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