Community Entry

I feel like community entry is such an awkward phase. Let's take a look into what happened yesterday.

5:50 The sun is up and that means so am I. Also my uncontrollable urge to pee has me bolt out the door like every morning before this. My body has yet to learn how to get two things done at once. So, while I am getting all comfy back inside my house... the other number comes knocking and I am back squatting.

6:00 Breakfast is 50% done already. Time for eating and reading. I have read 100 pages. I am not even a fast reader and about.... uhhhh.... 5 minutes has past.

7:10 Washing dishes time. I am doing this in complete alone peace and BAM out of no where, I have helpers. This expedites the situation that I as hoping to take 20 or more minutes. Again, 5 minutes and I am done.

7:20 Clothes washing time. Luckily I saved up a lot of clothes I have only worn once. This should take a lot of time. Which it does. Praise the heavens. Maybe 30 minutes to an hour later we are done. My helper amount has increased to 4 now. Also somewhere during this time or before I put my phone out to solar charge. (Shoot out to Melanie: I use it everyday. Thanks a million.)

8:30 Time to sweep. The helpers insist on sweeping outside and the insaka. Luckily I have my house, chim and ulusasa that I can tackle. I do so as they handle their tasks. Of course somewhere in the middle of sweep I get distracted and burn my trash pile. Everything is looking tip-top when we all finish.

9:15 I need water. I have 60 liters of empty containers. Good thing I have 7 helpers at this point and a bike. The two 20 liters are strapped to my bike and the two 10 liters will be carried on heads. We walk the 700 meters to the closest fullest natural well and fetch our hearts out. When we get home I distribute candy accordingly. A lollipop for 20 liters and A small candy for 10. Or a lollipop for 10 and helping me all morning. There is justice in this world.

10:00 The kids are playing "game" and I am ready for a snack. I make popcorn and eat while reading.

10:45 While doing absolutely nothing inside a bamaayo comes along selling tomatoes and I get called outside. I buy 2 bunches for 2 kwatcha and immediately some of them up with salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. So good.

11:00 My dishes and clothes are dry. I bring them inside. I fold my clothes and put them away. I also put away my dishes.
12:00 I have read another 50 pages or so and it isn't even lunch yet.

13:00 Lunch. Bamaayo has prepared nshima and rape. Classic move.

13:00 The older kids are done with school. Time for an adventure.

14:00 I have rounded up 3 of the villages finest for a good ol' walk to the river. As we start blazing our trail we of course pick up 3 more boys. As soon as we get to the river, the adventure turns into a crocodile hunt. You could have guessed, but we see nothing. I would compare the walk we went on to the epic journey of Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings. We crossed almost every type of land formation there is. Somewhere on the crocodile hunt the boys see the dangerous waters fit for a swim. It is short lived. Maybe 20 minutes at max.

17:00 Home. Bamaayo has the bath water ready. I bathe away all the dirt I have collected. While the amount of kids gathering in my insaka is enough to make an American football team. They are playing the World Famous Game of UNO. I taught it to them a few days earlier.

19:00 Dinner. By now my football team has left and it is just I and the family.

20:00 Bed time. Like a champ.

I am Posted

I am posted. That means I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). Here I am living the village dream.

During the next three months as volunteers we are supposed to spend time to really get to know our communities. I find myself 100% exhausted at 20:00. What do I do all day? I have no idea. I usually struggle speaking Bemba the majority of the day and clean a lot. I finished a book I started months ago. I am getting my walls cemented on Monday. After that, holy cow, I will have so much to do. I will be able to start decorating and painting everything. I cannot wait. I have an average of 5 kids outside my house at all times. I honestly don't mind.

I got a dog on day two. That was a blur. I named him Rafiki but my village cannot say that so his new name is Swahili. My village chose. He is a handful but everyone spoils him. He loves sweet potatoes. He is a typical African dog. The village kids love to tease him.

It just started raining. Naturally, my puppy is scared out of his mind. It is the first Zambian rain for both of us. I can't help to think about when the rainy season really does come... how am I going to take a shower? We will cross that bridge when it comes.

I got put on the committee to plan Zambia's 50th independence. I am totally game but I don't know much about Zambia. Here we go.

I talked to the carpenter. I want a breakfast nook like table, 2 chairs and a couch. I heard he was cheap but when the sum total came to 230 kwatcha... I could have died. That is a bargain in my mind.  Will definitely go back to him when I get paid again to have some shelves made.

I feel like everything here is peaches and roses. As soon as I grasp Bemba better, I will be free as a daisy. My host family do not speak English very much and so I have jumped into the Bemba world head first. They say they can already tell I have been learning a lot. I guess the best way to learn is to put yourself out there and let the words fly... even if they are wrong.

The area I live in is a Zambian Village version of Lehi Park in Santa Cruz, California. I am going to generalize this village really quick in the way the homesteads look but you can't generalize every hut in Zambia like you can't generalize how every house looks in America. Here we go. In my village the bamaayos sweep their dirt/sand yards everyday. They look great. There are trees surrounding each compound and on a lot of the compounds they have a few banana trees. If the family has enough money they might have a solar charging system connected to a car battery to charge anything or run TVs they also might have a thatch roof. The average family does have a few pets..  maybe a dog, chickens, etc. The houses are covered in thatch. They have a outdoor bathing area, kitchen (insaka), drying rack, clothes line and bathroom. But just like America, each house is subject to have their differences.