Hello all! Sorry it has been so long since I have updated my blog! I am at the Peace Corps house in Serenje at the moment, using the computer here. This is the second time I've biked the 20 kilometers from my site to Serenje boma. It is quite invigorating, as I have to go up and down three large hills each way! The ride takes about 40-45 minutes one-way, and not only is it a good work out, it's a great way to get to see the—more or less—unadulterated Zambian countryside that is Central Province.
Let me take you back two weeks to April 23rd. That Friday was our big day as Peace Corps Trainees: we gathered at the US Ambassador's home (although at this time we do not have an ambassador, we do have a Charge' d'Affaires) along with members of the US embassy in Zambia, the Zambian government, Peace Corps officials and trainers, as well as other guests. The occasion was our swearing in as official volunteers. I think many of us were more excited about the fact that they served us REAL coffee than the fact that we were to become PCVs (and no longer PCTs). Pretty funny, but it was a great day—although jam packed with things to do.
After we swore in we were given our 4 million Zambian Kwacha (US $850) and went shopping at Manda Hill, one of the malls in Lusaka. Let me just say that three days later I had spent all of that and temporarily traded some of the USD I brought for Kwacha until we get paid next. It sounds like it would be a lot, but 1 million of it was a loan to be paid back in two years (an estimated minimum bank account balance the Peace Corps lends us that we in Central Province do not need—so I spent it, naturally!). And, of the 1,400,000 Kwacha meant specifically to go towards settling in and furniture, 700,000 of it had to go to buying a bed. I don't know what idiot thought it would be enough, but they should be fired or given a flippin' clue! haha
The night of swear-in we went out on the town, and bright and early on the 24th we all went our separate ways to spend a couple nights (or for some as many as 6 nights) at our respective Peace Corps provincial houses. Serenje is the only boma with a PC provincial house that does not have a major store to shop at, so we had to scour the market for the items we need, like storage bins to keep ants out of our food and buckets to wash our clothes and dishes and to use for taking bucket baths.
Before we reached Serenje I decided to buy at one of the larger stores found in Zambia a gel fueled stove. One week into my service, and I am sad that I decided to do so. Rather, I should have gone with a paraffin (kerosene) stove. I have already gone through one container of fuel, and the stove was much more than for what I believe you can purchase a paraffin stove. One thing of fuel costs US $4, and the stove was US $23. On my budget, that's a lot! So when we get paid again in early June I'm going to look into either going with the paraffin stove or just going the environmentally unfriendly route and getting a brazier to cook using charcoal.
I really hope it becomes easier to follow a conservative budget as the months go by, because I don't want to dip too deeply into my own pockets for when I travel. I still really want to visit Zanzibar in Tanzania, Lake Malawi, the sand dunes of Namibia, and maybe even Cape Town, South Africa. But even if I do have to use my credit card, I think these trips will be worth it; this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to explore Africa, both during and after my PC service!
Bringing us back to the here and now, I am excited to report that the walls of my hut have were given a layer of concrete, which is awesome and the community did a pretty good job. However, the concrete floor—poured about two months ago—is STILL wet and so termites and ants are capable of digging up through it! GRRR. To make matters worse, I don't have any furniture—nor much funds to get furniture — so my things are always on the floor and being ravaged by ants and termites. The other day, I was surprised to find a small toad in my garbage bag inside my house! Too funny.
So to address the situation, I'm hoping to either put down another—smoother—layer of concrete to cover the holes the insects have made, or, I want to put a layer of floor wax/stain that will hopefully keep out my small attackers. I will say that I feel a bit less vulnerable now that we are about 2/3 of the way done with putting up plastic on the underside of my thatched grass roof which will allow termite crap and rain to just roll off to the outside. One of the reasons I'm in the boma today is to get more black plastic to put up. Another thing that has brought me much pleasure is the fact that I came from the US with the perfect size fitted sheets. OH. MY. GOSH. does it feel good!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While I'm in the boma today I'm hoping to maybe purchase some latches for my widow because the only thing keeping an intruder from entering my house is a bent nail on the inside that I use to shut the window—haha! Oh, and I'm quite bummed to report that my brand new Brunton solar panel has been misplaced or stolen. I know I had it right before I moved into my new house, so I'm not sure where it was lost: immediately before or after the move. Darn it! I hope it turns up, otherwise I'll just have to keep coming to the boma to charge my batteries. And I'll also have to keep my phone off more unless I find someone in my village who can charge my phone, but I'm not sure how likely that will be considering my village has no electricity.
At my host family's compound I haven't begun teaching my brothers and sisters the ABCs and 123s but, rather, how to jump rope American-style, how to make the best fart noises (and train whistles), and how to sing "Doe, A Deer..." as well as "This Old Man." Give it time, and they'll be speaking English—I hope. Yesterday I asked them to identify certain food items in English. My older sister, Jaqueline, has a basic grasp of vocab but struggles to make sentences. The others, well let's just say they've got a ways to go. My closest Peace Corps neighbor, Ashley (a fisheries volunteer), says she refuses to use Bemba at the orphanages where she lives because the children absolutely must know English to do well in school. She's right, but I'm trying to balance learning and using Bemba to gain respect by the community and using English to encourage my bro's and sis's to get better at the language in which classes are instructed after the fifth grade.
On my second day at site I already was being invited to my first funeral, which was quite unfortunate. Not for me, but for the headman whose 17 year old son had died of problems with his pancreas. Stories like this make me so fortunate to know that the Peace Corps would actually charter a plane or helicopter to come pick me up from my village and fly me to South Africa for medical treatment. I think it is therefore true what one of my fellow volunteers recently said to me: we can never be fully sympathetic of the shoes in which Zambians walk. I guess then that empathy will have to do. I will say, though, that it feels good to not have come with funds to give my fellow community members, because it puts me at a much similar playing field as them and thus makes me more of an equal. Nonetheless, I am not living off of US $1 per day, which is the case for some 80% of Zambians, so, again, I can only empathize with them.
Despite my present lack of funds, I decided late last week that I needed a vacation to help me get centered again after an intense and not so fun Pre-Service Peace Corp Training program. So this past weekend a PCV friend and I hitched to Kanona with our bicycles and then rode the 14km to the beautiful Kundalila Falls. What an AWESOME weekend! I definitely hope to go to Kundalila monthly to rejuvenate, because that is exactly what the falls did to me. On my way to Kundalila (and actually on my way home as well), I rode the 90 or so kilometers in between two Tanzanian truck drivers who asked me if I was Japanese!! HAHA! Yes, definitely. :-P Anyway, at Kundalila we swam; meditated; saw a HUGE snake enter the stream; camped; met two students from Holland who were here teaching Zambians how to shoot movies; and had an excellent time. Kim lucked-out and had really interesting rides to and from her place both ways; the first guy was Swiss and was traveling across southern Africa in his RV, and the second couple were German and were living in the back of their Land Cruiser and also traveling across southern Africa.
Yesterday I visited my PCV neighbor, Ashley, with whom I sat in for a while on an adult literacy class that is offered at the orphanage she lives at. She's living at the orphanage, which is funded by Australians, because her mud hut was overrun with termites among other insects and flying creatures. I'm excited that her village is within my zone so I will get to visit her a lot on official business—not to mention I'm excited to work with the orphanage and see more of the adult literacy program they follow.
Ashley told me a very sad story about the family of the man who used to run the orphanage. After he died from being "sick for some time" (the euphemism often used to describe AIDS) the new director of the orphanage had to go through his emails to get a feel for the logistics of the institution. In some of the emails the new director saw information about ARVs (Anti-RetroVirals, which help those with HIV/AIDS live longer, healthier, more productive lives), and got suspicious; he had the late director's widow go get tested for HIV and she found that she was positive, and so was her three year old daughter! Apparently the family is well off in comparison to the average Zambian, yet the mother refuses to take the daughter to get higher quality care in the larger cities. This past week the girl had a really bad case of thrush, which is really unfortunate and likely indicates the girl has gone past just having HIV and now she has AIDS—but this is just speculation. On top of all of this, the mother refuses to allow her oldest 11 year old daughter to accept a scholarship she received to attend for free a good quality school a couple hours away because the mother believes they will teach her daughter Satanism, and she needs her help around the orphanage. Wait, it gets better: the mother has a daughter born out of wedlock who was "sent away" and is not allowed to associate with the children she bore while married to the man who cheated on her and contracted HIV and gave it to his wife and daughter! GRRR!!!!
I don't want you to use this story to stereotype all Zambians, but these are the realities faced her on the ground here. It's almost enough to make you want to slap someone!
Anyway, and on a more positive note, tomorrow I will be attending my very first staff meeting at my local school. After that I will be meeting with local NGOs and community groups to let them know of my coming and look for potential counterparts. Thursday I get to meet the local headman, Friday I will be signing a Peace Corps Community Agreement Form (hopefully with dozens of community members present), and the Saturday we will be meeting the local Chief's Retainer (the man who represents the community and its interests to the Chief who lives 45km away from me and whom I hope to visit in the coming weeks!).
Okay, I've been writing for about an hour and twenty minutes now so I have to get going. I can't have a successful community entry if I'm spending all my time in the boma, haha.
Just a quick reminder to my friends before I go, I would love to be your pen pal, so keep the letters coming!
Take care,
Marcus
Marcus Kendrick/PCV
P.O. Box 850010
Serenje, Central
Zambia
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