Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Merry Christmas 2012!

In keeping with tradition, I'll sum up the year in a spur-of-the-moment Christmas letter:

Happy Holidays to all!
The past year has been so full of rich experiences that I'm struggling even to begin.  To break it into pieces:

Work: I'm a volunteer in the Rural Education Development (RED) project, and my primary focus has been co-teaching at the zonal centre school a stone's throw from my house.  Terms I and II found me co-teaching Grade 9 Maths with a wonderful community volunteer teacher who has become my best friend in the village. He left to begin studies at the University of Zambia in July, so in Term III, I continued with Grade 9 Maths (sometimes with another teacher), and I also co-taught Grade 9 English with a teacher new to our school.  I'm also taking part in a study run through the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and PMI (President's Malaria Initiative), examining the use of and damage sustained by LLINs--Long-life insecticide-impregnated mosquito nets.  I've had several counterparts in this study and it has been a much-needed and fabulously interesting way to get myself out of school and into the community.  I've appreciated the trust bestowed me as people I don't know well allow me into their bedrooms (a very private space in Zambia) to examine their nets.  I've done a bit of work at other schools--paying a few school visits, organizing and conducting a book inventory at the next nearest government school--but sometimes I feel my most valuable work is one-on-one tutoring or homework help, often with my family members or other pupils on weekends or in the evenings.

I've had a chance to do some HIV/AIDS work, which boils down to informal conversations and condom demonstrations.  For example, one afternoon I was hanging out on my porch with two of my best friends, 20-something men in the village, and we were able to discuss sexual behaviours in Zambia and America, some of our own personal choices, and male circumcision.  This kind of organic idea-sharing and planting-seeds-for-behaviour-change represents what I love best about my job here--the way it seeps effortlessly into the rest of my life if I just let it.

My fabulous team of district volunteers organised a Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) in April and a Camp ELITE (Empowering Leaders in Training and Equality) in December.  Basically these camps train grade 8 and 9 youth as peer educators in life skills, gender issues, and general empowerment in single-sex camps.  (ELITE also incorporated football training.)  We also train a community counterpart, and ideally each PCV-counterpart-youth team creates a club at their school to help transfer these skills to other youth as well.  Both camps were a great success.  Making the clubs work is more challenging, but as we say here, "bit by bit."

I've done a bit of work here and there at the clinic, helping out with Under 5, and I did a test-run of sorts with a short informational lesson on water purification with mothers at a postnatal clinic session.  I'm looking forward to doing more community education through these channels in the coming months.

A community library has not gathered the impetus it needs to transition from idea to reality yet, and I'm wary of pushing my own agenda.  However, my mother and sister both generously brought books in their suitcases, and I'm trying to promote a reading culture through exposing children to those.  We have a district library that has really encouraged me with its potential, and I've been working with a few other volunteers to help put the books in order.  We have big hopes that we can help train the library staff on how to maintain this order, expand their collection, and attract the public.  It will be an ongoing project, but I hope that my work has helped the staff to build a relationship with Peace Corps and that others will continue to carry on what we're starting to really make the library a great resource for those in the district.

As a second-year volunteer, I've tried to be a good resource for newer volunteers, taking part in an orientation panel, hosting second site visit for the new Mbala district RED volunteers, and helping design and facilitate In-Service Training for the first-year RED volunteers in August.  It's empowering to be part of a great team of talented and committed individuals!

Play: I love my house and my community, and I take plenty of time for myself to sleep, sew, write, paint, and read.  I don't bike on a daily basis due to my location and how my work has been focused, but I've had some lovely rides to other volunteers' sites and town.  Larry London's music mix blaring through the shortwave radio remains one of my favourite hours of the day, and letters from family and friends are the best things one can find in Mbala!  I've tried to reconcile two distinct parts of Peace Corps/Zambia--the personal village experience and the crowd-of-other-Peace-Corps-volunteers experience, and I hosted a cool Unity Day/American independence day party that merged the two as well as I hoped.  Nights here and there in Mbala and Mpulungu, helping out with a volunteer's health day in Central Province, visiting Kasanka National Park for the bat migration, and time at the provincial house for biannual meetings, new volunteer posting, and other work/events have provided many opportunities to develop friendships within the Peace Corps family.  Of course, visits from my mom and sister Beth were big highlights of the year!

Love: It's impossible not to think about marriage and babies in a country where every young woman has a child strapped to her back.  That said, I'm not coming home with a spouse or a child, and I'm really happy to still be shaping my own world and figuring out my own vision for the future.  When I find someone who shares the vision, perhaps the horse and carriage will follow, but in the meanwhile I'm very happy to be unattached!

Family: I've missed some big things at home this year: the birth of fourth son, Asher, to my brother Bryce and sister-in-law Ronda; the high-school graduation of my sister Beth, and countless school activities of my other siblings Jim, Anne, and Becky, plus the occasional visit home from my soldier brother Mike.  However, I was privileged to share my Zambian home with my mom during her whirlwind tour in April and with Beth during her 5-week stay in June/July.  Between these two visits, I was able to share in a safari to Chobe Park in Botswana, visits to Kalambo and Victoria Falls, general silliness in Livingstone, and quality time roaming the areas most important in my life here.  I've also experienced some changes in my Zambian family as people tend to be a bit transient in my village, and while I'm excited that I'll get more time with my American family in the very near future, I'll be terribly sad to leave behind my Zamfam.

All the rest: Peace Corps is known to be full of ups and downs, and I've had my share of frustration, disappointment, and uncertainty about my role and my work.  Nonetheless, I'm always aware of the incredible gift that this entire experience is and of the stream of sand that marks my rapidly-diminishing time here.  I have so much I still want to learn, do, and experience in my remaining months, and I'm really excited about soaking in every moment.  I'm scheduled to leave my community around April 11th, officially 'ring out' of the Peace Corps on April 18, and spend a few weeks traveling in Tanzania before I go to my South Dakota home in May.  In June I'll be back to Cambridge with Harvard Summer School, and August will bring another new entry into one of my favourite places: The Great Unknown.

The year has been an amazing one.  I'm so grateful for good health, meaningful work, and a breathtaking environment to live in, but most of all for the wonderful people who fill my world.  Thank you for sharing your lives with me!  Wishing you all the best in 2013.

With love,
Andrea (/Rose)

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