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