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!