Brett Back In School

Remember Me

2008-05-22T01:32:00.002-04:00

Since my return to the motherland of Iowa, I've been confused and perplexed by an all-to-common trend I've seen. Perhaps it's just an Iowan thing and the rest of you won't have any clue what I type of, but I've seen at least 10 cars/trucks/minivans/etc. with some sort of memorial sticker in their windows. E.g. "In Loving Memory of Scott Miller (or any name) 1935-2004."
Now, what exactly are they doing to remember this person? Scott we'll say for now. Is it something along the lines of "Scott, I loved you so much I'm dedicating my new Oldsmobile to you." Or perhaps Scott left them money in a will which then allowed them to buy a new Cutlass Sierra. I'm not sure. So that's a possibility, but then I've seen dedications to infants as well. Is this helpful in the grieving process to the parents? Everyday they walk into the garage and see their custom made sticker on the side of their Astrovan. That helps them cope? I was recently spreading mulch at an apartment complex and saw three such vehicles (remembering people of various ages) withing a six-parking spot row. I was blown away.
I remember seeing one or two of these during my 3-month stay over the holidays, thought it a bit queer, but didn't realize it was a full-blown trend. I don't remember seeing any of these before I left for Zambia, I surely would have taken note had I crossed paths with them. So all of this must have popped up in the last 3 years, which then brings me to the point that people at some point have driven along, seen the first trend-setters, and then had a conversation along the lines of...

John: "Sally, look at that car up there. Isn't that a great way to remember someone?"
Sally: "That is unique and quite touching, John."
John: "I know how much your uncle Roger meant to you, and I know it's been 2 months already, but I think we should get a sticker in the back of our Durango to make sure that we don't forget him. Everytime I check my blindspot he'll be looking over my shoulder. In a way."
Sally: "Oh John, that's a swell idea. Roger would be so happy. I love you."

Perhaps this is a touchy subject to jest at, especially when I bring dead infants into the equation. I mean, to each his own when it comes to dealing with the death of a loved one, but I really would like some input from the one or two of you still reading this as to what may be going through people's heads when they go to the sticker store and ask for a custom made sticker to put on their Lumina's window to remember their fallen comrade. All I know, is if I die and anyone dedicates a vehicle to me, it better have T-tops, or be an Iroc-Z.

Return to South Africa

2008-01-21T04:02:00.000-05:00

I got back here a week and a half ago after a full 36 hours of travel. I thought it would go quickly because at first glance I thought I only had 3 and 4 hour layovers, but upon landing in Frankfurt I pulled out my itinerary to look at what flight I was connecting with. I looked more carefully and saw I had a 10 hour layover there. That's sweet. Unfortunately it was only a couple of hours until dark set so I didn't feel like going out into a city I've never been to just before dark.

Spending that long in airports sucks, but it is an entertaining way to watch people. Although there are far fewer in Europe, Bluetooths (Blueteeth?) are really stupid. When I was laid-over in Chicago, it seemed like one-third of all people in that airport had a ridiculous Bluetooth in their ear. From the right angles it just looks like a throng of crazies talking to themselves. The other part of people watching is seeing how impatient and annoyed so many people get in airports. Most of us have traveled via air and know that it takes time. Especially in these crazy post 9/11 times, yet you still have self-important asses bitching and moaning or just getting huffy in every line they stand it. I get a little bit of enjoyment seeing it all take place.

Anyways, since being here I haven't really done a whole lot. In Cape Town I met up with Chris who picked me up in his Land Rover. It was good to see M (the Land Rover) again. Later that evening we met up with our Capetonian friends and my Norwegian buddy that was coincidentally back in Cape Town when I came in. I basically spent my first few days of jet lag drinking with these folks, and going to the beach. One night we went to the cinema to catch 'We Own the Night.' I highly recommend it. It is so bad, that it is like a comedy. It is so far below the line, I can't get enough of it. One very good thing about Cape Town is that Chris and I met two Danish girls that are making the same route we are over the next 4 months, so it looks as though we'll be having some traveling partners to chip in on gas. They're very high energy girls, so they may actually drive us nuts, but we'll see.

Chris got a new suspension and several other things fixed on his vehicle, and then we've relocated to the wine fields of Stellenbosch now. About a 45 minute drive, it's a nice place. Large mountains and sprawling wine estates. Today we actually head out to do some wine tasting and figure out what cases we want to take to Mozambique together. I lost a few cases in some pool games to Chris, but luckily you can get good wine for $3 or so a bottle.

Hopefully we can head out tomorrow and start up the coast en route to Jeffrey's Bay. Our goal is to then cut up through Lesotho (mountainous country) and then back into South Africa through the Draakensburg Range for some mountain camping. Then over to Durban, up to Swaziland, before finally getting to Mozambique just before our February 10 start date. Take care and I'll update as I get time.

Rollin' Hard

2008-01-09T02:50:00.001-05:00

The day has finally come for me to return to Africa. It actually doesn't seem all that long ago that I just stepped off a plane from there. After coordinating with my friend Chris, I have a better idea of what my next few months will look like. Friday I'll touch down in Cape Town and stay there for a few days visiting friends. From there he and I will take a month to drive north and east seeing various friends we made along the way and just keepin' it real. February 10 we are scheduled to be in Tofo and begin our work, or at least our accommodation hunt. After that it should be about 3 months of work and training until I get back in early May.
It's great having had some experience not only in Africa, but also the town in which I will be living a month from now. I was pretty relaxed before leaving in 2005, but now I'm not nervous at all. I know exactly what to expect, and my only concern in life is if I can get all my movies and videos loaded onto my iPod in time before I leave. Speaking of rolling hard, I just got a 160gb iPod for Christmas from the folks and have all but finished loading stuff onto it. I've a bit more work to do tomorrow, but as it stands I have 23606 songs and a few South Park episodes. (PS, iTunes sucks ass, you should use floola.) Despite the fact that I have 36ish hours of travel tomorrow, (DSM to Chicago to Frankfurt to Jo'Burg to Cape) I've got no worries with my updated iPod. Hooray!
I'll update on here what my new address is once I find out in case any of you want to send me anything awesome. Music magazines (Spin, Paste, Below the Radar, etc.) are always welcomed. Booze isn't at all necessary because in Mozambique they have this rum called Tipo Tinto that comes in 500mL plastic bottles for $1.75 and is absolutely delicious with Sprite. I'll be sure to update you all on how difficult my life is when I'm lying on a beach sunning myself in between dives with whale sharks and manta rays. I'd like to update this along the way so check back occasionally.

Puerto Vallarta

2008-01-03T03:11:00.001-05:00

For Christmas this year, the Pearson Clan met in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a week of fun in the sun. My dad's best friend has a timeshare and was kind enough to invite the whole family down from the 9th-16th of December. It was the first family Christmas in four years. We stayed at the Grand Mayan resort that basically has everything you could possibly want, including an endless supply of scantily clad senior citizens and retirees. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Because my sister and I are nearly 7 years apart in age (she'll be 33 in a couple weeks) we had little common ground growing up. Thankfully, I turned 21 several years ago and that provided us with alcohol to serve as a liquid bridge to our age gap and allow us to catch up for lost time of bonding. And the good thing with booze is that is accelerates the bonding like some sort of mind-bending time machine.

On our first full day, we decided that 10am was a good time to go to the main pool and start ordering piña coladas as the aquarobics provided us with a nice view/conversation topic of the aforementioned retirees flailing around, arms akimbo to some sort of Mexican techno music while the instructors were counting loudly in Spanish. By the end of the first day, we'd met a nice gal named Jenn to hang out with, and had our fill of alcohol for the week.

We spent the rest of the week playing cards and eating with Jenn's family, so that was great to interrupt the monotony of one's own family. For my personal entertainment, I spent several days playing beach volleyball in the morning, went on two SCUBA dives, and played a few rounds of golf. The diving was really cold and unremarkable, but it was great to get back into the water. My golf game was fairly bad, but I broke 100 each time, so I was happy with my performance seeing how I've played less than 10 rounds in 3 years. I still have my patented slice, so I've got that goin' for me.

I really enjoyed laying on the beach each day, so if nothing else it has just reaffirmed to me that I'm really going to enjoy Mozambique where that's my daily routine.

Bullseye

2008-01-03T02:39:00.000-05:00

Upon my return to the United States, I had to find a way to make some money for my upcoming plans. Although I didn't spend all of the resettlement allowance provided by the Peace Corps, I knew the unfortunate reality was that I would have to make some serious cash to afford a ticket back to, and living expenses whilst in Mozambique. I spent my first few weeks back in denial and avoided the need to get some sort of income.

The first job I secured was going up the the summer camp I used to work at and clean all of the buildings once/week. It has paid quite well and I decide when I work, so it's a perfect job actually. It wasn't the first time, but hopefully is the last time I'm employed as a janitor. I've been doing that and have two sessions left before I head back.

I did interview at Wells Fargo for a job in a call center, but just a few days after my interview I decided that there was no way in hell I could handle that. Plus, the gig was downtown so I'd have to do the 7:00am commute five days/week and I know I'd
fail to show up in a timely manner so I called them back and told them I found another job.

I ended applying for a job as a night stocker (just like Richard Ramirez) at Target. During my first interview I was told that I was way overqualified for the position. Not to sound like a dick, but I was well aware of that, but where else can I get hired to work for two months. And at $10/hour, it pays relatively well. After two more interviews (they're thorough) and a passed drug test I was officially a New Team Member at Target just down the road from my folks place.

I attended the mandatory orientation and was informed by the President and CEO via video that Target's goal was 'To be the BEST Company Ever!' No shit, that is verbatim. Pretty lofty goal to be better than any company in the existence of the Earth, huh? Next I was told how Target revolves around the FFF principles. That's, Fun, Fast, Friendly, service. They have all kinds of propaganda like that, e.g., in the back room there are signs everywhere that say, 'Speed is life.' I'm surprised a company with a mandatory drug test would promote amphetamines so openly.

Each night begins at 10pm and ends at 8am. During the holiday season I was given the option of overtime, but only took them up on it a couple times. My job is to work in the back rooms and carry my little PDA (a pricing gun with a laser and computer on it) and it tells me how many of what product to remove from the back shelves and push out to the sales floor. Then the FLOW team takes the carts of things I send out and puts them out to be sold. It's repetitive, mind-numbing work, but isn't too bad.

Perks of the job are; 10% at Target stores, two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute 'lunch' at 3am, a name tag that says 'Brett,' a box cutter, and a chance to listen to the radio for 10 hours straight. I'm assuming most of you don't listen to one radio station for 10 hours, but I hear the same awful songs 3-6 times/shift. It sucks. For coworkers, I enjoy one girl I work with, and can talk to two others, but most of the people just communicate with grunts and random noises. They're who you'd expect would have this job as a career. I mostly keep to myself and try not to look anyone in the eye.

Last night I finished my second to last shift and look forward to finishing my final shift and preparing to leave for Mozambique. Aside from conversation with the one girl, I can honestly say I'll miss nothing about the place. That's only because I'm keeping the name tag, otherwise I'd miss that too.

Not Done With Africa Yet

2007-11-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

During my travels, I wrote a fair amount about my diving experience at Tofo Scuba in Mozambique. After diving with them for a couple of weeks, the manager was talking with me one night and said, 'Brett, I've got a business proposal for you. We like having you around the shop. You're a smiley type of guy and a good diver. Would you like to come back in February to work?' My first reaction was 'Of course.' Then I got to thinking about how I hadn't been home for a couple of years and that maybe it was time for me to grow up. My 26th birthday was near and I wasn't sure how long I could go faffing around the world before needing to buckle down and getting a real job (or something that at least resembles it).
I gave Steve (the manager) a tentative yes to his question but kept saying, 'unless I get some great opportunity back home, I'll come back.' I don't recall if it was on the airplane or during the rest of my travels, but it dawned on me that getting to work at a diving shop on a beach in Mozambique is a pretty good opportunity so I emailed him and gave him a positive answer. I just bought my tickets yesterday and will be leaving home on January 9.
My official title there will be, Dive Master Trainee, or DMT. In diving, there are a plethora of certifications you can get, and Dive Master is the first one that you can find a paying job with. I need to get a lot more experience diving before I can become DM so Tofo Scuba will give me all of the training for free if I do pro bono work there for three months. It will basically come down to me getting $9000 worth of dives and training for free. I'll work in the shop and go on two or three dives each day where I'll act as a sweeper. I'll hang around the back of the group and make sure that none of the customers are doing anything stupid or having any problems. I'll work 6days/week and should end up with about 150 or 160 dives at the end of my time. I already bought a wetsuit and dive computer, so I'm ready to go.

More Photos

2007-10-30T02:41:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone. Life continues at the same pace as before. In new news, my job search is fruitless, but I got a haircut and shave. That's good. Now I look like a contributing member of society once again. Hooray!
I just added a bunch of pictures onto my website, so if you find yourself with a bit of extra time, check out the link to the right to see how Lesotho, Mozambique, and Cape Town are. I have pictures of Swaziland, but haven't gotten around to adding those yet.

No Place...

2007-10-25T04:57:00.001-04:00

I'm finally back. After 45 hours of being contained in planes and airports, my ship has come in. The reunion with the folks was heartwarming, and my first shower back was fantastic. Unfortunately, my bag didn't show up at the airport, but supposedly it's in Denver and will be dropped off tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, my sister flies in and doesn't know I'm back yet, so that should be fun. I haven't seen her since May 2005 which is the longest ever. She's bringing her boyfriend, so that will be fun playing the 'getting to know you' game. I've met him before, and he's a nice guy, but haven't gotten to spend the quality one-on-one protective younger brother game yet. Sounds great.
In other news, after years of resisting signing up for something as foul and awful as facebook, I finally did it. If you want to look me up, I'm the brett pearson whose picture is that of an African garden gnome.
PS, I got a ticket to see Modest Mouse at the Val Air Ballroom, so if anyone is in DSM and would like to go, then pick one up yourself and we can go together.

Still Traveling...

2007-10-24T20:46:00.000-04:00

40 hours done and I should actually be home by now, but I've only made it to Denver and then had the disfortune of my last flight (out of 5) being delayed. I suppose the good part of that is that at least it's the last one so my previous 4 flights weren't all screwed.
The day hasn't all been in vain though. During my layover in Washington D.C. I was bought a couple beers by this guy I was sitting next to after he found out I am a new RPCV. He told me I need to 'Save my money' so I did the obligatory offer to buy my own beers a couple of times but was thrilled to save my $15. I guess being an RPCV male is almost like being a female all of the time. This is the third time people have bought me beers just for being a Peace Corps Volunteer. If only they knew the reality.

Springboks Win!

2007-10-21T04:16:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was pretty crazy here in Cape Town. Their beloved Springboks were facing the England Roses in the Rugby World Cup finals. There was the hum of electricity in the air all day as every South African anxiously awaited the 9 o'clock start time. I was walking around in the afternoon when at a four-way intersection all of the cars were stopped. One guy hooted his horn, yelled 'Bokke Bokke,' and then every other car sitting there started cheering and hooting their horns. Even ladies get into it. Not to sound sexist, but it's actually the only sport I've been around that the women are just as well versed in rules, players, tactics, et cetera, as well as being just as excited throughout the entirety of the game.
After the Boks victory, the city erupted. I was on Long Street, which has a sort of New Orleans feel with it's balconies and architecture, and there were parades of people marching up and down playing trumpets, waving flags, and just screaming nonsense. This went on throughout the night.
This morning you can tell that everyone is hungover. Or, as Zambians say, 'They have a case of the H.O.' I think most people were sleeping in today because there were hardly any people around when I got up this morning.
I've got two full days left here before having to return home. I don't have much of an agenda, just killing time. Today it's quite overcast, but I hope to get to the beach one more time before I take off.

PS: This is terrible. First the Cubs get swept, then I go and look how the Hawkeyes are faring, and they're second to last in the Big Ten. What the hell is going on?

Wine Tour 2007

2007-10-19T12:39:00.000-04:00

Today has been one of the most stressful of my life. I woke just before 8 and did the usual morning activities of bathing and brushing my teeth before a quick breakfast at the wrap joint down the road from my backpackers. Right at 9 I (and 5 others) were picked up by Bruce Storey, our wineland tour guide. The other 5 were consisted of; a young couple of Bristol, England; an older couple from the Netherlands; and an idiot lady from Florida. I'm actually yet to meet a person whose company I enjoy that's from Florida. I don't mean to paint a whole state with the same brush, but I've met a bunch of Floridians and have been none too impressed.

Anyways, I digress. We departed and headed to the Fairview Estate and tried 6 (I got a seventh from the cute little lady behind the bar) different wines, followed by an unlimited opportunity to take part in their homemade goat and cow cheeses. Delicious. From there we continued on to the family owned Villiera Estate to tour their wine making process. This particular winery is known for their champagne, so we had a couple varieties of that. Actually, Champagne is a name that can only be applied to French wines (like Bordeux or Port) so in South Africa it's called a Cap Classique. After several wines there, we continued on to the Beyerskloof Estate to visit the home of the Pinotage grape. In the 1920s, some guy here in South Africa successfully cross-pollinated a Pinot Noir plant with a Hermitage plant to make the now famous Pinotage. After a nice lunch and a trip to the cellar at Beyerskloof, (and several glasses of wine, port, and cap classique, we continued to Tokara to try their wines. These guys were far more stingy on their tasters than the previous wineries which makes them lose a few points in my book, but their wines were pretty good.

At the end of the day, we finished at a Belgian chocolatier's in Franschenbosch. The chocolates were really nice and a good way to end a day of drinking.

All in all, today was pretty great and worth the $50 value. I got to try over 30 types of wines, ports, champagnes, got lunch, and ate some chocolate, so I can't complain.

Tomorrow I'll probably walk to a beach and sun bask for a few hours before getting ready for the Rugby World Cup Finals. I've yet to decide who I'll cheer for, but it promises to be a pretty good game.

Mountains, Aquariums, and Winelands

2007-10-18T04:16:00.000-04:00

My last several days have been enjoyable. Keira and I hiked Lion's Head on Monday morning, had a few cocktails (myself, Lynchburg Lemonades) on a deck overlooking the ocean, and had a nice dinner with her roommates that night.
On Tuesday, we got up early and met for some breakfast then went straight to the beach in Llandudno. (I hate to admit it, but my affinity for snow and mountains may be shifting towards the beach. I think if I could learn to surf then it would be locked in, but of the three times I've tried now, I can't get the hang of it yet.) After several hours of tanning on the beach and getting brown, a friendly right whale came about 50 meters from the beach and was just splashing around with his pectoral fins and tail for 30 minutes or so. It was pretty funny to just sit there and watch him faff around for the whole time. That late afternoon was spent shopping on Long Street before having to get ready for Keira's going away party. That night we went to a nice sushi restaurant for supper. Despite its attraction as a serious tourist desination, Cape Town is really quite cheap. That supper cost me $10 for 12 rolls, and a double T&T.
Yesterday, Keira flew to the UK to visit her family for a week, so I've lost my traveling buddy and tour guide. Shame. In the afternoon, I went to Two Oceans Aquarium down by the waterfront. It was fairly nice, but rather small actually. The neat thing about it though is that I'd seen several things in the aquarium as I had whilst scuba diving in Mozambique, so I think I enjoyed it a lot more. It's kind of nice walking around Cape Town and the aquarium listening to music like your own personal soundtrack. (It's been a lot of Elliot Smith, Beta Band, Radiohead, and Grandaddy as of late).
Tomorrow I head to Stellenbosch (the winelands) for a full day of wine, cheese, and chocolate tasting. I'm hoping for just a brushing over of the last two but more intense and involved investigation of the first one.
Saturday is the Rugby World Cup Finals between England and South Africa, so this town should be going insane on that night. This is like one step behind having their country in the Soccer/Football World Cup Finals. For fear of getting accosted, I'll be sure to cheer loudly for the South Africa Springboks.

M in Africa

2007-10-18T04:10:00.000-04:00

As I'd previously stated, I spent a couple of weeks traveling with this guy Chris that left England 9 months ago and drove from there, to South Africa. He's had a lot of crazy stories and things happen to him, so if you'd like to see his story, or a map of the route he's driven to get here, click here to check it out. He's named his Land Rover 'M' in case you were wondering the significance of that.

Whole New Words

2007-10-18T04:00:00.000-04:00

Since I've been traveling and hanging out with such a wide variety of cosmopolitan characters the last 6 weeks, I've been learning all kinds of words that are apparently in the English language that we don't have in the United States. Many of the words are fun to say if nothing else. Below is a short dictionary for those of you who'd like to expand your vocabulary and learn something new today.

Lekker: adjective: this exciting word is used to describe something as awesome or sweet, e.g. 'This weather/song/party/coffee is lekker, bru.' This is a word mostly used by South Africans.

Bru: proper noun: this word replaces the American words of bro or dude, e.g. 'Hey Bru, can you pass me the salt?'

Faff: verb: to muck around or waste time, e.g. 'Women are always faffing around in the bathroom doing who knows what.'

Potter: verb: synonymous with faff: 'I've just been pottering around the house all morning.'

Ming: adjective: to be disgusting, e.g. 'That towel is minging. That towel mings.'

Slapper: noun: a woman of loose morals or values, i.e. a floozy or skank, e.g. 'Look at that group of slappers that just walked in.'

Hoot: verb: to honk your car horn, e.g. 'The guy behind me is hooting at me.'

Cape to the Town

2007-10-14T04:18:00.000-04:00

So here I am in Cape Town, South Africa. This is a very beautiful city located on the coast of the ocean and surrounded by mountains on the other side. I just got here yesterday after my ridiculously long bus ride (that really wasn't too bad) and got moved in to a backpackers. I got all cleaned up after a couple days of being unbathed and disgusting and then met up with two girls that I met in Mozambique to watch the England/France rugby match in the World Cup. I knew nothing of rugby a few weeks ago, and now I'm kind of getting into it. Tonight is the South Africa/Argentina game which should be entertaining to watch since the Springboks are the equivalent to the 'Dream Team' from Atlanta 1992 as far as excitement is concerned. People here love them.

Continuing with my lucky streak, one girl that I met in Moz, Keira, is from here and currently has no job so she's volunteering to take me out and be my tour guide to show me around the sites of Cape Town. I think we have a hike up Table Mountain and up to Lion's Head planned, and then I hope to go to the aquarium and botanical gardens as well. Since I have so long here, I'll probably leave the city and head out to the hills to go on a wine tasting tour in Stellenbosch and perhaps some spelunking at Canga Caves. As my mother always says, 'What vacation is complete without a bit of spelunking?' I don't know mother, I don't know.

As usual, I'm fine and healthy and look forward to seeing you soon.

Much love,
brett

Lesotho, Finished...

2007-10-12T06:38:00.001-04:00

Right now I'm sitting in Bloemfontein, South Africa after having woken up at 5:30 this morning to get here. After my Maseru post, I got a ride to Semonkong where the lodge I was staying at was located. The 3 hour drive out there was great because we were driving through mountains the whole time. (Did you know that Lesotho is the only country in the world that is completely above 1000m in elevation?) It was nice to be in the crisp mountain air again for the first time in a couple of years. One thing I didn't count on was the cold factor since they just got out of winter. The first night I was in my tent, I slept for maybe an hour and a half or so because it was about 40 degrees farenheit.
That's ok though because the next day I went pony trekking for most of the day. Before you all laugh out loud, these ponies aren't like shetlands here, they're more like stunted horses. There was a large group of Dutch folks at the lodge and a few of them were in my riding group so that was entertaining hearing them speak the whole time. We spent the morning riding over some hills to get to this huge gorge with an 800 foot waterfall coming over one side of it. That afternoon I went out with the guide (the Dutch's bums were too painful for them to go back out)in the other direction over some mountains to see some other sprawling valleys and the spiral aloe plant that can only be found in Lesotho.
My second full day provided me with some of the funniest minutes of my trip thus far. I was heading out to hike to the bottom of the aforementioned gorge to watch some of the aforementioned Dutch abseil (rappel) along side the aforementioned waterfall (The longest abseil in the world according to Guiness). On the way out to the gorge, the lodge manager likes to play some music to pump up the abseilers. One particular song on the list was 'Paradise City' by G n' R. I don't know what could be funnier than sitting in a vehicle listening to five goofy Dutch singing as loud as they can in their goofy American accents to Paradise City. The whole time they were laughing and slapping each other on their backs. Axl Rose must be some sort of god in Holland.
From here, I must kill about 10 hours of time before getting on a bus tonight to head to Cape Town. Then, only 13 short hours to be confined on the bus and I'll be there. Luckily, I've made a couple of friends along the way that live in Cape, so I'll be able to meet up with them once I get there and they'll be able to show me all the hot spots. I reckon I'll update again in a day or two.

Help Wanted

2007-10-12T06:34:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone-
Now is when I appeal to all of you to keep an ear open for me. Seeing how I've decided to return to Mozambique to do my Dive Master's Training, I've figured out that I need to make some money while I'm back home. I'm pretty easy to please, so if any of you hear of really any sort of job that I could work from late October until mid-January, that'd be cool. Seeing how I'm desperate, I'd be willing to work 60+ hours/week if that's what the job requires. Anyways, if you can help me out, I'll be forever indebted to you.

Maseru, Lesotho

2007-10-09T04:39:00.000-04:00

Nothing too exciting has happened since yesterday. I was traveling from 10am till midnight when I finally reached Lesotho. I was really excited to sleep in today except for the fact that the ladies who ran the guest house (I was staying at the Anglican Church) woke me up at 6:15 to write my name in a book, 7:30 to see if I was still in the room, and again at 8:30 for the same reason. It was the closest I've been to losing my temper in a long time.
Oh well though, I finally got up and am now getting a few groceries before heading out to Semonkong to start my pony trekking adventure. It's actually pretty chilly here, but I'm looking forward to getting into the mountains where it will be undoubtedly colder. Luckily I've brought my stocking cap.

PS, the Cubs suck.

On The Road Again

2007-10-08T03:20:00.000-04:00

Today I finally take off from Swaziland. We got Chris's Land Rover fixed and he'll be headed off to meet his family in South Africa. My time in Swaziland has been calm and relaxing. A couple of nights ago I went to a wedding party of a guy Chris and I met whilst playing pool at a local watering hole. We were playing for about 8 hours when the guy told us he was getting married and that he'd be honored if we attended his party. How could we pass that up? They had a cookout, music, and beer. Sounds like a good party to me.
I'm starting off to Johannesburg in an hour or so and hopefully will be able to jump on a bus headed to Lesotho immediately thereafter. I do not want to spend any unnecessary time in that city. Anyways, for the next several days I'll be riding across the mountains of Lesotho on my trusty steed, so I'll update you later on.

In The Royal Kingdom of Swaziland

2007-10-03T06:43:00.000-04:00

As I type this, I'm sitting in Mbabane, Swaziland, the capital. I arrived yesterday with my three new friends, Chris, Jenny, and Keira. Unfortunately today, Jenny and Keira needed to proceed on to Johannesburg, so Chris and I have spent the day trying to fix his vehicle because he had a drive member on the back half shaft get worn down. Many of you are thinking, 'But Brett, you know nothing about fixing cars so why are you trying to use this technical jargon?' Right you are friends, but I've learned a whole lot in the last day whilst trying to help him fix his Land Rover.

Mbabane is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains at an altitude of about 3000 feet. It's weird because the last month I've been living at sea level on beaches, then just yesterday we left Mozambique and made the several hour drive here to Swaziland. Thus far, these are the most friendly people (the Swazis) I've met in all of my travels in Africa. Every single person I've talked with has been very kind and helpful. Tomorrow we'll get the parts we ordered from Durban, and in the afternoon go cliff jumping in the Ezwalu Valley about 30 km from here. I reckon I'll spend a two more days here before starting the trip to Lesotho.

As usual, I'll update whenever I get the opportunities. Take care and keep in touch.

Got Stuck in Tofo

2007-09-30T06:22:00.000-04:00

Only 6 minutes left to type, but things are going well. I found it too difficult to leave Tofo and ended up there for 3 weeks. I've fallen in love with diving and may return in February to get my Dive Master's. Anyways, I met a couple Brits and a South African girl that were traveling around and ended up catching a ride with them on Friday into Maputo. Although we'd only known each other for a couple of days, they threw me a great birthday party complete with a nice dinner and bumper cars. In England they call them dodge 'ems. Today we're leaving Maputo and headed to a nice beach south of here a few hundred kilometers and then I'll move on to Swaziland. Maybe. I've found that traveling with set plans is pointless. Again, I'm doing well and don't worry if I don't update as often as I'd like. I got a few emails of people worried about my safety and such, but I'm loving this trip. I'll see you all in a few weeks.
Much love,
brett

All is Going Swimmingly

2007-09-16T06:03:00.000-04:00

Just like the last few updates, this is just to let you know that all is well. Sorry that so much of these stories involve tales from SCUBA, but the alternative would be a description about beads of sweat dripping from mein brow on the beach. My days basically are halved between time at the SCUBA center, and reading on the beach.

Speaking of SCUBA, it's gone very well. My total time underwater is about 4 hours, 30 minutes as of a couple of hours ago. My dives have continued providing me with the opportunity to listen to humpbacks sing, but yesterday while diving I got to see something incredible. Manta rays, which can have a wingspan greater than 15 feet across were swimming around our group. The key is to try to remain still and let them get used to you so that they feel comfortable approaching. After several minutes of acting like a stone, one swam directly towards me and banked right over my head, maybe 3 or 4 feet above me. They're so graceful and gentle, it's not scary to have such a massive creature approaching you under the sea. In addition to that, there have been massive loggerhead sea turtles, moray eels, schools of fish, color changing octopi, various sting rays, and lots of very neat coral.

I think tomorrow morning (maybe Tuesday) I'm going to leave Tofo. I'll stay in Maputo (Mozambique capital) for a couple of days and figure out the best way for me to proceed to Swaziland. As usual, I'll continue to update you all along the way.
Much love.

Tofo Tsunami 2007

2007-09-13T07:33:00.000-04:00

Last night was mildly eventful. Jeremy, Dan (this random British fellow we met), and I went out to eat. As we were walking though the market area, someone came up to us and with hushed and grave tones, she said "Have you guys heard about the tsunami warning? There was an earthquake in Indonesia and they're expecting a tsunami to hit the coast here around 10pm (this was at 7pm). The government is recommending everyone to get away from the coast and seek higher ground." At first we were all thinking of Thailand and the mood over the dinner table became quite morose. Then finally we decided that there wasn't much we could do about it, so following dinner we headed back to our guest house, Fatima's. The scene there was mildly humorous because there were people packing up their gear and heading out in an attempt to get inland. Your three brazen heroes scoffed at the idea of a tsunami and we sat in the bar drinking, waiting for zero hour to arrive. We kept watching the ocean waiting for a massive amount of water to come in, but thankfully that moment never arrived.

This morning Jeremy left and headed back for Zambia, so from here on out, I'm on my own. I'm planning on being here for another four or five days before starting the trip to Swaziland. Tomorrow I'm performing my deep dive at Manta Reef and will hopefully see some of the famous manta's with wingspans over 10 feet wide. Then, on Saturday I'm hoping to do an ocean safari which takes a boat out looking for dolphins and whale sharks and upon seeing them, you get out and snorkel with them for a bit. That should make for some interesting stories.

Certified

2007-09-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

The last several days here in Mozambique have been pretty great, but busy. Jeremy and I spent basically 8-17 at the SCUBA place trying to fit our 4 day course into a meager 3 days. It involved reading, tests, and practicals. It helped to reassure me that grad school isn't that appealing to me. SCUBA diving has been an incredible experience. We had 4 dives in the Indian Ocean and saw a whale shark, moray eels, all kinds of crazy fish (e.g. lionfish, etc.), and listened to humpback whales sing. So far the deepest depth we've dove to is 16 meters (50 ft.). After Jeremy leaves I think I'm going to get my deep diver's certification which will allow me to dive to 40 meters (130 feetish).

This place is beautiful. We can sit on the beach and watch humpback whales blow water into the air and then breach several meters into the air only a few hundred meters offshore. I'm really enjoying my time here and the beauty of traveling without a set itinerary is the option of staying as long as you want at a place. I'm probably going to spend another week or so here just being on the beach and all that. As my return date to the states nears, I get more excited to get home.
See ya'll soon.

Relaxación

2007-09-07T07:01:00.001-04:00

After three straight days of waking before 6 am, Jeremy and I have finally arrived here in Tofo, Mozambique. Today we actually got to sleep in. This place is very beautiful with azure waters and fine sand to walk on. We just took a walk through the town to get some towels to lay on, then we're headed to set up our scuba classes in a moment. Luckily my Spanish is beginning to come back a bit so talking with people has become easier. This time tomorrow, I should be swimming with whale sharks.

Can You Repeat That?

2007-09-05T09:55:00.000-04:00

Most people don't know that the main language in Mozambique is Portugese. This language is very similar to Spanish, so I keep trying to throw some of that out there in order to be understood. At one time, my Spanish was damn good, but I haven't spoken it in so long. So, as I try to talk to the locals, all that comes out is a amalgamation of English, Bemba, and Spanish. The locals kind of laugh at how stupid I sound, but so far it's worked to get me food and beer, so what else do I need? Tomorrow morning, Jeremy and I head out to the beach to begin the week of relaxation. Hooray!

A Long, Weird Day of Travel

2007-09-05T09:39:00.000-04:00

My travels are currently underway. Yesterday I flew from Lusaka, Zambia to Johannesburg, South Africa. I had the good fortune of being on the same flight as Annie and Jeremy, so when we made it to the airport, we just had to kill some time before getting picked up by the backpacking place we were staying at. It was bizarre because I finally had to say goodbye to my number one compadre and neighbor, Annie, after two years of being each other's support network. Really a sad occasion.

Some guy named Mike picked Jeremy and I up to take us to Eastgate Backpackers because we needed some place to kill time while we waited 12 hours for our bus to leave for Mozambique. Mike was hopped up on some sort of amphetimine or stimulant because he was the most fidgety, nervous, hyperactive individual I've ever encountered. It provided many a laugh for Jeremy and I throughout the day. The bp was near the Eastgate Shopping Center so Jer and I walked over there to see what western style commerce was all about. It is the first time that I can ever remember being so weirded out about anything. It wasn't due to the bulletproof-vested, gun-toting guards located everywhere (JoBurg is the most dangerous city in the world), but everything moves so fast and there is so much auditory and visual stimulus neither of us could really handle it. As an easy out, we ducked into the movie theatres and caught a showing of Transformers. That was pretty awesome, by the way.

As the hour of our bus departure crept in, we got a ride to the bus depot and had dinner at an American themed restaurant called Buffalo Bill's where all the servers donned cowboy hats. The music was a Lionel Ritchie album, followed by Clarence Carter, then by a host of 80s classics. Very western-stlyed American.

Our bus was in theory a very comfortable double decker, but unfortunately, we were at the end of the line and had to sit in the only two seats that faced the people in front of you with a table in between. It would be great if you were traveling with 3 other people because cards would be an option, but alas, we did not know our neighbors and they took all of the foot room and cramped our style. So the night was passed in a fitful sleep during the 12 hour trek.

Rambler's, Let's Get Ramblin'

2007-09-03T06:21:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow morning I start my month and a half of travels. At the terrible hour of 5:15am, Jeremy and I have to get in a taxi and head to the airport to catch my 7:30 plane to Johannesburg. Upon reaching Johannesburg, I'll kill some time in the afternoon before catching an overnight bus to the Mozambiquan capital of Maputo. After spending the day there, Jeremy and I will take off to Tofo and spend a week or more hanging out on the beach, getting SCUBA certified, and going marlin fishing.

As previously stated, I'm then headed to Swaziland, Lesotho, and the beaches of South Africa. I have purchased my plane ticket home and am scheduled to finally fly out of Cape Town on October 23 and then return to Des Moines International Airport late in the evening of October 24. After that, I'll be visiting all of you.

Take care all and I'll see you soon.

Closing of Service

2007-08-30T06:31:00.000-04:00

So I arrived here in Lusaka a couple of days ago to tie up all of my lose ends and tomorrow I'll 'ring out.' Ringing out is the symbolic ending of one's service where we bang a metal rod on an old car wheel. What better way to commemorate one's two years of service than with a percussive beating of something commonly found in junk yards around the United States. Although I jest, it's oddly appropriate for this country.

The last couple of days I've been running around trying to get signatures from all the appropriate people to vouch that I've turned in my medical kit, water filter, quarterly reports, etc. I've also feverishly been typing up my Description of Service and Completion of Service reports (10 pgs total). Then I even got to write my own letter of recommendation. Needless to say, future schools or employers will be thoroughly impressed with my Peace Corps service because my letter of reco is so complimentary.

Aside getting blood drawn, TB tests, malaria tests, and the like from the medical office, I also got a cardboard container the size of a tall boy beer can. The contents of the can are three glass vials containing some mystery fluid, three popsicle sticks, and some toilet paper. It reminds me of the pine box car kit that you get in Boy Scouts. 'What does one do with these materials,' you ask. Well, the medical office needs three separate poo samples. So now each time I poo (up to three times) I have to collect a 'sample' and put it in the little glass jar inside my carboard cylinder. That's strange in and of itself, but since nature can call at any time of the day, I have to carry my cylinder with me. For the last two days I've been walking around everywhere and have butt mud samples in my manly hip pack. You may call it a fanny pack, but I prefer the masculine version.

Something for the Ladies

2007-08-30T06:29:00.000-04:00

Since I've been away for so long, perhaps there are some women wondering what they've been missing out on. Below is a picture of myself, and my buddies Marcus and Jeremy. This was taken last year on Christmas. I've lost the beard since then, but not the attitude. Enjoy!

Bon Voyage, Village

2007-08-23T05:36:00.001-04:00

I am successfully moved out of my village now. Yesterday afternoon the Peace Corps vehicle came to the house and I moved out for the last time. It was very sad, but I'm excited to get on with the travels. I've yet to actually purchase plane tickets, but as of now the plan is Mozambique for a week and a half, followed by Swaziland for a few days, then the mountainous country of Lesotho for a week or so, followed by a month or so of laying on a beach in South Africa. Hooray! If any of you have a slow September of October, feel free to meet up with me along the way. Cape Town is supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities on the entire planet Earth. I reckon I may return home around Halloween or so. But as with everything concerning me, all plans are subject to change.

It's weird saying goodbye to people in the village because I've made some good friends. I would like to potentially come back some time, but funds may be a problem along the way. I have just been saying, "Goodbye, we'll meet someday in heaven, perhaps." It is an odd sentence to make.

If you would like to see pictures from my parent's visit, click here to see my father's photo gallery.

I am looking forward to returning home and seeing everyone in about two months time now. Stay well and I'll see you then.

Three Wild and Crazy Weeks

2007-07-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

My vacation with my parents is now coming to an end. We've traveled to the far reaches of this great and sizable nation and tomorrow they fly out. They arrived here on the 3rd, so we've had a lot of time together. It's been odd spending more time with my parents than I have in my entire life. Even as a kid, I would go to school and all that and get alone time, but this has been a vacation with no breaks from each other. Don't get me wrong, it's been fantastic having them here, but all good things must come to an end I suppose. Allow me to recount some of our various adventures for you.

Livingstone and Victoria Falls

2007-07-20T11:50:00.000-04:00

The day after my folks flew in I was a bastard son and subjected them to the novelty of public transport. We boarded a bus at the public bus terminal and were told it would leave in 30 minutes. I've been here long enough to know that was crap, but went along with it anyways. Over two hours later the bus was boarded by a preacher who preached to us (everyone on the bus) for 20 minutes or so about a whole plethora of topics before praying for our safety. Busses are dangerous here so they always pray for good luck before departing. We broke down before reaching Livingstone and then entire trip took nine hours. My parents took it surprisingly well.

After reaching Livingstone we did the touristy stuff of just going to the Victoria Falls. It was my third trip, so I saved the ooohs and aaaahs. My parents however, were using adjectives such as, marvelous, incredible, and breath-taking. In addition to the falls, we went on a sunset cruise (a.k.a. booze cruise). After a couple hours of pounding gin and tonics (free liquor), our bartender, Freddy, made my folks and I a Freddy's Special. It was quite delicious. I can honestly say this is the first time I've seen my mother completely toasted. Very entertaining. After four nights in the 'Adventure Capital of Africa,' we flew to South Luangwa National Park for four nights of safari.

Lions, Leopards, and Warthogs, Oh My

2007-07-20T11:30:00.000-04:00

After four relaxing days of Livingstone, we flew to Mfuwe International Airport near the South Luangwa National Park. We spent two nights at a main camp called Kapani Lodge. This place was incredible. We'd get awoken at 5:30 AM, have a light breakfast, then start a four hour morning game drive just after 6:00. I really saw some incredible things on this safari. Impala, puku, lions with cubs, elephants, cape buffalo, vervet monkeys, baboons, hyenas, bush bucks, water bucks, and many more. It's really weird because these companies have been providing game drives for years, so the animals are used to the Land Cruisers and are never caused harm by them, so you get very close. Our first night there we were literally four or five meters from two juvenile male lions. The first encounter that close is a bit creepy because you are in an open air vehicle that the animals could easily jump onto and eat all of the occupants, but they just lay around like you're not there.

After two nights at the main lodge, we made our way to a bush camp located 30 km inside the park. You sleep in a very nice tent (feels more like a house) and have elephants, hippos, and other animals munching on the grass outside your tent while you sleep. During the day animals just slowly walk through the camp grounds while you enjoy a bloody mary or g & t. It's really very cool. Some highlights were coming upon a pride of 14 lions and 3 cubs just hanging out one night. The cubs were just running around playing/annoying the older lions and seemed like little kittens. One of the lions was just sleeping on its back with its feet in the air. Very cute. Another cool thing we saw was a leopard up in a tree with a killed impala during a morning walking safari. Don't worry, we had an armed guard with us the whole time so we were in no danger. The leopard left pretty quickly, but we returned to the same tree that night and got to hang out and watch the leopard for awhile. The whole experience was really great and I highly recommend you to go on a safari sometime in your life.

Fiesta in the Bush

2007-07-20T11:00:00.000-04:00

After the safari, we returned to Lusaka so we could rent a car and I could play chauffeur to my parents for a week. Now, I've spent many a day of my life behind the wheel of a car, but over here, the steering wheel is on the right side, and they use roundabouts a lot. It was quite stressful for my first couple of hours behind the wheel, but I quickly got the hang of driving on the 'wrong side.'

We made our way up to my village because I had arranged a party for my parents by buying 2 goats and 9 chickens. We spent 3 nights in the village and on the last night was the party. Over 75 people attended, we played music and sang and dance. Chief Lushinga Lupikiso came to my party, presented me with a statue, and gave a speech thanking me for my service. It was my last time being with all of my village friends at the same time. I gave a thank you speech and got fairly misty during it as I looked around at all the faces of those who've taken care of me and helped me through the hard times in the village. Returning home will be great, but I'm certainly going to miss some families back in the village. A few of the families have taken me in as one of their own and I feel so comfortable being with them. There's no awkwardness due to our different backgrounds or anything like that, just good conversation and friendship. Well, enough of the mushy crap, on with the adventures.

During the drive back to Lusaka, I hit a small pot hole and my right front ball joint snapped which disconnected the wheel from the car. We skidded to a halt, thank God I got cell service, and then I called the rental company. 12 hours later the mechanics showed up and gave us a mini van to take the remaining 8 hours back to Lusaka. I had to drive from 10:30 last night until after 7 this morning. Needless to say, I'm quite tired, but at least it provided my folks with yet another story for the golf course of office.

All in all the trip was great though.

No More Mail, Please

2007-07-20T08:46:00.001-04:00

This isn't a request due to the exhorbitant amount of mail that I've been getting, but rather due to the fact that I've less than a month left in Mporokoso. Anything sent after a week ago or so will probably not get to me in time. From here on out please update me via email of any and all urgent and exciting information.

Almost There

2007-06-29T06:28:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone-
In a country where everything else moves at a snails pace, time continues to move very quickly. As stated before, i'm done now in about eight weeks and my folks get here in four days.

I've just found out today that my extension is not going to happen. I just received a semi-snooty email from my Country Director saying that Matt (the kid I wanted to extend with) and I don't fit the 'criteria' for extending volunteers. She also cited difficulties with logistics and the amount of work required for them to transfer a volunteer. I find these things to be annoying, but oh well, I'm sure I won't be complaining when I'm having a cold, frothy Sam Adams when I get home. I forsee myself gaining some weight when I get home.

As far as post-COS (completion of service) travel is concerned, this is still up in the air. My main travelling partner, Katie 'Montana,' has had some GI problems and ended up being sent to South Africa for surgery and then might be headed back to the States in the next week or two. What I do will depend on the outcome of her illness.

I left my village yesterday and had to say goodbye to my family's children for the last time. The family is moving to the capital city after I move and has begun the process, so the husband is moving the children this weekend while I'll be gone. That was actually pretty sad. I got a couple of pictures to mark the occasion, told them all that I considered them my younger siblings (mwaice), shook their hands (hugging isn't very typical here), and said goodbye. The cutest one, Kalumbi, was looking a bit teary-eyed.

I'll continue to update as I find out more along the way, but for now this will have to suffice.

much love,
brett

T-Minus 3 Months

2007-05-22T04:18:00.000-04:00

It's looking like my time here in Zambia will officially terminate on September 1. Right now I'm in Lusaka at some committee meetings, but will be heading back to Northern Province tomorrow evening then biking back to my village to spend all of June working. I pretty much have only 7 or 8 weeks left in the village because some of my 3 months will be spent travelling when my parents come to visit and attending a couple of other meetings along the way. Although I've thoroughly enjoyed a vast majority of my time here and feel incredibly lucky for the opportunities given to me and friendships made here, I'm looking forward to closing my service here and starting the next chapter of whatever I'm supposed to do with my life. I am still pursuing my attempts to extend my time in the PC somewhere else in the world, but it's mostly looking more and more like a long shot. I'm ok with that though.

Check my picture website because I'm trying to update it with more pictures, but the computer here is moving quite slowly. Anyways, take care of yourselves and keep in touch. My apologies for the lameness of these two posts, but I just downed two cups of coffee and my mind is racing so these don't have the usual charm and wit. I'll try harder next time.

brett

The Buzz in Chalabesa

2007-05-22T04:06:00.000-04:00

Some of you may recall that I tried to teach a bee keeping session in my village (Chalabesa) around November but had a terrible turnout. People cited the rainy season as the reason for this because people had too much work to do in the fields. I believed this and decided to put these sessions on the back burner for a few months. About a month ago I gave it another try but had the meetings in a different village. Much to my surprise I had about 20 people attend which exceeded my expectations. It was a really great time and people seemed very interested and enjoyed themselves. I've even been told that a handful of attendees have already constructed hives and captured swarms so that the honey production in that particular village (Kabushi) is currently under way. Hooray!

Then, a week and a half later I again tried to host the same session in my village, but after waiting for 2.5 hours later than the original start time, only 5 people showed up. Everyone agreed that there was no sense in having the sessions if there weren't at least 10 people present, so the two-day workshop was cancelled. It's kind of a bummer, but cilifye bwino (it's ok).

Returning Home

2007-04-16T07:17:00.000-04:00

I just returned from my vacation to Malawi a couple of days ago. Four of us traveled to Cape Maclear to spend 4 or so nights just laying on the beach of Lake Malawi. It was a very nice and relatively cheap vacation that basically consisted of drinking, swimming, eating, and lying around. Not that I lead a high-stress life in the village or anything, but it's nice to get away for a spell to return to anonymity. The really great part of the vacation is that I esentially spent $150 for transport, food, and beverage for the 5 days that I was in Malawi.

After leaving Malawi I spent a couple of nights in Lusaka visiting friends there, and then I had a meeting with our Country Director. My friend Matt and I are hoping to (as I've mentioned before) extend our service another year to some other exotic location. It's sounding unlikely, but I'll keep hoping it happens. You'll all be welcome to visit me in Fiji if it pans out for yours truly.

Tomorrow I'll be starting off to my home village for the next month. I'm excited because next week we're going to try to host the 2-day bee keeping workshop again. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I get a better turn out this time. Hopefully the ending of the rainy season and the fact that there is plenty of food right now will combine to assure that I'll have a bunch of eager beaver students.

Slowly but surely I'm approaching the end of my term here in Zambia. In theory, I'll get pulled from my site in 4 months time and be out of Zambia in 4.5 months. Hopefully I'll be back home by early to mid-December so that I can go snowboarding out west before the holiday season gets underway.

Until we meet again...

The Cusp of Vacation

2007-04-04T10:19:00.000-04:00

I'm currently in Chipata, Eastern Province awaiting the arrival of a couple of my buddies from Northwestern Province so we can proceed to Lake Malawi for a few days of fun in the sun there. I very much look forward to laying out on a beach for a few days. Also on our itinerary is perhaps the rental of horses for a day of galloping and trotting through the sprawling meadowlands of Malawi. We'll be like the Brad Pitt of Legends of the Fall. I don't know if there will be enough time though.

Getting here has been slightly interesting. My bus broke down coming from Mporokoso and instead of the expected 5-6 hour trip, it took me 9 hours with the last half featuring me perched atop the cab of the flatbed truck. everywhere else was full so if our driver would have slammed on the brakes for any reason, yours truly would have been screwed. Then, whilst travelling to Lusaka from Kasama, the trip was extended by 3 hours for a grand total of 13. Awesome. The reason for this lengthening was due to the fact that my bus caught on fire. They pulled over quickly, the bus filled with smoke, then they went to town with a fire extinguisher. I was at the ready to leap from my window at the first sight of flames, but luckily they squelched it before it became a real danger.

Aside from that, everything continues to be just ok and i'll update more in the future.

Going Away Party

2007-03-29T08:23:00.000-04:00

One of the unfortunate realities of Peace Corps (don't get me wrong, it's well worth it) is that you are constantly making good friends only to have some of them leave every 6 months or so. This last batch of folks I saw 3 of my closest friends in country finish their service. Luckily, one of them is just moving to Lusaka to extend her service there. Since we don't have situational comedies to entertain us here, we find entertainment in having 'themed' parties. For this one, it was a joint bar mitzvah, debutante ball, and wedding so guests were invited and given personalities which they had to dress appropriately for. In the following pictures you can see that my role was an Arab. At the club I was a DJ whose handle was DJ G Had (two dots above the a).
Before going to the bar, several of us performed a concert. We practiced for a couple of days leading up to it and below is our setlist. All songs are original by Jeremy Thurston, (the guy in the cowboy hat) unless otherwise denoted.

I: Eli the Barrow Boy (The Decemberists), Mporokoso Road, Internment Camp, Wagon Wheel (Old Crow Medicine Show), Mat George Got Der First, Dirty Sheets, and Three Bottles for Ari

E: Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison), Wagon Wheel Reprise

That's right per popular request we played an encore. All in all the night was grand and everyone had fun.

Up in the Northwest

2007-02-27T05:05:00.000-05:00

Hello all-
I'm currently in Solwezi, Northwestern Province visiting some friends of mine. Annie, Devin, and I left Northern Province a few days ago and made the obnoxious 15 hour trek up here. That was actually pretty fast.
Life has been fairly quiet as of late. Since we are in the rainy season, the farmers I work with are all busy in their fields and don't have time to work with me. I've been struggling to get three appointments made per week. As far as success in the realm of fish farming is concerned, one of my farmers just harvested 185 kgs of fish after harvesting three of his ponds. This is the highest amount I've ever heard of and he was able to make a ton of money whilst having protein to provide his family with. Sometimes it gets frustrating doing this work and one begins to reconsider the effectiveness of what we do, but after a harvest like that, it reconfirms why I'm here.
In a week or so, Annie and I are hosting the second site visits for the volunteers that will become our neighbors in April. That will bring the grand total of Mporokoso (where I am) based volunteers to 5. So, despite the fact that we're out in the boonies up there, we'll have a good number of people to hang out with. Now we just have to cross our fingers that they're a fun group of people.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to post new pictures in a month or so on my way to Malawi for Easter. Until then, take care of yourselves and I look forward to talking with you in the future.

Back 2 The Bush

2007-01-17T05:12:00.000-05:00

After nearly a month out of my village for Christmas, New Year's, and meetings in Kasama and Lusaka, tomorrow I'm headed back home. I really start to miss my village and hut when I'm gone for an extended period like this. Whilst I'm in the village you can all entertain yourselves by checking out my pictures. I've added a dozen more or so. Take care of yourselves and I'll be emerging from the bush in a month or two. Until then, adios amigos.
Thanks to those of you who helped Brett out by voting for him and his video over the last week or so.

CDs Please

2007-01-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

This will be the last update I'll have for at least a month or two, so I figure since I requested you all to send me some music, I should give you a want list of sorts. This is a fairly lengthy list and I'll be happy with any of it, or you can surprise me with anything you think I may like that isn't included on the list. This list is in no particular order. If you're sending me something, you should post a comment so I don't get 4 copies of the same album.

Sufjan Stevens - "Illinois" (or any of his others for that matter)
Beck - "The Information"
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Flaming Lips - (newest album)
Thom Yorke
The Rapture - Pieces of People We Love
Stephen Malkmus - Kindling for the Master
Scissor Sisters - (newest album)
Decemberists - Crane Wife
Tapes n' Tapes - The Loon
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
The Streets - Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
The Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
The Dears - Gang of Losers
Editors - The Back Room
Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Light
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
OK Go - OK Go, or, Oh No
Manu Chao - Proximo Estacion

I haven't heard all of these, but read reviews of some in various magazines and was interested. Of course I don't encourage pirating music either. Anyways, I'd be forever grateful to you if any of you send a few albums. Thanks so much.

My friend Brett's Dorito's Contest!!!

2007-01-11T15:19:00.000-05:00

Hello everybody,

My good friend Brett Snider entered a commercial contest for Dorito's. He is one of five finalists and if he wins his commercial will play during the super bowl! Now it's up to votes to determine the winner so please go vote!!! Here is the email that he has been sending out to explain the contest. Please read it and then vote religiously. Thank you!

......................................................
Hello friends, family, and acquaintances,

As most of you know I am trying to become a director. My friend Billy
and I are a directing team and we've done a music video and a couple
of commercials, one of which won a national contest for converse. We
recently shot two commercials for a Dorito's contest. The prize is
some cash, a trip to Miami and our commercial being shown during the
Super Bowl!

As of today, one of our commercials is a FINALIST! Meaning, we are
flying to Miami for the Super Bowl.

Obviously we're extremely excited. So now here's where you come in.
The competition has been narrowed down from 1100 entrants to 5
finalists. Now that it's down to 5 commercials the judging has been
turned over to the public and we need your votes.
You can vote from any computer once a day starting now and going until
January 19.

We're emailing everybody we know and asking them to email everyone
that they know. We need to take advantage of myspace, facebook,
whatever kind of blog you know and love. Give the link to everyone in
your office. Ask your friends to do the same. Give the link to your
tender, loving parents, it'll give them something exciting to do.

I understand that this is a lot to ask and I'm aware that it's
potentially annoying. We're only asking this of people because we take
the voting very seriously.

Winning this contest and having a commercial in the Super Bowl will be
the start of our career as directors. Having this under our belts will
most likely get us a job and change our lives dramatically.

We're excited for you to watch the commercial. We're very proud of it
and think that ours is the best looking and funniest of the 5.

Here is the link:
http://promotions.yahoo.com/doritos/

After going to the link click on "cast your vote" You'll then have to
sign in to yahoo if you're not already a member. I know I know. That
sounds annoying and at this point you'll want to go to the kitchen and
eat something smothered in ranch, but don't. It's actually painless
and takes about 30 seconds. And you'll only have to do that part once,
signing in after that will take 2 seconds.

So after you've signed in you will be directed to the 5 videos. Our's
is titled "Mousetrap" click the little box underneath the thumbnail
once a day for the next two weeks and you'll feel good for helping a
couple of young Americans live out their young American dream.

Thank you for reading this and helping us spread the word.

Transfer/Extension

2007-01-09T09:17:00.000-05:00

I'll admit, it is strange to think that as early as August, or as late as November I'll be able to return home. This excites me greatly and I look forward to the time that I can come home again and see all of you whom I miss. But the last several months I've also done a lot of thinking while here about whether I'm ready to be done with seeing the world and trying to do my part to assist people who have a real need for education and skills to improve their standard of living. The Peace Corps is a great opportunity to complete both of these desires and I have been considering to perhaps extend my contract, but transfer to another country.
The ball has barely started rolling in this, but I've put a lot of thought into where I'd like to possibly transfer. The chances of it working out are very slim because so many factors need to align to make it possible for me to get this transfer I'm hoping for. Right now, the leading places I'd like to go are, Fiji, Kiribati, Bolivia, Vanuatu, Belize, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, Venezuela, and Paraguay. If this works out, PC is required to send me home for a month if I want, which I will. I'm just now starting to put together my resumé and request and hope to complete those within a month and be able to send them off to the requested countries.
I'll be sure to keep you updated on any progresses/failures with this.

Music Please

2007-01-09T09:05:00.000-05:00

Calling on all friends and people who have any idea what kind of music I listen to. Up until now I've had an iPod which I've relied soley on for music. It still functions alright, but I recently acquired a CD player, but don't have much in the way for CDs. Unfortunately it doesn't play MP3 discs, but I was hoping that if there are any incredible albums that have come out in the last year, that some of you could burn them for me and send them to my address. It only costs $3 to send a padded envelope with cds, so if you look at it like that you could make my month for less than $5 with postage and cds. I was reading a SPIN magazine lately which was talking about new albums put out recently and feeling quite out of the loop.

Of course I don't expect any of you to do this and won't be upset if you don't, but if you catch yourself being bored and looking for something to do someday, feel free to send me some music. Thanks guys and gals.

Village Christmas

2007-01-09T08:48:00.000-05:00

To celebrate the birth of Christ this year, Marcus and I biked to Jeremy's site about 70 miles away. A total of 6 of us showed for this joyous occasion. Marcus and I got very lucky because despite the incessant rains that come with the rainy season, we managed to bike for 7 hours and remain dry for the entire thing.

Jeremy was quite the host for the holiday season. He bough 4 chickens for us to feast on, bought 40 liters of village beer (katata) and 20 liters of katubi (see below). Jeremy, Devin, and I spent a majority of our time socializing with some neighbors and drinking to celebrate. We had a secret santa gift giving thing. I made a salt shaker and then had some of my village coffee to give for a present, and someone (Jeremy) made me a wooden toilet paper holder and broom to put in my squatty potty. The greatest gift I got though could have been the stocking stuffer that santa gave me which was a nail clipper/bottle opener which was adorned with a picture from the "I'm flying Jack" scene in everyone's favorite, Titanic.

Everybody took off on the 27th, but I remained around for that day. I brought my mandolin down with me and Jeremy and I played for awhile and he wrote a couple songs with such titles as "Three Bottles for Ari" and "Dirty Sheets" (the refrain of which is 'Now all I have are these dirty sheets on my bed, why must I love you?') A really moving tune of a forelorn lover. It would have been fun to travel, but I must say that a village Christmas is a fantastic time if you ever get the chance.

Let's Make A Deal

2007-01-09T08:34:00.000-05:00

This place is great for getting some cheap work done. I'm able to get quality assistance for a variety of jobs and give away things that are worthless to me but a great find for some of my friends.

For example a few weeks ago I was in Mporokoso picking up my mail, but due to some confusion, they did not allow me to bring a package home with me that day. But I was busy the next and really did not feel like biking for 2 hours either. So I talked to my homestay dad to find out what an appropriate price would be to pay someone to bike in a nd pick it up for me. The price I was quoted was 2000 kwacha. That is just under 50 cents. So apparently it is ok to hire someone to ride a bike for 25 miles, 3 hours for less than a buck.

Example 2: One of my farmers owes me 45,000 ($10ish) for some small fish I gave him awhile back. I recently went to collect from him and he told me that money was a bit tight right now. I'm not a real tough loan shark and have a soft spot for my farmers' predicaments, but he has some excess chickens so we decided he'd give me 3 chickens in exchange for forgiveness of his debt to me. That will bring my grand total to 4 chickens I keep at my house.

Example 3: One of my friends, Edward, came over to help me fix my roof some time ago. As we negotiated to appropriate price, we finally decided on the following for about 3-4 hours of manual labor; 4 candles, a dozen nails, an empty vodka bottle (to put his own homemade booze in), an empty tin can, and a Newsweek magazine. I thought I was ripping him off, but shortly after that business transaction, I had a whole host of people offering to work for me because they heard I paid well.

On Tap

2007-01-09T08:11:00.000-05:00

It was inevitable that I would eventually be compelled to write a detailed description of the village beers. I imagine some of you are curious what we drink in the village for a bit of relaxation. Surprisingly enough, we have a choice of 3 different adult beverages to drink when getting together in a social setting. The available drink just depends on which one the host or home owner wanted to have that particular Sunday.

The most popular is called katata. It has the consistency and color of a gritty type of egg nog. It took a bit of getting used to, but now I enjoy it thoroughly. This is made by taking corn flour with ground millet, yeast, and sugar. It takes 7 days to brew and is dispersed in 2.5 or 5 liter containers, some having once housed motor oil. Delicious!

The second most widely found beverage is called katubi. This takes a week as well to brew and is made from millet. The finished product is a kind of mash or wort like the remains from beer brewing in the states. To this thick, grainy product you add near boiling water. I don't understand how it works exactly, but upon the addition of the water, the alcohol gathers around the wet grain remnants in little pockets of liquid goodness. To enjoy katubi properly, you use a straw to probe around until you get lucky enough to find a delightful pocket of the alcohol. It is like a drunkards scavenger hunt. The liquid itself tastes a lot like hot saki.

The third alcohol around my area is has about 50 names, but goes mostly by lituku and kanchina. This is actually a proper booze. They brew it and distill it in the village to the point that it is actually a clear liquid. It is basically like African moonshine. This particular beverage is made from cassava and only takes 3 days to prepare.

In addition to these three, there are some others that I've heard of, but never tried. Some Zambians also brew wine, a kind of tea wine, and a honey beer that is rumored to be quite delicious. Most of these drinks are consumed on Sundays, and I have developed a small group of friends in the village that I enjoy getting together with when I'm in the village to share a few drinks with. It's helping my language skills and integration into the community by joining them in these activities.

Happy Hour Hero

2007-01-09T06:39:00.000-05:00

Now that you know WHAT we drink in the village, the next step is to know how to appropriately drink with Zambians. When arriving at a friend's house who has made beer or liquor for the day, usually there is a circle formed with 3 to 8 or so people drinking. In the center of the circle is a plate with a cup in the middle. When first joining, you must be invited into the circle to begin drinking. Once invited, you can fill the cup (about the size of a tea cup) and then chug the cup. A polite thing to do is to buy a container jug (2.5 liters) of beer and then add that to the center of the circle. Usually you finish a cup, then wait a few minutes before the the cup continues around the circle. Or, you can drink a couple times before passing. It's kind of a chug, chug, give rotational system. Messing up the rotation is taboo.

When drinking the distilled booze, it is the same idea, but you just pass the cup around taking shots. There isn't anything like noon here where it is taboo to drink before. I've shown up to some farmers' houses to work at 8 or 9 am and they're sitting there with a friend or two drinking moonshine. And these aren't tiny shots either. I've been intoxicated more frequently before 10 am here than at home (not including tailgating days).

One of my favorite things about Zambian drinking is this wise proverb they have which states, "The cockroach does not get the beer." That is effectively stating that if you have a bug in your beer, just remove the bug instead of pouring out the glass.

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-24T06:52:00.000-05:00

As the title of this post suggests, I'd like to wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving. Last night most of the volunteers from Northern Province and I had a good ol' fashioned Thanksgiving dinner. We had all of the fixins necessary for Thanksgiving and it was a very pleasant occasion.

My apologies to all of you for kind of falling off the radar for a few months. I got back to Zambia on August 17 and this has been the first I've really updated anything since then. I'll try to be better about doing that from now on.

Life's been good since my return. My village life has been nice, despite the fact that I've been absent a lot the last few months due to meetings, trainings, and a variety of other reasons. Since I returned I've done some upgrades on my house, had several classes, killed a pig, read many books, bought a cell phone, practiced my mandolin a fair amount, and then recently celebrated my first year of being a volunteer. It was a year ago on the 22nd that we swore it, so I'm over half way done now. Not that I'm counting down the days, but it will be nice to return home at some point in time.

I'm headed back to my village tomorrow, and I won't return to civilization until January, so I'd like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas as well. I wish I could be at home to celebrate with you all, but this is my place in life for the current time. Thanks again for all of your letters and I hope to hear from you soon.

Much love,
brett

Cell Phone What?

2006-11-24T06:38:00.000-05:00

Well, after procrastinating for one year on getting a cell phone, I've finally gotten one. I feel quite connected with the world. I case you're interested, I can receive texts and calls. My number is 099-168-311. I don't think I have reception at my site, but about 5 km away, so I'll ride into Mporokoso from time to time to check my text messages I may have.

Hut Improvement

2006-11-24T06:18:00.000-05:00

Shortly after returning to Zambia, I decided that my hut was in a very dilapidated state and thus needed repairs. First on my list of to dos, was to have my bathing shelter redone. For the previous several months, 2 walls of my bath house had been eaten by termites so I was essentially bathing for the world to see. Granted, I am quite isolated so I never had problems with peeping Mulengas or anything like that, but it is nicer to have it looking nice again.

As part of the community's agreement to get a PC volunteer, they are to upkeep the house, pit latrine, bathing shelter, etc. But I feel bad making the same few guys come over to my house to help me out, so as compensation, I bought a couple of chickens and had my 'mother' cook lunch for the 4 guys who came over. The same day they completed my bathing shelter, I also had them patch some areas of my roof. It didn't leak too badly last year, but there were visible holes in it now and I was sure I'd get soaked if I didn't have it patched. So, after biking ten 30 lbs. bundles of grass from the local grass salesman, they spent the afternoon fixing my roof. Very nice.

The last upgrade to my estate was to have a chicken house made. I've been out a bit too much to have bought chickens already, but I had them build a house on stilts for my future chickens. Tomorrow I leave for my village until early January, so my first goal is to get some chickens to provide me with eggs upon my return. That, in addition to my garden really starts to make me feel like a farmer or something.

Killing Babe

2006-11-24T06:01:00.000-05:00

So after spending several years of my life being nice to animals and forcing my parents to use humane mouse traps, I've reached a new low. A month or so ago, I went to a going away party for a fellow volunteer from my intake group who has to go home to get some shoulder surgery. The party was at a white South African farmer's near Hunter's (the volunteer) site. Because Hunter was friends with this family they decided to donate a hog to feed the 25 or so of us who attended this 2 day gala event. With a donated hog comes the requirement for someone to kill said swine.

I've never killed anything other than mice and birds, but for some reason I decided to volunteer to do the deed. It could be due to a change in personality since coming here, or the fact that I was 8 beers deep by noon that day, I'm not sure which. Anyways, we brought the pig in a little 5x5 foot pen. I had backup from three other volunteers so there were four of us and a pig in this pen. Apparently, as directed by the farmer, the best way to go about killing a pig is to hit it between the eyes with a hammer, immediately followed by taking a knife and cutting both of its carotid arteries (throat). So I did just that. Following protocol to name your pig pre-killing, I donned him Billy Baldwin. After getting acquainted with him and apologizing to him, I straddled Billy facing his head, took a couple slow practice swings to line up the shot with the hammer, then came down with a stroke of thunder. That stunned poor Billy so then I took the knife and proceeded to saw through his neck to enable him to bleed out.

The whole event was pretty crazy. I have many pictures, but I won't be posting them on my website due to the graphic nature. But now I feel like a changed man, and more of a bush man if I may.

Village Fiestas

2006-11-14T05:17:00.000-05:00

Upon returning from the states I had two parties at my house in a short period of time. The first was just an Mtv Spring Break party where Jeremy, Edmeé, Annie, and Marcus (my newest neighbor)came to enjoy a few days drinking and swimming. A great time. Everyone was there for 2 days and then Jeremy stayed for an extra day where we successfully transported some grass for my roof and then sat on my front stoop drinking village beer all day.
A couple of weeks after that, Annie and Marcus showed up to my house to help me celebrate my 25th birthday party. Annie cooked me a chocolate birthday cake and even topped it with a candle. Although it was perhaps the most tame birthday party I've had, it was great having some friends there to celebrate.

A Safe Return

2006-08-17T05:28:00.000-04:00

I just touched down in Lusaka, Zambia about an hour and a half ago. The trip went well despite the fact that I spent the last two nights on planes. My route was Des Moines to Minneapolis, MN to Amsterdam (overnight), Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya (overnight), and finally Kenya to Zambia this morning.

I had an 11 hour layover in Amsterdam and decided to go hang out in the town. I spent 6 or so hours having some beers and coffees and just wandering around aimlessly for the most part. It made the time go by very quickly. The red light district really cracks me up because you have all of these prostitutes just standing behind windows waiting for some patron to come by, enticing men with their sultry eyes and pouty lips. But as you walk through the alleyways I saw a couple situations like this; whore, whore, whore, laundromat; or whore, whore, whore, tailor shop. So waiting for your clothes to dry or your pants to get hemmed really isn't so annoying anymore.

Again, I'd like to thank everyone for making my trip back home so enjoyable. Sorry to those of you who I didn't get to spend any time with. I am very sorry. Time went by very quickly. Take care everyone and I'll see you in early 2008 more than likely.

Brett

Back to Zambia

2006-08-15T03:00:00.000-04:00

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.

The Great Vacation

2006-08-05T17:36:00.000-04:00

After finishing my time as the Peace Corps Volunteer of the week for the new training group, I went down to Lusaka to pick up my friend Justin who was coming to visit me for a month. Below are several posts that cover the range of activities he and I partook in while galavanting around the dark continent. I apologize for some longwindedness in some of the stories, but it's amazing how much more I can type when I'm not paying for every minute that I'm on the computer.

If you haven't checked my picture website for awhile you should go there because I just put about 150 new pictures up the other day. I'll take this moment to give credit where it is due. Justin took a majority of the recently posted pictures. Thanks for that J.

So far my time in the states has been amazing. Thanks to all of you who have helped make it so. I truly do appreciate it. I'll have far more to write about in a few days, but for now I've been typing for about 3 hours and will stop. Take care.

Livingstone...again

2006-08-05T16:40:00.000-04:00

The first thing Justin and I did after he flew in was to take a bus to Livingstone. I'd already been there in April, but no trip to Zambia is complete without taking in the legendary Victoria Falls. We stayed at Jolly Boys Backpackers (highly recommended) for a few nights and just hung around the town and saw the falls.

The highlight of the trip by far was our decision to go bungee jumping. Neither of us had ever done this before and were both quite excited. The place has a 100% success record, so we felt confident that we were in good hands. Justin decided he wanted to go first, so I got a few pictures of him jumping (check out my pictures section to see). He was quite composed and when jumping, threw out the bull horns (first and pinky fingers) and gave bellow of "Cowabunga."

After he jumped, I was next and asked the guy where I should put my hat, sunglasses, and camera, because Justin was dangling upsidedown below me. He pointed to a trunk/chest nearby and assured me all would be safe there. I had no reason to doubt this information. So I stepped out to the little platform and sat down where directed to and the guy started explaining how things would work. During this he was wrapping my ankles up with padding since that was where I'd be connected from. Upon the completion of that, I was directed to stand up and get mentally prepared. As I was enterinig my Zen-like state, I looked over to the direction of the aforementioned trunk/chest and saw a guy wearing a hat that looked remarkably similar to mine. I thought that was a bit odd. Then I looked at his chubby little hand and saw he was clutching my sunglasses. (The guy I speak of was this short little Dutch fellow who jumped a few people ahead of me). So I said to the employee I was with, "Hey, that guy is trying to steal my stuff." He looked at him, then me, and said, "Well, you better do something about that." So I hopped over to the fence (since my ankles were bound together) and said, "Hey buddy, I'm sure it's some misunderstanding but I think you accidentally grabbed my sunglasses." He had a confused look on his face so I thought I'd help him out, "They're in your hand. The left one there." It was all clear for him then. He said sorry and acted like he had no idea how they got there. That made my next comment more easy because he was playing dumb...so I said, "You've also got my hat." Again a confused look as he looked at both of his empty hands. Again I helped him out by offering, "It's the one on your head. Yeah, that's mine. If you could just put it back where you took it from I'd appreciate it." Then a look of bewildered recognition from him like he couldn't fathom how my hat was perched atop his head. He placed them back in the box for me.

Anyways, back to the jump. So they had me hop up to the edge of the platform and hooked me in. After that they really give you no time to think. I was standing at the edge for less than 10 seconds before the started the countdown. I was really concerned before that they'd have to push me off, but at 2, I leaped for all my rubbery legs were worth at that point in time. I was not quite as eloquent as Justin for the only distinguishable words I yelled were "Holy shit!"

At the end of the day though, it was a fantastic time and we both agreed we would 'jump' at the opportunity to go bungeeing again. So from there we went back to our backpackers and prepared to arise the next morning and take the 5:00AM bus to Lusaka so we could go to the beer cricket tournament.

The Beer Cricket Tournament

2006-08-05T16:39:00.000-04:00

Justin and I caught the 5:00AM bus to Serenje, Central Province for a 4th of July Party and the Bembaland Beer Cricket Tournament. (I've mentioned beer cricket a few times in previous posts and will suffice it to say that it is the single most entertaining drinking game I've ever played. I won't attempt to explain the rules and regulations here, but if any of you ever wish to play this respected national sport of Peace Corps Zambia, you've to do nothing more than ask and I'll be more than happy to teach it to you.)

After 14 hours of transport, we finally arrived at our destination and were the 16th team to enter. We were Team PC Loadletter. In preparation I had taught Justin the ins and outs of the game while in Livingstone so he would have a good idea of what he was getting into. Some athletes eat pasta and get a good night's sleep before a full day of competition, we (as well as many other teams) decided it best if we went into Serenje to the bar 'Cafe de la Restaurant' (no joke) to have a few libations. After one beer they ran out of all alcohol in the place. The party decided to shift to always shady, always disgusting, 'Bantus.' They too were out of beer, but had Nikoli Vodka. In my slightly jovial state, I decided it best to buy a $4 bottle of vodka and just pass it around to everyone so we could drink it straight. That bottle was empty in an hour. It was about that time that everyone started migrating back to the Peace Corps House for a deep slumber for the night.

Early the next morning around 9:00 am after a hearty breakfast of bread, all players and spectators gathered on the cricket pitch for an explanation of rules of the tournament. (Since there were players from all over the country, some rules are used there that aren't in other areas). The first game started at about 10:00 with excitement and tension at the maximum. Justin and I weren't to play until the fourth bracket, so we had about 6 hours to kill before then. What better preparation than to split a crate of Castle? None. When it came time for our first game, we were ready and excited. I'd be lying if I said there weren't some butterflies in my stomach. We played Team WolfTank and had an overwhelming victory of 6-0. The next game we lost to Team Meathead 6-3 who would eventually go on to be champions. In our final game, two Luapulans came out with guns blazing and beat Justin and I to knock us out of the competition. I was disappointed in myself because I think I can hold my own with most any players in the country, but today I could not. As a consolation however, Justin and I looked great. If there was a prize for handsomeness we would have won.

The next day, play continued with those 8 teams that advanced and ended with Team Meathead beating a Northern Province team of Montana and Daaron. After that, we removed the pig that had been buried and was cooking for the previous 24 hours and we ate some of the best pork I've had in my life. Shortly thereafter, Justin and I had to take our leave, because we were to catch the TAZARA train to take us to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania en route to Zanzibar.

Tanzania

2006-08-05T16:03:00.000-04:00

The train ride to Tanzania was actually much better than we anticipated. We had purchased first class tickets under the auspices that we were students (for some reason I still had my Iowa student ID) so we scored some half price tickets. First class cabins sleep four, but lucky for us nobody else was booked so we had a cabin to ourselves. We settled in for a 48 hour trip give or take. The train ride there was quite smooth, it had decent food, and a quality bar/lounge cart so it was a very comfortable ride.
After our second night of sleep in our cabin, we awoke to find that we were going though the Selous Game Park and saw many giraffes and a variety of antelopes.

We arrived in Dar Es Salaam in the early afternoon and made our way to a very Muslim area of town where a recommended guest house could be found. It was a nice place and hearing the call to prayer every few hours was very different/neat. After a fulfilling dinner we headed to The Protein Bar. I'll take this moment to dispell any notions out there that this may be a gay bar. The name may lean that way, but it certainly wasn't. That night we made friends with a Tanzanian guy named George who took us around to several different bars so we could see several different sides of Dar.
The next morning we awoke, ate, and headed to the docks to catch the slow boat to Zanzibar.

Zanzibar

2006-08-05T15:15:00.000-04:00

To get to Zanzibar (off the coast of Tanzania), you can either take a boat or fly. Due to our lack of funds, Justin and I of course chose the former. When presented with the option of the slow or fast boat we inquired as to the specs of each of them. The fast boat, we were told took 2 or 2.5 hours and was $40 whereas the slow boat was 3 to 3.5 hours and $25. I don't mind taking another hour for $15 savings so we opted for the slower boat. At noon we loaded up, got a nice spot claimed on the floor along a railing so we had a good view. We took some Sea Legs (dramamine) and were mentally prepared for our 3 hour tour. About 2 hours into the trip i noticed that Dar Es Salaam (or origin) was still in plain view, but Zanzibar (our destination) was nowhere to be found on the horizon. Simple math and observation lead me to believe that we had been misinformed for how long this would take. We asked a nearby local and he said, "No, we'll be there by 17:00." Our 3 hour trip had increased to 5 hours. This wasn't good news because our stomachs were already a bit queasy as it was. To make a long story short, the trip ended up taking 7 hours so we didn't get into town until 19:00. It was certainly a learning situation.

After disembarking from the boat and heading into Stonetown (the 'capitol') our main concerns were beds, food, and finding some guy named Ally Keys. Ally was recommended to Justin and I by another volunteer as a guy that can provide reliable dirt bikes for us. There are some guys who make a living just helping tourists find places, so this guy Ali took us to a guesthouse and when we asked about Ally, he made a call and 5 minutes later Ally's brother showed up. We told him of our desire to rent dirtbikes and he inquired as to our experience with motorcycles. We said we had no experience and his response was "No problem. Give me your licenses, 6000 shillings ($5) and I'll get you international licenses tomorrow morning." Strangely enough we didn't really question it at all, we just forked over the requested items and he was gone like that.

The next morning we were waiting at the agreed upon time and he showed up with two beautiful Honda 250cc Bajas. He gave us our state and international licenses and we rode to an empty soccer field. Ally and his brother separated Justin and I and explained how to drive a motorcycle to us. For awhile they just had us practicing getting into first gear and then starting and stopping. After a firm mastery of that we started changing gears to second and third and driving around the soccer field to practice up and down shifting. After 45 minutes or an hour we got the nod that we were ready to go out on our own. They drove us out of the city, turned the bikes over to us and said "See you in 4 days." As I saddled my Baja for the first time by myself, unsupervised, a certain Steppenwolf song began playing in my head.

Our first destination was to head north to Nungwi Beach at the northern tip of the island. We'd only been on our hogs about 10 or 15 minutes before making a right hand turn and immediately coming to a police checkpoint. No problem, I had my licenses to prove I was more than safe at driving this vehicle. Problem, the officer informed us that we had cut off a median at the T-intersection and as a result were on the wrong side of the road. He explained it was a 50000 shilling ($45) offense and that we would need to go to court on Monday. That really didn't work into our schedule so it was time to take evasive action. I karate chopped him across the neck and we took off. Well, that never happened, but I slyly asked "Well, we don't want to come back into town to go to court, is there anyway we can just pay you?" The trick is to offer a bribe without backing yourself into a corner. He went on to tell us that there were rules in Zanzibar so we apologized and said we'd learned our lessons and thanked him. Again we asked if we could just pay him. He said no, then said that we were done. It was a bizarre turn of events and it ended up we just got a verbal warning and that was that.

Driving around Zanzibar was amazing. The place is truly a paradise on earth. The roads are pretty much empty of other vehicles and lined with tall coconut, palm, and banana trees. Everywhere you look it's green. Occasionally you have to pass an ox-pulled cart, but other than that the hour it took us to get to the trip we were basically all by ourselves on the road.

For 2 days we stayed on the beach in Nungwi and just threw the frisbee and hung out at the bar. It was overcast for most of our time there which was unfortunate. The place we stayed at was $10 a night per person and that included a great breakfast right on the beach there. After two nights there we saddled back up and rode to the southeast side of the island called Paje Beach. Again there, we just hung out on the beach and checked out the brightest blue waters I've ever seen in my life. It was an incredibly relaxing trip.

After a couple nights in Paje we made our way back to Stonetown to spend a night there. Stonetown is a place unlike anyother I've been to. It's a very old port town that used to be a slave trading hub back in the day. There was a sultan or sheik that was incharge of things so most people there are Muslim. Many of the women wear burkas that reveal only their eyes. There are a couple of main streets, but mostly it's a cornucopia of narrow, winding alleyways that with buildings less than 6 feet apart from each other. Zanzibar is known as the 'Spice Island' so everywhere you go there are vendors hawking cloves, cinnamon, and just about any sort of other spice, tea, or coffee you can think of. Everynight in Stonetown there is a fish market where vendors come and set up tables with fresh lobster, snapper, tuna, shark, barracuda, crab, squid, octopus, and other sea food. Most these you can get a kabob of for about 80 cents. You can stuff yourself with the freshest seafood you've ever had for $7 or $8.

We stayed the night there and headed back to Dar Es Salaam the next afternoon on the fast boat. I highly recommend everyone who has the opportunity to head to Zanzibar. It's beautiful and very cheap. I also recommend you to rent dirt bikes from Ally Keys. It's surprisingly easy to pick up in a short amount of time. And it provides a good story to tell as well.

Village Party

2006-08-05T15:07:00.000-04:00

So Justin and I headed from Dar Es Salaam to Kasama, Zambia via train. I'll just say that the trip was not nearly as smooth as it was going out and took 8 hours longer returning than it did going out even though we had about 400 miles less to go. But we arrived in Kasama unscathed and ready to head back to the village.

The next day we hitched out to Edmeé's house where we hung out for the evening and eventually had to crash there for lack of other transport going to Mporokoso. The next morning we headed out to the road bright and early and got a pretty nice ride fairly early on. We got to Mporokoso in the afternoon, grabbed some bikes, and went to my village. It was great to get back there and see my family, neighbors, dog, and house.

Justin and I went to visit one of my best farmers so that he could see some fish ponds and have a bit of an idea of what I do from day to day. We were only in my village for a couple of days, but had dinner with my family on the last night we were there. Justin liked the nshima, and the intimate family dining setting, so all in all it was a success.

After my village, we headed to Annie's village, Chilala, to visit her and her boyfriend that was also in from America. We had her villages cook up a bunch of nshima, chickens, and cabbage that night and then had a party. They built a proper fire, pounded on the drums, sang and danced. Zambians are good at being sure that nobody gets away without dancing, so there are pictures of each of us dancing at the party. The next morning, JJ and I biked into Mporokoso and caught transport to Kasama where we'd spend two nights.

While in Kasama, I worked for several hours on my SPA (small project assistance grant) proposal to send some of my farmers to an agricultural training center. Luckily I finished it all up before Justin and I had to head to Lusaka.

Conclusion of Vacation

2006-08-05T15:03:00.000-04:00

When it was all said and done with, I'd rate the vacation with Justin at 8.5 or so. In his words, there were definately times when it was a 0 (transport, screaming children, etc.) but most times it was a 10. We figured out that we had traveled by almost every mode of trasportation possible...bike, plane, train, motorcycle, bus, boat, car, truck, and foot. That may be how I rate all future trips.

After Kasama, he and I headed to Lusaka. He flew out on 7-24 and I flew out the next day. The day he flew out I was in the main Peace Corps office putting the final touches on my grant proposal. I think it was very good, so hopefully the grant board agrees. I can't really convey to you the excitement that was rushing through my head as I was in the taxi on the way to the airport preparing to embark on my trip back home. It was almost surreal.

My Books Thus Far

2006-08-05T14:58:00.000-04:00

As I've said in many a previous post, I've got a lot of time to read in the bush. Per the request of several people, below I've provided my reading list of all of the novels I've read thus far. Bold titles are books that I'd highly recommend people read.

1. Me Talk Pretty One Day : David Sedaris
2. Rules of Attraction : Bret Easton Ellis
3. Killing Pablo : Mark Bowden
4. The Five People You Meet in Heaven : Mitch Albom
5. Things Fall Apart : Chinua Achebe
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone : J. K. Rowling
7. Choke : Chuck Palahniuk
8. The Things They Carried : Tim O'Brien
9. Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets : J. K. Rowling
10. Slaughterhouse Five : Kurt Vonnegut
11. Green Hills of Africa : Ernest Hemingway
12. Siddhartha : Hermann Hesse
13. Lord of the Flies : William Golding
14. High Fidelity : Nick Hornby
15. A Midsummer Night's Dream : Bill Shakespeare
16. Robinson Crusoe : Danel DeFoe
17. The DaVinci Code : Dan Brown
18. Lenin's Tomb : David Remnick
19. A Million Little Pieces : James Frey
20. Cat's Cradle : Kurt Vonnegut
21. Lamb : Christopher Moore
22. A Charlie Brown Christmas : Charles M. Shulz
23. Angels & Demons: Dan Brown
24. How To Be Good : Nick Hornby
25. The Lovely Bones : Alice Sebold
26. Fluke : Christopher Moore
27. Grapes of Wrath : John Steinbeck
28. Chronicles of Narnia : C.S. Lewis
29. Life of Pi : Yann Martel
30. Culture of Fear : Barry Glassner
31. Lullaby : Chuck Palahniuk
32. Heart of Darkness : Joseph Conrad
33. Catch-22 : Joseph Heller
34. Gulliver's Travels : Jonathan Swift
35. Night : Elie Wiesel
36. Speaking With The Angel : (Edited by) Nick Hornby
37. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime : Mark Haddon
38. A Brief History of Time : Stephen W. Hawking
39. The Constant Gardener : John Le Carré
40. In The Lake of The Woods : Tim O'Brien
41. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas : Hunter S. Thompson
42. A Beautiful Mind : Sylvia Nasar
43. Hunger : Knut Hamsun
44. House of Sand and Fog : Andre Dubus III
45. The Poisonwood Bible : Barbara Kingsolver
46. A Confederacy of Dunces : John Kennedy Toole
47. Into The Wild : John Krakauer
48. The Sun Also Rises : Ernest Hemingway
49. The Monkey Wrench Gang: Edward Abbey
50. Digital Fortress: Dan Brown
51. Monsignor Quixote : Graham Greene

I'm Comin Home

2006-07-23T12:36:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone-
Justin and I are just finishing up our vacation here. We just got to Lusaka this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm going into the PC office to work on a grant proposal for some farmers, and then on Tuesday I'm flying out. It's crazy to think that I'll be home Thursday evening. Anyways, all's well here, I'm excited to see all of you, and I'll be sure to post a lot more stories and pictures while I'm home.
See you soon,
Brett

Life As Of Late

2006-06-27T07:23:00.000-04:00

So, it's been awhile. Hopefully you're all doing well back home (wherever that is). Things here have been good. I was going to update my site about a month ago and then discovered that nothing too exciting had been happening, so I didn't have much to report. Life in the village has been good.
Life in Zambia has been very cold. Every night I sleep up in Mporokoso, I'm thankful that my predecessor left his blanket for me so that I have two to keep me warm with. I bet it gets around 40 or so at night. It is bloody cold, and doesn't warm up until 10 or 11 in the morning. But then it's a good 70 or 80 out.
I just finished up being the PC Volunteer of the week at the training center that I was at last fall which was nice. The new trainees that will be posted in August are a fun group that should be a good addition to the PC Zambia family. I must admit, I didn't have a real active role in the week...but was able to answer a lot of questions that they had concerning what life is really like for a volunteer.
The family I stay with just had a recent addition to the family a few weeks ago. Her name is Kapembwa. It was funny because bamayo (mom) was working just as hard as ever, and then on a Friday afternoon I was taking off to go work and she came out of the house to inform me that she had a baby in the house. It was a very cute little thing not even 24 hours old.
Right now I'm in Lusaka at the Peace Corps HQ where I'm working on a grant proposal. I just finished making an integration manual in Bemba that I'll be able to give to some of my farmers at some point in time in the near future hopefully.
Tomorrow I go to the airport to pick up my friend Justin who's coming to visit for a few weeks. We'll eventually head to Livingstone, Zanzibar, and Mporokoso. Then, July 25 I board a plane to return home.
I'm incredibly excited to see a lot of you and to experience America again, even if it is only for a few weeks. Take care everyone, and I'll talk to you soon.

My First Classes

2006-06-27T07:17:00.000-04:00

Since I last posted, I've begun having sustainable agriculture courses in a few different villages. I was pretty nervous at first, but had my outline all prepared, my flipcharts all colored and drawn up and was ready to go.
My first meeting was in Kabushi where I had about 8 or 10 guys show up to hear my talk. It was well received, but what I'm teaching goes against tradition and habit...so some of the things are difficult for them to grasp/believe.
My second meeting was held in Chalabesa on a warm afternoon to an audience of only 4 guys. It was slightly disheartening, but they were all really excited about what I was telling them, so it wasn't in vain.
My last meeting was a few weeks ago in a village called Takasalilwa. I was stunned to see that over 30 people came out to hear what I had to say. They were all quite interested and asking questions afterwords, so I'm excited to return and do a lot of work with that village.
Right now I'm working on a grant proposal to get some money to send some of my farmers to a Sustainable Agriculture Training Center here in Lusaka. If that can happen, I can have those guys just training their own villages which would make them better off in the long run. Hopefully I can get the grant accepted.

Inverse Chivalry

2006-06-27T07:08:00.000-04:00

Most Zambians are incredibly friendly and helpful to volunteers and guests. I think most of it has to do with the fact that we're Americans, but they are quite courteous to guests in general. Especially male guests.
As you all know, my job requires me to do a lot of biking. When I arrive at a farmer's house and dismount from my bicycle, I'll usually walk with my bike and my farmer. My farmers though always insist on taking my bike from me because it would be so terrible if I actually had to push my own bike. Going along with this, many of my farmers have started to give me food when I visit them as a little thank you. Most of the time these gifts consist of a head of cabbage, or carrots, or a handful of tomatoes, or even the occasional okra. So we walk through their gardens while they pick all of these things but refuse to let me carry my gifts. Their arms will be loaded up, but they still won't allow me to carry a tomato.
On the flip side...women carry many things for men. Most of the times when the men and women return from their fields for the day, the women are carrying large bundles of firewood, maize, or other crops on their heads while the men strain under the weight of a single axe or hoe. My favorite example of this is when I was biking to Mporokoso and saw 4 figures appear on the horizon. As I got closer, I saw that it was 3 women with large bags and bundles on their heads...and the fourth figure was a man carrying tapali (nothing).
It's great to be a man in Zambia, but women, be prepared to work if you ever come for a visit.

Desperate Times

2006-06-27T06:58:00.000-04:00

After staying here in Zambia for the last 9.5 months, I've learned to enjoy lots of strange combinations of food and drink that I would not have tolerated back home. Most of this is due to laziness moreso than outright need. I find that a lot of times here in Zambia, there may be a lot of food available, but not complimentary foods. I have much food at my site, but there are days where I've cycled 40 miles and been working all day, and just have no desire to cook a proper meal. Below I'll update you on some of my more desperate times.
There have been a few dinners that I've cooked myself that just consists of raw carrots and boiled peanuts. A staple for me in the village is to cook rice, then add a generous spoonful of peanut butter for a hearty meal. I think that the strangest concoction I've had to date though happened at another volunteer's site named Edmeé. Annie and I were visiting on our long trek up to Mporokoso so we stayed at her place for the night. It seems like PCVs can't visit each other without a libation or two. So Edmeé looked in her house to see what we'd be drinking for the evening. Only the finest Zambian Chateau brandy would be the alcohol of choice, but mixers were limited. Somehow though, what we decided on was not too bad. Anytime you're thirsty, don't shy away from the brandy/powdered Powerade mixture. It's delicious.
No, this post isn't a cry for people to send food, because as I've said, I have plenty of that...but mostly I don't have too much to report.

Easter Weekend

2006-04-20T09:04:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter everyone-
My last couple of weeks have been pretty good and productive. After my committee meetings in Lusaka a few weeks ago, I went back up to my site for a week and got 4 good days of work in before returning back to Kasama for vacation. I speak more about that in the next couple of posts.
Things are still good though. I'm reading Catch-22 right now which I highly recommend to most people. I find it hilarious, but some may not. I wish I had some really exciting news to report on aside from the following, but I don't.
I suppose one exciting tidbit of information is that I'm going to be coming home in a few months to attend a few friends' weddings. I fly in to Des Moines on the 26th of July and leave for Zambia on the 15th of August.
I have posted some new pictures on my website so check those out if you do so desire. After I head back up to site after our In Service Training we're at now, I should be there until I come home in July. I'd like to go back to Livingstone before I come home so that I can get some presents to bring back, but other than that I'll probably be at site most of the time until the end of July. I've got a big meeting in a week or two to give a lesson on the benefits of, and how to implement successful agroforestry on my farmers' farms. I'll be handing out a variety of seeds of nitrogen fixing plants that are both good for the soil, and that produce leaves that are good fish food for their ponds.
Other than that, take care and thanks for the emails and letters.
Take care,
Brett

Mosi-oa-Tunya

2006-04-20T08:43:00.000-04:00

For Easter, we had 4 free vacation days so a big group of volunteers and I headed down to Livingstone to see the sights and Victoria Falls. Vic Falls are the biggest water falls in the world. In local language it is Mosi-oa-Tunya, or "The Smoke that Thunders." The falls were an impressive sight, and since it is the rainy season they were in full force. As you approach the falls you can see the mist rising above the tree line from a long distance away. There is so much mist and such that you are literally getting rained on the whole time you're walking on the path along the falls. Apparently in the dry season, you can actually walk across the top of the falls where now millions of gallons of water are spilling over. I'm hoping to head back to Livingstone this summer so I'll let you know about it if I do that.

I had every intention in bungee jumping this time around, but decided to spend my money tiger fishing (see below) instead. I know I'll head back down south to Livingstone several more times during my time here though so I'll go bungeeing at sometime. Livingstone was a pretty cool town though with lots of good food and many opportunities to go on safaris and other various activities.

Tiger Fishing

2006-04-20T08:17:00.000-04:00

So during the Easter weekend trip to Livingstone, several of us decided to go Tiger fishing in the Zambezi River. You should Google a picture of them because they're incredibly beautiful fish and argued to be, pound for pound, the best fresh water fighting fish.
Our spirits were initially dampened when we found out that the best time to fish for tigerfish is June/July, not April. But the scenery was nice and all that jazz so it was still pleasant. We went fishing in the morning, and Matt from Jersey landed a nice 18ish inch tiger and got it in the boat. That was all we saw that morning. We stopped for lunch after a few hours where we ate on a huge houseboat and had a few beers.
After an hour's rest, we set back out to go catch dinner. This time we decided to try our luck in the scary sounding rapids. I got a bite, the fish jumped a few feet out of the water, but I was unable to set the hook correctly and it ended up being the fish that got away. Quite unfortunate, but it was still exciting for me.
Of the ten of us that went fishing that day, Matt was the only one who got a fish in the boat. That's okay though because I have every intention of returning to fish before coming home this summer. Apparently once the river has gone down, numerous herds of elephants and other wildlife migrates up from Botswana and Namibia, and the fishing is second to none.

My Bubble

2006-04-19T12:31:00.000-04:00

So like most Americans, I have a personal bubble that only a few select people can enter without making me uncomfortable. Zambians, on the other hand, do not. I'm not here to attempt to figure out what American's have against people being close to us, I'm just here to give you a few examples of how far over the line Zambian's go.

At the bank, we have orderly queues and very large bubbles. Zambians have neither of these. Not only will they skip the queue without a second thought, they'll do even worse. There have been many times that I've been at the counter withdrawing hundreds of thousands of kwacha, when some stranger will come and stand shoulder to shoulder with me in my window. Subtlety does not go far here, so you can turn and stare at them, and they'll kindly ask how you're doing. I continue to stare followed by, "Excuse me" and then they figure it out and move about 6 inches.

One day I was in Mporokoso conducting some business with Annie when we came upon this incredibly drunk guy. With my full beard he put the comparison together, despite his stupor, that I looked like Jesus. So he said, "This guy, my friend, he looks like Jesus. I like this guy, he looks like Jesus." At this poing he was about 6 inches from my face informing us that I look like Jesus. Then he posed the question, "You know who this guy looks like?" Annie answered correctly, "Ummm, Jesus?" So he was impressed and congratulated her on a correct answer. Then, as he started to inform us of my resemblence to the Son of God, he reached out and started stroking and pulling my beard. As we just started chuckling, Annie was saying, "Yep, that's his personal space." So we told him to have a good day and left. I don't remember ever having anyone touch my beard without permission back home.

The most offensive and blatant bubble violation that I've seen to date happened on my last ride into Kasama from Mporokoso. We were sitting in a flatbed truck with 2 foot walls all the way around the bed. In a front corner was sitting a young man relaxing and taking advantage of the right angle formed against the passenger side wall and the cab. After getting a ways out of Mporokoso, one of the other passengers decided he didn't want to sit where he was and spied the wall where the young man was sitting. Instead of sitting on the bed though, the guy wanted to sit on the 2 foot wall so he could look over the cab. In order to do that, he had to step over/on several of us, put his left foot on the left side of the young man, and his right foot on the otherside. So this poor kid had to go from comfortable, to having some random dude straddling his head. The course of action that followed was similar to the course I would have taken, he got up and changed seats because he didn't like having a strange man straddling him.

These are just to serve as warnings that if any of you come to visit Zambia, or another African country, that people's bubbles are far smaller here and you will be made uncomfortable once or twice.

My Oh My, How the Time Does Fly

2006-03-28T05:21:00.000-05:00

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

2006-03-28T05:05:00.000-05:00

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

2006-03-28T04:53:00.000-05:00

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

2006-03-28T04:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-03-28T04:32:00.000-05:00

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.

'Tis The Rainy Season

2006-02-23T03:40:00.000-05:00

Greetings & Salutations everyone. As I approach the start of my sixth month in Zambia, I really can't believe I've been gone from home for that long. What I really have a hard time picturing is that less than a year ago I was still taking classes at Iowa. It all seems worlds away. Anyways, I digress. It's the height of the rainy season and all is well.

For the last month or so it has been raining almost everyday. It rains all times of the day, but the good thing is it finishes after a couple of hours. When it rains here people stop working like they're communists. They look at you like you're crazy if you're outside in the rain. That's nice because if I have an appointment at 7:00 and it's raining, I just get to stay in bed and sleep.

Like I said things here are great and have really been picking up a lot, but you can read about that below. I posted new pictures at the beginning of January, so if you haven't been here in awhile, fell free to check them out. I hope you find the following posts interesting and/or entertaining. Be sure to read the last one.

Living Without

2006-02-23T03:38:00.000-05:00

I have to give the Peace Corps credit, they have a pretty good system set up to minimize the amount of shock that one experiences for the first few months when starting out.

When you first arrive, all the real comforts of America disappear. You have to live with a family that hardly speaks your language, the food is like nothing you've ever eaten, and you eat it twice each day, the toilet is a hole in the ground, and the electricity and water are about as dependable as a good Keanu Reeves performance. But you're surrounded by Americans who, after a couple weeks, become friends. Since you spend 10-12 hours each day with these people, they're there to reminisce with you, vent to, and listen to, so all the changes aren't too bad.

So you spend 10 weeks getting used to that new lifestyle, then the Zambian comforts are removed: friends, and any form of electricity or running water. In all honesty, it’s not that bad. I really never wish that I had electricity, or more accurately, I never feel like I need electricity. I’ve come to find that it’s more annoying to be at the PC house, where we have electricity, when the power is out. Running water is never really an inconvenience. I’ve got it lucky though because my furrow runs very close to my house. Some volunteers have to walk 2 or 300 yards to their water source though.

So far I’ve made the transition pretty easily for the most part. Below is a short list of things I miss most about home. This list is in no particular order.

Friends and family (collective awww), a variety of beer, snowboarding, Quizno’s, mom’s cooking, driving/convenience of a car, draught beer, TRL, new and good music, bowling, big breakfasts, disc golf, and South Park.

Let Me Check My Calendar

2006-02-23T03:32:00.000-05:00

For my first several weeks I was at site I didn’t do much of anything. That was my plan. Peace Corps encourages it for a smooth transition to the village lifestyle. For the last couple of weeks I’d been worried because not doing anything was becoming comfortable and easy. I was worried that I’d slip into a habit of not doing much and being incredibly lazy. Sounds like college. It all changed though about 2 and a half weeks ago when Ba Kennedy Mwela and Ba Mark Chola came to get my advice and make appointments. It may be the first time in my life that I’ve said in all seriousness, “That sounds good, let me just check my calendar.” Now I use that sentence all the time. I’ve had appointments for the last week solid and have several into next month already.

So far I’ve staked one pond that is ready to be dug now, had several consultations for pond sites and farm planning, as well as attended several harvests. In the last couple months, 7 or 8 harvests have yielded more than 300 pounds of fish bringing in around $300.

My typical workday is 3-5 hours long, but I had an 11 hour day last week. When not working I read, work in my garden, clean my bike, or listen to music.

My Garden

2006-02-23T03:29:00.000-05:00

So far I have 4 beds planted and growing. I just got a bunch of onions, green peppers, and jalapeno pepper plants started. I recently acquired about 100 pounds of manure for 50 cents, so I can’t wait to get started working that into my beds.

I’ll be sure to include pictures next time I can post some in April. By then I should be eating watermelons, cantaloupe, sweet corn, carrots, and beans

A Few Of My Favorite Words

2006-02-23T03:24:00.000-05:00

My Bemba skills are coming along slowly, but surely. I thought I’d provide you all a short list of some of my favorite words. Fell free to learn them and use them in your everyday life to show all of your co-workers and classmates just how cosmopolitan you are.

Bufi: pronounce boo-fee. This word is used to call someone out when they’re lying. If someone is a habitual liar, call them a bufi sana.

e.g. “That was such a bufi when Brett said he’s been working.”

Chowama: pronounced chow-a-ma. This is a way to say, “It’s good.” It can be used with a thumbs-up/wink if it’s really good. A fun Peace Corps variation is to add mama at the end of it.

e.g. “These beers are on the house.”

“Chowama mama (with thumbs-up).”

Iwe: pronounce e-way. This is the way to say ‘you’ without respect. Basically you can refer to kids as iwes.

e.g. “Iwe, go get me some mangos.”

Look for more fun and useful words in future postings.

Hand Jive

2006-02-23T03:22:00.000-05:00

Here in Zambia they’ve developed an informal sign language for common topics. The most universal requires your palm to be up, fingers just relaxed so they’re bent up, and your hand shaking horizontally like you’re feeding ducks. This is used by vehicles to tell you there’s no room when hitchhiking. I use this to accompany an expression to explain if I don’t have something/money, if I’m unsure of anything, or if an event never happened.

This next signal is especially useful in cities. Take your index finger and point it towards the ground, then move your finger/hand in a circular motion as if you’re stirring a can of paint with your finger. Vehiles tell hitchers that they’re just staying in the immediate area, so that’s why they’re not stopping. It’s a nice move to use for pedestrians. Taxis all park in the same area, so you get hounded by 5 different drivers at a time. Half the time I don’t even want a cab. If I’m in the middle of making an insightful remark and this happens, I can just make the finger-circle motion to say, “Sorry guys, we’re just staying in the area. Thanks ever so much for the offer though.” It’s so much nicer than ignoring them.

A few other favorites: universal thumb rubbing middle and index fingers for money, if someone’s hands are dirty from the fields or whatever they offer a closed-fist handshake so you just shake their writs, if you see someone across a group of people, instead of waving, you clap your hands together at about head level and nod your heads at each other.

The Wizard Of Mporokoso

2006-02-23T03:15:00.000-05:00

Read this whole post, it's crazy...

Allow me to set the scene. I had just spent the afternoon with Annie, my nearest neighbor in Mporokoso proper running various errands and having the two much anticipated beers at our favorite bar. After the completion of my business, I biked the 13 miles back to my village. As I got to within a couple miles, I thought it seemed like there was a lot of activity taking place in the Chalabesa area, but was tired and thought nothing of it. I arrived home and went to greet Ba Mulenga and the gamily I live with. Mr. Mulenga asked if I noticed the mass exodus down the road in our village. I said I had but was unsure why. He informed me that the reason was this…the father of one of my fish farmers, Edward Lombe, had been accused of being a Wizard so the witch finders were at his house to remove his witchcraft, or the object which gives him his power. I actually just spoke with Grandpa Lombe the day before to negotiate a deal on a stalk of bananas. (I buy 40 or so bananas at a time now.)

Mr. Mulenga proceeded to tell me the background of how this happened. A neighbor, Aaron the agricultural officer I work with, has a daughter who’s been sic for quite some time now. After several fruitless trips to the hospital, Aaron and family decided it was a witch or wizard. After going to a witch finder for a consultation, Brandpa Lombe was fingered as the offender. Aaron decided better safe than sorry, though, so he got a second opinion. Again, Grandpa Lombe is named. So then all parties involved are called to the local Chief for a hearing. It was decided that on Wednesday, January 25, a team of experienced with doctors would arrive at the accused’s house to remove the object that possesses his power. Brett, you’re not in Iowa anymore.

I had planned to get some work done in the garden this particular evening, but with an event like this, who could resist? I imagined a good ol’ fashioned witch ousting comes once, maybe twice in a lifetime. I considered a camera, but figured this would be a somber occasion, thus inappropriate. So Ba Mulenga and I started off on the 15 minute walk only having to stop once to tie his goat up that’d started following us. The whole scene was hilarious. People hurriedly walking down the road in their Sunday’s best clothes. Here was electricity in the air.

As I cut left off the man road to take the 2 foot wide path that goes to the Harry Potter wannabe’s house, I could immediately se a huge crowd gathered around his house. A few minutes later, after making my way through the rows of bicycles lined up like Harley’s outside a biker bar, I was finally there.

Immediately I could see that the who’s who of Chalabesa and the surrounding villages were there. The accuser, the accusee, the local head of security, several of my farmers, and finally the white guy was there. There were probably 70-90 people total. Quickly my attention was diverted from the crowd to the screaming man front and center; the first witch doctor. He donned a white Karate Kid-style headband with an emblazoned first aid red cross in the center. He was wearing a white, mid-thigh skirt with the same symbol on the front and back of it. Two men flanking him were shaking maracas and singing songs. This man would scream, shake his head a bit, run around the house a few times, run through the house, and come back

Ba Mulanga was explaining to me that these guys use their magic so they can see the witchcraft. Apparently it’s like a huge aura that they have to capture. Once they actually catch it, it takes a tangible form. Ba Mulenga informed me that usually it’s something ugly like a horn or bone or something. He also told me something that got me even more excited. Apparently the witchcraft, before they capture it will leave the house so the witch doctors will be chasing an invisible object around the yard. I”ll also quickly comment on the atmosphere as well. I figured it’d be sad because one of their own was found guilty of being a wizard. Shame will be brought to the family, so I figured they’d be in bad farm. Wrong on both counts. It was like a party. People were laughing and singing. People were cracking jokes with the witch doctors. It was bizarre. I regretted not bringing my camera. Back to the story. The first witch doctor repeated the aforementioned sequence a few time, then he emerged from the house to announce new that drew a collective gasp from the audience. He said that the witchcraft wasw very big and powerful. Then he said that people should secure the bottoms of their pants because it could go up to people’s unmentionables. So it wasn’t long before men and kids had taken string to tie their pants around their ankles, and women holding skirts between their knees. This must have been a tag-team match because after this announcement, another guy came into try his luck.

The witch doctors have a ‘manager’ who takes care of all props throughout the event. So the second doctor, we’ll call him Dr. Rosenrosen, took a few steps out to size up the house. The manager followed him so he could fasten the ceremonial pillowcase on his head so it would hang down Dr. Rosenrosen’s back. I’m not sure if it was just him getting psyched or what, but he made that noise when people shake their heads back and forth so their cheeks flap and make a noise. He did that a good 3 or 4 times. He circled the house a few times splashing water on the house with some animal tail. He had a few call and response songs with the audience, but he couldn’t make a dent in it. It was like the end of Ghostbusters II when they can’t break through the pink shell covering the museum, but this story doesn’t end with the Statue of Liberty saving the day.

I’ll fast forward through 45 minutes of gesticulating, and trance-like stares to when they get the witchcraft out of the house. Sure enough, one of the guys was like a greyhound after the rabbit. He’s running through crowds, gardens, neighbor’s yards chasing after the witchcraft. It must have ducked into an alley to give him a slip, because he lost it. In an attempt to regain the ‘scent,’ he took the animal tail I previously referred to and was rubbing it on things around the yard and smelling the tail! Randomly he’d snort like pig for whatever reason. So he walked around the yard for 5 or 10 minutes smelling various objects and plants. After coming up empty handed for 15 or 20 minutes, they announced that this particular witchcraft was too strong for their team. They’re bringing backup in on Saturday. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on the proceedings.

That’s All…

2006-02-23T03:13:00.000-05:00

…For now. Check back in a month or so for a new update. I won’t have access to my email until the end of April, so if any of you have sent things since the beginning of January, I’m not ignoring you.

Know that I miss you all and take care.

Pearson, out.

One Month Down

2006-01-10T09:20:00.000-05:00

Hello from Lusaka everyone-
Well things here are quite great right now. We've come to Lusaka for a few days to receive our work permits and NRC cards. I have posted several new pictures for your viewing pleasure as well. (I'm having problems getting pictures up right now, but I'll do all I can to get some new pictures up for you.) Just to pre-explain one of the albums there....I new that several of you wanted to see what I do for washing dishes and other daily activities so I took a bunch of pictures which would allow you to see these activities as well as my house and other things. I will admit, it required me to take pictures of myself. I'm not too proud of that but it had to be done. To make things more entertaining for myself (and hopefully you) I made a Where's Waldo theme out of it. Instead of Waldo, I scoured my endless stacks of US Weekly, Rolling Stone, and Tiger Beat and found a few pictures of everyone's favorite pop star, Britney Spears. I have so cleverly hidden one of these pictures in every one of my Daily Activities pictures, so if you accept the challenge, feel free to try to find her. Some are more difficult than others. I'll have you know that I had to retake a few of them because I would start laughing at the ridiculousness of me taking a picture of myself in the middle of Africa doing different things.
I'm going to be adding 4 new posts today, and Curt recently added 5 before that so if it's been awhile since you've been here, there's a lot of reading to be done. I hope you enjoy it.

Mr. Bright Peterson

2006-01-10T09:07:00.000-05:00

Well, that's my new name. When meeting villagers or other Zambians I'll introduce myself by saying, "Ishina lyandi nine Brett Pearson." Then they'll say, "Oh, Bright Peterson." I'll respond with, "No. Brett Pearson." That's followed by, "Ok. Bright. Very nice to meet you." Then I just give up and realize that there is nothing I can do about this.
The first time Annie and I met up in Mporokoso after our first week in the village we met with the Department of Fisheries officer because he wanted to introduce us to local big wigs. The first office we went to we sat down and exchanged a few pleasantries with whoever it was then the DOF officer introduced us. I saw that he had our names properly spelled on the sheet of paper he was reading from but when he said my name, it came out "Bright Peterson." The first time, Annie and I just kind of made eye contact and smirked a bit. By the fourth or fifth office we were in, we were to the point of fighting off laughter and I was having to put my thumb and fingers on my cheeks to literally wipe the smile off of my face.
In Zambia, Ba is like Mr. or Mrs. back home so I actually get called Ba Bright. Or, they add y on the end of many things so my favorite is Ba Brighty. Some of the Zambians will chuckle after hearing my name and quip, "So are you bright, Ba Brighty?" I'll respond with, "Of course I am, that's why they sent me." My new name doesn't bother me and there is really no use in fighting it, so I guess I'll just embrace and love it.

The Long, Strange Trip

2006-01-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

Annie and I told ourselves that we were going to bike from Mporokoso to Kasama at one point in time. We had to come in for our provincial meetings that were January 6 and so we did just that. It is a total of 200 km (130 miles) to make that bike trip. This is just like most exercise that I do. I'll lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle for months, and then all at once think I can tackle the world.
So at 5:00 am I woke up to meet Annie in Mporokoso at 7:00. We were on our way at 7:30 on the nose. Our plan was to bike as far as Devin's site in Kaoma which is 80 miles away and sleep there for the night. At about mile 50 I was pretty sure I was done for but we kept on trucking. At about 15:00 we had the good fortune of having the rains start. We were running a bit late though and had to keep on trucking. Finally at 17:00 we got to a small market about 5 miles shy of Devin's house and decided to stop and wait out the rains so we could warm up and rest. It was one of the most uncomfortable times of my life. We were completely soaked and shivering uncontrollably. Thank God Zambians are great people because this woman that was there got some charcoal and started a fire for us to warm up by and gave us some food. She has definately won me over and I plan on being a loyal customer for the next two years whenever I'm at that market. So after the rains slowed down to a drizzle we were forced to get back on our bikes and get to Devin's because it was going to start getting dark soon. We plugged along for the last stretch and arrived at his house just at dusk. so that was a good 12 hour day of biking I put in there.
The next morning the four of us that stayed at Devin's that night got up and were hoping to bike the remainder of trip quickly enough to catch the Rose Bowl. We left in plenty of time, but no more than a mile into the trip I looked down and saw that my back tire was completely flat. Luckily Devin was still behind me so I had some help because the other two just kept on biking ahead. Devin and I took off the tire and patched it and then continued on our way. That had set us back about 30 minutes so we were trying to make up for lost time. Not more than two more miles down the road did I look down and see that again the tire had gone flat. We pumped up the tire and thought that perhaps the small leak would slow down. Another couple of minutes biking and again it was a pancake. So again we patched the hole, waited a few minutes for the glue to dry and started off again. This time we got a few miles before it was flat again. We failed at successfully patching the hole one last time, so we decided that Devin should bike ahead to another volunteer's site about 12 miles up the road and get a new bike tube while I continued walking my bike.
So here I was, walking my bike down the middle of a gravel road in Zambia for 6 miles while he was so generously pedaling away to get the tube. I know it was 6 because I was keeping a watchful eye on my odometer the whole time. Eventually I hailed a big truck that was driving by and got them to pick me up and take me to where Devin was going. I met up with him and replaced the tube. By now we were at the time of kickoff for the Rose Bowl and were just hoping to catch the second half because we were only a couple hour bike ride away at this time. I rode for about an hour before we were lucky enough to catch transport passing us and made it into Kasama in time to catch the last 6 minutes of USC blowing their lead to Texas.
So 17 hours, 6 liters of water, 3 flat tires, and 130 miles later....we were there. I'm really looking forward to the bike ride home. I figure it can't be much worse than the ride in so it should be a good time.

Working Man, Kind Of...

2006-01-10T08:44:00.000-05:00

As of my last block of posts, I really didn't have much in the way of work to report on. Not a whole lot has changes since them I'm sad to report. I did have a few outings into my village and those surrounding mine to meet the village people. It's hard to accomplish much though during the rainy season because all of the farmers spend most of the daylight hours in their fields planting, hoeing, weeding, harvesting, and whatever else is needed in a field so they don't have much time for me right now.
My goals for my first few months are these. First I hope to get a big fingerling transport taken care of. When Peace Corps first started the fish farming program I'm involved in years ago, they picked a hardy variety of fish that is native to the Nile River called tilapia niloticus. Well since then the World Wildlife Foundation has thrown a fuss about this non-native species escaping into the local waterways and becoming invasive. That is the kind of fish all of my farmers use so I'm planning on trying to bring a couple thousand finger-sized fish up to get a native species into their ponds. My second goal is to get beekeeping started with my farmers. Ba Mulenga, whose land I live on really wants to get started in that so I hope to learn how to beekeep and get started.
It's been hard for me to get much accomplished just because it seems like every other week we've had to come to Kasama or Lusaka for some kind of paperwork or meetings. I suppose that if nothing else I feel like a real adult being required to go to meetings and such.
Other than that, I've gotten my garden all planted and look forward to harvesting some of my various fruits and vegetables. I've also been reading a bunch. I think I finished 10 books in my first month at site now. I think that brings my grand total since I left the states to 15.

Not Home for the Holidays

2006-01-10T08:43:00.000-05:00

Christmas and New Year's have both come and gone. I must admit it didn't feel like that time of year for two reasons. Foremost, I wasn't with friends and family, but secondly it was because there was no snow, or even any sort of coldness to deal with.
For Christmas, seven of us went up to Zambia's only port city, Mpulungu. Mpulungu lies right on Lake Tanganyika which is a pretty beautiful place. We spent four nights there at Nkupi Lodge. For the most part we just hung out in Mpulungu or right down by the lake. Unfortunately there are only a couple of places that have actual sand on their beaches, so most of the sitting on the shore was done on rocks and stones. We set up a sort of 'secret santa' thing with the group of us that went so we exchanged gifts on Christmas day. I gave Ned a stuffed brontasaurus that I got in the market, and from Jeremy I received a clay turtle canldle holder.
On Boxing day we hired a boat to take us to a cove on the opposite side of one of the islands in the lake. Once we got into the boat, we noticed a couple of red buckets inside. I thought nothing of it until we shoved off and the boat started slowly taking on water. As our two tour guides and I paddled away towards the island, a couple of my friends were charged with the task of bailing water from the boat. About 50 feet off shore we saw a little 4 or 5 foot crocodile hanging out in the water which was slightly disheartening due to the fact that a few of us had just gone swimming in that same area a day or two before. Oh well, he was a little guy and I'm sure we could have taken him. Once we got to the beach we just laid around and went swimming for awhile. We tossed a frisbee and just lounged for the most part. For the fourish hours that we were on the beach, the owners of the boat had rowed to a different area of the cove and spent the whole time working on the boat and bailing water out. It puts a real fuzzy feeling in your stomach seeing that.

For New Year's I was hanging out in the village. I cooked myself a big dinner and just watched the sunset off in the distance. I was considering having a few libations to kick off the new year, but ended up being too tired and went to bed by 21:00.

I definately missed being around you all for the holidays but hope that they were full of good memories for all of you.

Bats, Spiders, and Mice, Oh My!

2006-01-09T09:07:00.000-05:00

I believe my last reports of the wildlife in my house had described a bat and some mice. Things have continued along the same path for sometime. My bat and I were getting along quite nicely for the first few weeks, but we've had a falling out. Count Chocula (his name) would come in my house at night through a crack between the walls and roof and just fly around my house eating insects. He'd wake me up from time to time, but I was good at ignorning him. Every morning I've noticed that there is a wet spot about 5 or 6 inches in diameter on my floor. I really thought nothing of it since it was always in the same spot. I thought perhaps the roof leaked dew there, or something. One night I was awoken by Count Chocula making his usually noises and got annoyed so I got up to check it out. I spied him hanging from a piece of string that hangs from my roof doing something or another. Then something clicked...that was roughly above the same area that the wet spot was showing up at. I walked over to that wing of my house to investigate and much to my chagrin my suspicions were confirmed. I was quite irate. I renamed Count Chocula to Woo and the next morning I began to practice my slingshot. That piece of cement really tied the room together and I am determined to have my revenge. Now everynight when I go to bed I set my slingshot and some clay bullets on my desk next to my bed. (I pay the neighbor boys with one piece of candy for every five clay bullets that they make me.) I'm brushing up on my skills and look forward to when I can knock Woo off of his piece of fabric some night.
So far the spiders haven't been too bad. I have several wall spiders that are about the size of the palm of your hand, but they just hang out and don't bother me. However, the other night as I was getting ready for bed I noticed a spider making a web about an arms reach from my pillow. I got out my headlamp to take a closer look and found that it was a black widow. It had the signature red hourglass shape on its abdomen and everything. I was weirded out and kept thinkiing, "Wow, this little thing could kill me if I let it bite me. " Well I quickly got over that concern and used my Iowa City Ultimate frisbee to squish it. Hopefully that was the end of those.
My biggest foe however is the mouse. These rodents have been driving me slightly insane. Every night I get up 4 or 6 times to check out some rustling or noise that they're making and rebait my mouse trap. I've killed 10 now and after every successful kill I think, "That must be the last one for awhile." But it never is. It seems like there is a never ending supply of mice in my floor. PETA better put me on their list of dangers to wildlife because I have every intention of eradicating every mouse in my area of Zambia. I used to be a proponent of the humane mouse traps back in the states, but those days are over. I am out for blood and get giddy every time I hear the mouse trap get set off because I know that I can make another notch on the wall.

Seasons Greetings From The Bush

2005-12-28T19:10:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-28T18:22:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-28T18:16:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-28T18:04:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-28T17:49:00.000-05:00

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.