Sorry that my last post was so short, but it is very hard to upload pictures where I was because the internet is very slow. Zambia has taught me many things, but the biggest thing is that time slows down and nothing is immediate.

I just got off of second site visit, where I actually got to go to Hunter's village and hangout a while. On he way I also got to stop and visit my village that I will be posted in! Might site is pretty amazing. I have a cat named Honkers that just gave birth two 5 kittens that are not even a week old. I also have 50ish fish ponds in my area owned by a very motivated fish farming co-op.

There are too many things I see everyday to talk about, but I did hear a pretty interesting story about witchcraft at site visit. The low down is that any animal that is active at night is probably possessed or owned by a witch. Also women are more powerful witches then men. Witch doctors are ok because they help the villages find witches. AND all witches are afraid of tobacco, so as long as you are chain smoking cigarettes walking around at night, you are safe... but the story is about these "things" that walk around my area at night. I don't remember the exact name but will begin writting down these tales when I get posted. They are masks, that are made by very powerful witches. They have to collect the hair, heart, and shadow of someone so that with these items they can inchant the mask. Then, at night they command the mask to go out and either kill someone specific, or protect the area. It is said that you can die just looking them in the eyes, and if you see one in the woods to run. But basically these maskes come alive and walk around looking for people. The freaky thing is that there are some volunteers that have actually seen AND been chased by these things before! Its pretty wild, how far into the African bush I am being posted. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am being placed directly in the heart of Africa.

Country elections are happening this week. It is a wild race between 3 big parties and tensions are running pretty high. It is pretty exciting to watch their process at work, but 29 people have died as of today! Don't worry though, we are all safe! But politics are so different here it is insane. Cars drive around all day with loud speakers ontop of them broadcasting campain speaches. Different parties will show up in our villages every other day and hand out chitenges (skirts/blankets), bikes, fertilizer for farmers, t-shirts, or anything else to get people to vote. In the village where we are training they just brought in a bunch of construction vehicles to "build" a road that they have been promising for years. They parked the bull dozer infront of the watering hole for a week and rebuilt the road about 2 miles to convince everyone in the area to keep the ruling party in place. But, the sad thing is that they only made the road look nice and added no gravel to it. So, come rainy season a month from now and after elections, everything is going to wash away and the village will have the same old shitty road. I won't mention party names, and I do not actually care who wins or not, but it is just fun to observe a political system so different.

Don't worry, By January these posts will be come much more regular. I have been kind of lucky to have extra access to computers recently, and I should be able to post again soonish. Love yall!