It's January 2010. Just in case you didn't know. And that means two things. I leave in less Zambia in less than 4 months and a new group of Peace Corps Volunteers are preparing to come to Zambia. This blog is for them!
A few helpful hints as you prepare to move to the bush for 2 years.
Bring a Solio. I didn't but have become dependent on the Solio that was handed down to me by another volunteer. I charge my iPod with it everyday. Without it I wouldn't be able to listen to my music everyday. And I would probably be even crazier than I am already! (This isn't an advertisement for Solio. Just make sure the solar charger you buy has good reviews and is dependable. Even Solio starts to lose its full charging power after about a year!)
Bring an iPod/cd player and speakers that don't run on batteries. I listen to music everyday. Like I just said, it keeps me sane – even if its very little!
Bring a shortwave radio. I didn't think I would need or want one but after being in the village for a few months with no news, I was beginning to feel a bit isolated. My radio has now become one of my two links to the outside world in the village. (The other is my cell phone!) I can get BBC, VOA, and 2 FM stations in my area. (Just remember, it will be different in your village. I'm not remote by Zambian standards!)
Bring some things that will remind you of home and make you smile. I brought pictures of family and friends but also my Dwight Bobblehead from The Office. If you love The Office as much as I do, you know how happy it makes a person!
Do you need coffee? Consider bringing a french press and some of your favorite coffee grounds. I drink real coffee everyday and it makes my day in the village so much more enjoyable. Now, my french press broke so now I have a rigged up system but it works. (Read: buy a plastic one!) Plus, I have a mom who loves me very much and constantly sends me Starbucks coffee grounds! Thanks Mom!!!!
Bring clothes with elastic. This one is more for the ladies. Bring tank tops with elastic because after a year of hand washing your clothes they stop shrinking back into shape. I have a few cotton tank tops that are 3 sizes larger than when I brought them. They stretch to my knees. Literally. The ones that fair the best have that elastic/cotton blend. I know this sounds weird but after a year in the bush, you'll be thanking me! Same goes for underwear!
Bring water flavor packets. I hate the way the water tastes out of the filters. They help a ton!
Bring a rain coat and boots. Rainy season. Enough said!
Keep in mind! Africa breaks everything. And I mean everything! So don't bring anything you would be heartbroken over when Africa breaks it!
Other than that remember: necessity is the mother of invention. If you find yourself without something you think you need, you can usually find something here that will work. Or if all else fails, you can get a loved one to send it to you from America-land!
Good luck packing! And if you are an education Volunteer, maybe I'll see you on first site visit when you get here!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Thursday, December 24, 2009
welcome to winter!
When I came home in July, I decided that I wanted to spend the holidays with my family. But only where?
Well I've ended up back in America for one week and one week only!
And I've been introduced to winter! Big time.
It all started when I left Zambia with my friend Josh. We missed our bus to Livingstone. The one time a bus in Zambia arrives on time and we show up late. So we waited for 3 hours at the bus stop sweating. I knew it was a bad start to our trip.
It proved true.
We landed in DC on Saturday. In a blizzard. We landed and there was already 6 inches of snow on the ground. And all I had to wear was my shorts and flip flops along with the socks I stole from the airplane. It was quite the eye opener. Because of the blizzard, all flights out and into Dulles were canceled for the day. So we got a hotel room and started enjoying America-tv and internet and a real shower!
I finally arrived home, only a day and an hour behind my original schedule.
And now, I'm in my second blizzard in less than a week. But it does give me time to update my blog, post pictures, and since I'm in America, post my videos on YouTube.
You can check out my videos to the left or go to YouTube, my channel is christainzambia.
My pictures are posted on Facebook but you can check out the public links below. Just copy and paste. You don't need to be signed up to Facebook to see them!
More Pics of Life in Zambia!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118521&id=116507182&l=fd4d2f547d
Life in the Village
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116676&id=116507182&l=6aa9e5cdb4
Random Zambian Snaps
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096540&id=116507182&l=36370bfad5
Hope you enjoy the videos and pictures! Have a good holiday season!
christa
Well I've ended up back in America for one week and one week only!
And I've been introduced to winter! Big time.
It all started when I left Zambia with my friend Josh. We missed our bus to Livingstone. The one time a bus in Zambia arrives on time and we show up late. So we waited for 3 hours at the bus stop sweating. I knew it was a bad start to our trip.
It proved true.
We landed in DC on Saturday. In a blizzard. We landed and there was already 6 inches of snow on the ground. And all I had to wear was my shorts and flip flops along with the socks I stole from the airplane. It was quite the eye opener. Because of the blizzard, all flights out and into Dulles were canceled for the day. So we got a hotel room and started enjoying America-tv and internet and a real shower!
I finally arrived home, only a day and an hour behind my original schedule.
And now, I'm in my second blizzard in less than a week. But it does give me time to update my blog, post pictures, and since I'm in America, post my videos on YouTube.
You can check out my videos to the left or go to YouTube, my channel is christainzambia.
My pictures are posted on Facebook but you can check out the public links below. Just copy and paste. You don't need to be signed up to Facebook to see them!
More Pics of Life in Zambia!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118521&id=116507182&l=fd4d2f547d
Life in the Village
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116676&id=116507182&l=6aa9e5cdb4
Random Zambian Snaps
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096540&id=116507182&l=36370bfad5
Hope you enjoy the videos and pictures! Have a good holiday season!
christa
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Baking Birthdays
In the village, birthdays aren't celebrated. There usually isn't the money to make anything special, much less to buy gifts. I learned this when I first arrived to the village. We were eating dinner one night (just like every other night) when my bamaama mentioned it was Sandra's birthday. But how could this be a birthday? It's just like every other dinner, every other day. Where is the fun? The excitement? I LOVE birthdays! I feel like everyone should have a day to feel really special, especially in Zambia. I started to devise my plan.
I didn't want to buy everyone something for their birthday. That would get expensive since there are 15 of us. I also wanted to do something that the family could continue after I left.
The next birthday, Sitemba's, was right around the corner and I still had no idea what to do. So I went to the tuck shops in the village to buy cookies and juice for him. That night after we ate nshima and relish, I gave Sitemba his birthday treat. He shared with everyone even though their wasn't enough cookies for everyone to have one full one! I had seen the communal way families live here-sharing relish and mealie meal and cooking oil when another family doesn't have food to eat, sharing plows and ox carts for field work, and sharing what little a family has to help a neighbor in need. What I hadn't expected or experienced yet was a 6 year old boy sharing his birthday cookies and juice with his entire family. Obviously I needed to devise yet another plan.
My bamaama, who is the best cook I have ever met in Zambia, said she knew how to bake cakes. She just didn't have the ingredients. Well, I have the basics of any American kitchen: flour, sugar, butter, milk, and eggs. “I could bring them over and you could show me how to bake a cake,” I told her. And that is what we did for the next birthday.
My bamaama's oven is brilliant. It's a hole in the ground. She builds the fire in the hole to heat up the ground. Then when the wood becomes coals they are taken out of the hole and placed on an iron sheet. The pan is put into the hole and the iron sheet is placed on top. Presto! An oven in born!
It was a bigger hit than the cookies and juice. A tradition was born!
For every birthday since, my sister Jacqueline and I have baked birthday cake. I even have my very own oven that a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer made for me. It's made of mud bricks for the sides and the back of the oven with an iron sheet for the top and a piece of metal for the door. My bataata even found some scrap pieces of metal rods that act as the shelf inside the oven. And boy is it AMESOME!!!!!!
The kids look forward to every birthday now. As soon as I wake up on a birthday, the kids are at my house excitedly asking, “Kupanga birthday? Kupanga birthday?” Which means in English, “Baking birthday? Baking birthday?” And I'll tell them yes, which they already knew, and they get even more excited. Running around my house screaming and yelling while I try to put water on to boil for coffee.
Every birthday person gets to choose what kind of cake they want. Jacqueline and I have also added brownies and more recently Toll House Cookies (minus the chocolate chips) to our repertoire of birthday choices. With 15 birthdays a year, Jacqueline and I have become professional bakers!
My hope is that when I leave, the family will continue to celebrate birthdays by baking cakes. I also hope that long after I'm gone, the kids will remember all the fun we had baking birthdays.
I didn't want to buy everyone something for their birthday. That would get expensive since there are 15 of us. I also wanted to do something that the family could continue after I left.
The next birthday, Sitemba's, was right around the corner and I still had no idea what to do. So I went to the tuck shops in the village to buy cookies and juice for him. That night after we ate nshima and relish, I gave Sitemba his birthday treat. He shared with everyone even though their wasn't enough cookies for everyone to have one full one! I had seen the communal way families live here-sharing relish and mealie meal and cooking oil when another family doesn't have food to eat, sharing plows and ox carts for field work, and sharing what little a family has to help a neighbor in need. What I hadn't expected or experienced yet was a 6 year old boy sharing his birthday cookies and juice with his entire family. Obviously I needed to devise yet another plan.
My bamaama, who is the best cook I have ever met in Zambia, said she knew how to bake cakes. She just didn't have the ingredients. Well, I have the basics of any American kitchen: flour, sugar, butter, milk, and eggs. “I could bring them over and you could show me how to bake a cake,” I told her. And that is what we did for the next birthday.
My bamaama's oven is brilliant. It's a hole in the ground. She builds the fire in the hole to heat up the ground. Then when the wood becomes coals they are taken out of the hole and placed on an iron sheet. The pan is put into the hole and the iron sheet is placed on top. Presto! An oven in born!
It was a bigger hit than the cookies and juice. A tradition was born!
For every birthday since, my sister Jacqueline and I have baked birthday cake. I even have my very own oven that a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer made for me. It's made of mud bricks for the sides and the back of the oven with an iron sheet for the top and a piece of metal for the door. My bataata even found some scrap pieces of metal rods that act as the shelf inside the oven. And boy is it AMESOME!!!!!!
The kids look forward to every birthday now. As soon as I wake up on a birthday, the kids are at my house excitedly asking, “Kupanga birthday? Kupanga birthday?” Which means in English, “Baking birthday? Baking birthday?” And I'll tell them yes, which they already knew, and they get even more excited. Running around my house screaming and yelling while I try to put water on to boil for coffee.
Every birthday person gets to choose what kind of cake they want. Jacqueline and I have also added brownies and more recently Toll House Cookies (minus the chocolate chips) to our repertoire of birthday choices. With 15 birthdays a year, Jacqueline and I have become professional bakers!
My hope is that when I leave, the family will continue to celebrate birthdays by baking cakes. I also hope that long after I'm gone, the kids will remember all the fun we had baking birthdays.
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