Friday, May 27, 2011
Where There Is No GPS
So 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.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Newness
With 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.
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.
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.
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.
Much love to all of you!
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.
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.
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.
Much love to all of you!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Remember the Starfish
So 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.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Some Photos from Zambia
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
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.
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.
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!
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)
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Magical Malawi
I 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.
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.
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!
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.
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:
Natalie Neft, PCV
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 840038
Mkushi, Zambia
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.
Cheers to a wonderful 2011
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.
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!
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.
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:
Natalie Neft, PCV
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 840038
Mkushi, Zambia
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.
Cheers to a wonderful 2011
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Fiwila
So 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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Bush Break
I'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!
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.
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!).
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.
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!!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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:
Natalie Neft, PCV
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 840038
Mkushi
Zambia
Happy Thanksgiving!
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.
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!).
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.
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!!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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:
Natalie Neft, PCV
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 840038
Mkushi
Zambia
Happy Thanksgiving!
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