My Oh My, How the Time Does Fly

Hello, hello-
It's been almost 7 months since I left the states already. I really can't believe it actually. I'm over 25% done with my Peace Corps service now. Things are going really great. My health has not been a problem except for an eye infection a few weeks ago that lasted for 5 days or so. Work has been slow the last few weeks. We're nearing the end of the rainy season so my farmers have been incredibly busy in their fields and haven't been able to meet with me too much lately.
Right now I'm in Livingstone for our committee meetings. Myself and a guy Devin are the Northern Province respresentitives on the Diversity Committee. We came down on Sunday and now I have to leave today already. Below are some stats of my service thus far:
Ponds Measured: 4
Lbs. of Fish Harvested: About 500
Miles Biked: 1000
Books Read: 30 (The last few are Grapes of Wrath, Chronicles of Narnia and Life of Pi)
Mice Killed: 15
Candles Burned: 92
Best Time Solving Rubik's Cube: 4:26

I'm heading back to site for a few days soon and then for Easter, several of us are going to Livingstone to take in the awe-inspiring Victoria Falls. Apparently the town is pretty fun. I may even go bungee jumping.
April 19 my training group commences our IST (In-Service Training) where we'll learn about bee keeping and other various aspects of fish farming. I hope to update this again and add new pictures as well.
I hope you're all doing well. Thanks for the letters, books, and food.
Take Care.

Snapshots of My Life

So there are many times when I'm doing something and I really wish people could see me just because it is so ridiculous that this is taking place in Zambia. Below are a few of my favorite moments.
In Kasama, I took a cab to our Peace Corps house from in town. When I got into the cab, the driver changed the music from Zambian music, to N'Sync's great hit, "You Are My Fire." So here I am, sitting shotgun in the cab, driving down the road in Kasama, Zambia singing to this song that the cabbie thought was a good fit for the white guy who hired him.
Last night, several of us went to this bar/restaurant called the Blue Dolphin for a bit of some karaoke action. Several beers and tequila shots later, I decided to blow my audience away with a rousing rendition of A-Ha's "Take on Me." After completing the songs, the karaoke machine rates the singer on a scale of 100. I don't know what criteria are taken into consideration with the scoring, but I scored a 100. That's right, perfect.
Last night again, even more beers and tequila shots later, I was convinced to go to a casino here in town. It was my neighbor Devin's birthday, so a few of us went with him. I cashed in 150,000 kwacha to start with at the blackjack table. I must explain that this is no casino like back home. It was basically just a big room 30 feet by 40 feet or so. Quite small. There are no cameras. To make a long story short, I made 180,000 throughout the night. Pretty exciting. I'm pretty sure that math wasn't the dealer's strong suit though because she paid Devin on a hand where he had 19 and she had 20. And I got a push when I had 20 and she had 21. Needless to say I didn't bring these discrepancies to her attention.

Village Funerals

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to a funeral in my village. It was for the mother of a farmer that I work with a lot. Funerals in the village are compulsory for all of the villagers.
The way it works is that upon arrival, the men walk up to the door of the house that the funeral is taking place at. The house is usually that one that the dead lived in. So the men approach, then we kneel at the door for a minute or so and then retreat to the area where all of them men are sitting someplace in the yard. The women are gathered in the house and are wailing.
So us men sit around talking while a few guys work on building the coffin. In the village, preparing coffins ahead of time is a bad omen, so they just build them as the funerals take place. It was a pretty eerie combination of sounds that I sat there listening to. Across the street at the house the women were all screaming, crying, and wailing, and then there was just the sound of hammering and planing of wood that was combined with the droning of conversation.
Upon completion of the coffin, the men take it into the house to put the body inside. The wailing increases exponentially at this point. After 5 or 10 minutes, the top is hammered on and then some guys pick up the casket and the whole procession follows to the cemetary. The whole time people are crying and screaming. Some people are so distraught they need to be carried to the cemetary because their legs won't allow them to continue walking. After lowering the casket, about 10 men rush to push the dirt in before the family tries to crawl into the hole in the ground. After that, a few prayers are spoken and then everyone goes home.
About 5 days later, I had to go to the funeral of the granddaughter of the agricultural officer I work with in my village. It was mostly the same except there was much more singing at that one.

What Became of the Wizard

So, there has been a resolution to the ousting of the village wizard. Unfortunately this has all been told to me, because I didn't know that they were doing this until after it happened.
After the first failed attempt at capturing his witchcraft and locating the object which was giving him his wizardry power, they went to the bullpen and called in the big guns to bring in a more famous witch doctor. Witch doctor's here are like sports figures back home, there are some which are known for hundreds of kilometers and treated like psuedo-celebrities.
To make a long story short, they went through the same song and dance (quite literally) and caught the witchcraft. Then the presented a wooden statue about 8 inches tall of a pregnant woman sitting in a chair with a pierced naval. That is what was giving him his power.
Lombe had to pay a million kwacha (~$300) or so, they took the statue, and that's it. Apparently, without the statue he has no power, so everyone is safe.

Pat McManus in Zambia

So the other night I was at a bar in Kasama (The Groove) with a few other volunteers when I saw the most amazing thing. In fact, I almost fell off of my chair when it walked through the door. A man came in to the bar wearing a Pat McManus Band t-shirt. Since many of you are unaware of who he is, I'll give you a short explanation.
Pat McManus has a band that goes around schools in Iowa playing music and telling kids not to do drugs and believe in themselves, etc. When I worked at the summer camp I was at, Pat and his band would come to play music every Tuesday, so you can imagine my surprise when some guy thousands of miles away was wearing one of those shirts. I think Zambia just got a shipment of clothes from Iowa because the used clothes places have had ISU and UNI and other various Iowa t-shirts aplenty.
Anyways, not too exciting but I thought a few of you would find this to be humorous.