Hey everyone I know it has been a long time since I have last posted but it is really hard to get onto the internet when you only have a really shitty phone and no service. I am in Lusaka today shopping and getting ready for my second site visit. I am going to Hunter's site for the visit but also have the advantage of getting to see my own site and where I will be living on the way. I know this has to be a very brief post because I have already spent 23 mins of my 30 minute allowance just trying to load this page.
Training is going great. At our first site visit we everyone I went with got food poisoning. It was very interesting, but I blame it on the vegetarian lifestyle... Zambia is really amazing. I have never met nicer people in my life. Everyone here believes that everyone is brothers and to be free. I am training in a place called Chipembi it is north of Lusaka and I am pretty sure that you can find it on Google Earth. I am staying with a really nice host family in Suse village. Michael and I both live there. It is really hard getting used to all the biking we have to do all the time, but hopefully soon my legs will be conditioned.
My language is Lunda, so I will be posted up in the Northwest province of Zambia. I am headed to the village of Kanzala right on the Kabompo river between Solwezi and Mwinilunga. Since I have been in training I have build a chicken house with my host family, acquired a sling shot that I am becoming very good with, but have seen no real "african" wildlife. Many years ago there was a bad drought in Zambia and to feed themselves the Zambians killed just about every living thing they could find besides each other. But there are lots of game reserves around that you can visit to see elephants and the like.
Staging in Philadelphia went over pretty well without much problems. I was running on very little sleep, and to make matters worse we had to catch a bus to New York at 2:30a.m. on Wednesday. I volunteered to be one of 4 team leaders, but after a night out in Philly with all the new friends I became only one of 2 leaders that morning to get everyone to Africa. It as actually really funny, and we all still tease Sam about it now and again.
I got to go see a traditional wedding the other day which was very fun! There is a lot of dancing involved and it is custom that when dancing or seeing the bride and groom to shove money down her chest into her wedding dress. I think it is really funny how different it is between America and here, and I will post soon about only that! But for example little 14 year old girls in the states listen to taylor swift and constantly are glued to their ipods and phones. Here in Zambia and most of Africa they are carrying 5 gallon buckets of water filled to the top perfectly balanced on their heads! I will post pictures and videos of everything I am explaining. I have great pictures of my host family, some of the other trainees, and of life in general so far.
Hope all is well back home, and I will try to get back on soon! Love yall much!
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