Keeping Busy

So I just got back early this week from helping Christi host first site visit with the new RAP volunteers that just landed in Zambia. We hosted 4 guys to will be heading to Northern or Luapula provinces when they complete training. It was a fun-filled 3 days. I think they were a bit overwhelmed the first night. Considering they were only in country for two days before heading to the village they did quite well in my opinion. It was fun sharing pc horror stories and my medical stories. I had to scare them just a bit ;) We visited two of Christi’s best farmers, Mr. Sakala and Mr. Zimba. Here is a photo of their farms and ponds. We ate some fabulous Zambian food, which the boys liked quite a bit. They did better than me on my first site visit…I hardly ate due to anxiety and being overwhelmed. To the right is the long road to Christi's village.

The last night was the best. Jeff and Rich “Fuzzy” came out with the landcruiser and we all went to watch “N’yau” dancing. This is the Chewa tribes traditional dance. Its quite different from my tribe, the Ngoni’s,but very cool to watch. They even came back to Christi’s house and gave us a VIP show which is unheard of. I think there’s never been that many muzungu’s in chiwoko ever and they wanted to celebrate. Then we continued the dancing at Christi’s house where we all enjoyed great music and tasty beverages. It was a successful evening, however I felt sorry for Dale when he woke up covered in ants. Oh well, its Peace Corps.

Right before “first site” visit I held a fish farming training at Madzimoyo (about 5km) from my village. I had 25 people attend, 19 men and 6 women. It was an all day event where I taught pond construction in the morning and pond management in the afternoon. I was very pleased with the training and happy to see that everyone seems very eager to start fish farming. I did the training in collaboration with another NGO and the entire training was done in Nyanja. I’m sure I sounded funny, but I think the farmers appreciated me using the local language. The construction of several ponds have begun and some of them are almost finished. I’m very excited about this.

I’ve also started working with Madzimoyo High School with fish farming and some gender workshops. Christi and I will be organizing a Boy’s Empowerment and Girl’s Empowerment weekend at Madzimoyo at the end of September and beginning of October. The workshops will be 4 days long and the goal is to empower these kids and teach them the importance of their education and allowing them to see that they can achieve their goals in life. I’m very excited about these two workshops and I’ve found that I’m extremely interested in this area of work. Gender issues are such a problem here and by starting with the youth we hope to sensitize them and maybe they will grow up with the belief that men and women should be treated equally. That’s a long way off for Zambia, but hopefully one day things will change.

In February, Christi and I will be organizing “Youth Career Week” which is exciting and involves all the volunteers in our province bringing two kids to Chipata for one week learning about career options and HIV/AIDs related awareness. Then in May we hope to host the first “Women in Business” weekend where women from our villages come together and share their business stories and learn more business skills.

I’m also teaching grade 11 english and math once a week and love being around the kids. They have very unique outlooks on the world and I love sharing stories and ideas with them. Its truly rewarding. Christi and I have also started a foundation called the Browen Foundation. The project deals with deforestation and recycling paper to preserve Zambia. We currently have a group of board members and are currently looking for a facility where we can set up shop. Its an exciting and unexpected project and I think it has the potential to have quite an impact. More details to come once things start happening.

So as you can see I’ve been super busy. The one year mark hits and everything just falls into place. Its amazing really, but I’m really happy here and finally feel like I’m doing something. I’ve met some amazing Zambians that I really enjoy working with and I’ve made some really good friends in the village. This experience is turning out to be more than I hoped for.

I’m in town right now writing a proposal for a grant to send two of my farmers to Lusaka for some agriculture training in September and October and I’m also filling out my PC quarterly report for the RAP project. All of our reports are sent to Washington to keep track of the programs successes. Next week I’m heading to Cape McClear (on Lake Malawi) for some R&R. I’ll be on the beach next week soaking up some rays and snorkeling around the islands down there. Its funny, because I have no money, but somehow I’ll be able to do this trip on less than $200. I love Africa ;)

I hope everyone has a very Happy 4th of July!!!!