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

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