Words of Encouragement

If we do not offer ourselves to the unknown, our senses will dull. Our world becomes small and we lose our sense of wonder. Our eyes will not lift to the horizon; our ears will not hear the sounds around us. We pass our days in routine that is both comfortable and limiting. We soon wake up to find we have lost our dreams in order to protect our days. Fear of the unknown and the lure of comfortable space will conspire to keep you from taking the chances you should take.

But if we take a chance, you will never regret the choice. To be sure, there will be moments of doubt when you stand alone on an empty road in the pouring rain, or when you are ill with fever in a rented bed. But as the pains of the moment will come; so will they ever fade away. In the end you will be so much richer, so much stronger, so much happier and so much the better person for having taken risk and hardship. There will be nothing to compare to the insight you have gained.

- Kent Nerburn

Livin Life in the Village

The rains are upon us now. Its quite early this year compared to last year. They started in late November last year. I don’t mind too much since my house is water proof. I wouldn’t do last year over again….I’ll never forget the day that I walked round trip 10km in the pouring cold rain to come home and make some hot chocolate and sit in my chair when it began raining on my head in my house. That really sucked and was a low moment in my service. I love being a second year volunteer. Life is so much better. Work is flowing in and many friendships have been established. Its nice to be established here. The kids in my family are great and love them like me own. My sister Grace who just turned five is being sponsored by World Vision to go to school and we went to meet some of the sponsors about three Saturday's ago at Mtengulani. It was weird to talk with Americans again who are not Peace Corps. They were from Bethel Church in Washington state. They couldn’t believe it when they saw me walk in carrying my brother Teddy. It was a nice program. I was able to network with some of the people at World Vision and we just met this past Monday and looks like we will be collaborating on efforts such as fish farming in the future. I like partnering with NGO’s….makes my life easier when having workshops and trainings as far as getting food and supplies etc.

So the end of November I’ll be holding my first HIV/AIDs workshop in Fisheni village. I feel it’s the right time in my service to do this. It will be three days long and we are hoping to have about 35 people/couples attend. We are mostly going to be discussing prevention and treatment and the third day we are having VCT (Volunteer Counseling and Testing). I’ll even be getting tested myself so I can show them that I practice what I preach. I’m hoping to get more than 100 people tested. So that’s the next big project and I’m currently in Lusaka for IST (In-service Training). We spent the week mostly discussing our projects and talking about our COS (Close of Service) conference. I can’t believe I have less than 10 months to go. IST was good fun. Met a lot of new volunteers and had a great time out at Johnny's bar last night. Johnny's has a swimming pool that goes underneath the dance floor. Good times...wet, but good.

Then I’ll be preparing for World AIDs Day on December 1st. We are going to be sensitizing people on protecting themselves and doing a short condom demonstration at the local night club in Chipata. We’ll be reaching hundreds of people and hitting our target market.

Finally I’ll be preparing for the Field Day in Kapatamoyo. So many things going on and I’m also going to start looking into a budget to build new dorms at the High School and I may be asking for donors to contribute to that project. More information on that in the next few weeks. Overall things are great here and I’m absolutely loving it.

Happy Independence Day

October 24th marked another Independence day for Zambia. I celebrated at Madzimoyo Secondary school where I teach english. The day was filled with singing, dancing, poems and skits put on by the students. I even participated in the traditional Ngoma dance of my tribe, the Ngoni's. It was a great day and I was so happy to see the pride that Zambians have for their country. I'm thankful that I was able to participate in this special day.

Empowerment

About a month ago Christi and I wrapped up our empowerment workshops at Madzimoyo Secondary School. The Girls Empowerment Workshop was held from October 10th – 13th and the Boys Empowerment Workshop was held from October 17th – 20th. It was a great experience getting to work with the girls and boys from the school. They are so talented and have many goals they want to achieve. We had guest speakers come in to inspire them and we had sessions on gender, assertiveness, leadership, communication, goals, role models, violence and aggression, sex implications, HIV/AIDs, condom demos, rape and sexual abuse and much more. We hit a lot of topics in a short time, but the kids did great and had a great time. They really loved some of our ice breakers and energizers. It was really fulfilling working with these boys and girls. Christi and I did not have any outside funding to we had to spend our own money which was completely worth it but a bit expensive on my very tight budget. At the end of the boys sessions we had them complete an evaluation of the workshop and one boy stated, “I want to thank you very much for this workshop, it has changed me.” Well that’s all that matters. I personally also learned a great deal in these workshops and I’ve formed relationships with these kids that are truly amazing. About two weeks after the workshop I received a "bush note" at my hut. It was from Patricia, one of the girls that attended the workshop. She thanked us for

putting on the workshop and said that it changed her and now she sees the importance of making goals and striving to accomplish them in her future. The thing is...I want to thank these students. They were very open-minded about all the topics we covered. They are the ones who are going to make a difference, we just wanted to help point them in the right direction.

If you build it, they will come

Over the past two months I’ve seen some major changes taking place around my area and Kapatamoyo my old village. I went out to Kapatamoyo in early October to check on one of my farmers, Mr. Chulu. His fish pond is complete and he finally has fish. As I’m standing on the dike of his pond, I happen to look over my shoulder towards the hills and I can’t believe what I see. There was another fish pond. Mr. Chulu saw my surprise and started explaining how there was another 5 ponds in the area. I was ecstatic!!! How wonderful. I almost started crying. Getting any development in this area has nearly been impossible. The farmers have seen all the great things that have been happening to Mr. Chulu and his family and now they all want ponds for themselves. I’m so proud of Mr. Chulu. Honestly, it takes just one person and people will believe and follow their example. Its been one of the most proudest moments I’ve had here. I feel like I’m finally making a small change. I just keep doing my trainings and its starting to happen. I’ve been asked by my APCD at Peace Corps to hold a Field Day in Kapatamoyo in January to encourage more farmers in the surrounding areas.

Fish farming is also starting to take off in my area around Fisheni village. I have about 8 ponds that people have built since my trainings. Its funny, because in the beginning I felt like my trainings were pointless, but after some months I can already see things changing. Its so exciting to watch the development taking place. There’s always some minor set backs though….one of my ponds got all the fish stolen. Hopefully we can prevent this from happening in the future. On a brighter note, my school has completed their fish pond. Its happening….its finally happening, after 18 long months. Now I really understand why Peace Corps is 27 months long.

Here are some more photos of the ponds in progress in my area.