Some Badish News
Don't worry, it's not too bad. Unfortunately some current Zambia Volunteers screwed up and have compromised some things for the rest of us. So Kasama is the provincial capitol of Northern Province. A couple of weeks ago, several volunteers got drunk and climbed a water tower there because the view is so great. Some police came across them and they got in trouble because they graffitied on the tower some obscene material basically saying "Luapula (anotherprovince)/Kasama...Heck yeah!" (But it wasn't heck) Unfortunately the story has spun out of control. The radio and a newspaper (front page) have reported that they were yelling racial remarks towards Zambians and urinating in the water tower. Neither of these are true. 3 volunteers have already been sent home because of this but the Kasama officials have banned Peace Corps from their district in Northern province. The P.C. country director and my program director are headed to Kasama for a meeting to try to smooth this all over. If it isn't fixed then those of us who are headed to Northern province might not be posted. We're not really sure what's goingto happen until after the meeting. It's too bad but oh well. As they say in Bemba, 'Cilifye.' No problem.
On a lighter note. If any of you were thinking about visiting at all, you'll be happy to know that Peace Corps has no rules about duration of stay. Some people's family and friends are coming to stay for 3 or 4 months. If you were to do this, realize that this is the kindof vacation that would mostly be relaxing. Bring some books. I think I can score a bike from the provincial house (if we have one in Kasama) so that we could bike around to the waterfalls and things to see. I found out that I will be posted in Mporokoso so I'm surrounded by 3 national parks and have several waterfalls within 100 kilometers from me. Another traveling option, when my time is up here I want to do this...
STA travel has a deal that for $1800 you can get an 'Around the World' ticket. That consists of 7 one way tickets to anywhere in the world with the last one ending in your home city. The tickets are good for 1 year and it works fine as long as you keep going east or west. For example, you could fly to Zambia and stay here for a couple of months, then we could fly from Johannesburg to Cairo, to Amsterdam, then to Bangkok, then to New Zealand, then to Peru, and back home. That's just an idea to plant in some of your heads.
I decided after last posting where I talked about the odd greeting, I'm going to start a new section called the Zany Zambian Cultural Tips. This weeks topic is about nose picking. The moral of the story is feel free to pick your nose wherever/whenever you want to. I can't tell you how many conversations/meals I've been a part of when the other person will just thrust their finger up their nose mid sentence. It's really quite funny.
I'm going to come in tomorrow and update some more, but this is all for now. For those of you who have been emailing me and haven't heard back yet, I'm sorry. I'll try to email you tomorrow. Thanks for all of your kind words.
Oh yea, if you'd like to check out another Zambia volunteer's website, click on the Wyatt Ammon link on the right. He's another trainee like myself. He's a sarcastic, egotistical bastard, but he's pretty hilarious. Feel free to check it out.
Pearson, out.
On a lighter note. If any of you were thinking about visiting at all, you'll be happy to know that Peace Corps has no rules about duration of stay. Some people's family and friends are coming to stay for 3 or 4 months. If you were to do this, realize that this is the kindof vacation that would mostly be relaxing. Bring some books. I think I can score a bike from the provincial house (if we have one in Kasama) so that we could bike around to the waterfalls and things to see. I found out that I will be posted in Mporokoso so I'm surrounded by 3 national parks and have several waterfalls within 100 kilometers from me. Another traveling option, when my time is up here I want to do this...
STA travel has a deal that for $1800 you can get an 'Around the World' ticket. That consists of 7 one way tickets to anywhere in the world with the last one ending in your home city. The tickets are good for 1 year and it works fine as long as you keep going east or west. For example, you could fly to Zambia and stay here for a couple of months, then we could fly from Johannesburg to Cairo, to Amsterdam, then to Bangkok, then to New Zealand, then to Peru, and back home. That's just an idea to plant in some of your heads.
I decided after last posting where I talked about the odd greeting, I'm going to start a new section called the Zany Zambian Cultural Tips. This weeks topic is about nose picking. The moral of the story is feel free to pick your nose wherever/whenever you want to. I can't tell you how many conversations/meals I've been a part of when the other person will just thrust their finger up their nose mid sentence. It's really quite funny.
I'm going to come in tomorrow and update some more, but this is all for now. For those of you who have been emailing me and haven't heard back yet, I'm sorry. I'll try to email you tomorrow. Thanks for all of your kind words.
Oh yea, if you'd like to check out another Zambia volunteer's website, click on the Wyatt Ammon link on the right. He's another trainee like myself. He's a sarcastic, egotistical bastard, but he's pretty hilarious. Feel free to check it out.
Pearson, out.
posted by Brett @ 9:04 AM
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