So I have been in Zambia now for about 6 weeks I think. I love every minute of it. Not really sure what I talked about last time but it was got much more exciting. I found out I will be living in Southern Province in the Kalomo District and my village is Nazilongo. I am about 130 KM from victoria falls!!!! We had a workshop where we met our head teacher of the Zonal School, Mrs. Hapaku Naomi Chooma. On Sunday I go to my house for five days to get to know the teachers in my village and the family I will be living near. There are 9 schools in my zone and 7 of them are government schools and two community schools. Each term we are supposed to co-teach at a different school or at least with different teachers. Then after those 5 days the two other PCV's in southern, we are meeting with our language teacher for 3 days for some more language classes. Then I come back to my homestay family for 5 more weeks then I swear in as an actually PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER!!! Then I finally get to be posted to my new home for the next 2 years. FINALLY!!! My head teacher said that there school is in need of grade 7 and grade 9 English help. those are the two years that the pupils have to pass a written test in order to move to the next grade. the test is in english so if they cannot properly read or write it how are they to pass?!?! She also said that they want help with reading math and science. My school has 2 sewing machines that no one is using so I hope to start a sewing club with the women of the village...we shall see. We have now co-taught with 2 zambian teachers. The first time was grade 9 math which went amazingly smooth. The co-planning part was not how I pictured it would be but the actual lesson was perfect. My second co teaching experience was grade 8 science-how oxygen gets to the muscles. I barely remember that stuff from high school let alone try and teach it in a Zambian classroom. ha But the co planning part was much better this time we had a group of two other PCV that we did the lesson with. The teacher went step by step with us through the lesson plan. I have found a store in the boma(bigger than a village but smaller than a capital ) that I love it is called DAPP which was started by an NGO and it is basically a goodwill. I bought about 6 shirts and a pair of shoes for roughly 30,000 kwacha. 1 USD=5,000 kwacha-you do the math. I have had been able to hitch to the boma very successfully several times. a hitch is hitch hiking. Some times they cost just depends on the type of vehicle it is. A few of us went to a local bar and had a dance party to remember. It was fantastic. My banene killed a chicken for the first time in front of it -best chicken I ever ate. I have had two language test so far the first one I did really well on the second one I passed but thought I deserved a better score. I think that is all for now.
Hope all is well in America Land keep me posted on the happenings there....I heard the president made a speech about Libya...someone care to tell me what it was regarding specifically? And we made guacamole the other day and it was the shit! I brought my nano out to show on the of PCV who was been in country for at least a year and he was shocked because he had not seen the latest technology. I love the idea of going back to america and things being completely different.
Be free. (which will be my next tattoo while I am here but it was be written in Tonga the language I am learning).
