Good times with friends

After my adventures in Livingstone I headed up to Choma to meet up with my two good friends Andrea and Caitlin. I spent two days with Dre and then went to Cait's village in Chifusa (about a 2hr cantor truck ride into the bush). It was so great. I haven't seen Cait in a long time. We had the most fun, making great coffee with Bailey's (she just went home to the states in July) and even had an encounter with a green momba snake (one deadly snake). We were walking to a school about 8km from her village when Cait stopped and I had no idea why...and laying across the path was this really long thin snake. Looked harmless if you asked me, however Cait's Zambian friend immediately told us to back away as he threw a huge rock at it. Then he asked the strangest thing..."are one of you pregnant? What? Thats a weird question." Apparently green momba's don't just stay still. In the culture here, they believe a snake like this only stops in the presense of a pregnant woman. We had a good laugh at that. Then we spent the rest of the week on gender activities with her school and stayed up till 1am last night playing gin rummy. Good times. Its funny because after visiting other volunteers and their sites, I always feel renewed and I'm reminded that I'm really fortunate to be here with these amazing people. Thanks girls for a wonderful time and allowing me to recover from the craziness of Livingstone. I'm staying with a family from the states tonight in Lusaka. It will be so nice to watch American movies and eat good food. Tomorrow its back to Chipata for another crazy week of work. We have provincial meetings the end of next week and I'm hoping to have another fish transport to my farmers in Kapatamoyo.

The Mighty Zambezi

After mid-term medical exams we headed down to Livingstone for a little adventure. I wanted to check off "white water rafting" on my life time to do list and why not do it on one of the top 5 rivers for rafting in the world. I'd like to say one of the most dangerous rivers. I'll let the photos speak for themselves and you can be the judge. I have to admit, this was the second time in my entire life that I was truly scared that I was going to die. I got trapped under the boat in a class 4 rapid and could not get out. I remember thinking, "well this is it, I'm out of air...and then I finally popped out and was able to gasp some air before I was pounded under the water again to ride out the rest of the rapid. A really nice guy in my boat came to my rescue and I was truly grateful for that. They pulled me out of the water and I nose dived into the raft. I couldn't speak, I couldn't move. I felt like the life had been sucked out of me. Needless to say, I won't be going white water rafting anymore. We were put in at rapid 1 and this only happens during sept and october each year. I paid for a full day, but quit at the half way point after I almost lost my life. It wasn't worth it and my gut told me it was time to get out. Unfortunately I then had to climb out of the gorge on all fours on this homemade ladder of sticks. Part way up the 150 meter climb, I realized that my life was in danger once again. I made it with the help of my new Irish friend Donncha. We hung together for the rest of the day and even took transport out of Livingstone the next day. Thank god for the Irish. He made me see the humor in all that happened. Luckily, I'm okay, just a bit beat up. Many bruises and a bump on my head. Could have been worse. At this time of the year, the Zambezi is full of Class 4 and 5 rapids. There is one Class 6 rapid (called Commercial Suicide) which we had to get out and walk around. This definitely ranks as one of the most insane things I've ever done. I'll go skydiving any day.

So this is me being thrown out of the 1st rapid a class 4 rapid. However no one knew I fell out because everyone had to high side on the left to keep the boat from flipping. They finally fished me out. That was a rude awakening especially after swallowing my share of the tasty Zambezi water. This should have been a sign for what was to come.

In one of the Class 5 rapids we actually had to drop 7meters (small waterfall I'd say) and thats when everyone has to get in the down position like we are in this photo. We lost Katy on this one and you can see Christi looking back to where she fell out. I'm the one on the far right with my back facing forward.

Looks like we have nice form :) You can see my arm on the back left (blue shirt).

I wanted to upload more photos, but blogger is being funny right now. I'll add them later. I also want to wish my mom a very Happy Birthday today! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you!!!

Clean Bill of Health

Last week I came to Lusaka for mid-term medical exams. We got our blood tested, teeth cleaned, urine analyzed along with our final Hep A and B shots and a multitude of other tests. I'm happy to say that I'm healthy. Everything came back just fine. I spent the week with my fellow RAPpers hanging out and going out for a night at Alpha Bar in Lusaka. It was so great to see everyone again. The last time we were all together was IST last November. After three days with the doctors, Christi's friend came from the states and we headed down to Livingstone for quite the adventure. Unfortunately my camera didn't make it. Its currently in London somewhere and hopefully it will be making its way to me soon. I miss taking photos :( Oh and I promise to all my friends and family at home that by the end of the year I hope to have all my photos uploaded to my Kodak gallery account for your viewing pleasure. Since it covers over a year of photos there will be about 20 albums to view. It may take another year for you to see all of them ;)

Work in the village

Life continues to be really busy. I just finished 4 big fish farming trainings this past week training over 110 rural farmers on pond construction and pond management. Its been a hectic week but also very gratifying. My model farmer, Mr. Benson Chulu (photo below) finally completed his pond and we are set to bring him fish soon. I just did a training in my old village today and was able to see the pond. Its beautiful. I almost cried. I’m so proud of him because he’s put so much effort into building this pond. I know these things may seem so insignificant to you at home in the states, but this is a big deal and has potential to bring a lot of development here. As any struggling volunteer can admit, this is quite an accomplishment. Christi and I are also getting prepared to have two 4-day workshops on boys empowerment and girls empowerment in early October. We will be having the workshop for 20 girls and 20 boys and we will discuss issues such as gender equality, HIV/AIDs, sex, their future, goals, assertiveness, communication, leadership, careers and much much more. I’m really excited about this. I really enjoy working with the youth. Its only about a month away and it’s the first big workshop either of us has done, so I hope everything comes together.

I’m leaving tomorrow for Lusaka to attend my mid-term medical exams. I’ll be getting poked and prodded for three days to make sure that my health is top notch. Then its off to Livingstone to raft the Zambezi. The water is low since we are in the dry season and we get to start at the base of Victoria Falls and raft all 23 rapids. It will be an adventure. I haven’t gone white water rafting since I was 17 years old. Then I’ll be spending a few days with my girls, Dre and Caitlin in their villages in Southern province. Then its back to Chipata to catch up on lots of work and make the final preparations for the workshops. I basically have something going on every month now until I finish my service. Time is flying. Less than 11 months to go….

I also want to send a big congratulations to my girlfriends Robin and Naomi who both recently got engaged and ask me to be in their weddings next year when I get home!! I can't wait!

These photos are of my training and my farmers digging their first group pond.

The Annual Chichewa Festival with the Nyau Dancers

Every year at the end of August, the Chewa’s celebrate their traditional tribal dances at the Kalombo ceremony. It’s a huge event. Thousands of people were there, including three heads of state, President Mwanawasa, the President of Malawi and the President of Mozambique. The dancing was really great. The Chewa’s are completely different than my tribe, the Ngoni’s. They have a very unique look and style of dancing. It was really great to get to see something like this. They thought we were press and we were ushered to the very middle of the stadium. Definitely had the VIP seats. The place was complete chaos and it was super hot. We only stayed for a few hours, which was as much as I could handle.

Turning 29 in my village

Definitely ranks as one unique birthday and I will never forget it. It was a nice and quiet day. To celebrate Christi and Rachel came to my house . My Amai made my favorite Zambian meal; chicken, cabbage and nshima. Yummy. Christi spent the night and we ate and sang with my family. We took some “snaps” and I really enjoyed the evening with my Zambian family, some Zambian friends and Christi. I received three birthday cards from people in the village and one read “Happy Birthday Mom.” It made me laugh. They made me feel very loved and I was very grateful. Below is a pic of me and my family here.

National Agriculture Show

I was in Lusaka from July 29th til August 7th working at the National Agriculture show with Department of Fisheries and representing Peace Corps with Christi. The show started on August 2ndt and lasted til the 6th. It was a great networking experience. We met with many government officials including President Mwanawasa and the President of Bostwana, the Minister of Agriculture, the Governor of Finance and a Permnant Secretary. We were really honored to represent Peace Corps with the Department of Fisheries at the show. It gave us a lot of insight into what people knew about Peace Corps. Unfortunately the vast majority of people had never heard of the Peace Corps. A few had heard of Peace Corps, but did not know what we were doing here and even a smaller amount actually knew about our programs. Most people were extremely interested in our projects and wanted to learn more. We handed out brochures about Peace Corps Zambia as an organization and the RAP program specifically. We showcased a map of Zambia that showed the locations of all RAP volunteers. To our surprise, we were able to connect several people to volunteers in various provinces. We even made some contacts in Eastern province.

After being there each day of the show, we realized how important we think it is for all programs in Peace Corps Zambia to participate with their respective ministries at the show. We met with everyone in the Department of Fisheries and representatives from each Province and made some great connections with them. Sadly, even people within the Department of Fisheries had never heard of Peace Corps. As volunteers we were extremely grateful to have the chance to meet such influential people and for us to discuss the Peace Corps with them.

Overall our greatest accomplishment was putting a face on our organization. People were fascinated with what we do and how we live. We provided farmers with information booklets on fish farming and integration that the Department of Fisheries could not provide. After speaking with many people in the Department, they were extremely grateful to have us be apart of their booth. We even won the best Government Stand award.

We think it is important to work closely with our ministries as it had proved helpful in getting RAP started in Eastern Province and by participating in the National Agriculture Show we are reinforcing the connections we want to maintain. It was a great networking event for us and we are much closer to our counterparts due to the show. RAP volunteers from all the provinces may get work just from this show. We encouraged the fisheries extension officers from all over Zambia to meet with the RAP volunteers in their provinces.