Saturday, February 26, 2011

UPDATE!!!!!

Holy Chet where do I begin?!?!?! Well first and foremost I arrived in Zambia safe and sound....clearly.  So we had a ring in ceremony which were, our intake (group) of RED volunteers were for the first to be apart of.  It was to tell Zambia that we are here and ready to begin our service by ringing a bell.  There were also some really famous political people there such as Jonnie Carson-google him.  After that we went to our first site visit, it was me and two over PCV who went to Central Provience to stay with a RED volunteer for 3 days.  It was about 5 hours away from the capital, Lusaka and about two hours off the tarmac, road.  It was amazing.  We pitched a tent and stayed and visited two schools that she has been working with in her area.  We went to a MOE school that had an amazing landscaping job desks for the children multiple buildings and she was in the process of finishing up a resource building that the community raised money for and constructed.  The other school was about two minutes away and had no desks they had trees as benches and sand for the floor only two teachers and one building.  Sad but eye opening to see what changings I can make with my community.  we at ate so good.  we had grilled cheese, chili, chicken, pork, tacos, scrambled eggs.  The family bought the pork for us fresh that day and it was good.  So this post won't make sense because I am at an internet cafe in lusaka we had a field trip to a museum and now we had free time I changed 200 USD into kwacha their currency and was given 746,000 kwacha.  each month we will be making about 1.3 million kwacha holla.  So i learning tonga and will beliving in southern provience where victoria falls is!!! COME SEE ME!!!!! there is only two others who will be going to southern with me and currently there are no voluneeters there and there havent been for the past 2 years which is neat I get to come and set the standard for the rest of the RED people after me!!! There will be 3 LIFE volunteers joining us too one is a married couple yuck and the other is a girl.  so what I do during the week is monday thru saturday I go to language from 8 am to noon come home my family that I am staying with fixes me lunch then we are off to tech traing, where they teach us what we will be doing as a RED volunteer then I come home bucket bath (hell yea) eat dinner then study then bed.  every wed we do not have language we have medical training and get a shot and on saturdayswe end at noon and have half of saturday and sunday off.  I bike about 10km each day to get to my tech training site and the nearest boma or village is about 7km.  last night was the first time we have expeireneced the rainy season in zambia.  It started at about 3 am and continued until about 8 am.  My roof was leaking so it got all over my bed and sheets so hopefully when I go home it will be dry.  the family i am living with does my laundry, sweeps my hut and fixes me meals o and prepares my bath water.  they are amazing.  O the most important part, during our language training class I saw a pig get killed.  At first the men were just checking out the pigs then put a rope on its leg and drug it out of the locked area and started stabbing it in the neck.  I think he was aiming for the heart but missed and just stabbed.  They then put water all over the pig so they could burn the hair off without ruining the pig itself.  The next step was to cut out the inside parts that people don't eat...we luckily resumed class before I witnessed that part.  needless to say I still do not eat beef and now do not eat pork.  we have had two people go home early because the two year commitment was too much for them.  I have been to two different churches one apostolic and the other christian the apostolic church, my language teacher is the minister at and the other had a band with tons of dancing and it was awesome I am going back tomorrow.  It is about 4 hourslongs but I go late and it is only 2 hours for us.  My cousin passed away.  It was weird not being at a family 'function'.  I also have a cell phone with internet access so I can get on facebook and email just not update my blog.  well i am loving it here I am just really looking forward to starting my projects in southern provience. i LOVE ALL OF YOU THAT ARE READING THIS AND i WANT LETTERS AND CARE PACKAGES !!!!! :) 

BE FREE.

3 comments:

  1. Wow. Two people already left. I guess one can only prepare so much.

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  2. I'm so glad to hear you are doing so great and loving it. I never voiced it to you when I lived with you but I was a little nervous for you. Doubtful even. But at the same time, I knew you needed to do this and wanted to do this and I'm so glad it's everything you hoped for and imagined. You are a bigger person than I am to do this with your life. I miss you sooo much and I can't wait to see you when you come back, if you come back :-) Can't wait for more updates!

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  3. Sorry to hear about your cousin. That must be strange to not have been able to be there for that.

    What is the address? Is there anything you need in a care package? 270-438-8746

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