Lisa, Christa and me waiting for our ride to Lusaka...

Picture of Eric (trainee), LaShaya (PCV), me, Rob and Laura, our site visit hosts, and Ryan (trainee) during Second site visit.

Hi! We are getting down to the home stretch of training because two weeks from now I will be posted at my site in Petauke. I am looking forward to the end of training but it will be strange to be away from the 50 other volunteers that I see on a regular basis. Here are some highlights from the last couple weeks:
--The fauna of Africa: One day in language class, my classmate Ryan looked down and started screaming because there was a TARANTULA crawling up MY leg. We had a minor freak out and the tarantula ran away. Apparently they are harmless. However, they look very scary. Also, one day as I was investigating a small bug infestation all over my walls, I found two frogs and and a spider in my hut within the span of 10 seconds. Stressful, but I dealt with it and luckily there has been no more fauna in my hut since then.
--Transport in Zambia is comical, stressful and overwhelming. On our way back from Petauke, we were responsible for getting our own transport back to Lusaka. Up until this point, we had been nicely chauffeured around by snazzy Peace Corps Land cruisers everywhere. So after an unsuccessful attempt at hitchhiking, Ryan, Eric and I decided to take a bus back to Lusaka. It cost us 60,000 kwacha to get a bus (about $15) for a 5 hour ride. The bus was a charter bus like you'd see in America except there were way too many people on it. There were people standing all down the aisle when we boarded so we squeezed in at the front. Eric and Ryan sat on the console next to the driver. The center of gravity for this bus was frightening as we raced down the Great East Road at abou 110 K/hour. This is very fast for a windy, hilly road. After 5 hours squeezed into a half-seat my bum has never hurt so bad in my life. We arrived in Lusaka just in time.