Blog entry 5/23/09 – (Received and typed by Monica- LOVE YOU STEVIE!)
Some general questions:
Hello Everyone! I hope people are enjoying the beginnings of Summer. Although I have to admit that in my mind it is still snowing in Portland. Being here where the seasons are so different, I find myself just thinking of the states the way I left them. So I wouldn’t be surprised if I think it is Winter for the next two years.
So I thought I would take a few minutes to answer the questions I have been getting. I am only 3 months in and I am sure some of the answers will change with time, but right now here is where I am…
Are you picking up the language?
Well- not as quickly as I would like. Hopefully this is one of those answers that will change soon. I can greet and barely get by in the market. As for the rest of my vocab, it is centered around HIV/AIDS and education. But whenever I am working with people in these fields we use English. The official language of Zambia is English and is supposed to be what everything is taught in after grade 2. So because I spend the majority of my time with teachers, we speak a lot of English. In reality, very few students can actually speak English and all the lessons in school are usually translated into the local language. Plus, to work with people in the community especially women- I need to be better about studying and I have found a tutor in my village- I’ll keep trying.
Food: Any cool or funky foods> Are you getting enough?
Well let me assure everyone that I am getting more than enough. People are often disappointed with the amount of nshima I can eat. And the first week I was in my village I was getting so much food, I couldn’t eat it fast enough. Leftovers without a fridge is tricky. The staple food of Zambia is nshima- basically ground maize that is cooked into a porridge paste you roll it into a ball and eat it with a relish- either very cooked veggies, beans, or on a really special occasion- chicken. Nshima is very hard to make and doesn’t actually have any nutritional value but a meal is not a meal without nshima. It is believed “Nshima is POWER!” While it is not the healthiest food, Zambians love of it is understandable. The one thing nshima does is make you feel full. Whether or not your children are getting the vitamins they need, at least they are going to bed full.
Zambia is slightly lacking in its variety of food. It is a lot of nshima, ground nuts, sweet potatoes, onions, and tomatoes. A few bananas, sour oranges, and on a really good day giant avocado. The veggies are leafy- some are similar to kale, there is Chinese cabbage and most commonly it is sweet potato leaves or pumpkin leaves. Of course when you get the larger cities you can find more variety but where I am it is a lot of the same thing.
As far as cool or funky food…
The two finkiest think that I have not tried yet but are very popular, and mice and caterpillars. And something tells me I can go through my two years not needing to try these. Although I am a bit excited to try hippo meat at a festival next month.
Now that I am cooking for myself, I eat a lot of rice and soya pieces, eggs, pasta, oatmeal. I cool everything in a small charcoal brazier. I have been perfecting my tortilla skills and other breads. Last week I even managed to bake a pretty decent cake for another volunteers birthday!
Is it hot?
Yes! Right now it is cold season but there is very little cold about it. Maybe the mornings are a bit chilly and the sun is setting earlier but if this is cold season- I am not looking forward to hot season.
How is your house?
I love my house! It has three small rooms, tons of furniture because my host father is a carpenter, and a very nice grass roof that does leak yet (keep your fingers crossed for the rainy season). I have a nice dirt yard just waiting for me to plant a garden and a nice little kinzanza (a gazebo type structure). It faces five or six other houses on the compound so there are always people walking by and kids in my yard. I have a very cute cat posted down from the volunteer before me- Myo. Myo keeps the mice away and climbs in my lap in the mornings. Plus I am right down the road (well, path) from my main school. Which is nice- especially when meetings are canceled. My house is feeling more and more like a home and I seem to be handling living on my own just ok.
Ok- that is it for now- Life is pretty boring but hopefully I will have some good stories soon- keep the letters coming! I promise I will write back!!! Hope Life is well and I miss you all. Thank you for all the support.
Mwende Bulongo (travel well)
Na Natemwa (with my love)
Stevie
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Blog part of a letter sent to Erin G and received 6-3-09
4-19-09
I am about to enter my final week of training and just started reading "Life Of Pi". I came across this passage and think it perfectly describes our group of trainees.
"In many ways, running a zoo is a hotel keepers worst nightmare. Consider: the guests never leave their rooms; they expect not only lodging but full board; they receive a constant flow of visitors, some of whom are noisy and unruly. One has to wait until they saunter to their balconies , so to speak, before one can clean their rooms, and then one has to wait until they tire of the view and return to their rooms before one can clean their balconies; and there is much cleaning to do, for the guests are as unhygienic as alcoholics. Each guest is very particular about his or her diet, constantly complains, and never, ever tips. To speak frankly, many are sexual deviants, either terribly repressed and subject to explosions of frenzied lasciviousness , or openly depraved, in either case regularly affronting management with gross outrages of free sex and incest. Are these the sorts of guests you would want to welcome to the inn?" pg 14
....OK, so maybe not perfect, but a pretty good description. Except the "gross outrages" are more subtle and manifest into inappropriate jokes in mixed company, or a stronger need for hugs. Both are equally scandalous acts in Zambia. There is also the similarity in the way we are watched like zoo animals. "Look, there is a new group of White People in a constructed habitat
that is made to look like their natural home. Lets watch and see how they live."
...and it makes me smile.
It is going to be hard to walk away from training. Well not really training but my training group. Sure it is nice to actually have a schedule and a defined purpose for everyday, but I have a feeling I won't really miss 4 hour language sessions, 3 hour tech, and all day medical, cultural, and admin. presentations 6 days a week. It's just the people I don't want to leave. It is always the people. My life is and has always been about the other people in it. (thus the reason I even write this blog) And somehow in only 2 months I have become ridiculously close to people here. Peace Corps plays this horrible game where you are placed in an extreme situation with a group of people and just as you are making this your family, you all are torn apart and are scattered across the country.
So here goes- I am jumping into community entry- leaving behind another family and entering a village for 23 months.
Kafwako Lukatazno
( Ain't nothin but a thang)
I am about to enter my final week of training and just started reading "Life Of Pi". I came across this passage and think it perfectly describes our group of trainees.
"In many ways, running a zoo is a hotel keepers worst nightmare. Consider: the guests never leave their rooms; they expect not only lodging but full board; they receive a constant flow of visitors, some of whom are noisy and unruly. One has to wait until they saunter to their balconies , so to speak, before one can clean their rooms, and then one has to wait until they tire of the view and return to their rooms before one can clean their balconies; and there is much cleaning to do, for the guests are as unhygienic as alcoholics. Each guest is very particular about his or her diet, constantly complains, and never, ever tips. To speak frankly, many are sexual deviants, either terribly repressed and subject to explosions of frenzied lasciviousness , or openly depraved, in either case regularly affronting management with gross outrages of free sex and incest. Are these the sorts of guests you would want to welcome to the inn?" pg 14
....OK, so maybe not perfect, but a pretty good description. Except the "gross outrages" are more subtle and manifest into inappropriate jokes in mixed company, or a stronger need for hugs. Both are equally scandalous acts in Zambia. There is also the similarity in the way we are watched like zoo animals. "Look, there is a new group of White People in a constructed habitat
that is made to look like their natural home. Lets watch and see how they live."
...and it makes me smile.
It is going to be hard to walk away from training. Well not really training but my training group. Sure it is nice to actually have a schedule and a defined purpose for everyday, but I have a feeling I won't really miss 4 hour language sessions, 3 hour tech, and all day medical, cultural, and admin. presentations 6 days a week. It's just the people I don't want to leave. It is always the people. My life is and has always been about the other people in it. (thus the reason I even write this blog) And somehow in only 2 months I have become ridiculously close to people here. Peace Corps plays this horrible game where you are placed in an extreme situation with a group of people and just as you are making this your family, you all are torn apart and are scattered across the country.
So here goes- I am jumping into community entry- leaving behind another family and entering a village for 23 months.
Kafwako Lukatazno
( Ain't nothin but a thang)
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