tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3837015826364092072024-03-13T01:33:09.416-07:0027 Months in ZambiaAs complete and up-to-date as possible chronicle of my time in Zambia as a Community Health Development Specialist.Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-88806656024908279942012-09-12T14:46:00.000-07:002012-09-12T14:47:13.346-07:00Past, Present, FutureI was "pulled" from my village, Fiwila, on Monday September 10th, 2012. It was a day that came full circle. The first time I visited my house and I was so unsure of whether it was the right placement for me, if me and the family would mesh well together, and how the <i>hell</i> was I going to survive without cell phone service!?! I laid on my floor, with only the furniture left behind by previous volunteers in the house, and cried my eyes out. On Monday, shortly before departure, I laid in that same spot, this time my house totally vacant and barren as I gave all my furniture away since I am not being replaced by another volunteers and all my bags were packed up and ready to go, and I balled my eyes out, this time for a different reasons. It turns out that I had been placed in the perfect village for me, with the most wonderful family who became my real family, and in the end I ended up getting cell phone coverage. Sitting with my family the night before I cried through the whole meal realizing "this is the last time that I will be eating nshima with you." The morning I left I was able to go to the opening day of preschool and see the children and the teachers begin the term.<br />
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I came to Peace Corps with the loftiest of goals, to change the world, to save the community and every person in it. I didn't even think it would be that hard and while I knew I would change I didn't know how I would change. Peace Corps has been one of the most humbling and educational experiences. Every time I though that I had an aspect of Zambian culture figured out, or understood, or thought I was a Zambian something would happen to remind me that I will never totally understand this world, because it's not my world. However, I feel I gave Zambia everything that I had, and it gave me everything it had to offer and what more could a person ask for?<br />
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My family is sending my best friend and Zambian sister Paxina to nursing school starting in (hopefully) January. Her life will be forever changed along with her family's. She kept me for two years, and now it's my turn to help keep her. Some of the people I met inspired me and melted my heart. The tradgedies that they had endured, the struggles they had overcome, and they will still forging ahead trying to make life better for themselves and their families.<br />
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Not everything was beautiful. There were some ugly things, such as the corruption and the manipulation. There were deaths, and failed projects. But there were also births and successful endeavors. I learned to celebrate small victories, because if you only focus on the big picture and the big victories, a lot of beautiful and wonderful moments in your life will pass you by.<br />
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My two years in Zambia have been the most amazing, challenging, educational, uplifting, eye-opening, healing, and wonderful two years of my life. I don't know what really lies ahead (other than an amazing Euro trip to see my sister and old friends that it has been to long since I have seen) but Zambia has taught me that even the best, most carefully laid plans can go completely astray and how to deal with the chaos that may ensue.<br />
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For those of you who helped with my preschool, either helping to promote it to your friends/family/coworkers, donated money to the grant or supplies for the school both me and my community can never thank you enough. You have helped to make a difference in these children's lives, I have seen such a change in them since they started their lessons in February and they are SO excited about their beautiful building full of toys, art supplies, and what they don't know is educational material that is meant just for them to enjoy. They all get to sit in their own chair, many of these children have never had a chair that they get to sit in all by themselves and they don't have to share or give up to an adult or older child.<br />
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And to those of you who have followed my journey, and who have supported me through my journey, I couldn't have done it without you. There where days when you just wanted to throw in the towel, days when you were so sad, or angry, or frustrated but then I would remember all those at home who loved and supported me (I kept a constant reminded on my wall and saved all your letters) Your love and support has meant more than you will ever imagine<br />
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Leaving is bittersweet. I am ready for the next chapter of my life, but leaving this important chapter behind is not easy. I have built a life here, a network both of Zambian and American friends. I have gotten used to life here (even the horrible transportation system-which is the number one thing I will NOT miss about Zambia) and I am about to leave all of it behind, and I can never return to it. I am returning to a life that I left behind two years ago that isn't the same life it was, because though I didn't realize it at the time, I was leaving behind a life then that I could never return to. We can only go forward, we can only fight through the bad, savor the good, and celebrate any success (even if its just sweeping the house, or typing a report, or building a preschool) No matter the size of the success it is a success and it should be enjoyed and celebrated. It is the small moments that make up our lives, and if we don't appreciate and enjoy those small moments we're going to miss a lot of life.<br />
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This chapter ends, an another begins<br />
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so it goes.....Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-45416072142402890862012-04-29T05:02:00.000-07:002012-04-29T05:03:21.902-07:00Building the future...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZVcl5IlcWMvxnksh_1SbV50KFSf02GzwPaHEPBlG-Qcn-aIhrcX945jZtMj5ytknNX2Ulhyphenhyphen2yETuZBCjPju3UX3DRFY0qp5jmuksRwFMCTDL2uODcMpr0OERGXEmvr6LRRQWRVKOeEWL-/s1600/DSCN1816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZVcl5IlcWMvxnksh_1SbV50KFSf02GzwPaHEPBlG-Qcn-aIhrcX945jZtMj5ytknNX2Ulhyphenhyphen2yETuZBCjPju3UX3DRFY0qp5jmuksRwFMCTDL2uODcMpr0OERGXEmvr6LRRQWRVKOeEWL-/s200/DSCN1816.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George & Phil<br />
3 1/2 and 4 Years Old<br />
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George and Phil are two boys who live in my village. A few months ago, I took this picture. It was a weekday morning and their brothers and sisters, who were in charge of taking care of them, had wandered over to my house to see if I had anything fun to give them. Because the boys parents both work, their care fell onto their older siblings. Their older siblings weren't in school because they had to take care of these guys, and these guys weren't in school because there was no option for them to go to school. In a few years they would have started school totally unprepared. The grade 1 ciriculum in Zambia is designed as if children attened preschool, however in the village set up, this rarely occurs. Even if their is a preschool accessible, the cost is usually astronomical for a village family. Children go into grade 1 totally unprepared, behind in school before they even start. In my community 50 percent of the grade 1 students just stop going to school. They can't learn because they are behind and get embarrassed and discouraged. I'm working to help change this in my community, and I need your help!</div>
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These kids lack the foundation to succeed in school. Can you imagine building a house without a foundation? Preschool is the educational foundation that these children lack. If they are behind in grade 1, they are never able to catch up, thus are always behind in school. Some get away with it until it is time to take their grade 7 exams. If they can't pass their grade 7 exams, they cannot advance to grade 8. For many, grade 7 becomes the end of their education. Girls are often married off shortly after failing their grade 7's (or before) and sons are sent to the fields to work. These are the lucky ones. For those that drop out before grade 7, they end up becoming domestic or field workers. Any chance of success and upward mobility is squandered. All because they weren't prepared for school as a toddler. </div>
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We forget sometimes how important preschool is for a child's development, cognitively, but also emotionally, socially, and physically. True in preschool children get introductory education such as learning their abc's, counting to ten, writing their name, knowing colors, days of the week, the months of the year. But there are other valuable skills a child obtains in preschool. These are things like developing fine motor skills, by doing things like drawing, cutting and pasting, running, jumping, and holding pencils, or developing social skills and learning how to interact with other children. They also get some lessons on things like hand washing after using the toilet and before eating. Their small, developing brains get the stimulation they need in order to grow. Early childhood education is a new concept in Zambia, one that only a few appreciate. </div>
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The new govenment is trying to institute more "community" pre schools because they don't have the money to institute government run schools. I have written a grant whose funds will be used to rennovate a building donated by the local orphanage in my community. We will turn this building into a one room preschool class room. We will also use the money to buy supplies for the children, everything from tables and chairs to pens, paper, paint, and scissors. We currently have nuns who are trained in teaching preschool that are volunteering to teach, however outlying communities also want preshcools. They are receiving, and will continue to receive training, on how to manage and run the school. We will be able to hold a training for them on how to institute, run, teach, and mange a preschool in their areas. Parents are anxious for their children to attend preschool. We have opened already in Fiwila, my community. The orphanage has a small room we are using and some wonderful friends and family have sent a few supplies to get us by. These supplies are running out, as is my time in Zambia and I need your help to raise the additional $2,000 needed to complete the project. The kids that are in school love it. George and Phil above can now count to 10, recite their abc's and are even learning a few words in english! Their brother's and sister's are able to also attend school since if the boys are in school, they don't have to stay home to take care of them. There are suddenly 20 little lives who are being given a chance to succeed in school, and thus succeed as functional adults in their communities. These children are the future of Zambia, please help me give them the foundation they need. </div>
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If you have already donated, myself, and the kids, are eternally grateful to you! If you haven't donated and are interested in donating, it's really simple. Every little bit helps! All donations go 100% to my project and are tax deductible! Just go to this link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.donatenow&keyword=611-078 which is my specific project. You can also go to peacecorps.gov/donate and in the "search for a project" section enter either my last name (Neft) or my project number 611-078. I have put a lot of work into organzing this program and the community is extreamly dedicated to the program. Please feel free to share my blog with anyone who is interested, and please always feel free to contact me with any questions!! Twatotela sana! <a href="https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.donatenow&keyword=611-078">https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.donatenow&keyword=611-078</a></div>
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<br />Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-60381085709423889182011-11-27T13:09:00.000-08:002011-11-27T13:10:32.477-08:00MothersI was not a huge kid person before I left America, frankly I found most of them to be whiny and obnoxious, thus I thought the majority of my work here would revolve around adults. However, almost by accident, a very happy accident, most of my work here has revolved around children, and thus by consequence, with mothers. I have learned how important a mother is to a child's life, and how dire the consequences can be without one. <br /><br />Recently a grandmother showed up to my door cradling the tiniest 6 week old baby I had ever seen. The child'd mother had died when she was just 2 weeks old, thus taking away the child's best chance for survival and health, breast milk. The family had no money and no way to continue to pay for formula. In conjunction with my clinic, we are making sure that this baby has formula and is well taken care of. Her grandmother carries around two bags, one will the baby's feeding cup (the dirt of the village set up makes using a bottle unhygienic even dangerous) formula and boiled/slightly cooled water, in the other bag she carries extra diapers and baby powder. Though she has children of her own, her youngest is 9, she has now devoted her existence to making sure this child is fed, bathed, and loved. In lieu of a swing, she rocks the baby by hand until she sleeps, and is excited to see that the child is not only alive, but growing! Last week, the baby, Veronica, was smiling and holding my hand, a positive sign in her development. While it is going to take a village to make sure this child survives past 6 months, the smile on Veronica's face makes it all worth it. <br /><br />The worst part of this story is that it didn't have to be this way. Her mother gave birth at home, as so many village women do, and for whatever reason died 2 weeks later. She was unconscious when she arrived at the clinic, so she could have died from anything ranging from malnutrition, malaria, or complications from child birth, no body knows. The one thing that is certain is that her death was most likely preventable. If she had just given birth at the clinic she would have been in the care of trained birthing attendants and nurses, and if there had been complications transport to the hospital could have been arranged. However to use the words "If she had just" makes it sound like giving birth at the clinic was an easy task. She lived 25 kilometers from the clinic, and even though I have never been in labor, I have heard enough stories that walking that distance while in any stage of labor would be torturous, if not impossible. Also, culturally it is acceptable to have your children at home, and changing an idea about culture is a sensitive subject to breach. Sadly, her story is not that uncommon. <br /><br />While the chance of maternal death in America is slim to none, the rate in Zambia is alarming. An infant being left orphaned, or a mother left without the child she carried for 9 months is an an acceptably high rate. Formula is not a feasible option for most families, breast milk is what keeps babies alive and healthy. For Veronica, the option of a wet nurse was not possible. In Zambia, only family members can breast feed family members babies, and the only breast feeding family member at the time is HIV positive. Again, this is not an uncommon story.<br /><br />I cried for Veronica, but I also cried for her mother, and all the mothers like her, who die a senseless death while bringing life into this world. Being a woman in Zambia is difficult, being a mother is even more so. But I salute these mothers, these mothers who love their children dearly, who derive so much happiness from their children. Who work tirelessly and thanklessly for their children. I also salute mothers every where. My cousin just became a mother for the first time this year, along with a dear friend of mine, and I am grateful beyond words that these birth went smoothly and mom and baby are in good health, and thriving. I also got so share part of my life in Zambia with my own mother this year. Mothers are a wonderful thing, and they have an often thankless job. To the mothers of the world. and in my life, I salute you. <br /><br />What is the solution to reducing maternal mortality rates? While there is never one answer for complex problems, there is a way forward. Helping women to understand why it is important to give birth at the clinic, why it is important to take care of themselves while pregnant, and why it is important to make sure their child gets the right types of foods and are all key first steps. Also getting the fathers to understand and participate in these habits is vital. What I can do as a Peace Corps Volunteer is little, and I struggle with this fact. I can't build more clinics in more remote areas, I can't pave roads and bring ambulances. I can't train midwives or provide bicycles to those that are trained. I can't go preform the deliveries myself. All I can do is talk, and educate, and reach out to mothers, and hope they listen, hope they understand. I am trying to get a safe motherhood promotion group going in my area. My clinic is trying to take steps to keep a program they instituted going to to be promoted. Right now there are outside funds from the UK coming that is allowing the clinic to house mothers in their 9th month of pregnancy, so that when the time comes to give birth, the birth occurs in a safe environment with trained professionals. So all I can do is to be a voice, to be an advocate, and sometimes that is the hardest person to be, because you never know if you are making a difference, if people are actually listening. You just have to hope that one does, so that there is one less baby Veronica in this world.Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-47520083827435695152011-09-25T14:31:00.000-07:002011-09-25T15:00:58.762-07:00My African Bubbie<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwOfFQVdXcqHmEyl6TXwIRRaqM1xoFQD7ISkGDQNkZgHyRaRNoZ1hkJbkPjhQ1dujdCJ_VVAOGstqc82oam1iamHI2rPHg29E4I2aO1F4vkm3WTC1qlVxtDdui1L2SjVL9T1guKtvmWDA/s1600/IMG_2794.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwOfFQVdXcqHmEyl6TXwIRRaqM1xoFQD7ISkGDQNkZgHyRaRNoZ1hkJbkPjhQ1dujdCJ_VVAOGstqc82oam1iamHI2rPHg29E4I2aO1F4vkm3WTC1qlVxtDdui1L2SjVL9T1guKtvmWDA/s320/IMG_2794.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656414037427333314" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ijqpuatPOeTvIJYA7r74UmbJDlD-1x_IloMS3YhGPYS5fZ2xK9bn28CBOduG0MoodBK6kvzld_xSmDQV2960cTz2ikR4As8b7yYgiT8DnIBOIsbZFPT-TEIglM5EXik3ZDVLcImkvBYF/s1600/IMG_1236.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ijqpuatPOeTvIJYA7r74UmbJDlD-1x_IloMS3YhGPYS5fZ2xK9bn28CBOduG0MoodBK6kvzld_xSmDQV2960cTz2ikR4As8b7yYgiT8DnIBOIsbZFPT-TEIglM5EXik3ZDVLcImkvBYF/s320/IMG_1236.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656413597849247730" /></a><br /><br />These two boys (not the baby) are Advent and Terrent, affectionately known as Addy and Tally. They are brothers, they couldn't be more opposite, and they couldn't have a sadder story. <br /><br />Advent is one of the sweetest children I have ever encountered. I decided this my first few weeks in Fiwila. While most people here, especially children, will throw rocks or sticks at dogs, or even kick them, I saw Advent reprimand another child for doing this, then bend down the pet the dog. While this is a gesture of kindness and decency in American culture, in Zambian culture it is almost unheard of. If I need water, I have to make sure Addy is not around, because if he sees me walking with my water container he will come and take it from me and go get me my water, no matter how much I protest. While the other kids all want their picture taken, sweeties, dollies, peanut butter, bread, plastic bottles and pretty much anything else they can see in my house the only things advent has ever asked for was laundry soap so bambuya (our grandmother) could do laundry and a candle for bambuya. The baby he is holding is Godwin, his cousin whose mother works full time. Though Godwin spends the day at Bambuya's, Addy does a lot of the care for him. I gave Addy a piece of bread with jam on it once and he immediately found Godwin and gave him 90% of the treat. <br /><br />Tally is the complete opposite, I tell him all the time he is a troublemaker! He does not have a mean or a cruel streak, but he is a little mischievous guy! He only wants to get water for me if he can use my bike, and he's often in trouble for doing something or another. He has the same kind heart as Addy, but he's got a hellion streak in him too. For example, he climbed onto my dish rack and brought the whole thing tumbling down. <br /><br />I love these boys, and their story weighs heavy on my heart every day. Their father married their mother and had them. Shortly after Tally was born (he is the younger one) the mother decided that she didn't want to be married to their father anymore, nor did she want her children so she dumped them off at her husband's mother's house, my bambuya. Bambuya was a little over 60 at the time, didn't have a job, and had no way to care for the children, so their father agreed to take them. It turned out that he was a raging alcoholic and shortly after taking them, turned them over to his now ex-wife's mother. Later, Bambuya was told through the village grape vine, that she needed to go to Inshinso (about 50 kilometers away on a hilly dirt road) and rescue her grands, they were dying. So Bambuya and another member of the family made the trek. Nothing could have prepared them for what they found. <br /><br />They found tally, just a little over 2 years at the time, practically unconscious and skeletal. They found Addy, about 5 at this time, out foraging for fruits on the ground for the two of them to eat. The grandmother they were staying with was also a drunk, and would abandon the children for days at a time, and when she was around did not care for them. So bambuya strapped the dying Tally to her hunched and arthritic back, and helped Addy stagger the 50 kilometers back to Fiwila. She had no idea how she would manage to care for these boys, how she would manage to feed them, to send them to school, to cloth them, but at that point it didn't matter, these were her grandchildren, she loved them and if she didn't take them they were going to die. <br /><br />So Addy and Tally still live with Bambuya. Addy helps her out with a lot around the house, and Bambuya works hard all year to maintain enough crops to feed the three of them (plus the one or two other grandchildren she is usually taking care of). She rents out a house to some school boys and sells some of her cassava so she is able to buy basic supplies for the boys. Last week I brought Addy a belt because his pants did not fit but bambuya didn't have the funds to buy a luxury like a belt, so he was tying his pants up with string, but he never complained. She doesn't know yet how she will send Addy to school after grade 7 when she will have to start to pay school fees. But she loves those boys, she takes care of those boys, she protects, nurtures, and disciplines them. She is raising and loving them, and you can tell the love and respect they have back for her. <br /><br />I don't have any grandparents that are still alive, I was very blessed to have four wonderful grandparents for part of my life, but now I have none, or rather I had none. Bambuya treats me as one of her own, she calls me a Mulomo, which is the family name, and I have adopted her as my grandmother. When my parents came to visit, the only way I could describe the visit to her was that my American family was coming to meet my Zambian family. This woman is truly an amazing woman with a deep and long history to tell. This is just one of the many great things this great woman has done.Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-5323398579880850272011-09-12T04:20:00.000-07:002011-09-12T05:08:47.904-07:00I swear I am actually working here!In a moment of narcissism, that I prefer to think of as past reflection, I was reading through my blog posts over the past 14 months and realized that many of them could be classified as journal entries, trying to paint a picture of my life, the Zambian bush, and the inner workings of my brain during my service. I have however neglected to discuss much work, probably leaving most of you thinking that here in Peace Corps we really just travel and hang out in the village. So today, I will write some about my work, just so you all can rest at ease that your tax dollars are going to a worthy cause. <br /><br />One reason I haven't written a lot about work is because it took me a while to find it. This may sound strange, you may be thinking "isn't she living in a developing African country, with one of the worst HIV rates in sub saharan Africa (not to mention the world) out in the village, shouldn't she be overwhelmed by the amount of work that is available" and in thinking this you would be right. However, it is a bit of a delicate situation. In the village community 99.9% of all villagers are subsistence farmers, meaning their entire lives revolve around being farmers and growing enough food for their families, and often families here are not small. Even if parents have only a few children (and this is a rarity) there are usually a rotation of other family members living with the family periodically. For example, my bambuya (grandmother in icilala), though all of her 12 children are grown, is responsible for raising at least three, if not more at any given time, of her grandchildren, many of them single orphans (meaning at least one of their parents is dead, an all too common occurrence in Zambia). So, for most people, their top priority is their fields, their crops, and buying fertilizer for them. So even though there is the need for health education campaigns, it is sometimes hard to convince the community that these things are important. And even if you can convince them that they are important, even if you can train and teach them, getting them to change generations of behavior is its own frustrating challenge. <br /><br />Finding reliable and honest counterparts also presents its challenges. A counterpart is a person in the village (they can be from the village, or someone from outside such as a teacher or clinic staff member) who helps you with your project, usually is a translator for it, and who often either has a background in the topic or goes to a training with you for the project. The tricky aspect is finding someone who actually wants to be your counterpart because they believe your project is important, and will be dedicated to working withtrainings you for an extended period of time and then continue the work after you leave. Often people want to be counterparts in order to go to , but not to become more knowledgeable, but to get out of the village for x amount of days, stay at a nice guest house, and get a certificate and maybe a little spending money. It's not rare that following a workshop the counterpart abandons you and the project. I was very careful about who I selected as counterparts, though I had my follies, I believe I have found a few good ones. Because the project, if not supported, and understood by the community, will fall apart.<br /><br />So now a year in, I have two main projects, with good counterparts and community support, that are taking off and will absorb most of the remaining year of my service. For those of you who knew me before coming to Zambia, you will be shocked to learn that both projects focus on children. One is a child nutrition/re-feeding project and the other is the building of a preschool. I have other projects, such as helping to organize and run central provinces annual girls camp Camp GLOW, teaching life skills to high school and upper basic students, hopefully training a neighborhood health committee on what exactly their job is, but my two children projects will be my primary focus for the next 12 months. <br /><br />PS/Ishiko is the name of the child nutrition program. Me and my friend/counterpart Paxina attended two trainings, each two days long in Kasama in Northern Province. The first training was a training on what the program was. It is an internationally recognized program known as PD/Hearth that PC Zambia has adopted and adapted to be PS/Ishiko. PS stands for Positive Support and Ishiko is the local word for hearth. The program has had great success in Haiti and Mali (in Western Africa) and NGO's such as World Vision and Africare have adopted the program in Zambia. The core concept is to identify malnourished children, re-feed them, teach their mothers the recipes for re-feeding and basic nutrition, and get the children up to a healthy weight and then maintain that weight. The key is to use only local ingredients (for example you wouldn't make eggplant parmesan because the ingredients are not available) and also to identify "positive support families" who are regular villagers i.e. not wealthy whose children are all healthy. Those families help to "support" the mothers enrolled in the program.<br /><br />We conducted a baseline assessment in the Fiwila community (we will later conduct the same baseline assessments in the outlying communities) and discovered that out of the 114 children we weight and measured, 40.5% of them were malnourished, about 12. 5% of them were severely malnourished! The mothers whose children were malnourished wanted to waste no time they wanted their children in Ishiko sessions NOW. So we invited 13 mothers and their malnourished children, 10 showed up. We spent 12 days together. They learned how to make a porridge that was fully balanced and highly nutritious, bean burgers, and we even went over how to properly feed an under 5 child. When we made a common household meal and they showed me how they fed their children, most of them were just dipping huge lumps of nshima into the relish (vegetables and peanuts). We also discussed nutrition, what is a balanced meal, did 24 hour meal recalls - where they told me what they had fed the children that day and then we discussed what was good and what needed improvement. We also talked about malaria, hand washing, family planning, and identifying what foods are available when. The biggest challenge was that I had no translator during the sessions so I was preforming them in very very broken bemba/lala. On the last day we weight the children and 8 of the 10 had gained at least 400 grams. In the past month 9 of the 10 are still gaining weight. When I return to the village we will conduct home visits and have one of one discussions about HIV/AIDS and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission. <br /><br />The preschool project just fell into my lap. It was something that I had thought was needed in the community and had expressed this opinion to people and they always said, that while they agreed they had tried to have preschools before but the teacher was never paid so the school fell apart. I was at a loss, I continued to put feelers out there, letting people know it was something I was interested in. Then something changed, Ba Eden moved back to Fiwila. <br /><br />Ba Eden grew up in Fiwila, he left and got educated at Copperbelt University and has been working for various USAID funded projects in Zambia. He decided recently that he needed to go back to his "hometown" for lack of a better word, and do work there, so he is now back in Fiwila, on a voluntary basis, trying to "lift the community, life the orphanage, lift the people up". He found out about my interest in a preschool and it has been full speed ahead ever since. Two nuns have volunteered to teach without payment. We held a large meeting with village leaders and teachers the other day and their support was incredible. We will not begin the process of getting the building ready, sensitizing the community to the importance of early childhood education, and set up a training for the nuns. THere are a few villagers who have been trained in how to teach pre-school along with childhood psychology who are going to use the national standard, adapted for Fiwila, to train the sisters to offer the best early childhood education to the children. Parents that have money (for example teachers and clinic staff) will pay a fee so that materials can continue to be bought and maintenance of the building can be done. Those that cannot afford to pay in cash, will pay in kind, either in food, seeds, fertilizer, or even maintaining land within the orphanage. The preschool will be based out of the orphanage and will be directly affiliated with it. We created a "preschool task force" that will begin meeting, planning, designating assignments, and hopefully we will be opening the school in the next 6 months. I will keep you posted. <br /><br />Both of these projects found me, while I was busy trying to find other work, these found me, engulfed me, taught me, and now hopefully will become integral parts of the community. After all, the children are the future, and without education, proper nutrition and care, parents that are alive, and healthy to care for them and opportunities to better their life, the future would look very bleak. I am just hoping to bring some of these elements to these young children's lives, even if the sight of my terrifies some of them and send them crying into their mothers arms. <br /><br />Wish me luck! I'll keep you posted!Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-1454594130533430692011-05-27T15:18:00.000-07:002011-05-27T15:42:19.035-07:00Where There Is No GPSSo yesterday I was out in the bush, desperately trying to find a meeting that it turned out wasn't ever scheduled, trying in the limited amount of icilala I know to find out where Tazara West was and once I was in it how to get to the depot (pronounced de-pot). My bike chain was full of sand, and I was exhausted from the 30k bike ride and all day "how to run an under 5 clinic" workshop (which seemed to be a huge success, though I won't judge for sure until after they continuously hold under 5 clinics in their community) I had done in Chibanga the day before. I had also managed to get myself lost in the bush earlier that day trying to find the stream to wash my clothes in, so the last thing I wanted to do at that moment was to be biking through sand trying to find a meeting. I had my ipod on shuffle and had been listening to a variety of america house and pop music when I finally decided I had had enough and was going to head home. At that moment I looked up and took my headphones out, because I had to stop and take in what I was looking at. The maize field in front of me had been harvested and lay in dead dry stalks across the ground. A weed had overtaken the field, it's tall with soft downy red on the top, it blows quite beautifully in the wind. Behind this was a grove of dark green trees, and behind that a dark purple mountain shrouded in fog. It was a beautiful, peaceful moment. Suddenly all the frustration from not finding the meeting spot (and later finding out that the meeting had never been scheduled in the first place- classic pc zambia volunteer conundrum), the exhaustion from bike riding and bush path blazing, the homesickness that still comes in unexpected and unusual waves was all worth it for this moment. It not only made me appreciate the beauty of the place I am now calling home, but also an appreciation of the people I live with and interact with on a daily basis, and an excitement for the work I am finally starting in the village. I have a quote on my wall "there is a lot in life that is hard, but find the good" Life as a peace corps volunteer isn't always the beautiful and magical life that I had envisioned, but I'm starting to learn when is anything ever what exactly what we envisioned. Not that I don't have the beautiful and magical moments, and this was one of them. I appreciate those moments so much more now, not because they are rare, but because they are beautiful, and usually they are all mine, I don't have to share these moments with anyone, sometimes it's the only moment I feel truly alone in any given day.Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-87188341091687843562011-04-11T11:36:00.000-07:002011-04-11T12:06:54.267-07:00NewnessWith every loss, there is always something to gain. We bid farewell on Friday too our volunteer's COS'ing (Close of Service) and welcomed our new LIFE (which is the PC Zambia agriculture program) volunteers on Sunday. They are still in training but stopped by for the night on the way back to Lusaka following second site visit. We are getting 7 volunteers from LIFE and 4 RED (the education program) volunteers. It's exciting to get new volunteers and puts your service into perspective. 6 months ago I was the new volunteer, scared shitless, showing up at the house for the night following second site visit, and now I'm the one answering questions, discussing challenges, and trying my best to make them feel welcome. Central Province is an amazing province, we are like a little family here, and having other volunteers that support you and allow you to come and just vent about what was hard in your village, or help you celebrate your successes, no matter how small, is key to keeping you going. <br /><br />So at the end of the month we're going to be "sophomores" and the intake that was a year before us are going to be "seniors" and will be COS'ing before we know it. <br /><br />I went to a nutrition workshop up in Northern Province, and I'm hoping to implement the program in my village. It's called PS/Ishiko. PS stands for Positive Support and Ishiko is the Bemba word for hearth. The idea of the program is that it is the community teaching the community. First we do an initial baseline assessment to identify the malnourished children in the community, while at the same time identifying the very healthy children. From there we ask some of the mothers of the healthy children to be our "positive support mothers" and then we set up Ishiko sessions, where 10-12 mothers and their children attend for two weeks and we teach them how to cook meals high in nutritional value. One day they learn how to prepare it and feed it to the kids and the next day they prepare it and feed it to the kids. The hope is to get the kids re-nourished during the 2 weeks then have the mothers continue to keep them nourished. I did a test run observation during my under 5 clinic last week and noticed that about 75% of the children were under their baseline weight. Starting this week I will be training my volunteers to collect the data since I will be in Tanzania during child health week, then in August we will have our first Ishiko session. In the mean time we need to start having meeting with the NHC's (Neighborhood health committees), local leaders, and the church in order to sensitize the community to the program. The hope is that after I leave they will continue to make the baseline assessments and hold the Ishiko sessions. It should take about a year to complete the program, so I am looking forward to getting started. It is also going to be conducted in my entire catchment area, which is really good because I haven't had a lot of exposure in the surrounding villages. I struggle with that because the person that is supossed to be helping me to go to meetings in the other communities, and i need him because I need him to translate for me. He is a wonderful person and very hardworking but I get very frustrated with him because its hard to catch him in a free minute. <br /><br />The weather is changing its starting to get really cold at night and in the mornings. The rains should be going soon and we'll move into dry cold season. So, new programs, new weather, new volunteers.<br /><br />Much love to all of you!Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-86396094502556538332011-03-02T09:58:00.000-08:002011-03-02T10:34:34.584-08:00Remember the StarfishSo at the end of this month (March) I will have been in country for 8 months and in my village for 6 months, which means I will have completed 25% of my 2 year service. I have mixed feelings about this. One one side I can't believe I have been living in Fiwila for 6 months now, it feels like home. On the other hand, for the first time since I found out I was going to Zambia in June 2010, two years suddenly feels long, like I am going to be here forever. It suddenly hit me the commitment that I have made and realized that there is still a lot of time left in Zambia. At the same time I have no interest in returning home permanently, but there is this part of me that wishes I could come home for just a week to see my friends and family, breathe some San Francisco air, hit up Tahoe, and eat some sushi. It's a feeling I have not yet experienced here, and I feel that I have gone through a myriad of emotions here, from being in love to having my heart broken, from elation to sadness, illness, boredom, fear, happiness, loneliness, but this is the first time that homesickness has hit, and I am struggling with the best way to cope with this new emotion. I am not worried about the coping, but I am not quite sure how to handle it, it is not an emotion that I am used to experiencing. <br /><br />At the same time, I feel like this is an amazing time not only in my life, but also in the life of so many of those that I love. I have several friends and family members embarking on new and exciting adventures in their lives all over the world, the times they truly are a changin! The effects and existence of globalization is on display constantly in Zambia, the world is truly growing smaller by the day! Even though I live 90k out in the bush, with little to no network (cell phone coverage), no electricity, and no running water, the clinic has a solar powered cooler for vaccines that is powered by BP Solar and funded by Japan. Obama is truly the worlds president, one can buy Obama EVERYTHING here ranging from umbrellas, shirts, chitenge's and even underwear. Pop hits from America play on the radio, and I am able to skype people back home, or wherever they may be finding themselves, for free and hear their voices and see their faces. When you think back that at one point places were so isolated and cultural exchange was so limited it is shocking. <br /><br />There are things here that are so different, yet others that are so similar. I went to my friend who is a teacher's house for lunch one day and her son was telling her about all the exciting things that happened at school that day. Teenagers are teenagers, wherever they are. I am teaching grade 11 biology at the high school right now, and I am really enjoying the opportunity to get to know the kids because they won't reach out to me. There are cliques within the students, and one of the biggest struggles is discussing sexual health with them. They have the mentality of any teenager anywhere in the world "I am invincible and it won't happen to me" and unable to think about the future, so there are several students that are having unprotected sex. I am hoping that the students will view me as a peer, and not a superior, and they will feel comfortable coming to be to talk about sex, HIV/AIDS, STI's, pregnancy, and marriage. A lot of times the teachers get upset because they don't think the students are working very hard, and sometimes even say they aren't smart, but my students are very sharp, they have asked some very good questions. We are moving a bit slower than I would like to be moving, mostly because the students do not have copies of the textbook so for all terms and pictures I have to write them on the board, I cannot assign them the material to read and learn the day before, I wish there was a way to get them books, but I think I will have a hard time motivating them to start some kind of IGA (income generating activity) for just one year. The students, and the youth in general, are the generation of change and the future of any country, and society, even any community, and I am hoping to have the opportunity to make these students feel empowered and that they can do anything they want with a bit of hard work and determination.<br /><br />There is a story that I read to myself a lot, in order to keep me motivated. A lot of people come to Peace Corps with the notion that they're going to change the world, if they can just tell their community how to keep themselves healthy then they will do it. I think anyone who denies coming in without even a touch of this idealism is in denial, you want to think if your coming all this way and staying for so long your going to make a big difference. The thing is, you learn quickly that you may only make a difference in a few people's lives, you may never see your work come to fruition, especially when working in health, and that there will be resistance, corruption, apathy, and a lot of volunteers become jaded because of this. While your ideals are questioned and adjusted, I find it vital to my mental health that I repeat this story to myself often, and never forget the meaning of it. <br /><br />There was a wise old man walking down the beach late at night. He looked up ahead and saw a young woman throwing starfish from the shore into the ocean. Curious, he hurried to catch up to her and asked her what she was doing. She replied that when the sun rose any of the starfish that were still on the shore would die, so she was throwing them back into the sea to save them. The old man looked at her sadly and said "there are thousands of starfish, and the beach is hundreds of miles long, how can you make a difference?" The young woman looked at the starfish in her hands and said "it makes a difference for this one"<br /><br />Support, from current volunteers and from friends and family is so vital. It keeps you grounded, it picks you up when your feeling like your failing, or not doing a good enough job, or enough work. I am hard on myself, I think a lot of Peace Corps volunteers are hard on themselves, and the encouragement and support from home allows you to be kind to yourself, which is also a very important thing to remember to do. <br /><br />Please keep in touch, your letters/emails/packages/new york times articles/sms's mean more to me than you will ever know! Much love to all, happy spring in America, and everywhere in the northern hemisphere for that matter.Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-27323508169786156132011-01-27T08:06:00.000-08:002011-01-27T09:08:29.568-08:00Some Photos from Zambia<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_gge1tOpculUJxemOOXO4tf6psajLTF-2dB23x30CwWlJoIJSUmwksrYu1tNQkBXdNxc3TZhaYu7IU8Sl1GJL5M44vj7yKEC6M3g382PNbvNIAI1SaKGdQRUuhBr18ZDia5FfK14iyt4/s1600/IMG_4082.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_gge1tOpculUJxemOOXO4tf6psajLTF-2dB23x30CwWlJoIJSUmwksrYu1tNQkBXdNxc3TZhaYu7IU8Sl1GJL5M44vj7yKEC6M3g382PNbvNIAI1SaKGdQRUuhBr18ZDia5FfK14iyt4/s320/IMG_4082.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566912463044492546" /></a><br />This is my garden, I am incredibly proud of this, probably more proud than anything I've ever done before because it was completely new and I had no idea what I was doing. I actually did research on how to take care of it and did it all by myself (except the planting part my neighbor helped me). I have fallen in love with gardening, especially in the village there is something meditative about it, I love going out there are the end of the day and weeding, watering, fertilizing it. At IST (In Service Training) which I just had in Lusaka I learned about perma gardening and composting (I've been doing some independent research) and I am really excited when I get back to my village to do some more work on it. Currently I am growing tomatoes, green beans and kale. I have been out of the village for over a month now however with illness, vacation, and training, so I am hoping it has not been overtaken by weeds. I am hoping my community will be receptive to sustainable farming techniques that I have learned and hope to teach them<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5DiZ2XQXD4KRfGHpJ-nw4uZjKUkIV26dOwwNmcJLUT5l5oQlYAh4iXYrB7jNUGccgFuYbPNgY6ki5qjSXS78hxyRutF6zzFkL2k4CE7VO41EzQSCGP_dvhA84nLdorY-aydb0mahcAs9q/s1600/IMG_4075.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5DiZ2XQXD4KRfGHpJ-nw4uZjKUkIV26dOwwNmcJLUT5l5oQlYAh4iXYrB7jNUGccgFuYbPNgY6ki5qjSXS78hxyRutF6zzFkL2k4CE7VO41EzQSCGP_dvhA84nLdorY-aydb0mahcAs9q/s320/IMG_4075.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566907770630835346" /></a><br />Itala Market, Mkushi BOMA, Central Province, Zambia. This is what we call "old market" in Mkushi, its actually where the Zambians shop. Mkushi BOMA has a lot of commercial farmers (most of who are white, most of who are South African or Zimbabwaean, though some are Zambian) and all of them are wealthy and tend to shop in the wealthier part of Mkushi a.k.a. the most expensive part. This is the part where the common Zambia shops, and where I prefer to shop. It goes far back from the main road, and is a maze that is full of vendors selling everything from fish, vegetables, peanut butter and caterpillars, to termites (also supossed to be quite tasty) and even once I was offered someone's baby for purchase! The first time I went to this market it was about 100 degrees out and swarmed with people and I was trying to buy so many things for my hut, I was incredibly overwhelmed, but now I am not intimidated by it at all. Sometimes the best way to become comfortable with something is to dive into it head first, even if you are pushed. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6dGeIaQ0wP0lvz8Ilg6NApR4xXqHvwkRKzJmLBnbhQSbKY6a-15fE7EGO_HnveQmxooEzcFlsW0DB5F_6J7o_Ej9qnaWU_yCbQMoKIqdYggq1ofJWVH9ZcYfK4KE3gOBq4W7KICj9vQYv/s1600/IMG_2773.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 248px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6dGeIaQ0wP0lvz8Ilg6NApR4xXqHvwkRKzJmLBnbhQSbKY6a-15fE7EGO_HnveQmxooEzcFlsW0DB5F_6J7o_Ej9qnaWU_yCbQMoKIqdYggq1ofJWVH9ZcYfK4KE3gOBq4W7KICj9vQYv/s320/IMG_2773.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566903332923892002" /></a><br />This is Regina, one of the kids that lives on my compound. She is such a sweet girl and is the mother hen of all the other children. I have tried numerous things to try and get her to go to school and she won't go. One of the biggest problems in the village is getting the kids to go to school. Some places don't even have schools, and after grade 7 students must pay school fees, which are often outside of the family budget. Things become especially tight because most Zambia families, especially in the village, have several children (I feel like 4-6 is average, sometimes more, sometimes less) so sometimes only one child can be sent to school. The parents are also always busy out in the fields so they are rarely there to enforce the children going to school and many parents do not see the benefit of an education, especially for girl children, and particularly in the village. Part of what I want to do in my village is work on budgeting and family planning with the villagers and really stress the importance of education and providing for one's family. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQI3fxHvB7WwfMm-A1CSv_hrzhGrfplpu1a6FAVbUVSDFemMWmf9Kbq9Ml27_AVzmqb4Muv679CmnES3Ytnd5J3frkhi9PSFo41xNRGb8h6Q57m6oRCkGKoLCAAqMAL54fwPPRwKD364F/s1600/IMG_2631.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 179px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQI3fxHvB7WwfMm-A1CSv_hrzhGrfplpu1a6FAVbUVSDFemMWmf9Kbq9Ml27_AVzmqb4Muv679CmnES3Ytnd5J3frkhi9PSFo41xNRGb8h6Q57m6oRCkGKoLCAAqMAL54fwPPRwKD364F/s320/IMG_2631.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566900241568394418" /></a><br />This is my family in Kabeleka, Chongwe District, Lusaka Province. This was the host family I stayed with for 9 weeks during PST (Pre Service Training) To my right is my Bataata, George, and to my right his wife my Bamaayo, Hilda. The three boys are Graveson (the tallest) Keshash, and Mwanza (the baby) James, the oldest son, isn't pictured he was visiting his grandmother during school break. It is so interesting because there are some things that are so incredibly similar, like visiting your grandma on school holiday, to Zambian childhood, yet so much that is drastically different!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdry4a7T2waalmEaj-SvqHNzYgFr6KWlAkW6uQkFE6Y1KZZy_BdzszumhX7jpInYhtp1DlUwA6odeRWCztQqtyXhqSgEUyAWYDmuXKm1uqVHe3h_4udLiGkf4b5ioLqYrGCdnGqEdhi42M/s1600/IMG_4105.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdry4a7T2waalmEaj-SvqHNzYgFr6KWlAkW6uQkFE6Y1KZZy_BdzszumhX7jpInYhtp1DlUwA6odeRWCztQqtyXhqSgEUyAWYDmuXKm1uqVHe3h_4udLiGkf4b5ioLqYrGCdnGqEdhi42M/s320/IMG_4105.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566898225871071826" /></a><br />This is my house in Fiwila Village. Lizzy and Allie have dubbed it a face house, a Koala Bear face house to be exact so I think it will be taking on that persona. I am working panono panono to get it to feel like home, constantly making adjustments, upgrades, and additions (and subtractions/alterations for that matter) I am going to try and get ahold of some chalkboard paint and paint one side of the house with it so the kids can draw with chalk on it whenever they want...if you are sending me a package, please feel free to include some chalk for the iwe's! (kids)Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-1025626259055479382011-01-06T05:12:00.001-08:002011-01-06T05:51:46.996-08:00Magical MalawiI celebrated my first Christmas in my entire life without my family this year, even when I studied abroad in India I was fortunate enough to finish in time to spend the holidays with my family in Thailand. This year I was still with family though, my Peace Corps Family. The amazing part about Peace Corps Zambia (as I cannot speak for Peace Corps in other countries) is that you really do feel that the other PCV's here are your family. I started the holiday season off a bit nervous, as a simple mosquito bite turned into a very bad case of cellulitus on my left ankle, causing me to not only be able to walk, but also causing a fever and making my medical team quite nervous. I went to the hospital in Mkushi again, in which I am becoming a familiar face, much to my own disappointment, and was given IV antibiotics along with a 5 day course of oral antibiotics. The hospital that I am sent to in Mkushi is amazing though. It is a private clinic where I have so far received an abdominal ultrasound, (to check on my liver post malaria because it had swelled and was painful) bloodwork, antibiotics twice, IV antibiotics and had two appointments with Zambia physicians trained in the UK. They have taken extraordinary care of me and it has been the fastest medical care I have ever received. After reassuring my medical team that I was not going to need to be admitted to the hospital it was off to Serenje for about a week to recover. The thing about the village is that infections, especially when they are in your feet/ankles or hands are very hard to keep clean and also have difficulty healing. By Christmas eve however I was well, and me and some friends spent Christmas eve hitchhiking from Serenje to Lusaka for a few days. Christmas dinner was spent with a large group of volunteers, mostly from my intake but also from other intakes. It is also great to meet other volunteers from other provinces and intakes. They reassure you that everything you feel is normal, and are usually great resources to talk to about everything from village projects to travel plans. So far there has been no one in Peace Corps that I have met that I haven't liked, Zambia must just attract an amazing group of people. While I wasn't able to spend Christmas driving around looking at lights and opening presents under the tree with my family, it was still an amazing, and very unique, time. <br /><br />The next day it was time for vacation to start. 13 of us from my intake hitchhiked and bussed our way up to Nkhata Bay in Malawi (which took 2 days from Lusaka, we stopped over in Chipata in Eastern Province for the night), for a well deserved vacation. When we first arrived we had grand plans, including hikes, walks, runs, exploration of the area, lots of reading, and eating just peanut butter and bread. These plans were quickly abandoned and we indulged in luxuries we haven't known for a while. What might these luxuries have been? We were able to wear bathing suits all day, our thighs actually saw sunlight (in Zambia it is very risqué to show one's thighs, subsequently, even with sunscreen we all sustained sunburns to our thighs). We were able to sleep in, we didn't have to sweep, cook, ward off rodents, or carry water. We ate meals that we didn't have to cook over braziers that were simple delicious and just relaxed and caught up on the past three months. Many of us hadn't seen each other since we swore in September 24th and it was wonderful to catch up with people. We spent our days in the sun, swimming in the lake, lounging. The lake was beautiful, the water was blue and crystal clear, almost Caribbean. We stayed at a guest house called Mayoka Village, and we very rarely left. We met other PCV's that work in Malawi, along with other travelers mostly from South Africa. It is also interesting to meet travelers from other places and discuss how life is similar and how life is different in our home countries. It was truly the perfect vacation. On the last night three of us cooked dinner for the guests and managed to pull it off. Malawi time is very similar to Zamtime, life just moves at a slower pace. However, at 6 o'clock we began cooking, and on the menu was chili, roasted vegetable salad, and cornbread. We had about 2 hours to prepare the entire meal from scratch and we were a bit nervous it was going to be a complete disaster. However, the owners Kathryn and Gary along with the kitchen staff pitched in and after two hours of feverish vegetable cutting, bread making, cooking, stirring, and literally sweating we pulled off a fantastic meal which is now going to be added to the Mayoka menu as Peace Corps Zambia Chili. So we even got to leave our mark there. <br /><br />Vacation has now come to an end, and tomorrow I will be headed to Lusaka. On Monday we will start a two week training called IST (In Service Training) and it will mark the official end of our community entry. Everyone from our intake will be there and we will be learning things like perma-gardening, bee keeping, and also have sessions specific to our program. This is the first time that our entire intake will be together following swear in and it will be fantastic, and bizarre, to see everyone again. It's a bit strange, you spend two months with a group of people, see them every day for the entire day, become very close and then your separated for three months only to be thrown back together three months later. No one has E.T.'d so far so everyone will be there, and it will be so interesting to hear how everyone's experience is going!<br /><br />Right after we finish IST, the new intake is flying in! I will have also been in country for 6 months. Suddenly, we aren't the new kids anymore! It really does blow your mind, some days feel so long, but then you realize that you've been here for 6 months, and then you think back to everything you were feeling right before flying in, when you arrived, when you were posted. How scared, overwhelmed, and excited you felt and the immense amount of anticipation you feel. And then suddenly, you've been here 6 months and while the experience is nothing like you expected it to be, you really feel this is my life, it doesn't feel uncomfortable or unnatural anymore, but rather feel natural. And then when you are sitting on Lake Malawi, looking out across the lake with someone that 7 months ago you never knew even existed and now you couldn't imagine your life without them, or your in the village out in the fields helping to cultivate a field with your best friend who is a villager in Zambia, or your listening to a conversation in Bemba and you actually understand what is going on, and suddenly you have this overwhelming feeling of awe, amazement, and happiness. I really have been given an incredible opportunity, not only to try and make the world a better place, which is a much harder job than I ever could have imagined, but also to get to know yourself, and who you are without anyone else to create your identity for you. Many people do not get this opportunity and I am eternally grateful for it.<br /><br />I will hopefully be getting some pictures up in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out on facebook! Also again, as always, feel free to send me letters, postcards, notes, articles, pictures, anything to my address:<br /><br />Natalie Neft, PCV<br />Peace Corps<br />P.O. Box 840038<br />Mkushi, Zambia<br /><br />you can also always send me an email natalieneft@gmail.com however, my internet access is very very limited and it will take longer for me to email you back than it will for a letter to reach you.<br /><br />Cheers to a wonderful 2011Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-90159474138822171692010-11-24T02:59:00.001-08:002010-11-24T03:52:34.633-08:00FiwilaSo I realized that I didn't post much about my village other than about my family, or anything about my mud hut (pictures to follow hopefully soon!) so I figured I would indulge everyone with TWO blog posts in two days and tell you a little more about the place I now call home. <br /><br />So I live in Mulomo Village, in Fiwila Mission Catchment Area, in Mkushi District, in Central Province, in Zambia, in Africa. Zambia is divided into 9 Provinces (Central (the best province obviously), Luapula, Northern, Eastern, Western, Northwestern, Southern, Copperbelt and Lusaka. Peace Corps places volunteers currently in Central, Luapula, Northern, Eastern, Northwestern and Lusaka. They have had volunteers in both Copperbelt and Southern in the past. There are none currently but in April they will be placing new volunteers back in Southern Province. Within these 9 provinces (which are equivalent to states in the US) there are 73 districts (I am not going to list all of them, one because I don't know all of them and two while Zambia may be making me a more patient person I am yet to become that patient). My district is Mkushi. Each district has a "BOMA" which is like the capital of each district. In the BOMA there are things like the bank, government offices, chocolate, the post office (a very important place for current PCV's) and other necessities that you can't get in the village. I like about 85-90 k from Mkushi (about 50 miles) on a long bumpy dirt road, however getting out of my village is not as hard as I anticipated. I can get transport Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning to Masansa, which is a "sub-BOMA" that is 30k (a little less than 20 miles) and from there can go all the way to Mkushi. Transport consists usually of riding in a canter, which is like a large flat bed truck that things like fertilizer, maize (corn), and building materials are transported on. \Masansa has everything I need though except for the bank and the post office so usually to get things like peanut butter, bread, talk time, cold soda I can just go there. It is also where my closest PC neighbor lives. I so far try and be in my village for 2 weeks and then out for the weekend. There is a lodge in Mkushi that we are able to stay in (ATB Lodge) that has good food, occasional hot showers, satellite TV, and PCV's have a great report with the staff, so on weekends that we go to the BOMA this is usually where we stay. Mkushi is one of the more rural BOMA's and it is an area where a lot of people pass through but there is not a huge population in the area, at least compared to other BOMA's. I live near the commercial farming block, so I live within a farming community. Most of the commercial farmers are white South Africans, Zambians, and Zimbabweans. A lot of volunteers have friendships with the farmers, I am yet to develop these, but I am still very new and I am so isolated. It does sometimes get hard to be out in the village day after day being so isolated, especially because right now there is very little work I am doing, as I said before I am in community entry so a lot of what I am doing in integrating into my community. I am looking forward to starting to do some work, but probably won't start anything major until February. The reason being that all this week I am in Serenje at the provincial house. On Decemeber 1st-6th I am attending Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). It is a camp that Peace Corps puts on for girls every year through a grant. Two girls from volunteers villages in grade 7 or 8 and one community member attend the camp. There are informational/education sessions and then they will also be participating in fun activities like rock climbing, pottery, and canoeing. Usually volunteers don't have the opportunity to go due to funding, but I will be organizing the camp for next year so I will be attending with my girls. Then there will be Christmas and New Years (me and a bunch of friends from my intake are going to Malawi) and then we will have In-Service Training (IST) for two weeks in January, where we will be learning things like permagardening, composting, and other applicable skills to use in our village. I am really looking forward to this as a lot of the health training that I recieved I won't be using as much of but really want to learn about things like Income Generating Activities and composting. So then come February I will start doing some actual work and starting projects in my village, I am really excited!<br /><br />I live right next to what I would consider a marsh, there are two in ground water holes that we usually get water from however since we are at the end of dry season right now they are almost out so lately I have been getting my water from faucets in Fiwila. The pipe water down from the mountains and there are various spikets in the main village (Fiwila) where the school, clinic, and church are. Due to the distance needed to drag water from Fiwila and the lack of water in the marsh, last week Paxina and I went out to a small stream the other day and washed our clothes in that. It was definitely a stereotypical Africa moment. I cook outside over charcoal every night and use candles for light. Zambia is also holding a national census this year and it includes foreigners in it, so I got to take two census's this year. It was very different from America's census! For one a person rides their bike out to your house to give you the survey. There are questions like "what mode of transport do you use: walk, bike, donkey, motorbike, car" "what heating method do you use?" (response: blankets and fire) "What type of light source do you have" (answer: candles). It's a whole different world here. But I love it, challenges and struggles included!Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-83485954753107729932010-11-22T04:39:00.000-08:002010-11-23T02:29:53.619-08:00Bush BreakI'll start by saying that I sincerely apologize for my lack of blogging or emailing, but as I have been out in the African bush since September 27th my internet access has been extremely limited, so I will just start from the beginning and finish with today... happy reading!<br /><br />So on September 24th I swore in as a real Peace Corps Volunteer (from here on out to be referred to as PCV) in Lusaka. We all got super dressed up and had coffee and tea at the house of the US ambassador to Zambia, Mark Storella, and then we were sworn in in a small ceremony followed by some light snacks. After that we enjoyed the rest of the day and night in Lusaka, and Saturday morning packed up the cruisers and headed off to our respective provinces. Since for Central Province we only had four new volunteers, our moving in process went pretty smoothly. That being said, for those provinces who had 12 new volunteers (like Northwestern) I can't even imagine the chaos that must have ensued, because when I say smoothly it was still hectic. We spent Saturday at Shopright, which is a grocery store here, which was a bit of a nightmare. At this point, I was just pulling things off of the shelves hoping that I actually needed them and that I wasn't forgetting anything. I also only had one contact in at this point so I couldn't see that well and it was sweltering in the store. We spent Sunday at the provincial house and were able to rest, do laundry, relax before heading to Mkushi on Monday. On Monday we got the rest of the things we needed for our sites, again hoping desperately that they were things we actually needed and that we weren't forgetting anything crucial. Tuesday morning they packed up the cruiser and off we went, the four of us, Ed, Brooks, Will, and me. I was dropped at my site second. When the cruiser pulled away I was so grateful that we had had second site visit, because I had already been dropped at this house, with complete strangers and watched the cruiser disappear. So it began. <br /><br />When I first arrived I was overcome with concerns. Would I like my family? Would they like me? Would I have any privacy? How lonely would I be? How would I do without having cell phone service (network)? Would I like my village? What was I going to do with that first 5 minutes after the cruiser left? While there are always things to think about, and it does get lonely at times, and I do get frustrated at times, I love my village, I love my family and there is no where else in the world I would rather be (except sometimes up in Mwinilunga with Jack, or visit California for a few days, especially after the Giants won the World Series!).<br /><br />I have an amazing family, the Mulomo family, and I feel as if they have brought me into their family as one of their own. I live on a compound with them. There is my bambuya (grandmother). She is probably pushing 80 and tough as nails but at the same time one of the sweetest old ladies. She works as hard as the rest of the young Zambians, cultivating and harvesting her fields, carrying water on her head, doing laundry, cooking for the 8 grandkids that she has one way or another inherited. Then there is Paxina. Without Paxina I think I would have died from loneliness, or hunger, or both. She is my age, speaks really good english has this amazing, sparkling personality and has been someone I can confide in about anything. We cook dinner together every night. For most of the the time I was eating nshima with her, but after gaining about 10 additional pounds I told her that I was no longer eating nshima, however we still cook together and eat together each night. It's very nice because every day I have someone to talk too. There are some days that I just want to hide in my house and not interact with anyone. At first I would really try and fight these days, try and force myself to go interact with people, but my heart wasn't in it. Lately, I have just been allowing myself to have these days, and I find that the more I allow myself to just have the days that I need, I have less of them. She also saved my life (okay so that may be a bit of an overdramatic statement, but not that overdramatic). So a few weeks ago we were laying out under the stars on a reed mat chatting after dinner and suddenly Paxina yelled "Get up Get up Natalia there is a small snake!" (I go by Natalia in my village, it is easier for Zambians to pronounce than Natalie) I of course jumped up, and my other friend Sherine (Paxina's cousin who also lives on the compound with her parents Ba Nighton and Ba Abness and their other children) beat it into two pieces. The school boys that rent a house from bambuya finally came over after hearing us screaming to find the snake already dead, and informed us that it was a baby cobra. I told them they had been useless. We now eat inside. Apparently with the rainy season come the snakes. Cooler weather, but also snakes. I guess it's the trade off. <br /><br />I also had a black mamba encounter the other day. Someone told me when we first got here that Peace Corps is all about doing what your scared of, and in so many ways this is proving true. Someone else also told me that snakes won't cross open ground. I wish I could remember who, so I could tell them that they lie! I was walking towards my house when this bright green snake shot over open ground past my house. After swallowing my initial fear, I started yelling "Insoka Insoka Insoka" which means snake in Bemba. I grabbed a giant stick and started chasing after it (which I later remembered was a bad idea because mambas will chase you back), I got one good whack at it, it then reared up halfway off the ground...so creepy... and escaped into the bushes. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't get to kill it, it would have made for an even better story!!<br /><br />So I have been in community entry, which means I am not allowed to leave my district (Mkushi). I am also not allowed to be doing work. I am just supposed to be getting to know my community, meeting people, trying to understand what they want to work on. One this I have discovered is that they don't really need a health volunteer. While there is always HIV/AIDS education to do, and child nutrition, what people mostly need is business skills, sustainable farming techniques (especially when it comes to pest control & fertilizer), and fish farming... so I won't be doing as much administrative type of health stuff, more teaching and education but that is what I prefer to do anyways. There are other volunteers around me that are trained in the other fields around me so hopefully we can do some collaboration on some projects. <br /><br />I have made friends in my village and hopefully will be starting on some projects come January/February. I have also tried my hand at gardening. I wouldn't say I have a green thumb, but nothing has died yet, so I find that encouraging. I planted beans (which are doing spectacularly) and my swiss chard and tomatoes are still in their nursery, though I think that the tomatoes are about ready to be transplanted. In February I will try and plant watermelons, zucchini, onions, and carrots. I would love to try some other things like bell peppers, basil, pumpkins, broccoli, peas, kale, and eggplant so if your dying to send your favorite PCV in Africa something, seeds along with chocolate and coffee are always appreciated!! I am still putting the finishing touches on my house, but its almost done. I have a hammock in it, which is where I hide away! I wish I had brought more of my knick-knack things to make me feel a little more at home. Its fun when you visit other volunteers to see what they have done with their houses, everyone has their own personal touches and made it their home. Mine is blue and white so I'm trying to create a bit of a mederiteranian/greek feel to it, not sure if I am going to accomplish this, but I am going to try my hardest!<br /><br />So this week I am at provincials. Every November and June all the volunteers in every province come to their provincial house and have a province wide meeting. The meeting in November is scheduled to coincide with Thanksgiving, so even though it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving here, we will all be working Wednesday and Thursday to have a Thanksgiving feast! It's always a nice break from the village to get out for a few days, visit with other Americans/PCV's, relax, enjoy a cold beer or soda. It's amazing the things you begin to appreciate when your living on the basics. Things like cold coke, cold water, internet access, full cell phone coverage, americans to speak english with, real showers become treats. People have been working hard on the house since it's new and its definitely gaining character and starting to feel more homey. <br /><br />I somehow found myself recruited to join a group at the church, Girls Friendly Society, or GFS. The general principle is that older girls help out younger girls, like a big sister program. A lot of the girls are between 12 and 18 so I'm hoping they'll want to do some kind of program, or at least feel like they know me and trust me enough to talk to me about any health concerns they may have, especially when it comes to boyfriends. I have to get a uniform. I got in trouble with the priest yesterday because I didn't have my uniform yet. I have never been scolded by a priest and I definitely don't ever want to be again, especially an Anglican priest (think Catholic priest, but married). I had to dance in front of the church by myself (embarrassing) and had to sing but luckily with all the other girls (slightly less embarrassing). It was the second time I had to dance in front of my community. October 24th was Zambian independence day, and there was a celebration in the village, which I was asked to dance with. At least I had someone with me, but I danced to Shakira Wherever Whenever in front of about 250 Zambians, they loved it! And I felt that the community warmed up to me a lot after that, so the embarrassment was well worth it, luckily I love to dance! <br /><br />You loose a lot of your pride here, I feel mine being chipped at away daily. When you speak Bemba to people, they laugh at you, because they can't believe a white person is attempting to speak Bemba. When you dance they laugh. Sometimes they ask you to sing. Things like maintaining pretty toes and eyebrows become the last thing on your mind. Often I will try and do things myself only to have to ask for help or more often have someone jump in and help me. You also learn to laugh, at yourself and just at life. Day by day I am learning to relax, go with the flow more, and just let it happen as it may. The more and try and control things the less successful I am. I'm not saying I am blissed out yet, but I am trying to go with the flow as much as possible. A few times I have gotten frustrated though and have cried to gotten impatient, but I try and manage as much as possible. Some days are a lot tougher than others, but every day there is this "Oh My God I am in Africa, this is amazing!" moment. I wish I was more artistic and could find a way to draw or paint everything I see. I try and take pictures when I can, but every time I take one I just think "this just isn't capturing what I'm looking at" and while a lot of that can probably be contributed to my novice photography skills and average camera, there is also things that a photograph can't capture. Maybe that is the skill of a talented photographer, to capture the feeling that the picture is meant to convey not just the image. <br /><br />Since I have internet access there is a good chance I may get another post up this week, and will definitely get pictures up onto facebook. For all of you that read this, become a follower! One it will make me feel better about myself that I have followers and it will notify you whenever I post a blog so that you don't have to stalk my blog only to be disappointed. After December I will probably have a chance about once a month to update my blog. Also feel free to send me letters I love getting mail! My address is:<br />Natalie Neft, PCV<br />Peace Corps<br />P.O. Box 840038<br />Mkushi<br />Zambia<br /><br />Happy Thanksgiving!Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-38301879427308263542010-09-04T03:08:00.000-07:002010-09-04T03:54:14.675-07:00Trying to Just Hang Out....It's been a while since I have posted anything and I feel that this blog is probably the best way to send out a massive "this is what I'm doing" notification instead of writing 50 million individual emails (I love you all but you know you wouldn't want to do it either!)<br /><br />So I got my site positing last week! Zambia is divided up into 73 (it was 72 but I was told recently it is now 73) districts which are in 8 different districts (Northwestern, Western, Southern, Central, Lusaka, Eastern, Northern & Luapula). I have been studying Bemba so I knew I would be going to Northern, Luapula, or Central. I got posted to Fiwila Village, in Mukushi District, in Central Province. My village is 75km from the main road. In Zambia there are 2 main paved roads, the Great East Road and the Great North Road. After that it is mostly bumpy dirt roads and a vast network of bush paths. My BOMA (which is like the district capital) is Mkushi which is on the main road, however I will be close to a town called Masansa where I will be able to get all the food I need. I will be living in my own mud hut (which is rumored to be large in the world of mud huts) on a compound with a family in my village. My clinic is less than a km away and it is a missionary clinic. There is of course two sides of this. Because it is missionary it is well run and well staffed but I may have to bite my tongue when it comes to religious issues. I am really hoping since we have a common goal that we will be able to reconcile any differences and work for the betterment of our mushi (village in Bemba). I was supposed to go out to my village yesterday to see it and meet my community but I had a little mishap...<br /><br />In PCZ (Peace Corps Zambia) there are two site visits. One when you first get to Zambia to give you a taste right off the bat what village bush life is like. On this site visit you could go anywhere in the country, for example I went to Northwestern province but would never be posted there because it is not a Bemba speaking province. The second site visit it to your actual province and district so you can do things like meet people that are going to be your neighbors for the next 6 months to 2 years (depending on where they are in their service) see your Boma, talk with current PCV's about their work, and I think, most importantly, meet your village and see your house. Our second day at site we realized that the RAP (Rural Aquaculture Program) volunteers had *stolen* (they still claim it was an accident) our chocolate, coffee, chips, and crackers. Well there was no way we could allow this to happen so we waged war and set out to capture our goods. Unfortunately, like all warriors, we had to suffer hardships for our treasure, and our hardship was an 8km walk there. Somehow during this walk I tweaked my ankle/foot. I tried to tough it out but sprained ankles and the African bush don't mesh well. After trying to tough it out and hope it felt better for 2 days I couldn't take it anymore and had to call our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer)who told me to go to the provincial house (more about that in a second) and STAY OFF IT for 48 hours. I have been doing my best to just lay around the house and keep my foot up and the IB Profin flowing. It's been a challenge because I am not the kind of person who can lay around the house all day! Yes, when I'm really tired, was out late the night before, maybe drank a little too much the night before, sure I can do that. But when I'm bursting with energy, loving where I am and just wanting to explore it it's really hard to just sit... so I'm doing the best I can at it!!<br /><br />So the provincial house! Every province has a PC House in the provincial capital. Here in Central Province (the best province) our house in in Serenje. The person who lives here full time is our PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leader). They are the resources person for the volunteers in our province and are a great source of information. They are also someone who has just completed their 2 years of service so they are very in the know of everything you are going through or will go through and can really appreciate your struggles and triumphs. Our PCVL is Mindy and she is FANTASTIC! She is so supportive of us volunteers and is a great teacher. She also cares about us and is here for us. I really don't think I could ask for someone better. She is so easy to talk to you so helpful. At the provincial house there are bedrooms and bathrooms so you can shower and sleep, a TV, DVD player with movies, a library, prescription drugs (this is also where you go when you are sick or injured) people keep things like computers here so they don't take them out to site. There is a full kitchen for cooking and dining room table for eating. There are also 3 dogs, who are adorable. Things like province wide meetings occur here. People can also come here when they need a few days our of their village, when they are going to Lusaka (the capital) it can be a good stopping over point. If they have meetings in Serenje they can stay here. It is 10,000 kwacha (or 10 Pin) per night which is the equivalent of 2 dollars so really affordable. There is a maid and gardener so the place is kept clean and round the clock guards so it is safe. Our house is also brand new so we will get to be part of creating it's character. I have a feeling it is a nice place to come to escape from village life, even if just temporarily. <br /><br />I am loving being in Zambia! Not every day is wonderful, but there is something wonderful in every day. I stay with an amazing host family in the village of Kabelika. My bataata (or father) name is George. He is a builder and a lay preacher and extremely hard working and very devoted to his family. He can speak really good English and is well read. I love having conversations with him. We learn a lot from each other and he is probably one of my best friends in PC. My bamaayo, Hilda, is equally incredible. She is shier and quieter but tough as nails. She works so hard from 5am to 21 hours (9pm). For the past two weeks my bataata has been in Chongwe (the nearest city to us) for a conference so it has just been bamaayo me and the kids and it was amazing because we really got a chance to bond. She has me in what I call "zamwife" training, but I love it! She is teaching me how to cook umusalu (vegetables) and eggs, I am not yet allowed to do the nshima. I help he with dishes but she fired me from laundry. We go to the village garden together and she makes me a hot bath everyday. I have 4 brothers, James (12) Graveson (9) Keshash (6) and Mwanza (18 months). They are so well behaved (for the most part) and really watch out and take care of each other. My family is also raising me a chicken. I cannot decide what to name it since every time I try and catch it, it runs away. I am taking suggestions but so far I really like Penelope, but maybe Lola. I have no idea what I am going to do with the chicken once they give it to me, but it is a huge huge gift to give to me, especially since they are raising it especially for me. I really find myself lucky that I have a host family that I feel so part of! I will be very very sad to leave them. We had a zamfamily photo shoot a few weeks ago, bamaayo told me I had to put on a Chitenge for it, which is traditional Zambian wear. I will try and get some pictures up soon!<br /><br />Every night I take a bath to the African sunset. I stand outside in my bathing shelter and just try and drink it all in. I just finished my Pete's coffee (always feel free to send me more!) but every morning I was drinking good hot coffee and watching the African sunrise. I bike anywhere between 2 and 6 k per day and I LOVE the bike riding. It's been years since I have mountain biked and I forgot why I loved it. Bemba is the most difficult part of training but I have a teacher that meshes with my learning style really really well and a language partner who learns at the same pace as me. We just had our second language evaluation and I am still doing well. I am hoping that I will get to use the language a lot in my village so that I can get good at it! I love the idea of being fluent (or semi fluent) in Bemba!<br /><br />Hopefully tomorrow I will get to go to Fiwila, then on Wednesday back to Lusaka where we will have a counterpart workshop. In our villages we work with counterparts, usually many sometimes of both sexes, that are community members that are involved in the sectors we work in (for example, since I am a CHIP volunteer I may have counterparts that are community health workers, doctors or nurses (though this is rare), outreach workers, ministry of health officials, members on the NHC (neighbor hood health committees) or just community members who are involved in the RHC (Rural Health Center) which is the clinic)These people will be who I work with to find out the needs of the community, will hep me meet and make connections in my village, will help with trainings, planning, setting up groups etc etc. Peace Corps is assigning me one for the workshop but I can work with anyone once I am posted to the village. We spend the 1st three months doing "community entry" where our main goal is to identify what the community sees as their main health problems, brainstorming, and just getting to know the community. You do not actually do any work. This gives you a chance to find out who is genuine and trust worthy in their intentions and also allows you to really get to know your community which is uber important!<br /><br />After the workshop I will have 2 more weeks left and then will swear in on September 24th, pending me passing my Bemba exam, so I should really get to studying...like... now!<br /><br />I will try and post again soon, and will get out my new address in the next few days. Please continue to email/send letters they are always appreciated!Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-66268782825746703712010-07-26T14:25:00.000-07:002010-07-26T14:40:19.522-07:00Out Into The Bush...So I'm up in the Northwestern province of Zambia is a town called Solwezi at what is called the provincial house. After we finish IST (in service training) and then our community immersion (first 3 months of site) we will have 4 days a week to come to the provincial house in whatever province we are stationed in. Here we will go to meetings/meet up with other PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers)/ shower/go on the internet, write reports, print, upload new music etc etc etc. Right now I'm headed to my first site visit but because our site was so far away we had to make an overnight stop at the provincial house. We left the In Service Training Trust (ISTT) which are these goverment hostels we've been staying at this morning at 7 and got here around 6 so needless to say it was a VERY long day! We did drop 4 other PCT's off at a site in the copper belt and got to see how one PCV has his hut/pit latrine/bathing area set up and it was fantastic!<br /> <br />Getting to Zambia was a challenge in itself, I'm pretty sure that it was a test to see if we could really hanld Peace Corps. So on Wednesday morning we load up two busses they are suppossed to take up to the federal building to get our yellow fever vaccines and then to the airport for our flight, now enter glitch #1. So on the way to the federal building it is discovered that the bus drivers are only contracted to take us to the airport and because they have other rides for that day they cannot take up to get our shots, wait, and then take us to the airport. So we unload everything and post up at this federal building in Atlanta for 3 hours. Our coordinators in Atlanta worked tirelessly to work something out and we all got to the Atlanta airport and onto our flight in time. The flight was fairly uneventful, but fun. When there are 56 people hanging out in a plane there is always someone to talk to! However, we arrived in Johannesburg an hour and a half late and we only had a 2 hour lay over in SA for our flight to Lusaka. Needless to say we missed the flight. So after several calls to Washington D.C., Delta Airlines & Zambia we all shuttled over to a really nice hotel where we got to take hot showers and sleep in giant beds. We had to be at the airport the next morning at 8 so we were only in SA for about 8 hours (I did get a stamp for it though!) Luckily for whatever reason my group got put on a 10:55 flight to Lusaka however about 60% of our group couldn't get on a flight until that night and so we didn't all arrive in Zambia until Friday. However, we are all now here, all in one piece and ready for the next adventure!<br /><br /><br />So like I said tomorrow morning we go for our first site visit out in the bush. I'm with three other volunteers and we made ourselves dinner tonight we were so proud! Granted it was on a stove and not open flame but all the same! Tomorrow we'll see what it's like to be living in a village. We also walked around Solwezi which was exciting!<br /><br />I now know that I will be learning Bemba which is the primary language spoken throughout Zambia. I will be posted in either the Central Province, Northern Province, or Luapula Province, I won't know for another few weeks which one I will be going to. On Friday we will be placed with our host families and then on Monday we will start our language classes! I'm still super nervous about the language but the class is at least a 3 student to 1 teacher ratio so that should help. The PCVL's and other PCV's we've met have been SO helpful and willing to answer all of our questions no matter how stupid they may seem... <br /><br />I might have to kill, gut, pluck, and cook a chicken tomorrow...wish me luck. I also saw my first snake today! Okay so granted it was very dead, very flat, and very small, but still I DIDN'T FREAK OUT! I have a feeling when I wake up and a black mamba is sitting in the middle of my floor or when I'm out in the fields and encounter a puff adder it might be a different story...but one of the PCVL's (Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders) today said that "Peace Corps is all about doing stuff that you are afraid of" which really put it all in perspective. This is all about doing things that scare you, or that are hard and challenge you, but that you push yourself to do because it is all for something greater than you and it is a unique opportunity to be part of something truly incredible.Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383701582636409207.post-26346232561302556762010-06-20T23:45:00.000-07:002010-06-20T23:57:29.756-07:00One Month To Go....I'm having some serious issues writing my aspiration statement, and completely freaking out about what to pack... how does one go about packing for two years with only 2 bags and 80 pounds! I think my focus on things like what to bring and what shoes to bring is happening because it is impossible for me to focus on what is about to happen. <div><br /></div><div>I have expectations for training and then later my volunteer service, but how well can one really prepare oneself for life in rural Africa? I guess make sure you have the right shoes... </div><div><br /></div><div>I feel so overwhelmed with things to do! I envy the PCV's who received their assignment back in April, they have had so much more time to prepare themselves (or maybe freak out...) I feel like I have SO much to do in so little time, I have about 5 million lists going! Luckily three people are coming to look at my room this week so hopefully one of them will work out, but even once I find someone to rent my room there will be the additional concerns of when they move in, when I move out, getting all my stuff packed up, or rather distributed to different people, and even just the administrative stuff that must be done! On top of this I need to pack, work, and pour over blogs/books/reading material to be as prepared as possible, and somehow I know that I could read every piece of literature on Zambia, Peace Corps, the Community Health Improvement Project (CHIP), and what it is like to live in a mud hut in a Zambian village and I would still be unprepared!</div><div><br /></div><div>I was relieved to learn today that you can get an internet phone and you can email/facebook on a fairly regular basis. I was going to start to feel very alone if I couldn't at least email!</div><div><br /></div><div>Some things I know I will need:</div><div>1. Solar Head Lamp</div><div>2. Tevas (or some variety thereof) </div><div>3. My iPhone (purely for musical purposes)</div><div>4. My journal</div><div>5. tons of pictures of my amazing support network</div><div>6. SPF 50</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm going to start reading " A Few Minor Adjustments" tomorrow.</div><div><br /></div><div>I swing back and forth, sometimes many times a day, between sheer terror and utter excitement! I don't even know what to expect! Today I was reading a blog written by a girl that is about a year ahead of me in her program and just reading about what she is doing in Africa made me so excited because it really is what I want to do with the rest of my life (in some form or another)</div><div><br /></div><div>I really appreciate and respect that I will be working to build sustainable health programs, for there is nothing worse than creating dependency in the health care sector. This is going to be such a different population than the one I deal with on a regular basis and I wonder which will be more challenging? </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Natalie Nefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17146698627963242831noreply@blogger.com0