finally, some pictures!

yay, i'm finally get pictures up!!! hope you all enjoy. i made them small so that i could get them up faster and there's a bit of graininess (sp?). but i hope you like. i'd love comments now that you have some visuals on my world! :-)




toga party at provincials



me and lyndsey



me and lisa at her site



a community school in mpika (about 30 km from the town)



girls dancing as they prepare for independence day celebrations



kids on a road near mwamfushi school



lala!



lala!



stream marking the scout camp from the game management area near north luangwa national park



sunset from my house



mountains along the great north road



great north road - major road to tanzania, dar es salaam, and a port out... so lots and lots of shipping goes through here. the last truck i got in was carrying vodaphone cell phones from durban to dar! :-)



lake at shiwa n'gandu



mountains around the great north road



my crazy tan lines!



bags of caterpillars. apparently these sell for about 1,000,000 kwacha (or $250)



a girl with a handful of caterpillars on our field trip



me and prince outside my house when we got back to no roof one night (it was taken off... not blew off, in case you were worried)



roof in progress



finished roof

pics

ah, i'm trying to upload pictures and this internet doesn't seem to be working. it keeps ALMOST finishing and then not going through... i'm going to try again. but, if not, they're coming. i promise!

thanksgiving

Ok, I’m writing this at the peace corps house and hoping that when I get into town I can upload a bunch of pictures. There should be brief descriptions beneath them all…

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. I find Thanksgiving to be one of the hardest holidays to replicate. There’s nothing like being at home all day in Chicago, with the weather cold (I heard snowy!!) outside, and my family bustling around me to prepare way way way too much food. And even as a hectically prepared volunteer meal doesn’t quite compare to my mom and my sister’s various gourmet spreads each year, I feel I have so much to be thankful for here… both in terms of the experience I’m getting here and the people I’m meeting and who are caring for me, but also in terms of what I have at home – people who love me and who I love, my health, my education, my experiences…

My mom wrote a note when I left that said “Embrace this part of your life as joyfully and wisely as you’ve done so far… And remember that scattered all around the world are hundreds of people who love you and are here for you if you need them.” At the time that felt daunting and scary. I would, most definitely, need them, I thought.

I carry that note with me everywhere because at the airport in America, almost one year ago, the only safe place to put it was in my passport carrier, and that’s where it has stayed. This year in particular, being far away, I often get a strange reminder of that. There are so many people I’m so far away from and who often feel very distant. And yet, in this country where there is both so much suffering and so much joy, I am constantly reminded of where I’ve come from, the experiences that have helped to shape me, and, most importantly, of the people who shaped those experiences. Whether through letters or text messages or e-mails or phone calls and random (sometimes I think divinely intervened) thoughts I often remember how many people I love because of how they’ve played a role in my life and how I’ve leaned on them or continue to lean on them. And, I am thankful for that. Very thankful.

moments to capture

I wish that I could capture moments here and put them in my mind forever and in your minds, the people who are reading this…

Like, the other day as Prince, a friend of mine here, and I walked down the hill at my house to one of my little itty bitty neighbors standing at the top with his little head tilted against his arm that was, for some reason, raised up in the air saying “Bye ba Anna! Bye! Bye!”

Or, one of the kids who a wildlife officer and I took out into the bush to learn about caterpillars (a HUGE delicacy here) asking “Ba Moses, you said that insects have 6 legs when you were talking about butterflies, but if insects only have 6 legs, is a spider not an insect?” Oh, I love the inquiry, I love the honesty of the question, I love the creativity and I LOVED watching these kids, who never get to go on field trips or do hands on learning, running through the bush and finding caterpillars and then asking questions, being curious, and having a teacher responding so positively and constructively to that curiosity.

Or, the kids diving and chasing after the bubbles my mom sent. Or asking for the marshmallows that I taught them to roast by saying “Ba Anna, give me a marsh, a marsh?”

Or, a friend of mine and I standing, laughing, wearing raincoats, and eating egg salad sandwiches in my house in the one dry spot, because everywhere else the rain is pouring through the thatch. Or, the next day, when I’m in the house by myself and the rain starts to drip through the rain tarp, the reed mat, AND the plastic sheet I have above my bed to keep it dry I think “Why, oh why, did I think moving to a thatch hut in the middle of an African village was a good idea?” (luckily, I think the roof is pretty much fixed. A couple issues still to go, but I’m much drier!)

Or, the random bamaayo (mom) on my path home who notices I’m not on my bicycle today and says “but, ba Anna, where is your bicycle?!” How does she know? Why does she know? Why does she care? Sometimes the response to that is an utter frustration that I’m always watched, but increasingly it’s a realization that people notice other people and ask them about their lives. When something’s different you greet, you ask, you comment. You interact in a way that we’ve distanced ourselves from in our fast-paced American craziness.

Or, the minibus driver in Lusaka who gave us a price of one pin (25 cents), then switched with his friend who tried to charge us two, and when we starting fighting and yelling at the guy about ripping us off and that we wouldn’t pay more than it was supposed to be, the other Zambians who were squished in the bus with us said “but it’s supposed to be one and half, why will you only pay one?” Oh, the constant struggle to not be taken advantage of. We paid one because that’s what we agreed to when we got in, but I got off feeling both taken advantage of and, as always, the recipient of somewhat bizarrely preferential treatment simply for the color of my skin. We paid less than we should have because that’s what he told us first but only after yelling, being yelled at, AND realizing that Zambians DO pay more than that…

Or, my little neighbor kid, who doesn’t even really speak, but when he sees my bicycle in town (not necessarily with me even ON it!) says “ba Anna! Ba Anna!” in a slight crescendo.

Or, the kids who are my house running around with the dog yelling “Lala! Lala! Lala!” Which quickly becomes “Lalalalalalalala!” ah.

Maybe I’ll stop there today. I think I’m ABOUT to figure out a way to ship books here and I’ll keep people updated in the next couple weeks about where to send books so that you can get them into FIVE peace corps volunteer libraries in Northern Province. I miss you all, and as always I would LOVE to hear from you… letters, texts, e-mails, phone calls… any or all of the above are truly a gift.

witchcraft

(trying to work in the shorter blogs, it's easier to write, and hopefully, easier to read).

a couple days ago at a ministry meeting one of the standards officers mentioned a meeting at a school in the district where they had had to meet with the head teacher and the deputy head and the PTA over allegations of witchcraft against the head teacher. apparently a married woman was accusing the head teacher of inhabiting her dreams. he was a wizard and was coming to her at night. the response of some of the office was "now, if she wanted him enough, she could make those visions come to her!" which is, of course according to me, true. but suddenly i started to think. yes witchcraft seems absurd and it also can be a very destructive part of society here as accusation and jealousies fly... but is it just one of our human ways to explain our pysches and our unexplainable illnesses?

there is more pain and suffering and though much of it can be explained my mosquitoes, unsafe sex, not washing hands or any other sanitary issues... much of it is also tied into systems on inequality and random unfairness and maybe witches can help to make you feel better about all of that. to feel less out of control. that said, a head teacher shouldn't be fired because some woman dreams about him. please.

women at the bus

on my way down to lusaka two days ago we stopped at a turn off north. a couple people got off and as soon as we stopped we were, of course, surrounded by women selling all sorts of things: fruit, tomatoes, dried fish, potatoes... one woman came up to my window and as i looked at her i started, unconsciously, to feel sorry. there she was so dependent on these random whims of bus drivers. she worked all day standing in the hot sun or, as the case may be now, the rain with a heavy baby tied to her back. "i should buy something" i thought. then as she counted the change that the man behind me had given her she broke out in this huge, incredibly beautiful smile. he had given her the wrong change and they started joking with each other. i realized i didn't really want any of the fruit she was selling. yes, her life is difficult, yes there is pain in her life that i wouldn't want in mine (and don't want to be in hers!) but, i also so that incredible smile and realized how judgemental i was being... she doesn't need pity.

puppies

i just got a puppy. her name is lala. one of my favorite images so far was when she came up quietly behind rex, one of my cats (who currently hates her), so that rex didn't know she was there. rex is starting to let her get a little closer but this was pushing it. lala put her little paw out and touched rex's back. rex jumped around and looked at lala for about 3 seconds. lala was so surprised that rex wasn't hissing that she started to jump and bark. at which point rex, clearly thinking "what IS this thing?!" started to hiss. and promptly ran away to go back into the house. why lala thinks the best way to be friends with the cats is to bark at them and try to jump on them i think is just a difference between cats and dogs.

time

i got a little package yesterday from an old family friend which made me think about two things. (first, thank you annie! it was wonderful).

first, in some ways i'm so far away and then in other ways this distance allows for this unique kind of connection... i get notes and packages and pictures from people who, in the states, i see and talk to rarely. and here because we're so far away that connection needs to be made to feel like we care about each other. so, letters, text messages, phone calls, packages are these amazing gifts which remind you of specific people in specific moments and which seem so natural to the person and which i hold and cherish as these little reminders of the people i love. whether it's a dr. seuss book or earrings or prayers or a book about american teachers abroad i see them all and think of someone specific. it's kind of amazing.

second, annie wrote about writing and sending in "haste" and how she does everything these days in haste and that the only time that wasn't true was when she was travelling. i have so much time here. time to fill with pets and people and meetings and which sometimes feels productive and sometimes feels incredibly empty. and yet, i fear the time when i get back to america and CAN'T read because i don't have time or don't watch the sunset or greet people as i pass them. it's frustrating here but isn't the opposite just as frustrating?