At Last!

It’s been forever since I posted on the blog. I don’t even remember what I wrote about last. Things have been going well. I can't believe this is month 10. Two years is so long, but it's going by so fast! The weather has been cooling off especially at night because now is the cold season. It gets down to about 50 degrees at night which is pretty chilly when the wind can blow right through the grass of your roof and into your room. So I just where a sweatshirt to bed and use a nice wool blanket.

The rains have also stopped too which means I have water the garden almost daily. I enjoy going when the sun is setting over the mountain. And overall I like this season very much because it’s not to hot to bike and do work during the day and there’s no rain to keep you inside.

Another PCV lent me this great book called How to Grow More Vegetables. I learned that really working on the soil quality and planting vegetables close together in wide beds versus rows saves a lot of work and produces more. I have started doing this with broccoli, cabbages, tomatoes, green peppers, and potatoes. I think it’s going to work very well. I am also growing squash, sunflower (for cooking oil), swiss chard, lentils (any tips on growing these?), onions, marigolds, hot chilies, watermelon, and cucumbers. I want to plant some more carrots since everybody really enjoyed those. The compost is finally starting to come into it. I really need some good compost because the soil has very little organic matter and is very clayey.

I’ve really been enjoying garden, but I’m also enjoying growing trees in a nursery. They are about a foot tall now. Mainly I have planted trees which are nitrogen fixing and very good as animal fodder and composting in fish ponds. Some of the trees have already been growing on my family’s land I just don’t think they realized some of there good uses. Some of the trees I transplanted to a living fence behind my house and I built a fence from sticks and reeds to keep the goats from eating them. All of the farm animals roam free here (at least for feeding times in the afternoon), so it’s a problem growing anything near the house. You have to elevate plants or build a wall of thorns.

We made homemade tomato soup today and grilled cheese on the brand new stove! The old stove at the Serenje house would shock you if you weren’t wearing shoes and only had two (or fewer) burners. So it’s been nice to cook and bake with it today. I just got back from Mkushi today. Yesterday about 15 of us went down to see a Zambian friend play music for the Labor Day holiday. The concert didn’t happen but we still had a great time hanging out, getting dinner, and dancing with everyone who was enjoying the holiday. Tomorrow I will head back to site. I have been so busy since I got back from Malawi. We have measured ponds at the Luwenga’s, Chisenga’s, and three for three families with the name Chibuye. The Simpamba’s, Mulenga’s, Chita’s, and Chilulwe’s are already in various stages of digging their ponds. It makes me very happy that there is interest in Kanona still. I think things are going to continue to pick up.

My Bambuya has been sick and a lot of family has been visiting. I hope that she gets better soon. Her 80-year-old mother came to visit. I meet people like that and wonder what they think about what their country has been through. But it’s probably not at all what I think since Zambia didn’t even exist when she was a little girl. I think my language has definitely been progressing since some people from the intake before claim that I am speaking more Bemba than they do. I am happy to be improving, but I don’t think it’ll ever be at a place where I will be able to express some of the things I want to express. Kanona’s new health post is almost complete! I am excited to see who will be placed to work there. I hope they are motivated and will maybe be interesting in hosting some hygiene or nutrition workshops. But I don’t want to get to excited, you never know what’ll happen here.

Two weeks ago we learned that Astin would be going back to America since he has been sick and had problems with his site. We are all pretty down since we have just lost some people who COS-ed and people who have been medically separated. If one more person were to go home more than half of my RAP intake will have not finished service. We just got a bunch of new volunteers in Mkushi district so it will be fun getting to know them.

So I finished some more books: Twighlight, apparently an old phenomenon, David Sedaris’ new book. But I will start the remaining books after I am finished with some non-fiction I started. I am trying to finish The World is Flat. I really like the subject matter, but I feel like he could have done so much more with it if he’d cut all the fat from it. He just rambles on and tries to be witty and use his own “lingo,” but the personality factor is too much and I find myself getting annoyed.

So I don’t think I wrote about Malawi. For Easter holiday’s a group of us hitched to Malawi. It took two days to get there. We started at dawn made it to Lusaka by 14:00 hours and then headed to the PC house in Chipata, Eastern Province. Since the Great East Road has little traffic we didn’t find a ride out of Lusaka until 17:00. We thought we’d make it to Chipata by 02:00, but the driver of the semi we were in decided he was tired about 2 and a half hours from Chipata and we were literally hitching in the middle of the night. But there was a bright moon, good company, and music so we made the best of it. After a one hour nap at the Chipata house we were off to the border and made it smoothly through customs and into Lilongwe. Transport the second day was just ok and we made it to the place we were staying at by midnight.

The place was so cool, Mayoka Village in Nkhata Bay. The dorm was built on stilts of the side of the hill and you hade to climb down winding stairways to the restaurant, bar and the beach. The lake was amazing and we went swimming, canoeing, and took a boat taxi. Some of our Eastern Province friends met us a few days after we got there and we had a great time. It’s great meeting the other people who are traveling or living here and finding out what their stories are. One thing I appreciate about Peace Corps is learning how to navigate local markets and restaurants and how to eat local food. On our Peace Corps stipend of about seven dollars a day being able to get a cheap local meal is great.

Malawi is pretty similar to Zambia. I was impressed by the roads and the landscape, and of course the lake. The population is a lot denser than Zambia as well which has caused deforestation which is worse than in Zambia. In the north were there are fewer people it is incredibly beautiful. It’s also where Madonna is continuing her legal battle for the adoption of her sons sister, which was denied the first time.

I wish I could do a better job at capturing what it’s like being here. I don’t know what things you’d like to hear about because so many things you’d like to know have already faded into the background of the experience. Today on transport from Mkushi to Serenje Pat said, “Man, I love Peace Corps.” And as we were all sitting on pallets in the back of a box truck watching the African hills, trees, and thatched houses fly by through the open door, we all agreed with him. I can’t wait for Mom and Dad to come so that I will be able to share this with some people I will be with back in the States.

Sorry still no pictures online or CD. A power surge fried our house computer, the DVD/CDR drive is broken on the work computer, and the last time I was in Lusaka people were using the internet while I was at the office.

Then there are the times reading your letters and emails that I know I am missing out on things back home. Some things I have been hearing about on BBC via shortwave. Apparently, the economic crisis drags on, people in Oklahoma are calling Obama’s first 100 days a failure (surprise, surprise), and swine flu is spreading across the globe. I hope that everyone back home is weathering the storm and that most of it is just media hype.

Again, here is my phone number in case anyone wants to Skype or call me: +26 096 641 7582 or 0026 096 641 7582