Seasons Greetings From The Bush

Hello everyone! I missed you too. Hopefully you're all doing well as you read this. As I write this, it marks my first week living in Chalabesa village. That's right, the first of 100+ weeks with no electricity, indoor plumbing, telephone, etc. So far so good. Below you'll find some posts that cover a couple different aspects of my situation thus far. Hopefully this will be posted around the holidays, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

My first Day/Night

At the crack of dawn, Ben (our driver), Annie (the other Mporokoso PCV), and I loaded up all of our possessions into and on top of the land Cruiser and started a new chapter in my Peace Corps experience. It was weird looking at my temporary corner of the common room in our Kasama house before loading up our stuff and saying, "Yup, that's every single thing I own in this hemisphere. A couple bags, some groceries, pots and pans, and a mattress. Here we go." After nearly 4 hours on one of the worst roads in Zambia we finally reaches Mporokoso. We met the local Department of Fisheries agent, then I went to the market to buy vegetables and dried fish (for my dog), and then went to my house.

We got to my house around noon and unloaded all of my stuff. I got a quick hug from Ben and Annie, and like that they were gone. It was a fairly funny experience just because I turned around to look at my hut and just thought, "Well, here I am. Home sweet home right in the middle of the bush." I threw my portable speakers on, started listening to some Talking Heads and began unpacking. It's amazing how quickly it felt like home just by hanging a Hawkeyes flag, pictures of family and friends, and a couple snow boarding posters.

Not long after it started to get dark I realized how tired I was. I decided to knock off for the day and looked at my watch just out of curiosity and it was 7:00 pm. I felt like I was in 2nd grade again. It's amazing how late it fells when the only light you have is from a couple candles.

Shortly after I laid down to sleep, which I must admit was a bit spooky for the first night, I heard some movement in my hut. After some self motivation I got out my flashlight to investigate. Of course it was a bat. Since I sleep in a bubble of serenity, a.k.a. mosquito net, I decided to leave the bat to eat malaria-carrying mosquitoes. I eventually fell asleep but was awoken not too much later by a different kind of rustling. So I armed myself with a soccer ball ready for anything. With my headlamp on and my arm cocked back with ball in hand, I slowly crept towards the sound. Of course this time it was a mouse. This was no cute field mouse, though. This guy was one small step down from a rat. It ran away so I set up a trap for him. It didn't work that first night and he woke me up thrice more times.

That, in one large nutshell was my first day. Quite a new experience, but much fun.

Food

I've been cooking for myself since I moved out here. Usually in the mornings I'll eat some bread and peanut butter, for lunch it's a couple granola bars and some beef jerky. I usually feast at dinner though. I usually saute up some onions, tomatoes, and garlic, and add them to some homemade alfredo or red sauce and have pasta. Otherwise I eat rice with soy pieces and add some different spices and sauces to it. Cooking out here isn't too bad, it just takes a long time to get my charcoal lit and then I only have one 'burner' so it takes about an hour to make dinner. I guess patience counts for something.

Time Occupation

I've been waking up at around 8:00 every morning at which point I'll plop down on my front step and just look around for 20 or 30 minutes. Then I've been doing a lot of reading (I've finishing 4 books in the last week) in the mornings. Then I'll usually go dig around in my garden for awhile. I haven't planted anything yet, I'm just manually tilling the soil. As soon as I get my hands on some manure, though, I'll plant my seeds. After that I'll go wash dishes from the previous nights dinner in the nearby stream. At some point in time I sweep out my house. Since it is made of mud, it is slowly crumbling. If I brush up against the wall, a bunch of dirt falls to the floor. Having taken care of that, and with a new felling of accomplishment, I'll reward myself with a dip in my pool followed by lounging/reading in my hammock. During my lounging/reading time I usually enjoy some freshly picked bananas or mangos. I usually cook dinner around 5:00, after which I retreat into my candlelit hut to write some letters and listen to music.

I know, I know. It sounds like I don't do anything all day. Well this was just my first week here and I was going to give myself my first week to get used to everything before I venture out to start working. Just keep reading.

The Future

The next couple of days I'm heading out to meet everyone in my village and surrounding villages. My goal for the next 3 days is to meet all of my fish farmers (I have 30 +) and most of the villagers. In four days I'm going to Kasama to try and get a glitch in my work permit figured out. None of us in our training group got work permits, so we're confined to Kasama starting the 9th because our temporary visas expire. I'd assume it will be easy to get it taken care of, but who knows?
For Christmas a big group of us are going to be headed to Lake Tanganyika to go camping. It should be a good time being around 8 or 10 of my fellow trainees again.
We have a meeting to go to in Kasama on January 6th, but after that I hope to be able to stay in my village for a couple of months and get some serious work started. Most of the guys who fish farm near me are very good at what they do, so I'll be working with them a lot on organic farming, sustainable agriculture, and agroforesting. For all of you raising your eyebrows and wondering how I know about any of that, touché. Fair enough, but I received 10 weeks of training: so that's why they sent me, I am an expert.

Some Zambian Customs

In the village very few people own watches. Asking what time it is is impossible. It's funny, though, because if I say, "Ba Mulenga (Ba is like Mr. or Mrs. here), what time would you like me to show up tomorrow?" I wouldn't expect to hear numbers as his response. Instead, I expect him to stretch out his arm, and with hand outstretched, point to the location in the sky the sun will be at when I should show up. For example, straight above his head means roughly noon. This should make for some interesting miscommunication.
Next, and this isn't just in the village, but most doorways in homes are not tall enough to fit the average human through. I'd guess that it is to save on costs of 2 more layers of bricks all the way around the house or something. Anyways, my front door goes up to my mouth, and the two doorways in my house go up to my forehead. It's been difficult for me to undo 24 years of never having to duck when entering a house, and as a result have drawn blood from my head twice. I bet I've hit the top of my head on my front door 15 or 20 times. I only hit it once today, though, so I must be getting better.

Well from all of us here in my hut, thanks for stopping by to check out my latest update. Have a happy and safe holiday season. Take Care.

Pearson, out.