Out 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!

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!


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!

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...

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.

One 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.

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...

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!

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!

Some things I know I will need:

1. Solar Head Lamp

2. Tevas (or some variety thereof)

3. My iPhone (purely for musical purposes)

4. My journal

5. tons of pictures of my amazing support network

6. SPF 50

I'm going to start reading " A Few Minor Adjustments" tomorrow.

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)

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?