so, another update.
i've been in kasama, the capital of northern province since saturday and have been staying at the peace corps house up here. in zambia there are peace corps houses in each of the provinces which are places volunteers can come to take a shower, use a real stove, go grocery shopping, rest if you're sick etc. zambia is one of the few countries that still has this and it's been great. it's a little compound and it's been very very good to have some down time. i think it was actually the first time that i've started to feel settled and relaxed since i've been here. and one of the first times that i've got to have interesting conversations with other volunteers about things unrelated to zambia. so exciting to realize that i'm around interesting creative people. because i felt like i knew it was true but that i hadn't had much time to explore the other people AT ALL.
anyway, you have no idea how much you take your shower head for granted! not that bucket baths are bad... a couple weeks ago i was standing in my ulusasa (shower shelter) as it rained in the distance but the sun set over me and there was a HUGE rainbow in front of me. what could be more amazing? out in the open african air showering with a beautiful rainbow! that said, showers are pretty amazing.
other than that my week has been pretty uneventful. i think taking the bus and getting out of mpika was a really good way to move on from my ipod and solar charger loss. i think i was bummed that a connection to something comforting was lost, but also that on top of that my sense of comfort and space was violated, that i wanted to believe that things were safer and they weren't. it was a good thing to be reminded of and it was a good thing to physically be able to move on to another PLACE in order to help myself get over it. so, i'm feeling much better about it! if anyone wants to send CDs of fun music my way, they will DEFINITELY be listened to! hehe.
we've been studying bemba all week at the house which is feeling frustrating. we've been moving onto conversations about what we're doing here and opinions about politics and the health and education systems. we will be tested in two and half weeks and have to prove ourselfs "proficient," whatever that means. but quite frankly, i still haven't mastered the present tense, so i feel like we're jumping ahead and really losing out on the basics. it's frustrating and it's even more frustrating that that's kind of what's expected. i think it would be much better to just drill the tenses and vocabulary. but instead we move on very quickly and there is very little re-enforcement. not exactly my learning style. so, when i get to my site i might be able to kind of say, incorrectly that i work in education and that peace corps is a development agency, but if my bamaayo (mother) tells me that she is going to the market tomorrow, i might very well think she said she went yesterday. great.
anyway, i'll wrap up because i've been on this computer for a while. a couple people asked in e-mails if i've been sick. (knock on wood) i've been very healthy. there have been people in my group who have already gotten various illnesses, from malaria to strange bug bites. but, thankfully, other that some occasional dehydrated lightheadedness or stomachaches, i've been really good. maybe my stomach was hardened after cairene street food!
i miss you all and hope everyone's well and really would love to hear from you! i check e-mail (sporadically) but LOVE to see your names and thoughts and stories. so, keep sending and i'll try to write back as much as possible!
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
my new address and my site
hello hello all,
so, i'm on my second site visit which is actually to MY site!!! i'm going to be living in the town of kamwanya (it's actually pronounced how you would think it is... bemba is easy to pronounce once you see it written). it is about 3 km outside of the BOMA of Mpika (pronounced Impika), which is the capital of the district of mpika. and, there's internet! if slow, it's pretty exciting.
i saw my house yesterday. it's huge! at least by my current zambian standards. i have two rooms, lots of light, a big yard (though i might have to plant some hedges so that i have a BIT more privacy). i'll be living very close to a brand new school. since january they have started with three first grade classes, a second grade and a third grade. they use the radio program that we work with, which is exciting and a really interesting teaching tool. though, i heard they don't get the best reception, so we might have to trouble shoot around ways to deal with that. they have two rooms right now and are in the process of building three more so that for the second term (which starts in may) they will also add a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. it's pretty exciting and actually looks like a really nice new building. i still haven't brought my camera cable and i think that putting picturs up might take FOREVER, but i will try sometime soon. my house is about 100 meters from the school and a short walk up a hill from a boor hole with good water. they still have to put a door on it and build the walls for my toilet, but they have a month, so i think it will happen. also, everyone says that because they met me yesterday and they now have a face and a name, they will get it all done much more quickly. yay! i'll try to get a pic of that up eventually as well.
i'm staying with a volunteer who has been here for the past three years. he's an older man who also did a peace corps service in st. lucia first and he's been incredibly helpful. he's obviously well known and people seem to really know him and respect him. so he keeps reminding me that "you get to do things your own way!" but i think that i shouldn't have any fears about replacing someone who is so well respected in the BOMA and with the district ministry of education officials. also, he's been living IN the BOMA, so i will actually be the first person in my village, which is exciting. he's also just been really nice to me, trying to tell me everything he can think of that might be helpful.
today, we went around with the zonal head teacher who is the head teacher of the zonal head school in my area (Zambia's education system is divided into many levels: national, the 9 provinces, districts in all the provinces, and then ZONES in all the districts). my job is going to be primarily working with the zonal head school to develop a resource center and monitoring activities in my zone, so that schools are monitored, teachers are trained, and professional development opportunities are provided. we went around with the two zonal officers to visit three schools today, which was very interesting. they all seem pretty organized and i haven't yet been able to figure out if the ideas are there but the implementation isn't or if things are really going as smoothly as they seem. i suspect the former. i will also get to do anything else that seems interesting i think, and a friend of mine here and i have really been looking into what kind of micro-finance opportunities there are here. it seems like there are very few, so we're both interested in seeing where we can go with that, if possible.
anyway, i also have my new address!
Hannah Lantos - PCV
P.O. BOX 450100
Mpika, Northern Province
ZAMBIA
i'm going to try to update the side, but it might take too long. so, anything you mail after say the 10th of march, should probably just be sent to this address and then when i move in, it'll be waiting for me instead of getting lost in lusaka. i can't tell you all how happy mail makes me! it's such a light and a feeling of connection, so even just a postcard! send an address and i promise i'll write back. :-)
in other news, there's a synagogue in lusaka and i think peace corps is going to let me spend an extra night in lusaka after staging so that i can go to a passover seder for the first night! it should be fun. i'm pretty excited since i think that will be comforting.
otherwise, things are going really well and as i get to see my site and meet people this all starts to feel like i have an image of what my life is going to be like. the hardest part about training for me has been feeling like i am completely incapable of planning, that i know so little that i just have to take things as they come and it finally feels like i can think past the "now now," as zambians say! i miss everyone and i hope you're all well!
so, i'm on my second site visit which is actually to MY site!!! i'm going to be living in the town of kamwanya (it's actually pronounced how you would think it is... bemba is easy to pronounce once you see it written). it is about 3 km outside of the BOMA of Mpika (pronounced Impika), which is the capital of the district of mpika. and, there's internet! if slow, it's pretty exciting.
i saw my house yesterday. it's huge! at least by my current zambian standards. i have two rooms, lots of light, a big yard (though i might have to plant some hedges so that i have a BIT more privacy). i'll be living very close to a brand new school. since january they have started with three first grade classes, a second grade and a third grade. they use the radio program that we work with, which is exciting and a really interesting teaching tool. though, i heard they don't get the best reception, so we might have to trouble shoot around ways to deal with that. they have two rooms right now and are in the process of building three more so that for the second term (which starts in may) they will also add a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. it's pretty exciting and actually looks like a really nice new building. i still haven't brought my camera cable and i think that putting picturs up might take FOREVER, but i will try sometime soon. my house is about 100 meters from the school and a short walk up a hill from a boor hole with good water. they still have to put a door on it and build the walls for my toilet, but they have a month, so i think it will happen. also, everyone says that because they met me yesterday and they now have a face and a name, they will get it all done much more quickly. yay! i'll try to get a pic of that up eventually as well.
i'm staying with a volunteer who has been here for the past three years. he's an older man who also did a peace corps service in st. lucia first and he's been incredibly helpful. he's obviously well known and people seem to really know him and respect him. so he keeps reminding me that "you get to do things your own way!" but i think that i shouldn't have any fears about replacing someone who is so well respected in the BOMA and with the district ministry of education officials. also, he's been living IN the BOMA, so i will actually be the first person in my village, which is exciting. he's also just been really nice to me, trying to tell me everything he can think of that might be helpful.
today, we went around with the zonal head teacher who is the head teacher of the zonal head school in my area (Zambia's education system is divided into many levels: national, the 9 provinces, districts in all the provinces, and then ZONES in all the districts). my job is going to be primarily working with the zonal head school to develop a resource center and monitoring activities in my zone, so that schools are monitored, teachers are trained, and professional development opportunities are provided. we went around with the two zonal officers to visit three schools today, which was very interesting. they all seem pretty organized and i haven't yet been able to figure out if the ideas are there but the implementation isn't or if things are really going as smoothly as they seem. i suspect the former. i will also get to do anything else that seems interesting i think, and a friend of mine here and i have really been looking into what kind of micro-finance opportunities there are here. it seems like there are very few, so we're both interested in seeing where we can go with that, if possible.
anyway, i also have my new address!
Hannah Lantos - PCV
P.O. BOX 450100
Mpika, Northern Province
ZAMBIA
i'm going to try to update the side, but it might take too long. so, anything you mail after say the 10th of march, should probably just be sent to this address and then when i move in, it'll be waiting for me instead of getting lost in lusaka. i can't tell you all how happy mail makes me! it's such a light and a feeling of connection, so even just a postcard! send an address and i promise i'll write back. :-)
in other news, there's a synagogue in lusaka and i think peace corps is going to let me spend an extra night in lusaka after staging so that i can go to a passover seder for the first night! it should be fun. i'm pretty excited since i think that will be comforting.
otherwise, things are going really well and as i get to see my site and meet people this all starts to feel like i have an image of what my life is going to be like. the hardest part about training for me has been feeling like i am completely incapable of planning, that i know so little that i just have to take things as they come and it finally feels like i can think past the "now now," as zambians say! i miss everyone and i hope you're all well!
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