Wool Socks in Zambia?

Hi Friends!

First I want to thank all those who donated to Camp GLOW; we were able to raise our full amount! Planning here has been going well and this week we were able to finalize the schedule with the YWCA. While it seems like we have an endless amount of work to do it is all slowly getting done. This week we also did a walk around at our site for the camp and were able to arrange to borrow some sports equipment from the local school. It’s shaping up to a really great week with lots of fun activities and hopefully some educational stuff as well.

Besides all the work we have done for Camp GLOW we did manage to have a nice 4th of July celebration. Quite a few volunteers came up to Chipata and we celebrated by watching the Patriot, eating a lot of food at our BBQ, and holding a badminton tournament (I even made it to the second round). It was a good day with a lot of good food and friends. Not quite like the day at the lake in MN and of course no fireworks but still a lot of fun. The next two days were Zambian holidays so we mostly hung-out and lamented over the fact that shoprite closed at 13.

Things in my village have been going well but it seems with all the work I've been doing for GLOW I just can't seem to spend enough time there. But when I'm there I've been continuing doing sensitization for VCT and hope to start the actual test outreach in the next month. The People Living with HIV support group wants to start a garden to raise money so I am excited to get started on that and can hopefully teach them some of the conversation gardening that I've learned.

Sadly my solar charger was stolen in my village while I there last, but I wasn't the only target as my neighbor's solar torch was also stolen. While it really sucked to get have it stolen, my village really rallied and conducted an investigation and even offered to pay for a new one. My headman has also decided to build me a fence for security but I am mostly excited that it will keep animals out. It was a nice reminder how much my village cares about me and how important they think it is that I am there, even if we can't get a lot of work done.

We are in the middle of winter right now and Zambia can get cold. I mean its not MN cold but I am not really used to that anymore. Here in Chipata its worse because the tin roof and cement are not as insulated as my hut so I've been wearing my long underwear to bed. Makes me miss my electric blanket. I'm not really sure what I'll do when I come home next year in the middle of fall.

In two weeks I am hosting 4 of the new group of volunteers on their first site visit, so first village experience and during their first week in country. Its crazy to think that I've been here for a year already, the time has flown by and apparently the second year goes even faster. A lot has happened in the last year and I think that I've changed a lot too (hopefully for the better). If I had to pinpoint one thing its that I am definitely more patient and much better about just letting things happen now, life in Zambia definitely doesn't have a plan.

Well I guess that's it for now! Hope you are all enjoying summer and all the delicious food of summer!

Love,
Allie