I might be back in America, but good things are still happening in Zambia thanks to dedicated Peace Corps Volunteers & the people they work with. Those of you who follow me regularly know that last year I participated in something called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World.) It’s happening again in two separate weeks [...]
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As a last and final trip, I went to Cape Town on my way out of Africa. It was just the vacation I needed before coming home. I don’t have the energy to type an exciting blog post, but would like to put up a few more posts now that I am home before finishing [...]
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Not “retired” or “former.” RPCVs are still very much a part of their Peace Corps Service, it’s the journey continued, now back in the U.S. Next week – I will be an RPCV. The third goal of the Peace Corps promotes helping Americans understand the people and cultures of other countries. [...]
A few weeks ago I met Kelli, my replacement. I’ve been using the word “replacement” for a while now, but its more real now that I have a name and a face to put to her. We met when she came for “second site visit” a time in training where you are more than halfway [...]
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Not “retired” or “former.” RPCVs are still very much a part of their Peace Corps Service, it’s the journey continued, now back in the U.S. Next week – I will be an RPCV. The third goal of the Peace Corps promotes helping Americans understand the people and cultures of other countries. [...]
A phenomena that exists across Africa (and probably other regions of the world) that I am really going to miss, is being able to buy just about anything on the side of the road from the comfort of your vehicle. I decided to write this post as I have been really trying to think about [...]
There is a mountain I like to climb when I want to have some privacy to sit and look at the beauty of the creation around me and contemplate life. I can see it from my house and it only takes about 30 minutes to walk there and climb to the top, so it is [...]
C.O.S. Close of Service. Three magical words that seal up your time as a Peace Corps Volunteer and indicate that it is time to go home and/or start your next venture in the world we know and love. In the Peace Corps Zambia community we have a “Ring Out” ceremony that officially ends your service [...]
C.O.S. Close of Service. Three magical words that seal up your time as a Peace Corps Volunteer and indicate that it is time to go home and/or start your next venture in the world we know and love. In the Peace Corps Zambia community we have a “Ring Out” ceremony that officially ends your service [...]
I was excited to attend the wedding of two of my close friends, fellow PCVs, in the village this weekend. It was for my friends Kevin, an Education volunteer in my intake, and Arianna, a Health volunteer in the intake following mine. Many volunteers from Eastern Province and even a few from other provinces made [...]
My 13 days in America were a blur, but also pretty fantastic.
One of my more recent projects has been the World Map Project. This project was started in 1988 by Barbra Jo White, a volunteer serving in Dominican Republic at the time. 21 years later Peace Corps volunteers around the world, myself included, are carrying out her vision in their communities. Read the full article here: [...]
Namibia is a beautiful country and a week there was not enough time. When I find time to go back in life I know that I will want to fly there, my peace corps budget just doesn’t allow for extravagant travel. In some ways I feel like I see and experience more by traveling by [...]
It is so hard to put into words the events of Camp GLOW into a blog post. We had a really good time; it was exhausting, but equally so much fun! I am posting a summary of what our schedule looked like. It was obviously jam-packed. I doubt any of the girls had ever attended [...]
Anyone who know me well can attest to the fact that I am a fairly clumsy individual. This can cause my life to be even more dangerous here than in America. For instance: you know sometimes you are driving on a familiar road and you zone into your thoughts so much that you forget you [...]
The following blog post I have borrowed from my friend and fellow PCV Arianna’s blog. Although the project is not my own, I am one of the PCVs who has been invited to participate by bringing a female teacher and two girls from my school to Camp GLOW. Please read the following post to learn [...]
On Saturday the 7 GRZ (government) schools in my zone gathered to have the annual inter-schools athletics competition, which is pretty much a track & field day. I’ve posted photos in the Manje Zonal Schools Album (facebook.) I played the role of chief judge, as I did last year, to help maintain unbiased score keeping. [...]
Football (soccer) is a game that draws African’s together regularly, whether in school or just in the community, adults and children alike gather in large groups to enjoy a game. Its a sort of energy I have experienced in few other things here. Which is why the excitement and anticipation of the World Cup 2010 [...]
After having my morning tea and oatmeal I will lock up my hut and start my walk to Mwala to see what is going on at the school even if I don’t have specific plans that require me to be there. I walk across the front of my village, being greeted occasionally by children eager [...]
I had to write a short “day in the life” for my RED project director for an invitation packet that is going out and while writing it I realized I have not really written such a thing on my blog, so I’m sharing it now. This is just a typical day, but there are many [...]
It was so nice to be able to share a snapshot of my little world here with someone from home. If you check my photo albums on facebook I was able to upload photos from his trip a little while back, but I am just now getting to blogging about it. (I hope to add [...]
There is a program called Tour d’Afrique that does different world tours which passed through Zambia recently. The trip that came through was cycling from Cairo to Cape Town – 12,000k in 120 days! Their website is www.tourdafrique.com
The group that came through had about 60 people cycling, from about 16 different countries, ages ranging from [...]
So what is NSHIMA anyway?
Nshima is a the staple food here. Meaning it is eaten 2-3 times a day, every day. It is made from ground maize (corn) flour known locally as mielie-meal. For breakfast they add water and cook it into a porridge, sometimes adding sugar or honey for flavor. For lunch and [...]
I’ve officially been living in Africa as of one year ago today. To celebrate I’ve spent the past week and a half on a trip with friends, many of them from my intake to celebrate this wonderful anniversary of our first year of survival.
Our journey began in Kapiri (Central Province) where we boarded the TAZAR [...]
God sends his guardian angels in many forms:
Sometimes in the form of children. They just want to spend time with me, play, and laugh, and often at the end of a long day or a time that I am missing home more than others. Their beaming smiles, hugs, laughter wash away any homesickness and frustrations [...]
It has been some time since I have returned from my Christmas holiday, but I am just now getting around to making a blog post about it. It was a long, but really incredible vacation and I have fallen in love with yet another African country. I went with a group of 6 other volunteers, [...]
I have become rather acclimated to the African climate. This came very apparent to me when I was sick last month and I was describing my conditions to the doctor and one of them was being cold, but I looked at my thermometer and realized it was about 73°F and that its pretty common for [...]
At times I find myself like a child examining my surroundings and contemplating nature. There are so many things here that fascinate me and I continue to make new discoveries. Many of the things I sit and wonder about are simple questions that I am certain some have complex answers:
How is it possible that it [...]
The language I speak here is Chinyanja (or, “nyanja” for short) and the dialect I speak is Chichewa, which is for my tribe (the Chewa people.) I’m pretty lucky because some of the languages here can be tricky, but Nyanja and Bemba are the easiest and most widely spoken across the country. Chewa is “deeper” [...]
Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells. Ninety per cent of all malaria deaths occur in Africa, and 85 per cent of these deaths are among children under the [...]
My trip to Malawi was absolutely incredible, it was nice to get out and see more of Africa, and not to mention…vacation on a beach! It was really great that I was able to speak enough of the language to understand when we were being treated like tourists, which I am going to feel very [...]
…it is not because of an unfortunate occurrence with a bottle of cheap self tanner, it is because the African dirt is clinging to the sweat on my skin in a distasteful layer of grime. It is officially hot and dry season. I have already began to cut back on the biking as it is [...]
I want to reference something prior to publishing this post, but enjoy the pictures I have posted in the meantime, in the next few days I will edit this post to accompany these photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2215647&id=30302160&l=f190a2f067
Lusaka, was, well…just as I anticipated, a little bit stressful but overall refreshing. The reason I say it was stressful is we came in after having been in a village for 3 months and were not only not used to being around modern conveniences, other Americans, and so many food options. We also had close [...]
Community Entry is officially over, and I am headed to Lusaka for more training starting next week. Next stop…Victoria Falls! A bunch of my education volunteer friends and I are going to take our first vacation literally as soon as we possibly can, which is right after our In-Service Training (IST.) In terms of accomplishing [...]
Watching the sun set beyond the mountains, and thereafter observing the stars slowly emerge in the sky.
Living each day as a new experience.
Appreciating all the little things I get in packages and letters that remind me of America.
Being greeted by total strangers who seem to know me when I’m in the middle of nowhere with [...]
Some of you have asked about my work with the schools in letters and messages recently, so I thought I should make a post about that. I talked a little about my role during community entry in a previous post. Right now I am just getting familiar with the schools, teachers and their needs in [...]
Please navigate yourself to the Photo tab on the upper right corner of the screen where you will find links to my photo albums, I posted some new ones today and as you will see, this is where I’ll post links from now on.
I visited some schools further out in my zone this week, now [...]
This post is dedicated to my nearest PCV neighbor, Laila. I just had a great weekend and it just illustrates the little things that make my world now better. I love village life, I truly do. Things like cooking an American dish, flipping through a magazine, listening to my ipod are all excellent ways to [...]
I’ve officially been given a Chichewa name – Chimwemwe Mbewe. Chimwemwe means happiness, and Mbewe is the surname of the family who’s compound in which I reside, my village has officially adopted me as a family member, whenever I’m away for an overnight thing, I am greeted with the warmest hugs. Some days I wake [...]
My apologies in advance for the solemn tone of this blog post, but in my attempt to authentically share Zambia through the lens of someone living in a village, the reality is that sometimes I will share stories that bring the grave reality of life here to the surface. On Wednesday I made the usual [...]
Originally Composed 09 May 09
I have officially been in the village one full week now. What does a day in my life look like now you may wonder? Well, like anything else, it varies, but I have more of an established routine now than I have had in a long time, given the chaotic work, [...]
It is neither quick, nor financially efficient to post photos, so here is a small album I have put on facebook, it is just a sampling of the many photos i have taken so far, for you non-facebook users I have provided a link for your viewing enjoyment!
To view the album, copy and paste this [...]
PST Recap 23 Apr 2009
Sitting at ISTT, a hostel we are staying at until we disburse to our separate provinces, being entertained by my fellow trainees, soon to be sworn in as PCVs as we enjoy one of our last nights as a big group. Training was definitely challenging, but a good rite of passage [...]
Short amount of internet time (big surprise) So, here goes…Second site visit was incredible. The guy I’m replacing, Koh, is really great, he did make me bike a lot, which I was secretly dreading, but I’m way more in shape now as a result. I biked all the way from Chipata to Chadiza (50k) with [...]
Well…sort of. We had to come in to immigration to have our work visas processed and a few of us went first, then hopped in a taxi to go use internet! I can’t imagine standing there waiting for all 36 of us to be processed. Whats new in PC/Zambia? First things first, I have a [...]
I found out where my site will be! I am going to Chipata (the provincial capital) of Eastern Province on Sunday and staying at the Peace Corps Provincial house, which is nice as this is where I will spend my free days almost monthly once at site. The site I’m going to is the only [...]
They let us go into Lusaka today so I can make my first update! I am living in one of the most beautiful places! I have my own hut on a compound with a family of 8, my compound is the furthest back in our village and it overlooks a river to the West, so [...]
And I’m off to staging, this is it! Final goodbyes have been made, countless listmaking, packing and re-packing, and paperwork is done. I now board a series of planes and attempt to mentally prepare myself for the biggest adventure of my life.
I have added a link on the right to On the Home Front, a [...]
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