Friday, May 23, 2008

update:)

Hello friends and fam!

Things are going well still and I have now been staying in my village for just over three weeks. Today I am in at the provincial Peace Corps house in Chipata to get my Visa renewed so I don’t get deported from Zambia. With that taken care of, I’ve been able to buy some groceries, take a shower, and use electricity—all of the things PCVs look forward to when they come to the house. This week was the first time I’ve seen the people in province who were in my training class since being posted three weeks ago, and it’s been great to hear about friends’ experiences thus far.

So my first few weeks in the village have been really great, though I have a few frustrations. In the last blog, I think I mentioned cooking and critters as my problem areas and those remain the same. Luckily, I have invented a couple recipes that I make almost every other night, so I’m not going hungry. The critter situation is definitely something I am learning to live with as best I can. I now have a bat (maybe bats) that live in my house and come out at night to feast on the insects in my house. For some reason, the bat really freaks me out, even though I’m sure it’s harmless. One night when I had to get up to lock my door, he swooped down and was flying around my hut. I was paralyzed with fear in my bed and waited 20 minutes to work up the nerve to emerge from my mosquito net. Afterwards, I scolded myself for being so scared and ridiculous, however, I still don’t really know how to get rid of it. Another problem with the bat is that he seems to roost right over my bed and excrete his waste all over the plastic tarp I have over my bed. I originally put the tarp up to prevent grass and bugs, etc. from falling down onto my bed and head. It has served the dual purpose of preventing bat poo from getting on me.

Another of my frustrations has been how to best occupy and fill my time. I have A LOT of free time in the village and I have found it a bit difficult to feel productive every day. I am so happy that I finally have the time to read so much, but I find that I can only read so much in one day. I have been writing letters and trying to study language as well. I think that interacting with people is going to be the best way to learn the language but this can sometimes be difficult. I’ve decided to start a garden and compost, but I will have to spend a lot of time reading and researching and asking villagers about the best way to go about this. I know virtually nothing about vegetable gardening, but I’m excited to learn something completely new.

I have also been interacting with my schools and the teaching staff to some degree. The community school staff (consisting of three teachers for 200+ students) has been really awesome and they have become my community liaisons in many ways. They walk me around the villages so I can learn where things are and meet the residents. They help me nag the carpenter to hurry up and make my furniture, and they help me bust open my door when the lock breaks and I am locked out of my house. Hehe, whoopsy-daisy.

On Sunday, I attended the Anglican Church in my village then went to a wedding. It was a traditional wedding and it so much fun—by far the most interesting and informative cultural experience I’ve had in Zambia. Basically, everyone in the surrounding villages attended, so it turned out to be a great way to meet people. Plus, they were all excited that the Muzungu (foreigner) was there. For the wedding, there was lots of singing and speeches. It began when the bride and groom came out with their caregivers, those who instruct the husband and wife on their spouse-ly duties. They had a sheet over their heads and sat on a reed mat with bowls in front of each of the 4 people. No one could really see their faces, and in fact, I never did see their faces so I don’t actually know who was getting married. Anyways, the bowls are for the gifts or money that people have come to offer. Various groups came forward to offer their gifts and they usually sang and danced as they did so. Even I offered my kwacha, though I did not sing or dance. There was a master of ceremonies who announced every group that went forward. After I laid down my money-gift, the crowd cheered and was really happy I was participating. After the singing part, there were skits that were meant to instruct the couple on how to be good spouses to each other. I won’t really go into the details because it was a bit lewd (Not sure the ages of people reading this.) Haha. This was followed by various speeches of family members giving advice to the couple. I got a bit bored and tuned out at this point. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, so I just started entertaining the kiddos who had gathered around me.

Monday, I had a sleepover with my neighbor Diana and another PCV LaShaya who lives in our district. Peace Corps sleepovers are fun and we made a delicious stir-fry and a pumpkin cake. The cake was delicious. We baked it by forming a circle of bricks, two bricks high. We placed coals on the ground, set the pot on the coals then more coals on the lid of the pot. After maybe an hour, the cake was cooked. It was awesome.

Tuesday morning I woke up early to bike to Petauke to meet up with my boss, Mary Lu, the coordinator of Peace Corps Zambia’s Rural Education Development project. We met with the District education officer then headed out to my site. I was happy to get a ride back because I also picked up three packages at the post office. Three awesome packages I might add, from my Dad and Pat, Mom and Zack! THANK YOU! The packages were so great I can’t even describe how happy they made me. Anyway, Mary Lu camped at my site and we cooked one of the only things I can cook. This was also the night, we had to bust open my lock to get into my house and the night they decided to deliver my bed. So with 30 minutes warning I had to rearrange my whole house to accommodate my bed. I’ve been sleeping on the ground since the end of February (with mattress of course) so I have to admit, it was strange to be elevated off the ground. I could a feel a breeze coming in thru the crack of my window and it was a weird sensation.

Next day I hitched into Chipata, getting a ride part of the way from a Zambian Catholic priest. He was super nice and I chatted with him about the Catholic Church in Zambia. Apparently seminary here is 8 years to be a priest. I don’t think its that long in the states. I have to say that I am surprised by how much religion has enabled me to connect with people. I think they are excited that they can relate to me on this level since my country and I are so exotic and strange to them. Even though we don’t talk theology or even the same language they feel like they can identify with me in some way. So far I have been to two churches, Anglican and Reformed Church of Zambia. Most of the Zambians in my village are quite religious. I don’t know if I will continue to attend church services, but they seem to appreciate my willingness to go and pray with them. At the services, they have each given me an English bible to use and make sure I know what verses they are reading from that day, even though they are of course reading it in Nyanja. They introduce me and I have to give a little speech, usually. The Anglican service was so much like a Catholic mass that I could tell what was happening most of the time. I never realized that before.

One last amusing thing that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before. Zambians cannot pronounce my name whatsoever. In the village I am Catherine Lungu. I even pretty much introduce myself as Catherine. There’s no point in saying Caitlin because they will either butcher it, look at me confused, or just come out with Catherine. I have made peace with this.

Lastly, thank you for the emails, letters, packages. It is truly so exciting to hear from you at home. I’m sorry if you write to me and I don’t respond but sometimes I can only read email or have limited time on the internet or at my network spot in the village. If I stand about 15 ft in front of a certain tree in my village I can get cell reception and sometimes even enough to check email, but its spotty. So, I love updates from home and I love comments on the blog! Miss you guys!
Love, Caitlin

Monday, May 5, 2008

Village life: week 1

Greetings from Petauke, Zambia!
On Wednesday, I got posted in my village permanently and so far so good. It was slightly emotional, as it usually is for most volunteers. There are so many anxieties, hopes, fears, joys and anticipation that it was a little tough to keep it together as Jeremy (our PCVL for the province) and my friend Eric hugged me goodbye and drove away in the cruiser. But my family nearby came and chatted with me and helped me get settled in a bit for the night. They got me some charcoal so I could start a fire, etc. With all my crap inside in boxes and bags, my hut seems pretty small. I don't have any furniture yet, though it is in the process of being built. I went with a couple villagers the other day to visit the carpenter and make sure things are on track. I feel really disorganized living out of boxes and bags and I don't have any work space to cook, or do dishes, or write a letter so I'm a little frustrated but this is all part of village life. For the most part, my villagers and especially my housing committee seem very motivated and enthusiastic about helping me out and making sure that I have what I need.

The first several days I just hung out around my hut, trying to organize and get adjusted before diving in to community entry. The first three months of service in the village is called Community Entry and we are encouraged by PC to be in the village, making friends and figuring out the basics of living as much as possible. We're technically not to supposed to leave our district except for specific circumstances( i.e. on May 22nd we have to go to the Provincial capital to get our Visas renewed). However, yesterday I biked into the Boma (30 K and somewhat painful) because I neglected to buy any veggies or fruits before being posted. You can only do so much with pasta and sauce packets. Cooking-wise I have been both uninspired and unsuccessful. The headman of my village brought me a bunch of pumpkin, groundnuts(peanuts) and some other type of gourd one day. I attempted to cook the pumpkin but it ended up really over-cooked. I also tried to make some rice to go with it and I added too much water. Apparently I don't even know how to cook rice. Another night I tried to make soup from a packet and add some spices to it, but it wasn't very good. I dumped most of it out. I get by on PBJ, tuna, oatmeal--easy stuff. I've never been an elaborate cooker and it doesn't seem like life in Zambia is going to change that.

My biggest fear in the village so far has been keeping mice and rats away from my hut and my food. I have to keep all of my food tightly packed into plastic bins and buckets. Its common for mice to live in the thatched grass roofs, so I have to make peace with this and try and protect my food. As long as rats stay away, I think I'll be okay.

I have been doing a lot of reading the last few days, so hopefully my time here will give me the chance to do a lot of reading I've been wanting to do. I also have a great book on yoga that I've started reading (Thanks Dr. Logan!) and I plan on using free time to practice yoga. Other than that I'm open to suggestions for new hobbies. Haha. The Community entry period is more about getting acquainted with your village and less about diving into the work-aspect of Peace Corps. By successfully integrating yourself in the first three months, theoretically the next two years will be much more successful because you have a better grasp on the needs of the community.

My nearest PC neighbor is Diana and she is 5k away from me. She has been awesome so far and I feel really lucky that I have a neighbor. The day I got posted she dropped by and brought me some Chocolate(!), EasyMac (!) packs and Crystal light packs(!). Crystal light packs are like trading cards here. PCVs trade the ones they are sent with others, its kind of funny. Diana also biked into the Boma with me yesterday to show me the shortcuts. It took us just over 2 hrs, which is pretty good time for my first time biking it. We stayed the night in Petauke and I'm not really looking foward to biking back this afternoon, as it will be intensely hot. Its supposed to be a much easier ride on the way back though, mostly downhill. My bum is still sore though. Yikes.

Today is my brother, Dan's birthday--so HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHER!
Thanks for all the messages when I was sick, I'm much better now, though sick in Zambia is something I am going to try very hard to avoid.
Miss you all!
Love,
Caitlin