One more fun story.

So here in Zambia, male friends hold hands often. It's a very normal thing. Homosexuality is illegal here so they don't see anything wrong with it. So when I first met my homestay dad, we shook hands, and that lasted for the next 15 minutes. We held hands the whole walk home. I just kept laughing to myself because it felt so weird. Anyways, I hope that made a couple of you laugh.

Pearson, out.

Mwashibukeni Mukwai!

There's some more Bemba for you. That means good morning. So the last week has been pretty intense. I met the family I'll be staying with for the next 9 weeks on Saturday. They're extremely nice. They have 4 sons ranging from 16 to 7 years old. The food isn't too bad, surprisingly.
My typical day goes as follows; at 6:00 i get up and rush to my fish pond by 7:00. Then I have to feed my fish and any sort of maintenance needed. Then, language runs from 8:00 until 12:30. I go home and eat with my 'mother' (bamayo) and then head back to school for Technical training at 2:00. That lasts until 5:00 at which point in time I head back to my pond to do some more work. If I'm not going out with other Peace Corps people I'm in bed by 9:00 which is kind of nice. Other volunteers and I try to go out a few nights/week but the 2 bars here are out of beer most of the time which is pretty strange.
One thing that I've really gotten good at since I've been here is drinking warm beer. Most of the places around here don't have electricity so cold (or even cool) beer is a huge bonus. Just to put things into perspective...the current exchange rate is about 4300 kwacha / dollar. The beer here is between 2700 and 4200 kwacha. I can go into town here on the weekends and get a decent meal for 8000 kwacha. You can buy a whole, live chicken for about 10000. Everything is quite cheap as you can see.
This morning the volunteers and I had a practice pond harvest where we emptied two of the ponds at the training center and then harvested all of the fish and sold them. The going rate was 8000 kwacha for 1 kg. I brought my homestay family a kg for lunch and they were very appreciative.
Speaking of chickens a couple of paragraphs ago...here's a ridiculous little anecdote. So the smelly hippy I've spoken of, she is a 'vegan.' She calls herself this even though she eats fish. Anyways, we were talking the other day in our cross cultural training about receiving gifts. She asked about what to do if someone gives her a chicken because she wouldn't eat it. Fair enough. Then somebody questions what she would do with it and she responds with, "I would set the chicken free." That just shows you the caliber of individuals I have to put up with over here. What makes that even more ridiculous is that all of the farm animals here are free range, so they have pretty good lives. Anyways, I just wanted to pass that on because I laughed at her when she said that.
Hmmm...what else. Oh, if any of you would like to send a letter, make sure to write 'air mail' on it. Some people have been getting envelopes in less than two weeks. Oh yeah, we've had 2 people ET (early terminate). They couldn't handle the pressure or situations so they are both gone. We started with 24 and are now down to 22.
So far my language is coming along. I still have the vocabulary and grammar skills of a 5 year old which is quite humbling, but it's getting better. The best Bemba speaker at the end of training gets to give a speech which is broadcast on ZNBC, the national television station. I found that to be pretty funny.
Thank you all for the emails. They help a lot. I miss you all.
Go Hawks.

Muli Shani?

Well there's my first attempt at bemba. It means 'how are you?' Anyways, since I just updated today I don't have much new to say. Oh yeah, I had said previously that if you want me to mail you something to email me your address, but I don't know if that's fair. I think you should have to write me a letter so I can get your address.
Oh yeah, just because it sounds cool, I found out I'll be making about a cool million a month. Kwacha that is. It sounds impressive until I tell you that it takes about 5000 kwacha to equal a dollar.
Tomorrow I meet my homestay family that I will be living with for the next 9 weeks. So far we've learned about 5 greetings that I'll be able to use and then I imagine the conversation will come to a grinding halt. I foresee a whole bunch of awkward silences for a few weeks.
As for the country itself. So far the food has been pretty good. Nothing that has made me wince too much. Nshima is the staple food which I'll be eating most meals for the next couple of years. It looks like mashed potatoes but it is pretty much just cornmeal and water to make a completely tasteless mush of sorts. The first time was difficult but I've gotten much better at eating it. Poverty here is everywhere you look. Pretty much everyone walks everywhere. Outside of the main cities only about half of the people have shoes. You see kids running around along highways by themselves. There are many sad sights, but the hospitality of the people is great. They are always smiling and waving and being very happy. I can't say enough about my experiences with Zambians thus far.
Well, that's all for today's installment.

Pearson, out.

Hello from the Dark Continent

Hey everyone-
Several things have happened since I touched down in South Africa. We came to Lusaka, Zambia and camped at a campground just outside of town. It was pretty cool because the campground had zebras, impalas, and giraffes just roaming around. It was strange getting woken up in the middle of the night having a zebra grazing 10 feet from my tent.
After a couple days there, we were split up into groups of 6 and sent out into the bush. I went to Northwestern Province and stayed with a guy named Greg who is a current PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer). We followed him around for 4 days and saw some of the fishpond sites he's in charge of and just some of the scenery. I think this is the perfect job for me b/c the typical day is from 7 am until noon or 1 pm. We went swimming in some waterfalls for a couple afternoons and just played around I guess you could say.
Now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Kitwe, Zambia which is just outside of the town I'll be training in for the next 9 weeks, Mwekera. Speaking of training, I'll be learning the language of Bemba which is spoken in the following provinces; Central, Copperbelt, Northern, and Luapula. I'm pulling for Northern province where I'll be stationed b/c they have beautiful lakes and lots of green stuff up there.
I'll write more later sometime soon but this is all for now. Also, I guess internet access will be very limited after I get posted in late November so I'll have to rely on snail mail. If you want me to send you any postcards or letters make sure you email me you address in the next few weeks. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. I'm thinking of you all often.

Pearson, out.

Here We Go...

Hello everyone from Philadelphia-
I just spent the last couple of days in what the Peace Corps calls staging. We went through the 'nuts and bolts' of the PC like the rules and such. It has been pretty boring but I've met some great people. There are 34 PC trainees here. 10 are going to Botswana and 24 of us to Zambia. I can honestly say that I enjoy every one of the people I'm going to Zambia with. Only 1 smelly hippy out of 24...not too bad.
I'm getting ready to hop on a bus to NYC where we'll take a flight from JFK. To those of you that I told it was a 13ish hour flight...I was way off. The flight is 18 hours with a quick refueling stop in Dakar, Senegal. After that it's off to Johannasburg for the night. Then we'll fly to Lusaka (Capitol of Zambia) and spend a couple of days at the PC headquarters there to meet people and have a bit more training. After that, we're all splitting up and spending 4 days in the bush living in tents with current volunteers and seeing what a day in the life is like. Should be great. Then off to Mwerka just outside of Kitwe about 225 miles north of Lusaka where we'll begin our job and language training.
Anyways, I hope you're all doing well and everything is great here (except for the impending 18 hour plane ride). Take care and I hope to update you all again, soon.

Pearson, out.

My address until December

In case some of you are curious as to where you should send all of the boxes and packages that you have piling up for me...the answer is simple. Simply continue reading. Snail mail is welcomed in the country of Zambia and I hear that packages and letters are always welcomed and appreciated...even uplifting. Letters, protein bars, beef jerky, and pork rinds are always great surprises. Until the beginning of December when my training is over, I can be reached at the following address. After that I will have a new address which I will post when I find out what it is.

Brett Pearson Esq.,/PCT
c/o Peace Corps
PO Box 21527
Kitwe, Zambia

Thanks for any mail you may send me in advance.

Pearson, out.

Greetings and Goodbye

Hello friends, family, and everyone in between:

I now have less than 5 days until leave for my service in the Peace Corps. At 6:06 in the a.m., my flight takes off from the Des Moines International Airport to 'The City of Brotherly Love.' I'll spend a couple of days in Philadelphia while I receive all of the general P.C. training for living overseas. On September 8th, I'll fly to New York, then Johannesburg, South Africa, and then on to Lusaka, Zambia. There I'll spend 10 weeks being trained at a center in Mwerka and living in a town called Kitwe. In Mwerka I'll learn how to do the job that I have been assigned to while in Zambia. For those of you who do not know what my job is, I'll be helping the locals dig fish ponds, stock them, and then maintain and harvest the fish. Generally tilapia are the species used. The idea is to give the locals a renewable food source and eventually a way to make some extra income (the average per capita income for Zambians is $385). I'm sure I'll be met with many challenges and hardships along the way, but hope to do some good while over there.

I hope to update this as often as possible so check back often. Unfortunately that may be as often as every couple of weeks or every other month. It all just depends how far away from everything I really am.

Thank you for all of your love and support and please keep me in your prayers while I'm over there.

Pearson, out.