia's capital) for a bit of a cultural session (driving tour past State House and Parliament, plus a session with a local author about Zambia's history and culture, and a visit to the National Museum). We were excited to be granted a few more mall hours for food items and Internet time.
I think I've exhausted the basics. I hope all of you are so well, and I'm sorry I can't respond to individual messages or emails at this point. It's quite likely I'll only have one or two more stops at an Internet cafe during the next two months, but please know I'm thinking of you! Snail mail is much appreciated; you can reach me at:
Andrea Mayrose/PCT
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 50707
Lusaka, ZAMBIA
Write Air Mail/Par Avion on the letter, and please number & date it. Writing a religious sentiment ("God is watching" or such) supposedly helps prevent theft, though it feels a tiny bit sacreligious. I do think God is in support of the mail service, though. :)
Again, my phone is: +00 26 097 66 99993. Would love to hear from you by any means!
For now, you can find me ("Nemo" = me in Mambwe, hence the title...not so much about finding myself; I have two years to be introspective!) in Chishiko village, near Chongwe. For the next two years, you can find nemo in Zambia.
With much love, & tukatini mukwai ("Stay well")
Dre
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