Hola Once Again
Today I actually have a small list of things to write about to update you on my life here in Zambia instead of just typing as my mind wanders aimlessly. To the reader it will still seem to be written in an aimless manner, but I have my little sheet of paper in front of me which makes it much easier.
Let's start this post off on the right foot here. When I first got into country we were talking to current volunteers. Of course sickness (the squirts) was high on our list of concerns. Most of the volunteers we talked to plainly said, 'Yes, a vast majority of you will end up crapping in your pants before you leave this country.' Of course all of us trainees found this to be quite humerous as well as unbelievable. We decided to all throw in 5000 kwacha (about $1) and the first person to soil themselves would collect the winnings. Despite a couple of close calls, I did not collect the money. However, another traineed named Andrew did become the first trainee in our group to join the Oops I Crapped My Pants Club. I imagine it was a bittersweet inauguration, but he's a richer man because of it. I'll be sure to let you all know if I become a member.
Next, during training all of us trainees have our own fish ponds that we maintain. My pond partner is Big Sky (she's from Montana). At the beginning of training, our trainers made a contest for whoever could make the best anti theif/predator precautions. There are water monitors (look like Komodo Dragons) and otters that can wreak havoc on a man's fish. Big Sky and I placed bamboo sticks in strategic locations all over our pond forming 'walls' that the fish could swim through but the larger predators are unable to. We won so we're getting treated to a great meal here in a couple of hours. I think we're going to get some Indian food.
Here's a story to let you all know how the police force in Zambia works. A few weeks ago I saw this story on the news. So a man climbed an antenna that was about 75 feet tall because he wanted to jump off and commit suicide. Very sad. Police were dispatched and were trying to talk him down. After 4 hours of this...here is the best plan they could come up with. They got 3 bed mattresses, each one manned by 2 men holding it and trying to place it correctly. The rest of the police force tied a rope to the antenna and proceeded to pull the antenna down. Of course the man fell off from 50 plus feet, and of course they didn't catch him on the mattresses. The news showed this whole thing take place. The weird part is, they had shows on for days later talking about whether the police had done the right thing or not. Ridiculous.
Oh, I picked up playing backgammon with a couple of other volunteers. So if any of you are backgammon fans, I'll play you when I get home.
My homestay is going well. The one problem is that there are a lot of awkward silences because I can't really talk with my dad and say 'Is this the bus going to Kasama?' or 'To dig a fish pond, your site needs a water source and gradual slope.' All of that would be in bemba of course. We're learning how to speak, but most of it is job related at this time. I'm cool with the silences, but we'll sit there and my dad will say, 'Brett, you're not talking.' I don't know if he expects me to entertain him or what the deal is, but I think I might start saying that to him. 'Bataata, tamulanda.' I bought a chitenge for my mother today. That is basically 2 yards of fabric that all of the women wrap around their waists like a skirt. She works hard so I'll give her a nice surprise.
Speaking of my mom, yesterday we had a 'cultural day' where all of the bamayos came together and cooked a huge variety of foods and taught us how to fend for ourselves and cook for ourselved. One of the things we got to learn was how to kill a chicken and then section it. It is definately crazy to see a chicken's head off and see its body writhing and moving all about for a good minute or 2 afterwords. In case some of you are wondering about 'strange' foods. They eat caterpillars and termites here. People love them. We were supposed to have caterpillars yesterday but they went bad I think. I don't know how that happens, but it did. I saw them though, they're yellow and about the size of my index finger. I'll let you know how they taste when I eat one.
Today's cultural tip...ba, ba da!
There is no such thing as an orderly queue. These people cut in front of you in line like you're not even standing there. It's not even due to the fact that I'm a musungu (white person). They cut in front of everyone. So when in line, it isn't rude to protect your spot in line by all but elbowing someone out of your way.
As I've said before, I'm going out to the bush for a couple of weeks. I think I'll be able to update in the meantime because I'll be in Kasama on Monday night, but worst case scenario is that I won't be able to post anything until November 6th. I'm excited to get out to the bush and see my future site. On the way back from Chalabesa, my village outside Mporokoso, I'm going to a wedding outside of Mpika. A volunteer is getting married to a Zambian so several of us are going to get the 'cultural experience.' It should be a great time.
I should be updating my new address soon so keep an eye out for that. If you send something to this current address, it will get forwarded to my new one by the peace corps so fear not.
Oh yeah, all of the hooplah in Kasama has been taken care of. They've lifted their ban on us and it is all good. We have some PR work to do and have to be on our best behavior at all times, but we should be ok.
Thanks again for the emails and updates. Take care.
Pearson, out.
Let's start this post off on the right foot here. When I first got into country we were talking to current volunteers. Of course sickness (the squirts) was high on our list of concerns. Most of the volunteers we talked to plainly said, 'Yes, a vast majority of you will end up crapping in your pants before you leave this country.' Of course all of us trainees found this to be quite humerous as well as unbelievable. We decided to all throw in 5000 kwacha (about $1) and the first person to soil themselves would collect the winnings. Despite a couple of close calls, I did not collect the money. However, another traineed named Andrew did become the first trainee in our group to join the Oops I Crapped My Pants Club. I imagine it was a bittersweet inauguration, but he's a richer man because of it. I'll be sure to let you all know if I become a member.
Next, during training all of us trainees have our own fish ponds that we maintain. My pond partner is Big Sky (she's from Montana). At the beginning of training, our trainers made a contest for whoever could make the best anti theif/predator precautions. There are water monitors (look like Komodo Dragons) and otters that can wreak havoc on a man's fish. Big Sky and I placed bamboo sticks in strategic locations all over our pond forming 'walls' that the fish could swim through but the larger predators are unable to. We won so we're getting treated to a great meal here in a couple of hours. I think we're going to get some Indian food.
Here's a story to let you all know how the police force in Zambia works. A few weeks ago I saw this story on the news. So a man climbed an antenna that was about 75 feet tall because he wanted to jump off and commit suicide. Very sad. Police were dispatched and were trying to talk him down. After 4 hours of this...here is the best plan they could come up with. They got 3 bed mattresses, each one manned by 2 men holding it and trying to place it correctly. The rest of the police force tied a rope to the antenna and proceeded to pull the antenna down. Of course the man fell off from 50 plus feet, and of course they didn't catch him on the mattresses. The news showed this whole thing take place. The weird part is, they had shows on for days later talking about whether the police had done the right thing or not. Ridiculous.
Oh, I picked up playing backgammon with a couple of other volunteers. So if any of you are backgammon fans, I'll play you when I get home.
My homestay is going well. The one problem is that there are a lot of awkward silences because I can't really talk with my dad and say 'Is this the bus going to Kasama?' or 'To dig a fish pond, your site needs a water source and gradual slope.' All of that would be in bemba of course. We're learning how to speak, but most of it is job related at this time. I'm cool with the silences, but we'll sit there and my dad will say, 'Brett, you're not talking.' I don't know if he expects me to entertain him or what the deal is, but I think I might start saying that to him. 'Bataata, tamulanda.' I bought a chitenge for my mother today. That is basically 2 yards of fabric that all of the women wrap around their waists like a skirt. She works hard so I'll give her a nice surprise.
Speaking of my mom, yesterday we had a 'cultural day' where all of the bamayos came together and cooked a huge variety of foods and taught us how to fend for ourselves and cook for ourselved. One of the things we got to learn was how to kill a chicken and then section it. It is definately crazy to see a chicken's head off and see its body writhing and moving all about for a good minute or 2 afterwords. In case some of you are wondering about 'strange' foods. They eat caterpillars and termites here. People love them. We were supposed to have caterpillars yesterday but they went bad I think. I don't know how that happens, but it did. I saw them though, they're yellow and about the size of my index finger. I'll let you know how they taste when I eat one.
Today's cultural tip...ba, ba da!
There is no such thing as an orderly queue. These people cut in front of you in line like you're not even standing there. It's not even due to the fact that I'm a musungu (white person). They cut in front of everyone. So when in line, it isn't rude to protect your spot in line by all but elbowing someone out of your way.
As I've said before, I'm going out to the bush for a couple of weeks. I think I'll be able to update in the meantime because I'll be in Kasama on Monday night, but worst case scenario is that I won't be able to post anything until November 6th. I'm excited to get out to the bush and see my future site. On the way back from Chalabesa, my village outside Mporokoso, I'm going to a wedding outside of Mpika. A volunteer is getting married to a Zambian so several of us are going to get the 'cultural experience.' It should be a great time.
I should be updating my new address soon so keep an eye out for that. If you send something to this current address, it will get forwarded to my new one by the peace corps so fear not.
Oh yeah, all of the hooplah in Kasama has been taken care of. They've lifted their ban on us and it is all good. We have some PR work to do and have to be on our best behavior at all times, but we should be ok.
Thanks again for the emails and updates. Take care.
Pearson, out.
posted by Brett @ 8:55 AM
1 Comments:
At 7:33 PM ,
Anonymous said...
I never realised how important a good bed was until I got a bad back�.
Over 1,400 members of BackCare, the national organisation for healthy backs, responded to our Back Your Bed survey - the first of its kind to explore the views on beds of those who suffer from bad backs and the experts who treat them.
SUMMARY OF THE BACK YOUR BED SURVEY RESULTS
Buying a good bed is one of the most important purchases you can make when it comes to back pain relief. Nine out of 10 say their bed is more important to them since they developed back pain; 98% agreed that a good, supportive bed could help a bad back. 82% of experts felt that the right bed could help prevent back pain.
"If you cannot rest properly and sleep well, this hinders recovery from back problems."
A firm, supportive bed, not a hard one, can do wonders to ease and even prevent bad backs. Only 22% of sufferers had bought a bed classed as �orthopaedic�; while 28% describe their bed support as �medium�. Only 6% of experts would recommend an orthopaedic bed to patients.
Three quarters would be prepared to spend more than �500 on a new bed: compared with just 36% of the �normal� population. Nearly one in 10 would pay more than �2,000 for a new bed to get the comfort and relief they need.
Back pain sufferers are twice as likely as the rest of the population to own a new bed - 50% have beds that are less than five years old compared to the national average of 24%.
88% are satisfied with their choice � but 16% said they would get a better quality one next time; while 9% would opt for something firmer; 5% said they would choose a softer bed and 4% wanted a bigger one.
Sufferers are three times more likely to replace their beds when they no longer feel comfortable (65% compared with just 20%).
31% own a king size bed compared with 11% generally. Separate mattresses zipped together are also popular with couples whose support needs differ or who are easily disturbed by their partner's movements. top
So worth considering when buying a
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