I cannot believe that it is already 2012!! Happy New Year to everyone :)

I just wrapped spending time in the southern part of Zambia. First I went down to Lusaka to attend a wedding. It was my first non-village wedding here in Zambia so I was pretty excited. It was a lot of fun, but also very different than what I expected! It was held at like a community hall in the kabwata part of Lusaka. The family of the bride (aunts and uncles pretty much) wore outfits made out of matching brown icitenges and members of the committee (women who helped behind the scences stuff like decorating and set up) also were wearing their own citenge outfits. Then at first a matron dances in with a little girl and little boy who I would equate to a flower girl and ring bearer. And then the line-up (aka bridesmaids and groomsmen) danced in. And I do mean DANCE. They were SO hardcore that it was really fun to watch. Then they went out, had a costume change while the bride and groom then danced in. They didnt dance as intensly, but they were still dancing instead of walking. Then the line-up came in again and did their rountine with each pair getting their own opportunity to bust a move. And as this is happening members of the audience (I dont know what you would call us onlookers) were screaming, cheering, and several even got up to dance as well. Then there were speeches from a representative from both bride and groom and then a guest of honor who's affiliation with the wedding praty was questionable. Then we moved onto dinner which was a buffet and were warned by the MC to "take only what you know so that you dont wind up in the toliet." Those are words of wisdom!

After eating then it was time for cutting the cake and feeding one another and then presenting some of the cake as a gift to the parents of the bride. Then there was a dedication dance from the groom to the bride of Shania Twain's classic, "From this Moment." After this dance the opportunity to dance for other couples happened and I went and danced with my guy and this led to an eruption of cheers and screams from ALL the onlookers. It was so embarrassing, but we stuck through the whole song and tried to pretend no one was watching us. Then the rest of the evening was dancing and a time for photo op with the bride and groom. I felt the whole thing was more of a really fun reception and not so much a wedding ceremony. THere was no father walking the bride down the aisle, no exchanging of rings or vows, and not a whole lot of smiling from the bride. You can check out some pics by clicking on the link below!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.944479424096.2336351.59511885&type=1&l=df8e397ae9

Then after celebrating in Lusaka a few days later I headed to Victoria Falls and Livingstone to celebrate Christmas. I stayed at a really nice place that had a pool, big bed, and a fabulous shower. Pretty sure that everyday I was there I took at least 2 showers a day. Sometimes even 3 if I felt like it because it was just THAT great. The falls were also really fun to see because there was quite a bit of water because it is rainy season and thankfully we didnt encounter any baboons who were after our food. Again if you want to see some pics click on the link below!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.931464486136.2333894.59511885&type=1&l=f467de9e80..

GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and is a Peace Corps run program around the world. We as volunteers put together a weeklong camp for 2 girls from each of our villages and then invite one female teacher to attend as well. In Peace Corps Zambia we have these camps run in each province and because northern province is so big we have 3 different camps based on district (e.g. Mpika, Mbala, and Kasama).

From 5 December to 9 December we had our Kasama Camp GLOW at a facility about 10km outside of Kasama town. We had 8 Peace Corps Volunteers, 16 girls aged 13-19, 7 teachers, and 3 Zambian counterparts from Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ). Throughout the week we had sessions lead by our counterparts from PPAZ on topics like confidence and motivation, assertiveness, sugar daddies, peer pressure and boyfriends. These sessions provided skills for the girls to take back to the village so that they can empower other girls and women in their communities. We also had arts and crafts time where the girls made things like tye-dye t shirts, decorating journals, and making washable menstrual pads using local citenge fabric and towels. Then we also had a time for sports where we did activities like bowling using empty plastic bottles, knock out, and a relay race. At the end of the week the teams were awarded homemade medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place as well as a team spirit award.

Another thing that my district did was assign 4 girls to 2 Peace Corps Volunteers in prides. We had 4 different prides (orange, green, yellow, and purple) and we met as a pride each day during tea break to discuss more about the sessions, answer questions, and just build a small family during the camp with other girls that aren’t from your village. We chose to name them prides for two different reasons. One was to teach the girls about what it means to be proud of yourself and the other because lions live in a group called a pride and in that pride they take care of one another and we hoped that over the week each pride of girls would look out for one another. These prides also competed against each other in sports throughout the week.

I was with the green pride. We named ourselves the green giants and had a great time during the week. I am proud to report that my green giants dominated in sports and therefore took 1st place and walked away with the gold medal for the week! It was so much fun cheering on my girls Mercy, Deophister, Lydia, and Sheila as they competed. I felt like such a proud mom 

Now when in January once the schools open again I hope to work with my two girls I brought, Alice and Auxilla, and the teacher to start a girls club that will meet once weekly and do the same things that we did at camp.

Here’s to hoping that it goes as well as the club!

Every 1st of December marks the celebration of World AIDS Day. Last year on this day I went to my Peace Corps neighbors village which was having a big district wide celebration, but this year I decided to bring the party to Misengo.

Overall I think that things went pretty well. We were supposed to start at 8am with a march, but because this I live on Zambian time we didn’t start until after 10am. We then assembled the students and began our march through the “village center.” I had hoped we would sing a song, but instead we just had the group of older girls in the front yell “FIRST DECEMBER” followed by everyone else yelling “WORLD AIDS DAY”. In theory it sounds like a good idea but my bet is that almost all of the pupils who were yelling world AIDS Day had no idea what they were actually saying!

After our march we returned to the school and had our main program that featured speeches by the headman of the village, clinic nurse, and deputy head teacher. I thought these speeches were really good because they really emphasized how important it is to be safe during sex by practicing the ABC’s (which stands for abstinence, being faithful, and condom), and just they that should use the power to say NO and not to pressure other people. It was just good to have these messages coming from people who are leaders in the community.

My favorite portion of the day was the drama and poem section. Zambian LOVE role plays. I remember in school, or even my peace corps training, if you had to do a role play in front of the class chances are you felt embarrassed or pretended to because it wasn’t cool to be into it. Well in Zambia it is exactly the opposite! We had a drama created by the students about how having multiple partners can increase your chances of getting HIV and the best way to avoid is by abstaining from sex. And the poems here are not just read, they are read and danced to robot style. My favorite poem of the day went something like this:

“My name is Mulenga Charles, and I have a poem for you entitled AIDS. AIDS is a killer disease. Thank you.”

But just imagine it going to a beat and having the kid doing some arm motion as he was saying it. Hilarious!

We ended the day with some netball, girl’s soccer, and a soccer game between the grade 8 students and older people in the community. This is where the event took a little dip thanks to some of the older Zambians who were set to play in the soccer game. At first two of the men sent a teacher to come and ask me if they would be receiving a reward for playing. I said no and thought the subject was over. About 15 minutes later I see another teacher approaching me after having just left the two men and know what he is about to ask me. Before he opens his mouth I simply say, ‘no I will not be giving them a reward’ he laughs and then asks if I would be willing to give the two men money so that after the game they can buy beer. Well, naturally I get annoyed and instead of sending my reply back with the teacher I go direct to the men and tell them their request is unacceptable. This was a school event and to ask me to buy them beer for playing a simple game is just ridiculous, and if they refuse to play unless they get a reward then they can just go home now. I then went on to explain that I spend a lot of time and money arranging for the non-alcoholic traditional Zambian drink monkoyo to be made as well as over 250 scones so that should be reward enough for them. After that they stopped complaining and played the game.

So with the beer incident being the only damper overall it was a good day. I had hoped that people would be getting tested to know their status, but not many adults came which was disappointing. However, I think I will just look at this event as a opener to a VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) I am planning to have in May.

Hello all and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I can't believe it is already thanksgiving yet again. And it is so strange to be at the Peace Corps house to celebrate with about 40 other volunteers and now being considered one of the old and vetern volunteers. It seems like just yesterday I was the newbie asking all sorts of questions!!

Life in the vill has been going well. It is caterpillar season again meaning that most of my neighbors spend every morning out in the bush collecting the caterpillars and then their afternoons squeezing out the insides and cooking them and preparing to sell them by the gallon. It is quite the long and smelly process I must say and I dont really enjoy the afternoons when the wind blows the smell directly into my house. Yuck!

I have also been busy preparing my house for the second season of rains. I have bought about 10 bundles of grass and I have had members of the Kumbi NHC around a couple times to put it on the house and stop the giant leaks that were coming in with even the slightest of rain. So far since the put it up I am happy to report my house remains dry :)

Right now I am once again in the preparing stages of some things. On 1 December is World AIDS Day and this year we are having a celebration in my village. It first started out as just going to be a graduation type ceremony for my soccer programs I have been meeting with since the end of September, but now it has turned into much more than that. The plan includes to start in the morning with a march (featuring a homemade banner) starting at the clinic, down through the shops, and to the soccer field, having some role plays, poems and songs performed by the students, a booth set up by the clinic, counsellers available to do HIV testing on anyone who is wanting to know their status (which we are hoping many will want to) and then a soccer tournament and a netball tournament for the girls. And as an incentive we will be having someone make scones and a zambian maize drink called munkoyo available at the end. So since I came to Kasama on Tuesday I have been running around and calling around buying things and in search of freebies from the district health office and other shops. I dont really know how it turned into such this big event, but here is to hoping it will all go well!!

Then a few days after I will be taking two grade 8 girls and one female teacher at my school to Camp GLOW, which is a weeklong girls empowement camp. We will be teaching the girls about many things including confidence and motivation, assertiveness, boyfriend and peer pressure, preventing pregnancy and HIV, and sugar daddies. We will also be doing a sport olympics kind of thing and arts and crafts. A lot of planning has been going into the week and I really think it will be a great experience and I am really looking forward to it.

So it is a busy and fun time for me lately!!! Once I finish the two big events I will make sure to put up an update of how it went and also some pictures.

Keep sending letters, emails, facebook messages and anything because I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from my friends and family back in the old US of A.

Well the 12 day nutrition project in Kumbi village has finished! We graduated 6 mothers after the 12 days were over.

Each day for 12 days these 6 maayos came together in Kumbi village (about 5km from my village) and we would cook an improved porridge to feed to their underweight children. Previously the kind of porridge they would make just consisted of mealie meal aka a carbohydrate so the kids were lacking food with a protein and vitamin/mineral source. This porridges I was teaching them to make included all three food groups. The combinations we made were:

1. kapenta(little dried fish similar to sardine, but much smaller) and veg

2. sweet potato and ground nut

3. soya bean and veg

4. pumpkin and groundnut

The favorite of the maayos was probably the sweet potato and groundnut porridge. Then after the cooking and feeding time I gave a health talk on numerous topics like family planning, malaria, nutrition, and hygeine.

I am glad I did the project, but I am also glad that it is done because it was a lot of work and a lot of time. Also many times I was left feeling frustrated because some days people wouldnt show up, or would be really late (like 1.5 hours), or I just doubted that any of it was even worth it. Were they really learning anything? Are they going to even adopt any of these behaviours when these 12 days are finished?

However, in the end the women who participated seemed to enjoy the program and I am happy to report we had weight gain from the children who attended daily. So it is a step in the right direction at least!

Well I've been back in Zambia for just about a month after being on a visit home for a few weeks. It's so strange to go home to America and feel like I never left and then to come back to Zambia and again feel like I never left. It's like a double life or something.

Since being back I've been preparing for some projects that are about to get started. One is the PS-Ishiko project, which is our version of the PD Hearth model. The program gets together between 6-10 underweight children with their caregivers for 12 days. Over the course of these 12 days the caregivers will learn how to cook nutritious foods for their kids such as porridge with a protein and veg source instead of just a carbohydrate as well as getting a daily health talk on topics ranging from HIV, malaria, to family planning. I will be starting it on Monday in Kumbi village, and then will hope to expand it to more villages if all goes well. So it'll be a busy 12 days for sure!

The second project I will be beginning is called Grass Roots Soccer (GRS) project. The program uses soccer to teach youth about HIV and other life skills. I haven't had much of an opportunity to do a ton of HIV work with the youth in my community so I am hoping this project will help to reach them.And the kids in my community LOVE soccer so I think they will really enjoy the program. So now I'm just getting last minute supplies together in order to get the project started. I have to conduct 2 sets of 11 sessions before the year comes to an end and then one more in the beginning of 2012 so it should keep me pretty busy.

Also I have a new addition to my hut in the form of an oven so now I can begin baking up a storm! So if you have any good recipes please feel free to send them my way :)

I'm coming back to America for a visit in less than a month and I have started compliling many lists of what I want to do, what I have to get done, what I want to buy and bring back with me, and most importantly what I want to eat. Here's my working list:

To Do (both want and need):

1. Weddings

2. Doctor, eye, dentist appointments

3. Go to the cabin

4. Drive my car...a lot.

5. Watch a new movie

6. Get my hair cut

7. Open house party

To Eat:

1. Chipotle

2. Steak

3. Pulled pork

4. Cheeseburger

5. Pizza (from Bulldogs and V.I.P)

6. Starbs (obvi)

7. French toast

8. Hotdog

9. BBQ sauce (I'll probably put it on anything)

10. Dr. Pepper

Well that's it for now but I expect it to continue. Less than one month!!!!

Well, I survived my first child health week and let me say it was a VERY busy week! 2 times per year (June and November/December) the ministry of health has a week dedicated to child health where the purpose is to weigh every child under 5 and provide Vitamin A, de-worming meds, and even measles vaccine to all the kids all for free. In my catchment area we covered our 10 zones over a 2-day period doing 5 zones per day. It was crazy to say the least but we made it through!

My main objective was to collect my data for all the kids age 6-60 months for my upcoming PS-Ishiko project. I had to collect the names of all the mothers and children, their weight and corresponding status (eg normal, mildly malnourished, severely malnourished), birth date, and then mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). After all this data was collected I then calculated the overall nutrition status of each child and complied the statics for each zone. In each of my 10 zones there were HIGH rates of malnutrition totaling about 45-60% and normal children only being about 20%.

So the upcoming PS-Ishiko project will work to rehabilitate these malnourished children by having the mothers of the healthy children teach them healthy feeding behaviors. This will be done by holding daily sessions for 12 days where the mothers learn about a different health topic and then how to cook an improved porridge with the addition of a protein and vitamin source. The mothers will leave each day with a liter of this improved porridge to give their children throughout the day in addition to their regular meals. So the hope is that at the end of the 12 days the children will have gained weight and the mothers will have learned new behaviors to continue the weight gain and take their children to a healthy weight status. It's a lot of work, but the impact can also be really big as well.

The rest of my month has been spent doing work around my house. I am happy to report that after 8 months of being in my house I now have all my furniture! It was a big day when I finally placed the couch in my house and was a LONG time coming. I've also been working hard clearing the dry grasses from my yard to make it less inviting for snakes. So I purchased a slasher and then went to work and have finished with a blister to remember my hard work.

I also completed one of my goals of biking to Chishimba Falls, which is about 35km from my house. I set out one morning and made it in about 2 hours and was able to spend some time with some other volunteers swimming in the water before heading back. The ride back was much more difficult and took about 2.5 hours and for the next few days I was feeling that 70km!

So needless to say, June has been a busy month! Thanks for reading!

I can't believe it's almost June and my one year mark of living in Zambia is so rapidly approaching. Time is flying!

Well things have been going along pretty smoothly here in the village and the rains have stopped meaning that my time spent cleaning up spills from my leaky grass roof is over. I'm happy to report I survived my first rainy season!!

Last week (May 16)I had my big womens event in my village. The event was all about soya and brought together my 8 womens groups, representatives from the district health office, and the Peace Corps Northern team. All in all the attendance totaled at 143 people! Each of the womens group created a soya dish (we had biscuits, chocolate cake, sausage, milk, and pancakes to name a few) and then presented it to our guests from Kasama. And because this was a Zambian event a dance party featuring drums and bamaayos busting a move was also ever present. Did yours truly join in the party and show her moves? Why of course I did...surprised? Shouldn't be. It was severely embarrassing because from the moment I joined in with the icitenge wrapped around my waist the screams from all 143 participants escalated to insane amounts. My boss from Peace Corps followed me filming the whole thing so keep your eyes tuned to YouTube for all the embarrassing footage. In the end though, the embarrassment I felt was worth it because my bamaayos were just so excited that I joined them.

The other big news I have is the latest addition to my Peace Corps family. This latest addition is Finn, a now 2 month old puppy. I named him Finn after my favorite character in Glee, Finn Hudson. Lunga, my cat, is coping with the adjustments as well is to be expected, and in time I am hoping they'll be the best of friends. I'll keep you posted on their friendship :) He's been a handful, but also really fun, especially when I throw my village kids into the mix. My favorite, Mutukangi, refuses to call him Finn because to him that doesn't sound like a name and instead calls him "Fen". He also likes to think he know has part custody of Finn and like to discipline him whenever possible. It's adorable and makes me love that kid more and more each day. In fact my whole village is aware of this bond and calls me banamutukangi which means mother to mutukangi. I like to wear this name with pride :)

Well I think that's about it for now!Thanks for reading!!

Greetings everyone :)

Well it's finally happened, I've seen a lion, zebra, and giraffe in Zambia. No worries they weren't in my backyard they were in South Luangwa National Park in Eastern province.

My fellow peace corps volunteer and I headed up to the park for a jam packed 4 day visit. In a word, it was incredible. Each morning we were woken up by 0530 and out on our morning drive. Then we'd return by 11, have lunch and then relax by the pool till 16 then go out for a night drive. Salley and I really loved the night drive because we'd stop some place to watch the sunset and then go in search of hunting lions and other nocturnal animals. Each night we came across the lions and watched as the walked by a mere one meter from our open top cruiser. It was slightly terrifying but so exciting! I hope to return again sometime in the future! And visitors are more than welcome to join me :)

Now it's back to work and it's going to be a busy time. Coming up I have a huge event with all my women's groups. We're inviting people from the district and provincial health offices, peace corps staff and local village leaders to showcase what the women have been learning about nutrition and cooking with soyabeans. The soya recipes have been distributed, the lunch budget has been set, and the invites have been sent out. All in all we're expecting about 200 people to be there. So pray it all goes smoothly! It's happening May 16 so it's coming up fast fast!!

Also in the works is the beginning of the PD Hearth program. This program teaches ten mothers at a time how to prepare and serve their malnourished child one supplemental meal over a 12 day period. At the end of the 12 days the child will have gained weight, approx 200 grams. And then as the mother continues this soon the child will be out of the danger zone. That's the plan anyways. So my first step will be to get all the weights and upper arm circumference of all the under 5 kids in my catchment area during Child Health week mid-June. I'll keep you updated on the progress for sure!

Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you all had a great Easter!

Greetings everyone :)

Well it's finally happened, I've seen a lion, zebra, and giraffe in Zambia. No worries they weren't in my backyard they were in South Luangwa National Park in Eastern province.

My fellow peace corps volunteer and I headed up to the park for a jam packed 4 day visit. In a word, it was incredible. Each morning we were woken up by 0530 and out on our morning drive. Then we'd return by 11, have lunch and then relax by the pool till 16 then go out for a night drive. Salley and I really loved the night drive because we'd stop some place to watch the sunset and then go in search of hunting lions and other nocturnal animals. Each night we came across the lions and watched as the walked by a mere one meter from our open top cruiser. It was slightly terrifying but so exciting! I hope to return again sometime in the future! And visitors are more than welcome to join me :)

Now it's back to work and it's going to be a busy time. Coming up I have a huge event with all my women's groups. We're inviting people from the district and provincial health offices, peace corps staff and local village leaders to showcase what the women have been learning about nutrition and cooking with soyabeans. The soya recipes have been distributed, the lunch budget has been set, and the invites have been sent out. All in all we're expecting about 200 people to be there. So pray it all goes smoothly! It's happening May 16 so it's coming up fast fast!!

Also in the works is the beginning of the PD Hearth program. This program teaches ten mothers at a time how to prepare and serve their malnourished child one supplemental meal over a 12 day period. At the end of the 12 days the child will have gained weight, approx 200 grams. And then as the mother continues this soon the child will be out of the danger zone. That's the plan anyways. So my first step will be to get all the weights and upper arm circumference of all the under 5 kids in my catchment area during Child Health week mid-June. I'll keep you updated on the progress for sure!

Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you all had a great Easter!

Today I returned to Kasama after being back at home in my village for a solid month...it's crazy how much of a shock it is to come back into the "big city" after being in the village for so long. I can't wait to see what it feels like to return to the really big city of Americaland in a few short months!

So since arriving back in Misengo on January 28 I have been keeping busy by attending A LOT of under 5 clinics. (And I'm happy to report I have now officially visited all the 11 villages within my catchment area). My job at these under 5 clinics was mostly to record the kg of each child on their card. I also thought it was important to learn about the child's height to get a real sense of their nutritional state so I went to Shoprite and bought a measuring tape and brought that along to the clinics as well. Now while I'm here in Kasama I'll make a stop at the district health office to see if they have a graph of some sort so I can plot out the points and visually see if the children are stunted in their growth due to malnutrition.

February is the biggest time of "hunger season" here in Zambia as well as a high time for malaria cases, which in turn meant that MANY of the kids were very under weight if not malnourished. It was tough to see that a 2 year old was only weighing about 7kg when he should be weighing around 12kg, especially when in many instances the problem isn't about a lack of food for the family it's about a lack of giving that food to the child. This 24 month old, named Mapalo which means blessing in Bemba, I learned from the mother was only being fed porridge twice a day! Porridge consists maize (corn) that is pounded into a flour like texture and then mixed with water. There is no protein, no vitamins in it so this child is lacking two major things that would allow him to grow. After discussing this with Mapalo's bamaayo and teaching her about how many times her son should be eating and what he should be eating I invited her to that village's next women's group meeting where we will be cooking bread, high protein nshima, and a soya and pumpkin leaves relish. So here's to hoping that she will come and in March little Mapalo will be a few kgs heavier!

Because it's planting season here around this time most of the people in my village are out in the fields all day and therefore I haven't had any regular group meetings. So when I wasn't busy with under 5 clinics I have been spending my time working on my "secondary project" which is teaching. It's pretty informal and very basic, but I'm helping some of the grade 9 students with Math and English skills. I go in the mornings with an assignment in each subject prepared and then we work through the problems together and then I give another of the same type and have them teach me how to solve the problem. I'm really having to brush up on my algebra skills again! The students I am working with are really motivated to learn and even more motivated to pass there exams in November and it's exciting for me each time they really understand the problem! In addition to working with the grade 9 students I'm also trying to start a preschool with some of the kids in my village ages 5-7 in math and English. Last Sunday I have 3 of my little boys over at my house and we practiced writing the numbers 1,2,3,4,and 5. My favorite little boy, Mutuka wrote the number 3 all by himself and then got a huge smile on his face and said, "ba Emily naishiba ukulemba 3!" (translation: Emily, I know how to write 3!)I felt like such a proud mom in that moment. I know that many of you are teachers or teachers in the making so if any of you have any tips or tricks that you can give me I would gladly accept them!!

The other big project that will now take up my time will be the issue of malaria. While in Lusaka for training we had a workshop on behavior change with our counterparts. The behavior change project we decided on was about malaria with our specific goal being that by January 1, 2012 there will be a decrease in the reported cases of malaria in Misengo by 50 percent. Malaria is a huge problem in my village and most of that is due to lack of mosquito nets as well as lack of education about ways to prevent mosquito from breeding. In fact we've been having around 3-4 children die each week due to malaria which is heartbreaking to see because it's both preventable and curable. I visited the health office today and talked with the malaria net distributor about when my village would be receiving our nets and he said it will begin next week, so let's hope that is indeed the case. Be praying for my villagers during this time!!!

Well I think that's about all for now. I appreciate all the letters and care packages I have been getting from you all back in America so THANK YOU times a million. Be praying for health, safety, and open hearts among the people of Misengo!!

Greetings from Paje, Zanzibar :) Otherwise known as paradise. I have been here since Christmas Eve and can't believe my time on this island is almost over in a few short days.

I met up with 5 other PCVs in Serenje, Zambia and we set off on our adventure by boarding the train for a 2.5 day adventure. This travel wasn't really all the pleasant due to many factors including lost reservations, which in turn led to us spending the first night in the booze car, poor toilet facilities, lack of sleep, unhelpful train staff, and extreme heat. However, the scenery once we crossed the boarder into Tanzania was beautiful and right before reaching Dar es Salaam we got to go through a game park and I was able to catch glimpses of giraffes, baboons, and some warthogs. It got me very excited for an upcoming safari I hope to take over Easter.

Following our arrival in Dar and taking a much needed shower and a good night's sleep we boarded the ferry to Stone Town the morning of Christmas Eve. It was a pleasant 2 hour trip crossing the bluest water I have ever seen. It was amazing!

So the first leg of our holiday was spent in Stone Town, which is the major town on the island. I was reminded to much of Italy while I walked around because it's an old city made up of small winding allyways with little shops tucked in every corner. My friend Salley and I spent much of our time helping the town's economy by shopping which is something that I haven't done in almost a half a year and I realized how much I enjoy a good day of retail therapy. Also in Stone Town we were able to go on a spice tour, which is a popular thing to do because Zanzibar has a history of being the spice island. We went to a plantation and got to sample various spices including cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, and also some fruits.

After a few nights in Stone Town we then headed up to the northern coast and spent some nights at Kendwa at a resort called Kendwa Rocks. The resort was beautiful and we stayed in beachside bungalows that looked like something out of a movie. I spent the first days just relaxing on the beach and working on my tan. One morning we also got to go kayaking on the Indian Ocean which led to quite the sunburn because you forget how close you actually are to the equator. Also on this beach I was able to take in 2 massages beachside which felt fantastic and erased any remaining traces of stress I had left in my body.

Next we headed to our second beach on the east coast in the town of Paje. This beach was a lot different and was less resort and more sporty. So the morning of New Years Eve we get up before sunrise and headed out to swim with some dolphins. We got onto the water by 6am and on our journey to find these dolphins we came across a giant turtle that had been speared by a hook and had died. So we hauled the turtle into our boat so our captain could enjoy it later as a meal.

The dolphin excursion was probably my favorite part of the trip thus far. We went out on the boat and when the dolphins were spotted our captain he would say "prepare to swim." These preparations included putting on flippers and goggles with snorkeling and then jumping over the side of the boat many times and chasing down the dolphins to see them swim underneath us. At one point there was approx 10 that swam underneath me. And as I prepared one time of my jump into othe ocean I got a little too excited and my flipper didn't quite make it over the edge and I fell backwards into the boat. This minor setback didn't hold me back though and I rushed up and made my second attempt at jumping into the water, which I am happy to report was successful.

Overall it's been a great trip and I can't believe it's almost over!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2283855&id=59511885&l=366f43424f

Well my first segment of being a volunteer is complete! Today marks the end of my 3 months of community entry!! I honestly can't believe how fast it went and that tomorrow I am on my way on my first (and hopefully not last) African holiday :)

Since my last posting almost one month ago I can say that not much changed and that everything is going well in Misengo. I have been not as busy with meetings lately due to caterpillar season being in full swing leading most of my villagers to be out in the fields daily to collect them. And it's also planting time so people are either planting crops or getting the fields ready to plant beans in a couple of months.

My adventures in farming continue slowly but surely. If anything this whole process is a community effort because I have no idea what I'm doing so I have invested the help of many of my community members who I think enjoy assisting me. And thankfully they don't laugh too hard when I ask stupid questions such as, "is this a weed or is this a vegetable?"

I've also been keeping my soya cooking going with my women's groups and our latest creation has been a chocolate cake which was VERY delicious. Hopefully one of these days in the future I will be able to arrange a cooking competition with all my soya making women with the winning group to receive new ingredients (flour, sugar, cooking oil etc) so they can keep on cooking! I'll keep you updated on any progress in Iron Chef: Zambia.

I have also been making progress in teaching my children that frequent my house a little english. Mutuka now will tell my cat Lunga "Stop it!" I finally asked him the other day if he knew what it meant and he said no so I said, "Stop it cimo cine Leka" (translation: stop it is the same as leka which is the bemba word for to stop." So now when Lunga is causing problems he says "Lunga, stop it cimo cine leka." It's not only adorable but also a big help to me :)When I return to site in January hopefully we'll be able to learn some more and also work on some basic math.

December 1st is World AIDS Day and for the day I went with the agriculture camp officer from Misengo to a neighboring village for a full day of festivities including a march, dances and skits put on by various groups, and my favorite was a tug of war competition between the bamaayos (women) and bataatas (men). The women I'm happy to report dominated the contest, which isn't so surprising given the fact they make large post of nshima multiple times daily.

Well since I will be doing A LOT of traveling over these next few weeks please be praying for safety and good health!

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year and I'll be back after some time in Zanzibar and then training in Lusaka and Kasama.

Happy Turkey Day everyone!!

I just finished stuffing myself here in Kasama with so much turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and dessert that I can barely breathe comfortably. That is why I love this day oh so much.

I was also able to upload some new pictures so I hope that you all enjoy them by clicking on the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2246322&id=59511885&l=54f3c48dcf

Well I've been at my site for almost 2 months now...it's hard to believe!! Time is going by so quickly and each week seems to go by faster than the previous one!!

Since I have last updated I have a new name...my name is now Emily Mwansa, Mwansa being the bemba name given to me my first day by some kids at the school. It was mostly given to me because many people have a hard time saying Emily so Mwansa is just easier for them. I love my new name and say it with pride :)

During my time at site I have been busy setting up my house. I have worked with a carpenter (Isaac) in the neighboring village of Chishitu and he has been busy making my bed, table, nightstand, chairs, shelves, and currently on a couch for me.I have also painted inside my house!! The sitting room is now white on the top and "vivid green" on the bottom. I love having the color in there!! I have also finished cementing my insaka (which is like a gazebo thing outside that is where people can sit to escape the sun and where I do my cooking) and bathing shelter. I'm also working on setting up my garden, where I will be growing [hopefully] onions, cabbage, carrots, and the staple Zambian veg of rape. And I'm also planning on planting some sunflowers because I love them very much!

I've found my routine here in my new home. Each day I wake up between 0600 and 0700 and begin my daily chores which include sweeping inside my house and in my yard, doing the dishes, fetching my water from the borhole which is about 500m away at the school, and then once a week I do the washing of my clothes. Then most days I head out around 0830 on my bike to make it to a meeting at 0900 in one of my villages in my catchment area. So far my longest ride has been to the village of Kandulma, which is about 20km away. Other villages I have been to include Jackson, Kumbi, Kaoma, Musa, Chishitu, and Samba. In these villages I have been meeting with Neighborhood Health Committees (NHCs), Women's groups, Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGs)and then helping out at the under 5 clinics weighing children. In the first meetings I just introduced myself and why I was here and now I'm beginning to do some teaching. I have done some soyabean cooking demonstrations with the women's groups which has been fun. It's been a great way to get to know them as well as educate about the importance of good nutrition and eating proteins.

I've also been making friends here in the village which has been great and prevents me from getting too bored or lonely in my downtime. I also have become a mother of sorts to several of the children that stay nearby. The most regular ones that I have, and subsequently my favorites, are Mulenga who is about 5 years old, Mutukangi (aka Mutuka), who is about 6, Kasoko, who is about 8, Musonda, also about 8, and my little Frida who is about 4. Mulenga and Mutuka usually come each morning around 0700 and sit with my as I do my chores or play with my kitten, Lunga (which in Bemba means to hunt). Then we normally color or they accompany me around the village or sometimes we do have the occasional dance party to a Zambian song that I have on my phone along with some photoshoots. They are very adorable and their dance moves at such a young age astound me! Then sometimes they stay for dinner which for me means usually cooking spaghetti which is a totally new food for them so that's been fun to share with them!

So as you can see all is going great here in Misengo and I'm enjoying everything very much and I'm happy to report no snake sitings as of yet :)

Be praying for patience, flexability, and good health for me!

As of 24 September 2010 I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!

I'll try and give you a quick update on my life in my final days in training and my first few as a volunteer...

We ended our training with language tests, technical test/presentations, and a medical exam. The best day was our cultural farewell party we had at our training place (FTI) with all of us trainees and our host families. We cooked American foods (pizza, mashed potatoes, rice krispie bars, etc)for probably about 300 people and then had a program featuring cultural dances, speeches, and a gift exchange. At the very end we volunteers were welcomed up to dance Zambian style, and of course I jumped at the chance to break it down. Afterward my host family said, "ba Emily, we saw you dancing...and you know how to dance!" I think it was one of the highest compliments I have received since arriving in country. I credit these skills to the many dance parties I had back in the States...

After a great day of partying with our families and enjoying one last family dinner under the stars at my home stay, I had to say goodbye to my wonderful Mulolo family the following morning. It was a bittersweet goodbye and as I hugged my bamaayo one last time with tears in my eyes she said, "now don't make this goodbye for forever, I need to see my daughter again so come back and visit us." I said "don't worry bamaayo, tukamoonana" (which in Bemba is we will see each other). I plan on going back to see them in January when I'm in Lusaka for a week for our in-service training!

Friday was our big day...swear in! We were brought to the US Ambassador's house for the event, and let me tell you I would totally consider becoming an ambassador if it meant I got to live in a place like that. It was HUGE with a pool and tennis court! Unreal! After some much needed photoshoots with friends and teachers because I was wearing a handmade dress AND make-up for the first time in months, the ceremony began. There were speeches from a representative of the Chieftainess, Minister of Health, Peace Corps staff and directors and one representative from each of the 6 languages. I was selected to speak for the Bemba Chippers and my part was to talk about what we have learned about culture. I was nervous beforehand about speaking in bemba in front of many natives, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to do so :)Then we raised our right hands, took our oath and committed to our service for 2 years.It feels great to finally be a volunteer after months of applying and weeks of training!!

Now I'm up in Kasama waiting at our provincial house until Wednesday when I will be posted at my site. Then begins the process of community entry...this is a three month period where I will focus on integrating into my community and settling into my house. It'll be so strange to finally be at my home, not living out of a suitcase, and being the only person that looks like me for miles and miles. Please pray for me during this transition as I begin making Misengo my home.

Also, if you're thinking to yourself, "man, I'd really like to send something small to Emily, but I don't know what she could need/want!" Well my friends in America I'm here to give you some tips!! If you want to spend a couple dollars to send me something light consider the following:

-pictures of you doing something fun! (and it doesn't have to be fun even, I'll take anything and I'll put it in my hut)

-Mix CD...we have a computer at the house so I can upload it onto my ipod! Please feel free to add any Bieber (I've got the fever...)

-Crystal light type things (water sometimes gets a little boring for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything in between)

Okay thanks for reading!!!Hope you all are enjoying the lovely fall time :)

Today we had day one of our 'host workshop.' This workshop is for us pcvs and for our counterparts who will help us get integrated into our community. We tried to start off the first session, but not first without petting ground rules... obviously. Here are the rules the zambiams came up with:

Speak through the chair, observe punctuality, full participation, no noise, no smoking, phones on silent, no beer, no necessary movement, all equal participants. The penalty for breaking any of these: dancing.

We all had to keep from laughing at this seemingly crazy and obvious rules. It was a cultural lesson for sure and got me prepared for my next 2 years worth of meetings

My dear friends Justin and Sarah are engaged!!!!!

A big congratulations to the both of you...I love you both so so much :)

Hello from the Northern Province Peace Corps house in Kasama, Zambia. Tonight I will be here at the house with the rest of the volunteers before we head back to Lusaka early tomorrow morning. We just finished watching Mean Girls here and let me tell you that movie is hilarious....did I think it was hilarious when I was in the States? Nope not really, but having gone nearly 2 months with zero films I am pretty sure I would have loved anything.

So since I last updated a LOT has gone on! I am just finishing up second site visit like I mentioned above. Myself and three other CHIP volunteers, along with 2 bemba language teachers (including my favorite ba Whiteson) made the trek up to Mpepo to stay with a current volunteer for the week. The week was a busy busy one that included the following: meetings with many NGOs in the area (such as DAPP, DOPE, Africare), having lunch with the Chief at this palace, listening in on a STAR circle meeting (people come together who either are HIV positive or at least know someone who is HIV positive), giving a good nutrition lecture to grade 9 students, and just getting used to village life.

It was also a great time spent getting to know Ba Whiteson more...each week we would have medical sessions where pretty much we would learn about some ailment or animal that could either have us get medically separated or killed. I was fine with all of the talks because most things are very controllable...all except for snakes. That talk made me not so happy and left me feeling at any moment I may cross paths with some snake and would die. So I told ba Whiteson this the following day in class and ask for ways I could prevent any sort of snake from entering my home. This conversation was close to 3 weeks ago and still he assures me not to worry that I will be okay...I think he does this because he is fearful that I will go back to America haha. Well over the site visit I learned his greatest fear, or at least the one that equaled my fear of snakes: shots. Even us talking about them got him so freaked out that all I could do was laugh and laugh. He hasn't had them since 1991! He was shocked I was able to not only receive them easily, but also be the one to give them. It was a bonding moment for sure that we could assure each other how absurd the other persons fear actually was.

Another big day has happened: I have been to MY site :) I am in Misengo village, which is about 70km from Kasama, and 30km from site is a waterfall national park. If you know me even a little you should know the love that I have for waterfalls :) I was nervous/excited for this big day. I arrived at my mansion and was greeted by many children and several Zambians all ready to bring my bags inside. As you see I said mansion and not house...this place is HUGE!

It's a 3 room house with a foyer even! I have no idea what I am going to do with all of this space. Walking in the door into the foyer there are 2 rooms on either side...one I think will be used for kitchen storage and the other maybe my bedroom? Then in the back is one room that spans 21 ft long! Some serious dance parties could be had there for sure. So as you can see there will be plenty of space for any guests that would like to come and stay with me :)

During my views days at my site I was kept very busy meeting many many people. I went and greeted the sub-chief who just kept thanking me for coming to work. I also had the privilege of having a meeting to welcome me to the village. The headmen from my village, the surrounding villages, and the sub-chief all came as well as about 40 other community members to meet me and introduce themselves. I was able to introduce myself (name, nationality, profession) and talk about what the peace corps is and what I was coming to do in Misengo...all in Bemba! Who thought that after such a short time I'd be able to do that!

So it's been a great time on second site visit, but I am ready to get back to my host family. I miss them very much and will soak up as much time as I can with them over my last couple weeks of training. I was so touched to receive a text from them the other day saying they missed me as well. It's going to be a hard goodbye I think....

Prayer Requests:

1. Good Health: My body is doing some weird things I'd rather not go into as I adjust to the new diet and surroundings.

2. Prepare the hearts for my villagers as I come to move in in a few short weeks!

3. Patience as I make the transition into my new home

4. Safety

Again, thanks for reading!! Take note of my new address:

Emily Skurla/PCV

PO BOX 410374

Kasama, Northern Province

Zambia

As I am writing this I just finished eating a cheeseburger, fries, and some pizza. Yes indeed I am still in Zambia, but I'm in Lusaka for the day for a "cultural day." We spent the morning at the national museum and got to have a session on cultural differences with the former vice President's daughter. Now we have a few hours to eat non-Zambian foods and shop :)

Let's see since I connected last I have begun training and am living in a village with a host family! I am staying in Kabeleka village living with the Mulolo family. Here I have my own hut, icimbusu (toilet), and bathing shelter right next to my family. I have a Bataata (dad), Bamaayo (mom), 2 bandumes (brothers Job who is 12 and Elimelik who is 4) and one bankashi (sister-Elimadah who is 8). They all have been so wonderful so the transition has been very smooth. We've been able to have some good conversations about American culture versus Zambian culture. My family, as well as Zambians in general, LOVE Obama. They sell Obama flashlight, shirts, jeans, and anything else you can imaging. My bataata one night said, "I am so happy Obama is helping Africa while he is in America," and I said, "how has he been helping Africa?" And then he replied, "because he has sent you here to Zambia to help us become better in the Peace Corps." It was so touching.

Fact: Zambia is not always hot. In fact it has been quite frigid here as of late and for the past few nights I have slept in my jacket and piled on the blankets to make it through the night. Every morning I also can see my breath, which is a weird thing to be experiencing in August.

Fact: I love my bemba language teacher :) Myself and one other volunteer have language class with Ba Whiteson....for the past 2 weeks we've had class for 4 hours on Mon, Tues, and Thursday, and then for 2 hours on Friday and Sat. It's been a lot, but Ba Whiteson is such a great teacher and makes it fun whenever possible. One day we practiced asking and answering questions while playing frisbee because he wanted us to teach him something while he was teaching us something. Another day we played hangman, which was also so much fun. He also allows the other PCV and I to aslk many questions about Zambian culture and he is so interested to learn about American culture that it makes the time go by fast.

Fact: biking in the bush is not as easy as biking on the Chip trail. I live like about 6km away from where we have training classes so it's about a 30 minute bike ride. But this bike ride involves numerous bush trails, hills, crossing a stream, and 2 instances where we have to get off because the terrain is not bikable. To be honest my first couple times down the hill as I dodged rocks and other obstcles I thought to myself, "I am going to now go be with Jesus," but I persevered and now feel much more comfortable with the ride I take and no longer fear for my life. And no worries I wear my helmet daily.

Prayer requests:

1. Improved health: I have been feeling ill for the majority of the last week which I attribute to getting used to the food, but it would be great if it would stop.

2. Next week we have interviews and talk about posting so pray it goes well.

3. Pray that as I find out my post I will trust in the site that has been chosen for me.

Thanks for reading!

It's hard to believe I've been here a week...I've done so much in just this short amount of time! I'll try to make the details as concise as possible :)

Sunday was spent at IST (in-service training) where we got some shots, filled out some forms, and got sized for our bike and helmets. It was a rather short day of actual scheduled activities and so we had quite a bit of free time to walk around the grounds and just hang out. It was nice to have some freedom to just get out and be outside.

Monday started off bright and early at 0530. We packed up the land cruisers and headed to out 1st site visits. There were 8 of us CHIP volunteers headed to Mpika in Northern province, going to 2 separate sites. It was about a 6-7 hour trip after the stops that we made, and was actually a lot smoother than I had anticipated. Most Zambians do not have personal cars so they get where they need to go walking on the side of the road, biking, and hitching rides...so it was crazy to see people walking right by us as we went 120kmh. Myself and 4 others were at Sarita's site...a volunteer who has been posted for 1 year. Her site was AMAZING! Beautiful garden, separate kitchen, and a very nicely decorated hut. I will have to steal some of her ideas...Since we didn't arrive until late afternoon we just spent the rest of the evening hanging out, asking thousands of questions, and cooking dinner. Chris, a fellow PCV in a nearby village, was also there and he was an incredible cook. He hand made tortillas and then we had tacos with soya pieces as our source of meat. DELICIOUS!

Our first official day was spent meeting the headman of the village (he is the leader), visiting the local clinic where Sarita works with a nurse, and an ECT on many different projects like HIV/AIDS outreach and child health week programs. All of the healthcare provided there is free for patients (including vaccinations) and so are any drugs that they need, including medication for HIV positive patients. That blew my mind! Next we headed to a local school to atttend and afterschool program called anti-AIDS club. The club is made up of 7-9th graders who meet once a week to learn about HIV and AIDS and how to prevent it and educate others about it. They greeted us with songs and a drama skit. And we were also able to play two games with them; lifeboat and an africian version of sharks and minnows now called lions and antelopes. Myself and four of the children were in the final lifeboat so we won "sweeties" or candies. Surprised I went for the win in a game here in Zambia? You shouldn't be :)

On Wednesday we headed off to a village down the road to meet with the neighboorhood health committee (NHC) to go on village inspections. There were about 10 members present and so we split off into 2 groups to check every site in the village to ensure that everyone had a permanent toilet, bathing shelter, handwashing station (called a tippy-tap), mosquito nets for every member of the household, refuse (garbage) pit, and a two-tier drying rack. If any one of those elements were missing the house was charged a 5 pin (5000 kwacha) fine. If they had no money they could give something else, like a chicken or radio, to cover the cost. Improvements would have to be made in the week and the NHC would be back to check. These inspections provided a great teaching opportunity for why all of these were important elements to stay healthy because that's what this Zambian community wants is to be healthy and they are very motivated to do what it takes to get there.

After village inspections we were having a cooking party with the NHC members in the village! My first duty...kill the chicken. Yes you read it correctly, I killed the chicken. Ba Dorothy talked me threw it and with her amazing guidance I had success! Don't believe me? I have pics and a video to prove it, which will be up sometime soon? We'll see, but I have the record! Then we had to cut up all these veggies for the garnish and then the hard task of making the traditional nshima. These Zambian women are so strong because the process requires serious guns due to smashing all the ground nuts, and then whipping the thick nshima batter. I give them so much credit. And we were apart of every step of the making and the Zambians would just laugh and laugh as we struggled and they just asked "do you have food in america?" because we were such strugglers. It was so much fun and they were all such patient teachers with us, and I can only hope that I would be as patient with them if they came to America.

The whole first site visit was such an encouraging time for me. At first I was nervous because they kept telling us about all the people who ET (early terminate) from service and I worried, what if that's me? what if I can't do it? But after being here and living the life in the village for a couple of days (including successfully voiding in a pit latrine and taking a bucket shower) and interacting with the villagers I know that this is where I want to be. It's going to be challenging, but I know that through all things Christ is the one who strengthens me, and I will depend on him to get me through those tough days where I just want to give up.

Prayer Requests:

1. Prepare my heart for the site I will recieve in a couple of weeks time. Also prepare the hearts of the villagers that they will recieve me well.

2. Strength and endurance for PST. Tomorrow we head to a host family and begin our 8 weeks of language skills, tech skills, and health training...it's going to be an intense time where we are busy all day every day and are really stretched. If you are going to send a letter my way consider doing it during this time because on those hard days I think they will be a great source of encouragement knowing that people are really praying for me and supporting me from back home.

3. Continual building of friendships among fellow volunteers.

Okay that's all for now...not sure when I'll be back, but I look forward to hearing from you!!

I HAVE ARRIVED IN LUSAKA, ZAMBIA!!

And so have both of my bags :) PTL

It was a long 4 day journey to arrive here, and it feels great to be here. Last time I wrote I said I would be on the 10:50am flight out of J-berg, but because of some confusion I actually didn't end up leaving until about 6:55pm. So it was a thrilling day at the airport just sleeping, and going to a cafe, and then sleeping again. We arrived at about 9pm and were greeted by 3 staff members who hugged us because they were so glad we finally made it! And then going outside there were current PCVs waiting with signs and noisemakes...it was a very warm welcome to my new home. One of the signs said "FISH and CHIP" and we were all very confused, until we figured that it stood for our projects, the aqua culture (FISH) and Community Health Improvement Project (CHIP). Oh Zambian sense of humor! We are staying at this college type institute for a couple of nights before we head out to our site visits.

What is a site visit you ask? Good question! On early monday morning (around 6am) we will load a small bag, pile 8 of us into a land crusier and drive about 8 hours into the Northern province to meet a current volunteer at her post. There we will see what our future will look like! We'll be cooking the meals, seeing her work, and sleeping outside her hut. Since I didnt bring a tent, I will be sharing with a lovely volunteer named Nancy. Now this won't necessarily be where I am placed for sure but it will give us an overview of what we can expect. We will be there until Thursday evening and then we have a debriefing Friday and then training resumes on Saturday morning here in Lusaka.

I also found out today that I will be learning the language of Bemba, which is the most common of the languages spoken here in Zambia. I don't know what region I will be in yet because it is spoken in so many, but I honestly could care less of where I am because I'm here finally!

I love this place and I am looking forward to the 8 hour drive up north to see more of Zambia!

So currently I am supposed to be in Zambia, but our flight to J-berg was late leaving and took longer than anticipated so we are staying at a hotel here in J-Berg. It's very nice and I am so excited for the opportunity for another shower...or possibly 2 :) So part of our group is now leaving at 10:50am, and others are TBD. I am one of the lucky to go at 10:50.

The flight over here went really well...it didn't seem like 16 hours at all. I was able to watch the latest Matt Damon flick, Green Zone so I was very excited. They had SOOOO many movie options that I almost didn't want to sleep. But no worries I slept for probably like 6+ hours on and off throughout the flight. I also was able to listen to Justin Bieber one final time. Thank you Delta.

Everything is still going great thus far and I am glad I'm finally here in Africa :)

Not sure when I will be able to update next, but know that I'm safe and I will write as soon as I can!

Also in the hotel they're playing Dave Matthews....I wonder if he is some sort of local hero?

Peace and Blessings, peace and blessings

Also I need to say a huge HUGE thank you to all of you who have supported me through this whole process. I have been talking with some other volunteers who have people all along the way telling them that they can't go, they won't make it, they aren't strong enough. I was so sad to hear this and it hit me how blessed I am to have friends and family who are excited for me, supporting me, encouraging me, and praying for me. So thank you for making me feel loved and encouraged :)

So after a fantastic going away party and many tearful goodbyes I have arrived in Atlanta at the "staging" event. We are staying at a swanky hotel in Buckhead, ATL and had an orientation of sorts today from about 2-7pm. We got LOTS and LOTS of info that my head is just swimming. But already I am loving every minute of it :)

Coming into today I had no idea how many other volunteers would be going, why I was crazy enough to choose to do this, and if I would have any friends to speak of in these volunteers. However, I am happy to report I now have some answers. Right when I got off the plane from MSP to ATL I met up with 2 fellow Minnesotan girls on their way to Zambia. So we snagged a cab and made our way with our bags to the hotel. From there we put our stuff in a room and walked up the street to a diner for some lunch. It was so great talking with people going through the same things and to find I was not the only one who was an emotional basket case for the weeks prior to leaving.

Afterwards we lined up and turned in our stacks and stacks of paperwork, got our government issued passports and found our spots in the room training would take place. We then, like I said, were bombarded with information about everything that was to come like Peace Corps objectives, safety and health issues, anxieties we were feeling, and just logistics. And we did some ice breakers along the way including some skits, drawing, and chart making.

There are 59 of us headed to Zambia tomorrow either going into my program of Community Health Development or in Aquaculture and setting up fish hatcheries. Everyone I met here has been great, both fellow volunteers and the staff. They said today that we should look around because we were now a family of 59, here to support one another through this incredible journey that is lying ahead of us. I looked around and was so excited about the people I will be serving with and this amazing opportunity I have to live life with them.

And now for the prayer requests:

1. For the forming of solid relationships with my fellow volunteers and opportunites to share Christ with them and just to really love and serve them.

2. Strength during the 10 week pre-service training sessions. (The first 10 weeks will be an intense time of spending about 8 hours a day, 6 days a week studying one of the 6 languages we will speak in the village, the culture, and technical skills. Then at the end we have to pass a test before being sworn in.)

3. Good health...I will get sick sometime over the next 2 years, but there is a high risk of getting malaria, dystentary, and other diseases from parasites and obviously a risk of HIV/AIDS.

4. Safe travels...I leave ATL tomorrow evening at 7:25pm, fly abot 15 hours to J-berg South Africa, and then have another flight at about 9pm on Thursday to Lusaka, Zambia. Pray that luggage will make it and that they aren't over the weight limit!

5. And most importantly that I will recognize God's grace daily. Things won't go perfect, but if I rely on His grace and His provisions it will all work out. God is good and it's all for His glory :)

Today I finally got the e-mail I had been anxiously awaiting...my flight information!

7/20/10: Fly from MSP to Atlanta EARLY in the am

Arrive in ATL in the mid-morning

"Staging" at the hotel...this period will include some short, but intense training sessions and submitting any last forms

7/21/10 Check-out of hotel

Go to clinic for any last minute immunizations

Evening fly out to ZAMBIA!!! (Only one stop in South Africa before arriving in Lusaka)

So after all that I will be in Lusaka the night of the 22nd....I'm not sure what the time change is yet. I'll add that to my list of "things to figure out..."

And one of the most exciting things is that my cost of this is $0.

I will leave in exactly one month from today.

I am excited to begin, but don't really want to think about the sad part of saying goodbye...so until then I will just fill my time studying for my NCLEX exam and choose not to think about it. That's allowed, right?

Are you thinking, "Emily, if you don't have regular Internet access and no phone how will I ever keep in contact with you?" Well I am here to tell you, no fear you can WRITE to me with a classic old pen and paper!

For at least the first couple months you can write to me at:

Emily Skurla/PCT

Peace Corps

P.O. Box 50707

Lusaka, Zambia

Just be sure to write "Air Mail" and "Par Avion" to ensure that it makes it across the ocean :)

And if you want to give me a letter before I leave to take with me that would also be much appreciated :)

Just think how fun it will be to have a trans-continental pen pal?!

In t-minus 35 days I will leave for Zambia to begin my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer! I will be a Community Health Development Extensionist, working in a rural Zambian village helping to establish healthy strategies to deal with priorities such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and food improvement. Still don't really understand what that means? That's okay, neither do I! From what I've been reading in my HUGE packet I will be doing a lot of teaching with community members about various health topics, which really excites me because it is in the area of public health, which I have enjoyed in past clinicals. Here's a little snapshot of what my life will look like:

So since I don't know too much, I will let you know what I do know:

1. I will be living in a remote village with my own hut

2. I get a bike to get me from place to place (helmet included)

3. No electricity, no running water

4. The first 3 months will be training with other volunteers, then I will be in my own village.

5. I leave July 20th (from where is still TBD)

6. I will return September 23, 2012. Ah I can't wait!