Everything is moving at warp speed!

Well, second site visit is over (well almost... I'm still in my 4.5 day commute from the town I will be nearest to in Eastern Province back to training in Copperbelt Province, and when in Lusaka, do as the Romans and use high-speed internet right?).
The site visit went, I will leave it at that.... it wasn't all it was cracked up to be! It did show me that there is a LOT possible for each and every volunteer if they put their mind to it though! Everyone will be doing something a bit different related to HIV/AIDS and nutrition. I am hoping to work with youth organizations for peer education, under-5 clinics to educate mothers and soon-to-be mothers and mother-to-child transmission... oh and I hear its hard for me to farm at my site due to the distant water source... so I have decided to raise chickens (go figure) as one of my "lead by example" projects! All of this is pretty hazy right now as I have never stepped foot into the village that will become my home for the next two years, but I am sure it will be an awesome experience!
As far as travel goes, busses on my journey back to training leave at 3am on consecutive days, so I am trying really hard to be coherent right now. I have a headache from the screaming toddler in front of me for the 6-7 hour ride... but other than that it was better than the times that the minibusses broke down in kenya or that one time Gillian and I were on a bus with my host mother and it slid some feed down the side of a cliff... hmmm... no experiences like that in Zambia (yet).
Speaking of transport. To get to the internet for the next two years this is the ordeal that I will go through. Leave my house in the late afternoon on a 3-4 hour bike ride to the nearest town, wait around in town until dark, get on a bus at dark (8pm) and wait on the bus until it leaves soemtime around 3am, then get into the provincial capital at 7 or 8am and go to the PC house there and wait for the internet cafe to open, then go back to the house to hang out, wait all day and most of the night to walk back to the bus stop in the early morning to make the trip backwards. All of this being said... WRITE ME LETTERS! No, but seriously... where have all of you gone, what are you doing, whats new? whats old? tell me a funny story, draw me a picture, send a cheezy postcard... then I will have your addresses and can write tales of my adventures and just random thoughts back to you!
As far as packages and sending things goes... my maglite has a shortcircuit and I could use a new one, or a good flashlight that takes AA batteries. I am not missing anything in particular yet... but we will see how that goes! I'll keep you updated, and you know me and what I like anyway eh?
My new address to sum all of this up is:

Katherine King/ PCV
P.O. Box 530376
Lundazi, Eastern Province
Zambia
Africa

Use it, love it, and I'll love you back!
On yet another note, I have been slacking on the pictures, but my closest neighbor in homestay and the girl that I have seen absolutely every day of my service has done a much better job at documenting our lives, the important parts, the funny parts, and the parts when we just go crazy from boredom, stress or a combination of both. So check out her blog for a link to pictures: espector.blogspot.com ENJOY! you will surely laugh at a few that she is trying to post today... just be patient if they don't get posted now now... they will be there soon soon (theres your first taste of zamspeak!)

Lots of love to everyone! (oh, send your phone numbers in letters too... you never know, I could come across some extra kwacha to make a quick phone call in your direction!)
peace,
Katey

i forgot to write about...

MY BIRTHDAY!
So now I am 22... heres how the day went.
Liz, my PC neighbor hung a happy birthday sign in my pit latrine (at squatting level) so that it was the first thing I saw. Then she played me a really funny birthday song on her ipod. All of the trainees sang me happy birthday. Josh went and got the charged cell phone in the dark (a social no no here i guess)... but anyway he rocks, got the cell phone, brought it to my hut at night, almost got eaten by liz's dogs and my host father got REALLY confused... I did get to talk to the fam on my birthday though!
So thats what a Zam-birthday is like. Tomorrow is the 9 hour journey from Lusaka to Chipata for the night, then off to my BOMA (nearest town) for my future site to do some meet and greet and see what the life of a volunteer is like!
Miss you all!
Katey

Site Yeah Yeah!

So today, just now, I got my site placement. Turns out its close enough to bike to Malawi... only on vacation though, with PC permission. The first things that my PCVL told me about my site were... "Katey, there are a few things you should know about your site and you are just going to have to deal with them. You don't have a water source (but your villagers will go get water and boil it for you, so don't worry... the last volunteer who was there for only 6 months never got sick, its okay); you have a giant hole in the middle of your compound with a fence around it (you could turn it into a really awesome cooler in temperature insaka of sorts); you do have a huge house (on PC Zambia terms) and since you are the second volunteer the floor has already been cemented. So, off I go to Eastern Province tomorrow to visit another volunteer there to see what this whole PC thing is really all about. Miss you all!
Katey

Training and Photos

I'm in Kitwe again, just like every Sunday, escaping the training program for one sweet day every week to visit the market and see electricity.
I think that I have uploaded pictures onto flickr which is linked to this blog, if not... I'll try again in a few weeks I guess!
Zambia is treating me well, its colder here than I expected, but in August it will start warming up, and the Eastern Province I hear is one of the warmest! I live with a host family right now... its interesting living under someone elses roof... well not really their roof, I have my own hut, but still.
Everything here is pretty slow as per all of Africa it seems. The most common saying is "Anytime from now" because no one wants to be wrong as to what time something will happen, and it sure won't happen quickly!
On my way into town the minibus I was on was stopped at two police checkpoints... which is common, but then we stopped a few more times, so a half hour journey turned into an hour and it was pretty strange there for a while, not gonna lie! Can't really explain it, but we did get lots of strange looks with the muzungu (white foreigner) in the front seat the whole way.. ha! Well, since the journey was so long, I am running late to meet a friend to buy food at the market to make an American meal for our host families.
I miss everyone very much... and some of you ECHEM.. J.Ho...G-fizza... Justin... etc... need to send me your addresses, I have letters with stamps on them, but no addresses!!
All my love from across the world,
Katey