October 18, 2007
Learning about HIV/AIDS makes me sleepy

Hello everyone!
I'm spending the week in Mansa attending a workshop/training about HIV/AIDS. I brought a counterpart from one of the villages in my catchment area; in total there are about 50 people attending the workshop. Most of the PCVs from Luapula are here, and many of us brought counterparts. Sessions are being held in both English and Bemba. Most of the counterparts speak English well but obviously Bemba better, so there's usual a translator. I enjoy that because then I can try to understand the Bemba being used and then "check my answers".

So what have I done since my last e-mail? I visited several people's fields, and had some great conversations about people's plans for the current planting season. I got the Tree Nursery group to think of goals for their households and for the group as a whole. Realistically, most of their personal "goals" were really more of lists of what they plan to plant, but I wrote them down anyway. I figure next year I'll pull out those lists and really encourage them to plant new things or use different combinations, something to get them to see the truth in the adage "If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always gotten".

The Tree Nursery group also build me a PHENOMENAL fence behind my house. My hoe is currently being made, and once I've got that I can start preparing beds for my own garden. My neighbor 'offered' to help (really he informed me that he'd be helping me whenever I start working rather than asking if I wanted help) but I am strongly tempted to do it myself. It'll be hard but at the same time, it'd be a good way to show that women can do that kind of manual labor. I haven't decided all of what I'm going to plant yet, but it will definitely include peppers, watermelons, tomatoes, onions, and some leafy green vegetables.

Proof of what my gender is capable of was the same logic I used when I climbed to the top of Ba Reuben's new roof as he was thatching it one day. I'm told women never participate in the roof-building process, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to see the roof up close. Plus there was a GORGEOUS view of the hills and woodlands from the top of the roof (and the surprised looks on passer-by's faces was also quite entertaining!)

I had community meetings in two of my villages, Kalokoto and Kakuka. Both of these villages are located across the Mansa River, which at the moment is running very low so it's crossable. The first day Ba Reuben, Brows, and I crossed on a 'bridge' and rocks. "Bridge" here is a loosely used term referring to five crooked sticks laid next to each other. The meeting went very well; the people who were there asked me to come back and teach them some new farming techniques before this year's planting begins, so I'll be doing that next week!

The second day Ba Titus (my neighbor, who came to serve as a translator), Brows, and I crossed the river in a dug-out canoe. The canoe is actually dug out… very cool to see. I haven't seen many trees that would have produced a canoe of that size, so it's either a pretty old canoe or they made it from a tree found way out in the bush. Brows even went into the canoe, although not particularly willingly. He's a small dog so he's easy to pick up and deposit into the canoe. At the second meeting people were a little less focused/organized. The people who were present expressed desires to learn more about animal husbandry, about sewing and baking, and knitting… I don't know how to knit, but I think I can help with the sewing and baking part

It's rained three times so far!!! Rain is a wonderful, refreshing sight. The area is starting to seem greener and greener, because there's fresh grass coming up and some of the trees are leafing out. The color green is such a relief to see after so many months of a dry brown world.

I'll leave you with an interesting story from the open-market here in town. Gretchen and I went yesterday to buy metal lock-boxes (the rats in my house have begun to show off their chewing-through-plastic skills!). We found two guys doing metal work, which seemed to mostly involve hammer oil drums into sheets and then various shapes. Quite auspiciously, they had one box for sale and were finishing a second one as we walked up. It was neat to be able to see them actually making the box, though pretty noisy! When they finished I began bargaining. We went from 250,000 for the two boxes to 180,000 which is about 45 dollars. There's a tradition in bartering here to ask for an "imbasela", or a bonus, especially if you make a large purchase. The imbasela can be pretty much anything. I've gotten extra tomatoes when buying tomatoes… Gretchen once got tomatoes after buying several chitenges!

So we asked for an imbasela, but the man couldn't find anything within his wares to offer us. He kept staring at us and staring at his pile of hammered metal objects, and we just stood there waiting for him to come up with a good present for us. After a while this started to seem ridiculous, and we were standing there laughing. After all, we were just declining free things and still asking "Give us a present!!" After declining an imbabula (charcoal brazier (What would we do with that? We've already got some!) and rubber ropes, which were poorly made, the man told us to wait and went running off into the market proper. This made us laugh even harder, because he was obviously taking on the challenge but realistically we were still waiting for him to give us something cool for free. He came back with a small metal pot, which was delightfully utilitarian. So boxes and bowl in hand we went back through the market, stopping to buy bananas and a watermelon and ignoring the cries of every idiot guy in the area. Boxes tied to bikes, and then back to grab lunch before the afternoon sessions began! All in a day's work for Peace Corps volunteers!

I'll be heading to Lusaka around November 11th for In Service Training, so expect to hear more stories from my village and the delights of public transport around then!

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone for mail, e-mail, and your thoughts and prayers. It would be hard to do this without your support, and I truly appreciate it.
Nan


September 29, 2007
Back in the land of chocolate for a bit

Dear friends and family,

Hello from Mansa! I'm back in town (or as my villagers say, towni) for a few days of meetings with all the volunteers in Luapula province. Which also means after a month in my village I'm back in the land of refrigerators, chocolate bars, and computers, if only for a few days!

I was dropped off at my site on August 23rd, the first to unload from a Land Cruiser piled with three mattresses, three people's backpacks, jugs for water, braziers for cooking, bedding and three people's concepts of what food we would need to survive.

I was met at my site by my closest neighbors, some from further away, and a horde of children. They were placated by a bunch of smiley-face stickers (thanks Diane!) and I began to look around my new home. I was shown the nearest water source (not the one I use, because unlike the women in my village I use my bike to carry 20 L of water instead of putting it on my head) and then was met at my house by two of the best aspects of my village life: Ba Reuben, with Brows.

Ba Reuben is the headman of one of the villages in my 11-village catchment area. It's hard to describe how amazing and immensely comforting his presence is- he speaks excellent English, and is very motivated to learn as much as he can, be it about Agroforestry, what happens in America if a woman gets pregnant before she's married, or how fish survive in places where the water freezes (all of which are conversations we've had). He has 7 children, ranging from 15 to 6 months (the baby is Sumner, and he's ADORABLE), and his wife is really sweet and great at teaching me new Bemba words. Ba Reuben is very willing to help me by translating, talking to people for me, and he performs the immense service of dog-sitting when I'm not around.

The dog is Brows. He's a handmedown from the volunteer I replaced, and he's FABULOUS. He gleefully chases goats and pigs out of my yard but is quickly learning not to chase chickens (I'm afraid he'll kill one, and if I have to pay for a chicken then I want to get to eat the thing!). I talk to him in English, and also play with him with enough enthusiasm that my villagers stare at me confusedly. He likes to wander around in the bush, sometimes accompanying me and sometimes I just assume that's where he's been when he disappears for a few hours. And I have to cook nshima and fish pieces for him every night, which is good motivation to cook myself something to.

So those are my two main companions- there are other people in my village who I enjoy spending time with and will definitely be working with as time goes by, and others who are just friendly neighbors with whom I chat awkwardly, or from whom I purchase delicious bananas for about 8 cents a bunch J

My house is small but very comfortable. I have two rooms, one which has my bed and clothing (still stored in backpacks to avoid the shock of finding a very large spider on anything; I've seen some sizeable ones) and the other of which has a table for food preparation, buckets of food and water, my bike, a chair, and an extra mattress. The mattress was also a handmedown, and it gets used regularly when Gretchen, my closest PC neighbor, comes for a sleepover. The house also has an indoor bathing shelter, which I find to be a delightful feature. I have a solar shower, and it's wonderful to be able to shower in my house with my ipod playing. In my yard are several mango trees, which have fruit developing!!!!!

I don't have an "average day" to describe for you, unfortunately. I've started waking up before 6, and some days I get up, make a fire, make hot water for instant coffee or even pancakes if I'm feeling really ambitious, and sit on my front porch and read all day.

Other days I'm out going to various meetings or hosting them, working with an incredibly motivated Tree Nursery group, or exploring. One of the best days so far involved a meeting with all the headmen in my catchment area. The day before I'd biked to town with Ba Reuben and Brows, to get the dog a rabies vaccination and to buy chickens. We biked back from town with him with the dog in a basket on his bike, and me with two chickens on a basket on the back of my bike. Oh, the Peace Corps!!!

By dusk I'm back at my house cooking, usually rice and soya pieces and veggies if I've gotten any, and then food for the dog as well. I'm in my house by 7:30 and curled up in bed listening to the ZNBC news broadcast on my radio at 8 every night, and then reading to the light of two candles stuck in glass Coke bottles.

I haven't really felt lonely, although at some times I'm very aware that I'm the only white person in a 20-km radius circle. People are for the most part very friendly and welcoming, they wave and greet me as I cycle past. The children are especially enthusiastic (which some days just means annoying), screaming "Hello! Hello! How are you!" and "Hello BaNana!"

Because my name here is BaNana- Nana is easier for Zambians to say than just Nan, and Ba is the term for respect… so I laugh every time someone greets me. They mostly don't understand that my name is the English word for inkonde, that fruit they're growing… quite entertaining.

Brows is an excellent companion, and Gretchen and I get together every weekend to talk in English and cook more complicated meals together. The best so far was avocado-soya bean burgers on freshly purchased white bread with lettuce and tomatoes!
Last night for dinner I had actual pizza, which was stunningly good.

My work is slowly beginning. Right now I'm learning about the farming systems people are currently using, and have found a few people who are very interested in learning about conservation farming and Agroforestry. I've also met with the teachers at the local school a few times and I'm looking forward to starting to work with them. My catchment area includes some great bike rides- there's only one main road that goes from one end to the other, and then keeps going to Gretchen's house!- and two of the villages are on the other side of the Mansa River. Getting there involves an old dugout canoe, or right now because the water is so low walking across rocks and rickety branches. I went with Ba Reuben one day to collect bamboo for him to put in his new roof, and we got to cross the river and then going out into the genuine African bush to find the dense thickets of bamboo.

This past week mobile VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing for HIV/AIDS) came to my area for the first time- this was very exciting, and I think at least 60 people were tested, as well as others coming to learn about what was going on. The group that comes, called New Start, had drumming and drama and a big shiny "motoka!" so it definitely draws a crowd.

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who's sent me mail. I received a visit from one of the PC staff in Lusaka and he brought a big stack of mail for me- Jack and Ellen, I got your package, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's a longish delay between when things arrive in Mansa and when I get into town to collect them, which means there'll be a longer delay before I can write back but it is IMMENSELY FABULOUS to get letters (and packages J) from anyone and everyone.

Hope you're all well. I expect to be back in town in a few weeks, so feel free to e-mail me with questions or news from your lives (please!)

Nan