August 17, 2007
Ndi kaipeela mu Peace Corps
(I am a volunteer in the Peace Corps)
Hi everyone! I'm writing to you as a full-fledged, bonafide Peace Corps Volunteer- VEERY exciting place to be, it means we're finally through training and this morning swore in as PCVs. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture was there, as well as the US Ambassador to Zambia- and because the SADC Conference is being held in Lusaka, Zambia currently, we got to sit in traffic watching long motorcades with various leaders of African countries drive by on our way here- and thus probably saw some important world leaders whiz by!
I don't know when I'll load pictures of the ceremony up, but they do exist. Also, I was chosen to give a short speech in Bemba, which was really quite a fun challenge- I talked about the goals of the Linking Income Food and Environment program and used an amazing Bemba proverb: Imiti iikula empanga, which means "The trees that are growing will be the bush", which was taught to me by a blacksmith I met a few weeks ago. Hurrah for conservation and sustainability.
Highlights of the last few weeks- I got to celebrate my 21st birthday at a botanical garden/zoo called Munda Wanga, seeing some really amazing indigenous and other tree species, and in the afternoon chopping up fruits and vegetables with a machete and feeding them to monkeys.
We learned a ton about beekeeping and got to help process some fresh honey.. which of course also involved eating a ton of honey, and thoroughly enjoying it. I'd never seen that done before, or actually even seen honey still in the comb, and it will definitely be helpful in my work since I know there are several beekeeping groups already working in my village and catchment area.
Site visit to Luapula was wonderful (can't remember if I already wrote about all of this, sorry)- we were able to go to a traditional festival called the Mutomboko Festival, which celebrates the coming of the Lozi people into what is now Zambia, from the DRC. There were tons of people and it was a really exciting thing to be part of this large, crushing crowd observing a ceremony that their ancestors have been doing for so long. Also, while we were camping on the lawn of an orphanage in the process of being constructed, we found a chameleon :-)
This past week involved several comprehensive exams, in tech and language, so it's a huge relief to have that over, and to have training completed- now I'm doing what I have been planning for so long- I'm a Peace Corps volunteer!!
So in conclusion, I'm continuing to love Zambia, and it's really exciting to be on my way to Mansa, Luapula tomorrow! We'll spend a few days at the Provincial House buying supplies for our houses, and then it's off to the village to see what I can do.
Thanks so much to the people who have sent me mail, I really really appreciate it. Mom, I just got the first package, and the books made me laugh and reminisce and I'm excited to read them during the loooooong drive to Luapula tomorrow!
Love from Zambia,
Nan
July 22, 2007
Mwanasasa Village, and a NEW ADDRESS
Greetings from Luapula! I'm in my province now, in the provincial capital, or boma, Mansa. We're here for a week-long visit to a current Luapula volunteer. Last Thursday we were given our site assignments- I'm going to be a second-generation volunteer in Mwanasasa village in the Mansa district of Luapula- my site is about 25 kilometers from the boma, which means I'm very close to our Volunteer House in the boma. This house is phenomenal; it's hard to explain how exciting it is to see a place that feels like home- bedrooms with beds, real walls, DVDs and bookshelves and couches and a SHOWER- and fruit trees in the backyard- but the place is going to be an amazing solace and refuge when the village gets too overwhelming. We're allowed to spend a few days a month at the house, and also go there if we're sick or having meetings or similar situations.
And I'm very excited to watch a movie tonight, and sleep without rats coming into my room.
But anyway- about my site- I'm replacing a guy who did a lot of work with agroforestry and fuel-efficient stoves. This is very exciting because I am also very interested in agroforestry, and definitely feel more confident in that type of work than I do with strictly agriculture work. Also, my closest friend here, a girl named Gretchen who's an HIV/AIDS volunteer, is my closest neighbor, only about 25 k away. We requested to be near each other, and the Peace Corps and God definitely conspired to work that out for us! Apparently the community I'll be in is amazing, they were really excited to be doing the things that my predescessor was presenting, and I'm very excited to get there and pick up where he left off (he left in November).
Luapula is beautiful- the largest bridge in sub-Saharan Africa leads into it, over a wide swampy-area. This comes about 6 hours into an 8-9 hour drive from Lusaka to Mansa (10 people in a Land Cruiser... good times :-p) My wetland ecology class taught me that a swamp is a wetland with trees in it, so this is somewhat of a swamp- it's what I imagine the Everglades look like, broad and flat and grassy, with small mounds with trees growing on clusters. People were out on the water in dug-out canoes fishing, and then waving the fish at the side of the road hoping we'd stop to buy some.
We went through some very hilly regions, but where we are now is fairly flat- though I hear there are several beautiful waterfalls near my site, and I'm relatively close to the Luapula River also, which is the border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A bit about the weather, because my aunt requested it: right now it's "winter"- the cold, dry season- cold being a relative term, while it did get nearish to freezing during some nights, for the most part it's still very warm, I'm comfortable in a t-shirt and a skirt during the day. There aren't a lot of clouds in the sky, but when there are clouds they seem very very near for some reason. We're still trying to figure that out. The rainy season will begin in November-ish, and be followed by the hot, dry season.
MY NEW MAILING ADDRESS IS:
Nan Davis, PCV
Peace Corps Zambia
PO Box 710150
Mansa, ZambiaThat's for EVERYTHING- packages and letters.
Thanks SOO MUCH to those of you who've written me, I'm insanely excited every time I get mail.
Love to those of you to whom it would be appropriate to say that,
Nan
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
July 15, 2007
Singalongs and Environmental Education
Hello everyone,
I'm in Lusaka, at an internet cafe in a grocery store that will shortly provide me with ice cream and cheese. I'm splurging today, it's our amazing shopping day after weeks of intense training and not nearly enough free time! That will all change once I'm at my site after training is over; I'm told then you have many days with no clear direction or plan, and you wish you had hours of training to attend. I'm still very excited for training to be over and the real work to begin, even though I know it'll also be a lot harder.
Language training continues to be... interesting. We learned 18 noun classes all of which have different ways to format sentences, but I did pretty well at the first competency practice test, so there's hope. Tech training is way more interesting and enjoyable, we're planting/working in a garden, studying agroforestry tree species (my main interest, as it turns out) and last week we did Environmental Ed work. That was really exciting, we got to observe children at a basic school nearby, and then present a lesson on food webs and food chains. Unfortunately without having more time to develop a relationship with the teachers and students, we're more like tourist attractions, and I think the kids spent more time staring at the weird Americans at the front of the classroom than they did actually listening to what we were saying.
I'm making some amazing friends, which is good because my homestay family is kind of difficult to deal with. I'm immensely appreciative of my American family, who are far more cheerful and get along a lot better than they do. My ba mayo (mom) is a VERY good cook, at least with Zambian food, so that works out. Also, one of our chickens is sitting on about a dozen eggs so hopefully when I get back from our week-long visit to a current volunteer (week after next) there will be chicks running around!
I'll be able to check my e-mail again next weekend in Luapula so write me! We're staying for a week with a currentl volunteer. Also by the end of next week I'll know where my work site will actually be, which is INCREDIBLY exciting.
I tried to send a lot of response e-mails,but if you have questions I haven't answered yet definitely send them my way! Also snail-mail letters. I will probably end every e-mail with a plea for mail, it's amazing, and I'll write back to everyone!
Off to get ice cream,
Nan
July 1, 2007
Hey Look I found a computer!
Hi everyone,
I don't have enough cash on me to take the time to write back all those of you who e-mailed me, but thanks so much, and I love and miss those of you to whom it wouldn't be inappropriate to say that :-) (you know who you are!)
Zambia continues to be amazing. We're a week and a half into our training, which means I still don't know how to say very much in Bemba but I'm getting more and more excited as I realize how much there is to learn. Which also means of course, that there is a lot I don't know yet, but the trainers are wonderful and the rest of my group of Trainees is full of some amazing people who are rapidly becoming good friends.
A typical day of training:
Wake up around 230, because that's when the roosters start going off. Try to fall asleep again before I hear the rats in my room.
Repeat at 430 and 600; get up at 630.
Take a bucket bath in my outdoor bathing shelter; this is VERY cold some mornings but mostly a really refreshing way to wake up. My host mom makes me breakfast- instant coffee, and egg, and peanutbutter sandwhiches or fritters. Ride my (SUPER SWEET TREK) mountain bike to language class, which is outside, and is 3 other people and me with our Zambian cultural-and-language-facilitator. We learn Bemba until our brains hurt, then break for lunch.
Lunch is at home, usually around 1230. My host mom cooks more amazing food, this time usually nshima (the staple food here) and rape or tomatoes, and often fish, chicken, or soya pieces as well. Then at 1400 I go for technical treaining, which this week included some basic agricultural and tree nursery information as well as a background of the Zambian Forest Department and Ministry of Agriculture.
Training goes until around 1700, then I go home for dinner, which is similar to lunch, and then study for a while and generally go to bed by 2030. Once it gets dark, I realize how tired I am and I collapse :0)
It's hard to describe what it's like here... right now it's the dry-winter season, so there's very little green. Mostly there's dust, and dried grass. There are chickens and goats running around everywhere, and my one friend's host family has these crazy looking ducks- they have reddish feet, and are black and white speckles. Also small lizards, and big rats. ROUSes, if you will! All the "exciting" wildlife is confined to the national parks, which I will definitely visit. I will also be visiting Victoria Falls at some point, although I'm not very close to there right now, and I'll be working even further away once I go to my site.
The people are VERY friendly and helpful, as evidenced by the fact that we even found this out-of-the-way internet cafe. All the villagers we met when we went to visit a current volunteer were really excited to meet Americans and listen to us attempt to speak Bemba to them, which means probably the people in my village will respond to me similarly. I hope so, anyway!
Sorry this is kind of rushed, but hey, you're getting an e-mail from Africa! I would like to note that if you write me letters, you'll get detailed and lengthy responses back, because I always have paper and pen whereas computers are hard to come by.
Say Hello to the various parts of America for me,
Nan
Singalongs and Environmental Education
Hello everyone,
I'm in Lusaka, at an internet cafe in a grocery store that will shortly provide me with ice cream and cheese. I'm splurging today, it's our amazing shopping day after weeks of intense training and not nearly enough free time! That will all change once I'm at my site after training is over; I'm told then you have many days with no clear direction or plan, and you wish you had hours of training to attend. I'm still very excited for training to be over and the real work to begin, even though I know it'll also be a lot harder.
Language training continues to be... interesting. We learned 18 noun classes all of which have different ways to format sentences, but I did pretty well at the first competency practice test, so there's hope. Tech training is way more interesting and enjoyable, we're planting/working in a garden, studying agroforestry tree species (my main interest, as it turns out) and last week we did Environmental Ed work. That was really exciting, we got to observe children at a basic school nearby, and then present a lesson on food webs and food chains. Unfortunately without having more time to develop a relationship with the teachers and students, we're more like tourist attractions, and I think the kids spent more time staring at the weird Americans at the front of the classroom than they did actually listening to what we were saying.
I'm making some amazing friends, which is good because my homestay family is kind of difficult to deal with. I'm immensely appreciative of my American family, who are far more cheerful and get along a lot better than they do. My ba mayo (mom) is a VERY good cook, at least with Zambian food, so that works out. Also, one of our chickens is sitting on about a dozen eggs so hopefully when I get back from our week-long visit to a current volunteer (week after next) there will be chicks running around!
I'll be able to check my e-mail again next weekend in Luapula so write me! We're staying for a week with a currentl volunteer. Also by the end of next week I'll know where my work site will actually be, which is INCREDIBLY exciting.
I tried to send a lot of response e-mails,but if you have questions I haven't answered yet definitely send them my way! Also snail-mail letters. I will probably end every e-mail with a plea for mail, it's amazing, and I'll write back to everyone!
Off to get ice cream,
Nan
July 1, 2007
Hey Look I found a computer!
Hi everyone,
I don't have enough cash on me to take the time to write back all those of you who e-mailed me, but thanks so much, and I love and miss those of you to whom it wouldn't be inappropriate to say that :-) (you know who you are!)
Zambia continues to be amazing. We're a week and a half into our training, which means I still don't know how to say very much in Bemba but I'm getting more and more excited as I realize how much there is to learn. Which also means of course, that there is a lot I don't know yet, but the trainers are wonderful and the rest of my group of Trainees is full of some amazing people who are rapidly becoming good friends.
A typical day of training:
Wake up around 230, because that's when the roosters start going off. Try to fall asleep again before I hear the rats in my room.
Repeat at 430 and 600; get up at 630.
Take a bucket bath in my outdoor bathing shelter; this is VERY cold some mornings but mostly a really refreshing way to wake up. My host mom makes me breakfast- instant coffee, and egg, and peanutbutter sandwhiches or fritters. Ride my (SUPER SWEET TREK) mountain bike to language class, which is outside, and is 3 other people and me with our Zambian cultural-and-language-facilitator. We learn Bemba until our brains hurt, then break for lunch.
Lunch is at home, usually around 1230. My host mom cooks more amazing food, this time usually nshima (the staple food here) and rape or tomatoes, and often fish, chicken, or soya pieces as well. Then at 1400 I go for technical treaining, which this week included some basic agricultural and tree nursery information as well as a background of the Zambian Forest Department and Ministry of Agriculture.
Training goes until around 1700, then I go home for dinner, which is similar to lunch, and then study for a while and generally go to bed by 2030. Once it gets dark, I realize how tired I am and I collapse :0)
It's hard to describe what it's like here... right now it's the dry-winter season, so there's very little green. Mostly there's dust, and dried grass. There are chickens and goats running around everywhere, and my one friend's host family has these crazy looking ducks- they have reddish feet, and are black and white speckles. Also small lizards, and big rats. ROUSes, if you will! All the "exciting" wildlife is confined to the national parks, which I will definitely visit. I will also be visiting Victoria Falls at some point, although I'm not very close to there right now, and I'll be working even further away once I go to my site.
The people are VERY friendly and helpful, as evidenced by the fact that we even found this out-of-the-way internet cafe. All the villagers we met when we went to visit a current volunteer were really excited to meet Americans and listen to us attempt to speak Bemba to them, which means probably the people in my village will respond to me similarly. I hope so, anyway!
Sorry this is kind of rushed, but hey, you're getting an e-mail from Africa! I would like to note that if you write me letters, you'll get detailed and lengthy responses back, because I always have paper and pen whereas computers are hard to come by.
Say Hello to the various parts of America for me,
Nan
JUNE 19 2007
Hi everyone,I'm at an internet cafe in Lusaka, paying something like 20000 Kwacha (the exchange rate's abuot K4000 for a dollar, so not much) but not feeling bad about the line of people behind me.
So, we flew from JFK to Johannesburg, South Africa last Friday-Saturday. Saturday night was spent at one of the cushiest hotels I'd ever been in, with an amazing buffet for dinner that included about 8 different chocolate desserts.. not a commodity I will be getting much of in the next few years, so we enjoyed them while we could!
Sunday we arrived in Lusaka, Zambia. We've been staying in a government-training campus-hostel facility, and driving packed into LandRovers to the PC headquarters for the beginnings of training. We chose our language groups and thus, the provinces to which we willtravel, yesterday. I will be studying Bemba, which is one of the more widely used languages, and going to Luapula, which was my first choice of places to go. It's in the northern part of Zambia, and has lots of waterfalls, rivers, and lakes- apparently this means fish will be a big portion of my diet, and I"m told the crocodiles generally stay away from people. There are about 30 volunteers serving there, so I'll have neighbors just a long-ish bike ride away.
Today we are in town to do some shopping (cell phones! who knew??) and then tomorrow I will go with the 3 guys who are also in the LIFE program and learning Bemba to visit a volunteer in the Copperbelt province. That's about 4-5 hours away, and we're goign to stay with her in her village for 4 days. I'm very excited; that'll be the first taste of village life and the work we'll be doing, as well as a chance to say "Muli shani?" (How are you?) to lots and lots of people.
So, my cell phone number is 0978367051 I don't know what the Zambia country code is, but you're all at nice high speed internet connections, so look it up yourselves :-) Text messages are far cheaper than phone calls, but don't expect TOO many because I'm a poor volunteer. If you desperately need to hear my voice call me, but probably text me first to make sure my phone's on and I"m paying attention.
Apparently skype is fairly cheap to use for international calling, also, if you use that.
I'm off to buy chocolate for our volunteer host!
No idea when I'll be back online, but that shuoldn't stop you from writing me back.
Nan
JUNE 18 2007
Hi everyone,
Here is a brief hello from Lusaka, Zambia. I am insanely excited to be here, and the other 46 people in my training class are amazing. We decided today what languages we'd be studying; I'm going to be learning Bemba and will be living and working in the Luapula province once training is completed.
So far I haven't seen too much, but I've been able to experience some of the foods I'll be eating (with my right hand ONLY!) for the next few years... every volunteer I've met so far LOVES it here, and many of them have extended their service for a third year because they love it so much.
Tomorrow I'll be getting a cell phone; buy a phone card if you want to call me, that way it costs you money instead of me :-p
I'll write more when there aren't 10 people in line behind me.
Nan
Hi everyone,I'm at an internet cafe in Lusaka, paying something like 20000 Kwacha (the exchange rate's abuot K4000 for a dollar, so not much) but not feeling bad about the line of people behind me.
So, we flew from JFK to Johannesburg, South Africa last Friday-Saturday. Saturday night was spent at one of the cushiest hotels I'd ever been in, with an amazing buffet for dinner that included about 8 different chocolate desserts.. not a commodity I will be getting much of in the next few years, so we enjoyed them while we could!
Sunday we arrived in Lusaka, Zambia. We've been staying in a government-training campus-hostel facility, and driving packed into LandRovers to the PC headquarters for the beginnings of training. We chose our language groups and thus, the provinces to which we willtravel, yesterday. I will be studying Bemba, which is one of the more widely used languages, and going to Luapula, which was my first choice of places to go. It's in the northern part of Zambia, and has lots of waterfalls, rivers, and lakes- apparently this means fish will be a big portion of my diet, and I"m told the crocodiles generally stay away from people. There are about 30 volunteers serving there, so I'll have neighbors just a long-ish bike ride away.
Today we are in town to do some shopping (cell phones! who knew??) and then tomorrow I will go with the 3 guys who are also in the LIFE program and learning Bemba to visit a volunteer in the Copperbelt province. That's about 4-5 hours away, and we're goign to stay with her in her village for 4 days. I'm very excited; that'll be the first taste of village life and the work we'll be doing, as well as a chance to say "Muli shani?" (How are you?) to lots and lots of people.
So, my cell phone number is 0978367051 I don't know what the Zambia country code is, but you're all at nice high speed internet connections, so look it up yourselves :-) Text messages are far cheaper than phone calls, but don't expect TOO many because I'm a poor volunteer. If you desperately need to hear my voice call me, but probably text me first to make sure my phone's on and I"m paying attention.
Apparently skype is fairly cheap to use for international calling, also, if you use that.
I'm off to buy chocolate for our volunteer host!
No idea when I'll be back online, but that shuoldn't stop you from writing me back.
Nan
JUNE 18 2007
Hi everyone,
Here is a brief hello from Lusaka, Zambia. I am insanely excited to be here, and the other 46 people in my training class are amazing. We decided today what languages we'd be studying; I'm going to be learning Bemba and will be living and working in the Luapula province once training is completed.
So far I haven't seen too much, but I've been able to experience some of the foods I'll be eating (with my right hand ONLY!) for the next few years... every volunteer I've met so far LOVES it here, and many of them have extended their service for a third year because they love it so much.
Tomorrow I'll be getting a cell phone; buy a phone card if you want to call me, that way it costs you money instead of me :-p
I'll write more when there aren't 10 people in line behind me.
Nan
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
And the adventure begins
I'm off tomorrow! I'm still doing that last-minute packing which seems unavoidable, but most of my stuff is all packed into two backpacks. All I have to do is finish fiddling with my electronics and odds-and-ends... as well as continue dramatic readings of Poe's poetry with interpretive dances in the background with my siblings until we all pass out from delirious exhaustion.
Tomorrow... a drive to Albany, a plane to Philadelphia, and the adventure begins :-)
Tomorrow... a drive to Albany, a plane to Philadelphia, and the adventure begins :-)
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Staging
I got my staging packet in the mail yesterday. That's the final go-ahead I've been waiting for, as it contained the official departure date and travel information. I need to be in Philadelphia June 13th, and I'm leaving for Africa (first Johannesburg, then up to Lusaka, Zambia) on June 15th. In a month from today- that's it, just one month- I'll be in Zambia.
There's pretty much no way to actually get my mind around this, but I feel like it's happening for real this time. I've now down everything twice- gotten two invitations, two giant packets, and two staging packets- and what's left is the real, gritty, challenging, frustrating process of actually packing. This is where I got really bogged down, completely stressed out, and stopped sleeping in January. I'm hoping to avoid that this time around, and I'm actually further ahead than where I was when Guinea was still on the horizon. I have a new pair of dress shoes (which is way more significant than it seems, given that the last time I bought dress shoes I was, I think, a sophomore in high school). I have an iPod. I have several new pairs of Chacos in the mail, and I have an incredibly helpful list of packing suggestions from a girl who is currently in Zambia with the Peace Corps.
Now I just have to sit down in a large pile of my possessions and see whether they can all fit into my daypack (somehow I doub it, but I'm holding on to the possibility) or if I need to (okay, get to) get a new internal frame pack.
There's pretty much no way to actually get my mind around this, but I feel like it's happening for real this time. I've now down everything twice- gotten two invitations, two giant packets, and two staging packets- and what's left is the real, gritty, challenging, frustrating process of actually packing. This is where I got really bogged down, completely stressed out, and stopped sleeping in January. I'm hoping to avoid that this time around, and I'm actually further ahead than where I was when Guinea was still on the horizon. I have a new pair of dress shoes (which is way more significant than it seems, given that the last time I bought dress shoes I was, I think, a sophomore in high school). I have an iPod. I have several new pairs of Chacos in the mail, and I have an incredibly helpful list of packing suggestions from a girl who is currently in Zambia with the Peace Corps.
Now I just have to sit down in a large pile of my possessions and see whether they can all fit into my daypack (somehow I doub it, but I'm holding on to the possibility) or if I need to (okay, get to) get a new internal frame pack.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Diiiiiiiisc
I spent the weekend with some amazing friends- Friday night at UConn, Saturday and Sunday in Wellesley with Fox Force Seven. Believe it or not, that was the first full tournament I've played with the Foxes since fall of my junior year... craziness. And it felt so good to be playing with them- I've been to other tournaments since my leg healed- Get Ho Ho Ho! in December with SyraConn, and High Tide, but not with my Foxes.
I am very much looking forward to my Peace Corps adventure, but I'm going to miss ultimate. I can very easily see myself missing ultimate more than I will miss Starbucks, or maple trees, or even running water. Because ultimate is more than just a game for me... it's a defining part of my life. Part of me comes alive when I'm playing that just isn't there other times. The focus and confidence I have on the field, knowing what my role is and feeling like I can do what I need to, and do it well... and do it powerfully, and have an unbelievable amount of fun while doing it... that's an experience unmatched by most other activities in my life. Probably my favorite position to play is hammer-stop, and I love to play there, because I know exactly what to do, and I relish the frustration on some wing's face when I'm there to stop her (almost) every time she cuts.
I love to run, but I run because it will make me a better ultimate player. And the more I play, the more I enjoy running, because it reminds me of the incomparable feeling of chasing down a disc, or staying step-for-step with the girl I'm defending (or staying step-for-step with the guy I'm defending). I wonder sometimes, what I would have found to be passionate about if I hadn't run into the Foxes practicing that Friday afternoon my freshman year... and that's a question I suppose I'll never need the answer to, because I found the best sport on earth.
I am very much looking forward to my Peace Corps adventure, but I'm going to miss ultimate. I can very easily see myself missing ultimate more than I will miss Starbucks, or maple trees, or even running water. Because ultimate is more than just a game for me... it's a defining part of my life. Part of me comes alive when I'm playing that just isn't there other times. The focus and confidence I have on the field, knowing what my role is and feeling like I can do what I need to, and do it well... and do it powerfully, and have an unbelievable amount of fun while doing it... that's an experience unmatched by most other activities in my life. Probably my favorite position to play is hammer-stop, and I love to play there, because I know exactly what to do, and I relish the frustration on some wing's face when I'm there to stop her (almost) every time she cuts.
I love to run, but I run because it will make me a better ultimate player. And the more I play, the more I enjoy running, because it reminds me of the incomparable feeling of chasing down a disc, or staying step-for-step with the girl I'm defending (or staying step-for-step with the guy I'm defending). I wonder sometimes, what I would have found to be passionate about if I hadn't run into the Foxes practicing that Friday afternoon my freshman year... and that's a question I suppose I'll never need the answer to, because I found the best sport on earth.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
St. Patrick's Day
St. Patrick's Day... not being spent marching down 5th Avenue in New York, or wandering around in the woods. This year I'm going for some good old American-style celebration, heading up to Albany to spend the evening with Deidra and some of her friends.
We're all shoveled out from the nor'easter that hit yesterday. It's nice to have snow to excuse my slothfulness (I rented The Departed and loved it).
Things I'm looking forward to these days:
The new TMNT movie, coming out in a few weeks
Going to Vancouver and Pullman (April 26-May 10)- Returning to the West Coast, where I'm convinced I left a good portion of my soul some years back.
The 3rd Pirates movie
and of course, Going to Zambia. Which, if plans don't get altered the way they did in January, will be June 13. I'm getting more and more excited as time goes by. I tend to go through spurts, where I get bogged down in my day-to-day routine of nothingness, but then I make contact with someone else in my training class, or I find the blog of someone who's a current or past Volunteer there, or I see something like a full-page picture of Victoria Falls in the New York Times, and suddenly I'm hit again with the desire to be there. I don't know what to expect, but I can't wait to experience it. I want my world to change. I want my mindset to be forever shaken, and to suddenly see in front of me, wide open, paths I never before imagined for myself.
We're all shoveled out from the nor'easter that hit yesterday. It's nice to have snow to excuse my slothfulness (I rented The Departed and loved it).
Things I'm looking forward to these days:
The new TMNT movie, coming out in a few weeks
Going to Vancouver and Pullman (April 26-May 10)- Returning to the West Coast, where I'm convinced I left a good portion of my soul some years back.
The 3rd Pirates movie
and of course, Going to Zambia. Which, if plans don't get altered the way they did in January, will be June 13. I'm getting more and more excited as time goes by. I tend to go through spurts, where I get bogged down in my day-to-day routine of nothingness, but then I make contact with someone else in my training class, or I find the blog of someone who's a current or past Volunteer there, or I see something like a full-page picture of Victoria Falls in the New York Times, and suddenly I'm hit again with the desire to be there. I don't know what to expect, but I can't wait to experience it. I want my world to change. I want my mindset to be forever shaken, and to suddenly see in front of me, wide open, paths I never before imagined for myself.
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