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.