ameshi

Water is a huge issue here in my village. I feel like I have said that many times now. If you remember this time last year, I made a heartfelt vow on Facebook to bring water to the people of my village after they gave me 40 liters of their precious saved up rain water. 

The ball is rolling. 

Last week I wrote 1/2 of my grant to build 5 new mono-pumps and to repair 5 mono-pumps. It was a lot of short essays but clean water is worth every short essay. I got kind of stumped on the second half of the grant and so I called in the big guns. 

Last night I had a meeting with all the head men and chief advisers on the subject. It was awesome. I have really lucked out in my community. These men are so willing to do whatever it takes to get these pumps in the ground. We made the budget, timeline, goals, objectives and everything together. When we got to the budget, the headmen were willing to donate the cement and river sand to build the mono-pumps. I reassured them the company will be providing that. They are just so willing. 

This next week while I am in Lusaka for my Mid-Terms Conference, I am going to finish writing the grant. I am so excited to have it done. The rumor is: It takes two weeks after completing a grant before people can start donating to it. Keep your eye out!

The goal is to have 11 mono-pumps up and running before the end of this year! I cannot wait! 

On September 14, I get to meet all the people who are going to be trained. (Kaleigh and Cassidy will be here and also get to meet them.) They are taking us on a village tour to see the 5 new places the mono-pumps are going to be built and the 5 mono-pumps we are going to be fixing. 

This dream is becoming a reality. I am so happy to help. I will keep you all updated. 

chipolopolo

Kyle arranged everything for everyone. We smashed as many RED volunteers into a mini-bus as possible and headed towards Hero's Stadium. As we were going, it was obvious that traffic wasn't going to let up. I was in the front seats. I asked the driver how far we were. He said only 2 kilometers. I shared this knowledge with the rest of the bus and it is unanimous that we are going to walk it. 

Somehow I became the money collector. It is costing 100 kwacha for the bus. Everyone gave 5 kwacha and the due was paid. Everyone else is already out at this point and the only reason Sydney is stuck on the bus is because I am blocking her from escape. I walk in haste to catch up with everyone else. 

It was definitely at least 2 kilometers away. Little children were screaming, "ZAMIBA! MSUNGU!" on the side of the road. The whole city is excited about this game. We make it to the stadium. Kyle bought out all the ticket the place he went and was still short for some people. I didn't get him money fast enough and so, I was one of those people. 

We need tickets. Alice is spearheading this. She heads off in the direction of the ticket booth. We all follow in line like ducklings. There is a ruckus and people start running one direction. Aretha tells us that if people start running at each other, we better start running the other direction. I agreed. 

The whole situation is crazy. The ticket booth is not selling tickets. People want tickets and can't get them. Of course everyone goes to the next logical step, Zambians are jumping over the walls of the compound and broke down a barrier and started dashing into the stadium. It is madness. This is our opportunity to slip right in. 

Adam and I head for a crowd of people to slip in but of course we find the only crowd that actually has tickets. We slink right back out of the crowd. We need a different entrance route. 

A man notices us and asks if we need tickets. We reply that we do not have any. He says that he can give us some for 100 kwacha each. We say that is too much. Then he goes down to 25 kwacha each. 

After a few seconds his friend comes by. His friend asks if he can help. The friend directs us to a solider. I told the solider about how we came with all intentions of buying a ticket but now that is impossible.... yadda, yadda. We are in. Free! I grabbed the only 2 other PCVs in site and we headed to watch the game. A miracle! 

It was awesome. My friend Leah once said, "When the Olympics come on, I have no shame. I will rock a bald eagle shirt and become the next level of patriotic." I felt the same way about Zambia this night. I had so much pride. Zambia is obviously the better team than Gabon. It was so awesome to watch the game and feed off the energy of all the other locals. 

Adam and I left early to miss the rush and crowds. It was incredible to be there. I hope in my service to have another chance to go to a game. The president was even there last night! 

I forgot to mention that Zambia is having rolling power outages. The power went out twice during the game. It was a classic Zambian moment.

I need to get myself a Chipolopolo jersey. 

camp tree

I got a WhatsApp the day before Camp TREE began, "Can you bring 3 more kids?" Challenge accepted. I already had 4 kids lined up to go, what more is 3? I did it. I got 3 more kids. In the morning I rounded up all my kids, met my counterpart at the road and we were off. It was flawless. We made it to Serenje in record timing with no problems at all. 

We smashed all the communities in the back of a canter and travel 150 kilometers to Mutinondo. I can be the first to say that it was so uncomfortable. We got to the site and it was instantly totally worth it. Not much happened that first night. We gathered, looked at the scenery, ate food and went to bed. 

The next day we wake up and it is so cold. There is major cloud coverage. We reschedule to do the hike in the afternoon because it includes a swim and play some games in the morning. On the hike I get to teach about the water cycle. Of course we did the water lessons near water and the kids got to swim when we were finished. Most of the kids and mentors didn't want to swim and so it turned into: Zambians watch the white people as they swim. 

The next day we hike to Kite Rock. It was so easy going up. After all our lessons were finished and we looked at the hill we had to hike back down, we were all scared a little. It was a straight drop. How did we get up it? We all went panono-panono and made it. I have never looked straight down a mountain and then knew that is where I was going to make my descent. It was crazy. It was my first experience feeling like a true mountain goat. I also did it with bare feet instead of my Target sandals that I scaled the mountain with. Let me tell you, I will not need to use a pumice stone for the next year. 

The next day was an even larger hill but the decline was so so much easier. We didn't have to pray all the way down. My Target sandals stayed on my feet. We went back to the site and played games. I have been named the game master of this province. We played hide and seek, sharks and minnows, bat and moth and so many more. It was so fun. The best was watching them play sharks and minnows. I guess Zambia has their own version called sheep and lions. Of course. 

We were given time to meet with our counterparts and communities to plan out how we are going to implement what we have learned in our communities. Ba Donald and I make project plans. We are going to start with making a compost pile at the school. With the compost we are going to plant trees and make a garden at the school. The kids are stoked about it. I think it will be even easier for these projects to succeed in my village because of the amount of children I was allowed to bring. What a blessing. 

We end TREE with a round of smores, sunsets and a cute song the kids made about their gratitude for being there. It was perfect. 

Zambia is beautiful. 

People. 

Scenery.

Everything. 

grade eight

My 95 babies have become quite stinkers. Towards the end of the semester it seemed like they did not want to listen to anymore. I also did not want to teach them anymore. It got really frustrating. I taught them baseball earlier in the semester with my friend, Rob. 

As a class we made a new rule: 3 strikes and you are out. 

If I write your name on the board and you have 2 strikes after you have to go out. 

If I write my name and 2 strikes, I leave. Teach yourselves.

We always got close but never to the 3rd strike. They were awful. 

When I tested them at the end of the term, I tested them on exactly what I taught them. They had all the notes in their exercise books. They should have had no difficulties at all, if they studied.

But, they were stumped. It was awesome. It was my silent lesson to tell them they need to stop making noise so that they can learn. 

My pupils who are quite did so well and the noise makers... not so well. The pupils looked at me and the look. They knew what they did wrong. 

I have hope for the next term. 

Let the games begin.

one hundred and eighty bears

Right before I left for Tanzania I went to the post office and there were 4 HUGE boxes waiting for me. The bears I had requested from The Mother Bear project had came! I was so excited but just how am I going to get these boxes back? No worries. I managed with the help of 2 grade 9 pupils.

It was flawless. The next day after communicating with the teachers and head teacher about the program the bears were distributed to all the grade 1 and 2 pupils. They cheered when I walked into the classrooms. The little kiddos were so excited. The teachers helped me pass them out, one by one. We would give and bear and then have them stop for a picture. Every child with every bear. 

The lovely people who make the bears want to see directly which child the bear goes to. It is such an awesome idea. A bear is something that will love you unconditionally no matter what. We explained it to the kids and they were loving all over their new babies. 

Casey came somewhere at the end of grade one and was great help when we were distributing in grade 2. Just look at their happy faces. It went so well. I got all the bears given out. People in the market were so happy and telling me what a good job that I did. I also got the flip-side. I got people asking me why I forgot their child. As soon as I explained that I was only giving to grade 1 and 2, they understood. It was more simple than I thought it would have been. 

I left for Tanzania the next day. We all know what happened there. 

I lost all the pictures.What you see is all I have left.

Hopefully I can round up the kids again and try round 2 of pictures.

Check out all the good The Mother Bear Project is doing here: http://www.motherbearproject.org/

hakuna matata

It all started when I missed my first flight to Tanzania. I had it all mixed up in my head and I knew about 6 hours before my flight took off that I had missed it. I guess when you live so far in the bush, I should start thinking about these things with at least 8 hours.

Bless her heart, I WhatsApped my mom and she took care of everything for me from the hut. I had to wake up super early at start hitching by 6. I rode my bike in the dark at 5 to the road and was off in no time. I found an awesome hitch who was returning from Tanzania and gave me all of his left over shillings. What a blessing.

I land in Tanzania. I barter with the taxis. I pick the youngest taxi guy that I got a good vibe from and we were off on my way to meet up with Cassidy at the YWCA. I talked to my taxi guy all the way to the YWCA. His name is Muumin. He was super cool. I ask him where to get a sim card for my phone and which company to use. He offers to get one for me in the morning because it is 24:00 and everything is closed. He'll drop it by around 14:00.

Cassidy and I have a lovely reunion and talk forever. I think we went to bed around 3:00. It was so late. I have never ever stayed up that late in Zambia... 24:00 is my max. We wake up in the morning and want to go to church. (My 5th time going to church since joining PC.) We tried to figure out the bus route but there was no hope. The language barrier is so thick and all I want to do is speak Bemba to everyone. The languages are so similar yet so different.

Luckily, we run into Cassidy's friend she met the night before when she was waiting for me. His name is Tiger and is from China. He speaks great Swahili and sends us on our way on a boda-boda. It was so fun to go that far on a motorcycle. With the help of a few locals, getting to the wrong church first, body language and a tuk-tuk: we made it to The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. The internet said church doesn't start until 10:00 and we are early. It is 9:30. There is a different ward in but someone came out to get us and the internet lied.

We met a lot of great people at church. Everyone was so friendly. It was 100% different than all of my experiences I have had going to church here in Zambia. I silently wished Zambian wards were like Kenyan and Tanzanian wards. Church is all in Swahili. This guy tries to translate it all for us but it is mostly distracting. Our favorite person we met from the beginning is a boy also named, Kass. Name twins with homegirl. This is perfect.

After church we need 2 things: 1. How to get home? 2. Ferry tickets for the next day. Both of us sync brains and we wait for Kass to come out the building. He gladly accepts the offer to be our Dar tour guide if we sponsor his bus fares. No problem. We quickly figure out that this boy is a sweet angel from heaven above who just got baptized less than a month ago and has the i-love-the-gospel glow radiating. He took us everywhere we needed to be. It was perfect and he is perfect.

Cassidy has 2 huge bags of things my mom gave to her to bring for me. We both agreed that maybe lugging them all over Zanzibar wasn't the best idea and if there was a way to keep them on the mainland that would be best. Kass, our newest boyfriend, offers to keep them at his place. We met him less than 12 hours ago, loaded him up on a tuk-tuk, threw on the bags, gave him transport money for both directions and sent him on his way with a prayer in our heart that he is the sweet baby angel we think he is.

In the morning we get on the ferry after trying to track down the coast line and failing the first time. I was told I had to check in my bag because it was too big but Cassidy was let on with her's. We met some anal travelers on the way who sang a song in German about Zanzibar but we were happy to sit on the deck and catch some rays. Cassidy thought the trip was only going to be 15 minutes. 2 hours later we had arrived in Zanzibar but not my bag. It is gone.

Just like that. Gone. The Ferry manager, Akim, is not happy about it at all. I guess this doesn't happen often. All I have are the clothes on my back, shoes on my feet, wallet with bank cards and PC ID, passport and phone. Everything else is gone. Oh well. No time for tears. It is just stuff. We are told to come back.

We get settled into Kiponda B & B and explore a little. We find our way back to the ferry building and the bag is still MIA. I know it is long gone in my heart. They tell us to come back the next day except I have no clothes. I need help with that. After talking to Fiki, the tourism manager at the ferry, he has us all jump into a taxi and takes us shopping at the local market. It is so funny. We are running around buying things. I end up getting an African tribal looking shirt made in Thailand (said the tag), a Zanzibar jersey and a pair of breezy pants. Cassidy tried to convince me to get some undies but I couldn't in front of what seemed like all of Zanzibar's population watching me. Fiki makes sure we are satisfied and loads us back into the car. We went home.

I forgot to mention that Muumin, my taxi driver, did bring the sim card for me but he was just 2 hours late and so we were not around. As soon as I got the sim card in my phone we started chatting. So, he knew when my bag went missing. He contacted his mom who lived in Zanzibar and she is the sweet woman who brought me the clothes to my hotel at 24:00. I will never be able to forget this kindness shown to me.

The next day we head back to the Ferry station. PC Safety and Security at this point has contacted me and wants to talk to Akim. They talk and now it is really out of my hands. I turned it over to PC Tanzania.

Cassidy and I want to see the tortoises on Prison Island. That is what we do. It was awesome. We got our own little boat out there and the Island was empty. It was perfect. It was gorgeous. There is one tortoise on the island that is 198 years old, or something like that, who produced all the other tortoises on the island. Now there are over 200 tortoises. They are huge and you walk right up to them.

The rest of Zanzibar is a blur of which day is what. We went on a spice tour where we learned all about the different spices and where they came from. Spices are huge in Zanzibar and they have these large farms. We ate a lot of ice cream. We went to the other side of the island to get more of the beachy feel over the old town feel. We stayed at Teddy's Place and met so many wonderful people.

Everyday is beach. One day we switched it up and tried swimming with dolphins too. Lucus, one of our boyfriends we met, described it best: "I was told that you have to be an Olympic swimmer to swim with the dolphins here. They drive a boat as close to the dolphins as they can and once they see the dolphins they tell the people to jump out of the boat and swim. You have to swim pretty hard to keep up with them." That is exactly how it was. As soon as our driver said, "GO!" if you were not out of the boat before the "g" left his mouth then the dolphins were gone. It was so fun!

Musa is a worker at Teddy's Place. One day he took us to his village and showed us around. It was awesome. In that moment I kept on thinking how I told totally be a PCV in a village like that.

We went to a party. The Maasai were going crazy. Cassidy and I had to keep our dance movements very big to keep the men off of us. (This sounds so prideful.) There were not many non-locals on the dance floor. It was just Cassidy and I. Everyone else was at the bar. Cassidy quickly got attached to a new boyfriend and I got passed like a rag doll from boy to boy. I couldn't take it anymore after I felt one trying to get friendly with my neck. No sir. Not me.

Kaleigh flies in one of these days. We go back to the other side of the island and say goodbye to the people we have made friends with.  Kaleigh wants to go snorkling. We get on a boat again and head to Prison Island. It was fun. We were back in deep water and jumped out right there. I am getting used to jumping out into the ocean in deep water. After a little bit of snorkling and realizing it is high tide we head to the beach. Kaleigh freaking loves jumping off the dock but won't jump off the very top until I do it first. As soon as we left the dock all the other tourists join in.

We get back to Dar and I am given a free ferry ride back thanks to Akim. He apologizes multiple times. I know it was out of this hands. I have let it go. I don't need my bag anymore. I have spoken my peace and I have a new bag thanks to the nice Brazilian couple we met at Teddy's.

In Dar we go shopping for clothes and go to the movies with my friend from BYU-I who is a local in the area. We also hang out with Kass again. He is the sweet angel boyfriend we thought he was. He brought our bags with nothing missing. Kaleigh hadn't really gotten her beach fix yet and Kass promised he would take us to a good one.

As life always comes full circle we have to board another ferry to get to the beach we want to go to. I lost nothing on that ferry. We go to the beach and walk until we find the perfect beach for Kaleigh. Kass claims that he doesn't know how to swim and waits on the shore watching the bags. It isn't as fun without him. He met a friend on the beach. Between his new friend and us wanting him to come swim he was convinced. There was almost no one on the beach and so we risked our stuff being stolen.

And that is what happened. Only my bag.

Life goes on. There went my phone, money and the clothes I was wearing. Kaleigh lost her wallet and phone. Kass lost his phone. We make it back to Dar because Kass had some extra money in his trouser pockets. I am rocking a bathing suit with a citenge only but we made it back and no one got hurt. That is what is important.

I made it back to Zambia. I love this country. I love how familiar everything is. The bus broke down for 4 hours and it was still okay because at least I was in Zambia and I could communicate with anyone.

There were great things that happened in Tanzania and I met many wonderful people. I think this trip really let me learn that things can be replaced. I was totally protected the whole time.

Hakuna matata. -Swahili
Takuli abwfya. -Bemba