Muli Bwanji? (how are you?) Greetings from Chongwe village! Living with my host familyand being submersed into the culture, the language, the traditions has made me feel less like a M'azungu (foreigner) and more like a true Zambian each day.
VILLAGE LIFE
The Kayumba family have been wonderful. My atate (father) Andrew and amayi (mother) Ester consider me their 8th child. My amayi prepares my bucket bath two times a day..and she even boils my water for a hot bath! Someone in the family walks me to and from language and technical classes each day..2km each way for a total of 8 km! I get three hot meals of shima (grits) and two sides either eggs, beans, eggplant, cabbage, rape (spinach-like greens), and chiwawa (pumpkin leaves). I haven't been served meet since the first night. They offered me the liver and gizzard of a chicken out of a pot which had the feet and head still attached! I took one bite--and that took all I had in me--and left the remainders on my plate. They haven't served any meat since..thank goodness! They cook with tons of saladie (cooking oil) and the food lack nutrition. So, basically I eat carbs soaked in oil---yum yum, healthy! I get a lot of bisquits (cookies) from the tuck shop in the village..that is what I live for each day! I play with my 7 brothers and sisters everyday. Rhoda (16), Ramson (15), Elizabeth (13), Phabeon (10), Moses (7), Unius (2), and Victoria (10 months). We play football (soccer), frisbee, and they have taught me some games as well. We sing songs and practice Nyanja a lot. They are great teachers. I am surprised by my level of understanding at this point, but I guess living within the language helps (or requires) you to learn quickly. The highlight of my day is when Uni runs and greets me with a big hug and smile each time I come home! She is adorable! My atate had malaria earlier this week. It was very scary but he went to the boma clinic and they gave hime medication. He is feeling better now. Ted in my training group also had malaria this week but he made it thru fine and is back to good heath now!. It is the rainy season and a lot of the villagers are sick with malaria. It is very sad to see the sick riding to the clinic in the back of ox carts.
CHURCH
I visited a catholic church with my family. That was an experience! The church is a mud hut packed with villagers. We were so packed we were practically sitting in each others laps. The traditional dress for women is to wrap a chitanga around your waist over your clothes. So not only is it sweltering hot, we are all packed into a small church with no breaze and I have on double clothing! There was a lot of singing and dancing. A group of girls danced up and down the isles with each song. They waved their hands and yelled out. The men are required to sit on the left side of the church and the women on the right. Each week a different member of the church serves as the preacher. The entire service lasted over three hours and did I mention it was all in Nyanja!!
HELLO MOTO!
I am fortunate to have a nice mud hut of my own with a mattress on the ground and a small desk and chair. Before I left the states I heard stories of how I would develop close friendships with the bugs and rodents, but I did not realize these stories are in fact true. My first night in the village was challenging due to language barriers. My family and I communicated with gestures mostly. I sat in the M'palla (outdoor kitchen) and watched my amayi prepare dinner. After 3 hours, I knew only one word..Moto (fire). After dinner, my bath was prepared. I went into this shelter type thing and saw a bucket and a 6 inch black catapillar! I immediately ran out. I knew I had to face the music, and I was needed a bath in a bad way so I decided to make a new friend. Since I only knew one word in Nyanja, I decided to name my new friend Moto. Every morning and every night Moto is in the bathing shelter waiting for me. Sometimes he brings friends, other catapilars, roaches, spiders. I also had roaches and rats in my hut....they ran across my floor and climbed up my walls keeping me up at night. After about a week without sleep and living in terror I decided that something had to be done. My family could not understand that Americans are afraid of mice and rats. There wasn't any rat posioning to be found b/c they eat rats! So, my family got me a cat. Zambians do not name their cats or dogs, however, they do name their oxen (go figure). So my new cat's name is Chona (Nyanja for cat) and he loves rats!!! So I am now rat free and happy! So my two best friends are a catapillar named Moto and my cat named Chona!
The culture, people, and landscape is amazing. I love Africa! The sunsets are breathtaking. There are green rolling hills as far as you can see in all directions. The stars are incredible...I would never have imagined stars could be so bright. I saw a falling star the other night. I have been to traditional ceremonies with amazing music and dancing. The people are glad to have us here and to teach us the Zambian culture.
I love you guys and miss you more than ever. I am having the time of my life. Til the next letter.....
Charlye
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Charlye's blog continued (1-27-07)
This is the rest of the last blog that Charlye posted. She didn't have enough time to type it all....she mailed it to me and asked that I post the rest. :-) dre
SHAKE SHAKE
The beating of the African music continues but now it is mixed with laughter. The villagers are laughing at the dancing by the remainder of my training group who decided they enjoyed the shake-shake and stayed at the bar. Shake-shake is the name Zambians give to the act of shaking the contents of their homemade maize (corn) beer. The varying provinces in Zambia mix a variety of beers with their maize, however, it is consistently called shake-shake due to the manner in which it is prepared and served. Shake-shake's gritty taste wasn't something I particularly cared for, however, it is Zambia's most poular drink so I had to take a drink from the bucket that was being passed from person to person. It is the most common because it is affordable to the villagers. Only 2,000 kwancha (50 cents). A coke costs around 4000-5000 kwancha. For this price you can fill any container you bring.
NSHIMA
Meals are quite a sight. We eat with our hands. No napkins, no utensils. We grab a handful of Nshima (maize which is pounded similar to grits) and ball it up in our palm. We dip it into sauces and use it to scoop our other food - cabbage, relish, chicken, fish. The Zambian trainers and the PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders) have mastered the technique, however, we are extremely messy after meals and do not seem to mind. The Nshima is very bland and contains little to no nutritional value. When sauces and other foods are added it becomes the substance to the meal. Nshima is the staple in Zambian's diet. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner - nshima, nshima, nshima!
NYANJA
Our communication with the Chongwe villages is limited to simple greetings and nonverbal gesturing. The interactions with children is much less challenging. They enjoy playing soccer. We taught them how to play duck, duck, goose and they loved it. We started with a small circle of about four volunteers and six children. Our cheering and laughter became contagious. Before we knew it, there were about 40 children playing and villagers of all ages watching and cheering. The language spoken in Chongwe is Nyanja which also happens to be spoken in the Eastern province where I will be posted after training! Today we selected the language we will learn during training. The language we chose determined our post provinces. The PCVLs gave a brief overview of each of the six provinces and we had to decide the language we will study and the province where we will be posted for two years. Of course I had no preference, all of Zambia is beautiful. I will study Nyanja and live in the Eastern province. The Eastern province is montainous with rolling green hills and valleys. It is the hottest province in Zambia with temps in the 100s-110s. There are seven of us going to Eastern, Diana is going to teach us all how to rock climb and repell! Our exact post within Eastern will be determined near the end of training based on interviews and skills acquired.
PC ZAMBIAN LIFE
Zambian life is amazing so far. I am still surprised that I am finally in Africa. I have been sharing my pictures of family/friends with anyone and everyone. We sing to Shakira and Beyonce in the community showers (not for long because the water is too cold). Our arms are sore from the second round of immunizations (only 11 more shots to go!) If we are able to sleep at all, we are awake at 4:00am because we haven't adjusted to Zambia time. We are all experiencing these moments together. We are growing closer and closer each day. Monday (29 Jan.) we will leave the hostels and head to the African bush for our first site visits.
In small groups of 5-7 people we will travel to a province different than our assigned province in order to experience another region of Zambia. We will stay in tents at a current PCV's site for one week. Once we return to Chongwe we will meet our host family. I am excited about meeting my family and beginning to live as a Zambian!!
SHAKE SHAKE
The beating of the African music continues but now it is mixed with laughter. The villagers are laughing at the dancing by the remainder of my training group who decided they enjoyed the shake-shake and stayed at the bar. Shake-shake is the name Zambians give to the act of shaking the contents of their homemade maize (corn) beer. The varying provinces in Zambia mix a variety of beers with their maize, however, it is consistently called shake-shake due to the manner in which it is prepared and served. Shake-shake's gritty taste wasn't something I particularly cared for, however, it is Zambia's most poular drink so I had to take a drink from the bucket that was being passed from person to person. It is the most common because it is affordable to the villagers. Only 2,000 kwancha (50 cents). A coke costs around 4000-5000 kwancha. For this price you can fill any container you bring.
NSHIMA
Meals are quite a sight. We eat with our hands. No napkins, no utensils. We grab a handful of Nshima (maize which is pounded similar to grits) and ball it up in our palm. We dip it into sauces and use it to scoop our other food - cabbage, relish, chicken, fish. The Zambian trainers and the PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders) have mastered the technique, however, we are extremely messy after meals and do not seem to mind. The Nshima is very bland and contains little to no nutritional value. When sauces and other foods are added it becomes the substance to the meal. Nshima is the staple in Zambian's diet. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner - nshima, nshima, nshima!
NYANJA
Our communication with the Chongwe villages is limited to simple greetings and nonverbal gesturing. The interactions with children is much less challenging. They enjoy playing soccer. We taught them how to play duck, duck, goose and they loved it. We started with a small circle of about four volunteers and six children. Our cheering and laughter became contagious. Before we knew it, there were about 40 children playing and villagers of all ages watching and cheering. The language spoken in Chongwe is Nyanja which also happens to be spoken in the Eastern province where I will be posted after training! Today we selected the language we will learn during training. The language we chose determined our post provinces. The PCVLs gave a brief overview of each of the six provinces and we had to decide the language we will study and the province where we will be posted for two years. Of course I had no preference, all of Zambia is beautiful. I will study Nyanja and live in the Eastern province. The Eastern province is montainous with rolling green hills and valleys. It is the hottest province in Zambia with temps in the 100s-110s. There are seven of us going to Eastern, Diana is going to teach us all how to rock climb and repell! Our exact post within Eastern will be determined near the end of training based on interviews and skills acquired.
PC ZAMBIAN LIFE
Zambian life is amazing so far. I am still surprised that I am finally in Africa. I have been sharing my pictures of family/friends with anyone and everyone. We sing to Shakira and Beyonce in the community showers (not for long because the water is too cold). Our arms are sore from the second round of immunizations (only 11 more shots to go!) If we are able to sleep at all, we are awake at 4:00am because we haven't adjusted to Zambia time. We are all experiencing these moments together. We are growing closer and closer each day. Monday (29 Jan.) we will leave the hostels and head to the African bush for our first site visits.
In small groups of 5-7 people we will travel to a province different than our assigned province in order to experience another region of Zambia. We will stay in tents at a current PCV's site for one week. Once we return to Chongwe we will meet our host family. I am excited about meeting my family and beginning to live as a Zambian!!
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