Rain, sex, and sand

Hi Friends!

Sorry that its been so long since my last post but I've been away from the Internet for awhile. I spent the rest of February and the first couple weeks of March just hanging out in the village, over 4 weeks straight, the longest I've ever stayed in one go. Luckily the rain began to slow down which helped keep my sanity. However, not before a small lake complete with lily pads managed to form on the path to my clinic. I managed to fall in the lake but only once before perfecting crossing it on my bike. My pit latrine also became dangerously close to overflowing but hopefully the water level has decreased.

I've been keeping busy at site working at the clinic and attempting to hold meetings. April marks the end of the planting season so things are beginning to start up. Along with that a group of women in the village wants to start weekly cooking lessons with me. Not only will I learn all about Zambian cooking but I can use the time to teach a little about nutrition and pratice my language. Since my "formal" work is still slow I am trying more and more to focus on more informal work by working health into my daily conversations.

One of the most exciting parts has been the start of harvesting. So far my life has been filled with fresh maize ( not as good as sweet corn but still pretty good), boiled peanuts, and pumpkin. I am slowly becoming an expert on removing the hairs from pumpkin leaves. After hungry season its nice to have some fresh food again. I am on the lookout for any good lentil or okra recipes that I can cook on the braizer.

The last week of March I spent in Chipata at an HIV/AIDS workshop. Peace Corps is part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which includes the CDC, USAID, and Health and Human Services. Basically we learned a lot of things that I already knew but we each brought a counterpart from the village and they definitely learned a lot. We did have a lot of fun breaking Zambian social taboos when we listed as many words for sex, vagina, and penis that we could think of. We finished the week by going for VCT (Voluntary, Counseling, and Testing) which was a good experience for us to fully understand what people being tested go through. Besides the workshop we enjoyed our week in Chipata by having a braai and pizza party.

Following PEPFAR I, and 5 others, headed down south to Namibia! It was a great vacation and one of the most beautiful places I've seen. We had some long transport down there not getting into the capital until 3:30 in the morning but people there were very kind. Namibia was a shock coming from Zambia, the gas stations have better selections of food then most stores in Zambia! In Windhoek we went to a real mall complete with a clinque counter and speciality foods store, we were pretty sure that we in America.

From there we rented a car and headed to Swakopmund which is a German resort town on the Atlantic Ocean. It was of course freezing there but the ocean was pretty. Namibia was a German colony and you can definitely tell in the town. We weren't quite sure if we were in Germany, California or the twilight zone. From there we drove up the Skeleton Coast to see a shipwreck and a seal reserve. We literally saw tens of thousands of Cape Fur Seals, however the place had a very distinct smell. We also spent an extreme day on the dunes where we slid down the dunes on waxed boards at up to 60 km/hr. It was a little scary but a lot of fun. But walking back up the dunes was hard, like an extreme stairmaster. In the afternoon we went ATVing on the dunes which gave us great views and a few scary moments as we went up on the edges. There we also met two PC Namibia volunteers and it was a lot of fun to hear the differences and similarities of our experiences.

From there we headed to the desert to see the largest dunes in the world, we got up at the crack of dawn to climb the dunes before it got too hot. It was beautiful to see the changing colors. We picnicked at a gorge and swam in the pooling water to cool off from our hike up the dunes. We camped at a lodge outside the dunes where we saw some great sunsets. We also met some touring singers from South Africa including one the South African Three Tenors who lit our fire and gave us a free cd.

One of the best parts was all the wildlife we saw including oryx, springbok, giraffe, zebra, warthogs, baboons, and even an elephant while driving. Definitely a lot more game then Zambia. We also managed to eat quite a bit of game, and other types, of meat on the trip. Most of us are suffering from meat overload.

Our way home involved over 1000 km in the back of pick-ups which has left me with a sore back but it was all worth it. Now its time to get back to site and work, as I enjoy the end of the rainy season.

Love,
Allie