Back to Zambia

Well, needless to say it has been a whirlwind three weeks back in the U.S. of A. I got into town a few weeks ago and it seems like I haven't had much downtime at all because I've been running around trying to maximize my time with everyone. I wouldn't have it any other way however. In my short time here, I've managed to accomplish a lot. I've attended two weddings, gone to a Chicago Cubs game, gone to a Ween concert, visited the camp I worked at a couple of times, played 40 holes of golf, gone innertubing at beautiful Saylorville Reservoir, gone swimming at Ashworth pool to hit up the 3 meter board, gone to the Iowa State Fair, visited the Des Moines Art Center (highly recommended), visited the Science Center of Iowa (not recommended), and spent endless hours with friends and family. Thanks to those of you who came to visit or went out of your way to spend time with me.

I'm excited to get back to Zambia just because I was mentally prepared to commit 2 years there and have 16 months left, but I must admit, I could definately use another week home. As I said in previous posts, I had been working on a grant proposal to send some farmers to an agricultural training center in the capitol city of Zambia, and I just found out a week or so ago that my proposal was accepted. That's very exciting because it's a $3000 grant so it's fairly substantial. (That's more money than I make in a year;)

I have a few goals when I return to Zambia. The first is to successfully get those farmers down to the training center at the end of October, then get them back to the village to start passing their new knowledge on to other farmers. They've verbally agreed to teach over 10 sessions in their village in the first 3 months followed by a lesson each month until I leave, so that is our attempt at making these new farming practices sustainable. My next goal is to spend 2 months in my village without coming out because I've been gone for a long time now between having visitors and coming back to the states. My third goal is to grow the most obscene beard I've ever had in my life. I aim to not touch it until Valentine's Day, so I'm not sure what 6 months of growth will do, but it should be impressive.

Right now I'm scheduled to finish my service up in December of 2007, but usually volunteers travel around for a few months after finishing up, so the earliest I'll say 'see you later' to you all is early 2008. My ideal trip would be to fly to Egypt, travel by land across northern Africa to Morocco, cross the Mediterranean to Spain, and then travel through Europe until my funds expire.

I've thoroughly enjoyed all of my time back here and thank you all so much for everything. If you haven't seen them for awhile, check out my pictures. I've got almost 200 more pictures up than I did a month ago. I'm returning to the same place, so if you want to, please write to the Mporokoso address provided.

I hope this post finds you all in a happy and healthy condition and I look forward to hearing from you along the way. At the very least, see you in a year and a half.

Take care.