Hey Friends,
Sorry its been so long since my last blog post but I have been busy getting settled into the village. The last seven weeks have been some of the most intense of my life as I attempt to settle in and figure out what this whole Peace Corps thing is all about.
Most of my time has been spent organizing my house, although I am still without furniture, and getting to know my community. My day begins at about 5:45, an hour after my neighbors, when I sweep both my house and yard. After that its usually off to the borehole for my 20 L of water then its time to wash dishes and make breakfast. Some days its off to the clinic or a meeting but often I spend time just hanging out in the village (and thus have already finished 24 books). I spend a lot of time with the women of my village shelling peanuts or just sitting around. While I have been learning how to cook on the brassier I am also still being fed a lot by my village and recieve food all the time, definately not going hungry.
Since I am a first generation volunteer my work has been slow. Mostly I have been assisiting with ante-natal and Under 5 clinics where I weigh babies, take blood pressure, and give out birth control. Hopefully in the new year I will be able to get started on a few of my own projects but first I need to gain the trust of the community. Sadly my awesome clinic in-charge has left to go back to school so I am anxiously awaiting his replacement. My rural health center is very small only a staff of 3, well now down to 2, so I know the community will be greatful when a replacement comes.
November marks the beginning of the rainy season in which I have already found myself caught in the pouring rain once. This also means the beginning of both farming and malaria season. Farming season means that the villagers head to field for the morning and all other things slow down for awhile. Malaria season means that things get interesting at the clinic. My district and catchment area have some of the highest rates of malaria for all of Zambia. According to the people at the district health office the epidemic in the area may even be centered in the dambo in my village! They have a few interesting ideas to combat malaria including the testing of most individuals to test and treat adults without symtoms. I am not sure if this will actually occur but I am very excitied to observe it.
All the PCV's in Eastern are at the house this week to have biannual meetings and celebrate Thanksgiving. Currently we are hard at work making dinner featuring turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, pumpkin pie, and apple crisp...among other items. Even here in Zambia we are managing to have a pretty traditional meal. Its also been great to see my friends and hang out with other Americans. While in the village I will occasionally see my PCV neighbors in the Boma but its nice to have prolonged time together.
Things of course have not always been easy and my last week was particulary difficult. I recieved the very sad news of the passing of my grandfather coupled with a very leaky roof. Then I had a slight incident with the mentally ill woman who lives in my village but over all things have been good. While the bad days are tests of my strengh the wonderful support of my family and friends, both old and my new ones here in Zambia, have helped me release taht I can handle anything Zambia can throw my way.
Well I had better get off so someone else can use the computer. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Love,
Allie
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
A PCV... Finally
At swear-in with Arianna, Erin, Denise, and Ilona
My New HOUSE!!!
With some of host family!
Hello Friends,
Tomorrow I offically get posted at my site! The last four days I have spent at the Provincial House in Chipata, they are our home bases and places to come and get out of the village. We have spent our time here getting ready for site by shopping, it turns out you need a lot to live in a hut for two years. I am not sure if I have everything but I did buy some bulk candles and plenty of water buckets. Otherwise we have hung out done a lot of cooking, watched some movies, and played board games.
Chipata is a pretty cool town and I have enoyed getting a chance to explore the markets and surrounding areas. Its also home to a lot of NGOs and VSO, the British PC, so we have met a lot of people. Since its my provincial capital I will be here about once a month once my community entry ends at Christmas.
Swear-in was a lot of fun, although pretty hot. We all took the oath together and attempted to sing both the Zambian and American National Anthems. The Ambassador's House was nice, but the best part was just finally becoming a PCV. It seems like it has been a very long time coming and I am still in shock. I can't believe that tomorrow night I will be in my village.
I won't be back until Thanksgiving so don't worry if no new posts...
Love,
Allie
Saturday, September 19, 2009
I have tried to post this three times and its not really working for me.....
Almost done with PST, I have to give my first health talk on Monday and then have my language test on Tuesday. So any good thoughts you want to send in your dreams to me on Monday night would be much appreciated.
So I will make this short, I officially swear-in on the 25th then its off to my village of about 600. I will serving the community of Mbinja, about 7000 people. I will be the first volunteer so a lot of my work will be explaining what PC is and what we do. I have a nice house with two rooms, an outdoor kitchen, pit latrine, and bathing shelter. I have pictures but this computer hates me.
I also got to see a lot of traditional dancing over second site visit, including Nyau which is a secret society of men who train in the bush. They wear feathers and twigs, and come out to dance to terrify the kids. Very cool.
New address:
Alexandra Pyan/PCV
Peace Corps
Box 550028
Katete, Zambia
More next week...I promise!
Love,
Allie
Almost done with PST, I have to give my first health talk on Monday and then have my language test on Tuesday. So any good thoughts you want to send in your dreams to me on Monday night would be much appreciated.
So I will make this short, I officially swear-in on the 25th then its off to my village of about 600. I will serving the community of Mbinja, about 7000 people. I will be the first volunteer so a lot of my work will be explaining what PC is and what we do. I have a nice house with two rooms, an outdoor kitchen, pit latrine, and bathing shelter. I have pictures but this computer hates me.
I also got to see a lot of traditional dancing over second site visit, including Nyau which is a secret society of men who train in the bush. They wear feathers and twigs, and come out to dance to terrify the kids. Very cool.
New address:
Alexandra Pyan/PCV
Peace Corps
Box 550028
Katete, Zambia
More next week...I promise!
Love,
Allie
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Site Placement
Hi Friends,
Just a quick update to let you know that I finally have my site placement. I will be going to a small village about 10 km from Ketete in Eastern Providence. So far I don't really have any information about the site expect that I am a second generation volunteer and that the community is super excited for me. Tomorrow we depart for second site visit and I should be at my site the second half of the week. I will let you know what I find out about it...
Otherwise, nothing too exciting to report, just training. I did manage to memorize both the Peace Corps goals and a recipe in Nyanja this week so keeping busy.
Also with my new site I will also be getting a new address for letters, but not packages I think, and will try to pass that on soon.
Love,
Allie
PS
Those in MN need to go to the State Fair for me and have a pronto pup, or two.
Just a quick update to let you know that I finally have my site placement. I will be going to a small village about 10 km from Ketete in Eastern Providence. So far I don't really have any information about the site expect that I am a second generation volunteer and that the community is super excited for me. Tomorrow we depart for second site visit and I should be at my site the second half of the week. I will let you know what I find out about it...
Otherwise, nothing too exciting to report, just training. I did manage to memorize both the Peace Corps goals and a recipe in Nyanja this week so keeping busy.
Also with my new site I will also be getting a new address for letters, but not packages I think, and will try to pass that on soon.
Love,
Allie
PS
Those in MN need to go to the State Fair for me and have a pronto pup, or two.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Biking, Nyanja, and a little tech
Hey Friends,
Since my last post I have jumped head first into training, we just completed our fourth week. This means that I spend 4 hours in the morning learning Nyanja and about three hours each afternoon in technical training. My main form of transportation is my bike and of course I have one of hardest bikes. I live about 5 k from the training center and there are four hills on the way ( only one on the way back through). I am slowly getting in shape so I can out bike the children who run after me.
As I said I am learning Nyanja with four other trainees, which means that I will be posted in Eastern Providence but my location is still unknown. The language is spoken by 4.5 million people in the world, in parts of Zambia, Mali, and Mosambique, which means its good for travel. For those of you who ever heard me attempt spanish you know that languages are not my strong suit but I am doing pretty well, I even got a 4.55/5 on my first exam.
During training we are staying with host families, which has been very nice and stressful at the same time. We all joke that its like being back in middle school because we have to be back before dark, are told to shower, and often even told to change colthes. Just last week I was told by my A'Mai that I needed to change my skirt because it was dirty. There were no visible stains on the skirt and I had only worn it twice! But I of course changed to keep the peace. Zambians think looking neat is very important but it is impossible to keep clean when biking through the dust. It hasn't rained since April so there is a lot of dust and there are still three months till raining season, basically my feet will never be clean again.
The food is overall pretty good but Zambians believe that fried dough is good for breakfast and that does not sit well with biking. They are also big fans of oil but I am the fifth volunteer that my family has posted so they know to limit the oil. They also know to give me rice sometimes, but last night I had rice and noddles at the same meal.
Well I think that is all for now, I go on second site visit next week and will finally see my site!
Love,
Allie
Since my last post I have jumped head first into training, we just completed our fourth week. This means that I spend 4 hours in the morning learning Nyanja and about three hours each afternoon in technical training. My main form of transportation is my bike and of course I have one of hardest bikes. I live about 5 k from the training center and there are four hills on the way ( only one on the way back through). I am slowly getting in shape so I can out bike the children who run after me.
As I said I am learning Nyanja with four other trainees, which means that I will be posted in Eastern Providence but my location is still unknown. The language is spoken by 4.5 million people in the world, in parts of Zambia, Mali, and Mosambique, which means its good for travel. For those of you who ever heard me attempt spanish you know that languages are not my strong suit but I am doing pretty well, I even got a 4.55/5 on my first exam.
During training we are staying with host families, which has been very nice and stressful at the same time. We all joke that its like being back in middle school because we have to be back before dark, are told to shower, and often even told to change colthes. Just last week I was told by my A'Mai that I needed to change my skirt because it was dirty. There were no visible stains on the skirt and I had only worn it twice! But I of course changed to keep the peace. Zambians think looking neat is very important but it is impossible to keep clean when biking through the dust. It hasn't rained since April so there is a lot of dust and there are still three months till raining season, basically my feet will never be clean again.
The food is overall pretty good but Zambians believe that fried dough is good for breakfast and that does not sit well with biking. They are also big fans of oil but I am the fifth volunteer that my family has posted so they know to limit the oil. They also know to give me rice sometimes, but last night I had rice and noddles at the same meal.
Well I think that is all for now, I go on second site visit next week and will finally see my site!
Love,
Allie
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
So this is Peace Corps
Well I made it safe and sound to Zambia after a very long flight. Traveling wasn't as bad as I thought and my luggage even made it fully intact which is almost a miracle. The first two days were spent learning a lot about the Peace Corps, getting shots, and starting malaria medicine. However, I still have no idea what language I will be speaking and what I will actually do.
I just got back from my first site visit which is a chance for us to check out what a current volunteer is doing. It basically allows us to be begin to understand where we will be living and if we are up for it. My experience was amazing. We had a blast cooking on the bassier and even killed a chicken yesterday, well I didn't actually kill the chicken. We also visited a school and rural health center to better understand where we will be working. There will be a lot of challenges to village life but since I am well on my way to mastering the pit latrine I think that I will be ok.
It is the cold season and in the 5 minutes allotted to pack for site visit I was not prepared for how cold it was in Central Providence. Luckily my sleeping bag goes down to 20 degrees so I was far warmer then my companions. However, we all reached the conclusion that there will be little bathing during the cold season. Good thing they wear head wraps...
Life at Peace Corps Zambia is a little disorganized but all the other volunteers rock and have been more then happy to share valuable information. My other trainees are also pretty cool and I have enjoyed getting to know them.
All for now, I will try to post soon!
I just got back from my first site visit which is a chance for us to check out what a current volunteer is doing. It basically allows us to be begin to understand where we will be living and if we are up for it. My experience was amazing. We had a blast cooking on the bassier and even killed a chicken yesterday, well I didn't actually kill the chicken. We also visited a school and rural health center to better understand where we will be working. There will be a lot of challenges to village life but since I am well on my way to mastering the pit latrine I think that I will be ok.
It is the cold season and in the 5 minutes allotted to pack for site visit I was not prepared for how cold it was in Central Providence. Luckily my sleeping bag goes down to 20 degrees so I was far warmer then my companions. However, we all reached the conclusion that there will be little bathing during the cold season. Good thing they wear head wraps...
Life at Peace Corps Zambia is a little disorganized but all the other volunteers rock and have been more then happy to share valuable information. My other trainees are also pretty cool and I have enjoyed getting to know them.
All for now, I will try to post soon!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Adventure Begins
Friends,
As I am sure many of you know I am off on the 21st for Zambia. There I will be living in a rural village and working within the field of community health. I am not sure what this all entails but I am excited to find out. I am not sure how often I will have access to the internet but will to post periodically.
For those interested here my address, at least for the first few weeks:
Alexandra Pyan/PCT
Peace Corps
P.O Box 50707
Lusaka, Zambia
Make sure that anything you send has Air Mail written on it.
As I am sure many of you know I am off on the 21st for Zambia. There I will be living in a rural village and working within the field of community health. I am not sure what this all entails but I am excited to find out. I am not sure how often I will have access to the internet but will to post periodically.
For those interested here my address, at least for the first few weeks:
Alexandra Pyan/PCT
Peace Corps
P.O Box 50707
Lusaka, Zambia
Make sure that anything you send has Air Mail written on it.
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