I always finally get to the internet cafe and then have NO IDEA what to write! So, I guess we will see where this blog post takes us...
I have a ton of mice in my house... but they dont like to eat food, they like to eat plastic, my mefloquine (anti malarial drug) and wooden spoons. I'm pretty sure that all of the mefloquine has made the mice bald insomniacs who are immune to malaria... and they ate an ENTIRE spoon in ONE night!
I have completed my community entry and made the 3 day journey back down to Lusaka for inservice training... woot! Its been really great to see all of my friends from pre service training who live in other provinces!
Work is going pretty well in the village... its finally become a natural place for me to be. I have been conducting a lot of meetings at under-5 years old immunization clinics out in the bush... which means i ride my bike a LOT! My farthest meeting is about 25km away... and I bike an average of 15km a day. In Lusaka I'm really missing my dear old bike!
I've got big plans for the next two years, there are all of these projects I want to do, and my Tumbuka is getting pretty good! I want to train peer educators, start income generating activities to buy chlorine to sanitize the horrible water in my catchment area, I'll continue filling out grant proposals with my community to apply for boreholes (since my dambo ... 8 foot in diameter stagnant pond... and only source of water... and very similar in the rest of my catchment area... is dried up this time of the year), I want to work with Liz and Josh to translate educational pamphlets into Tumbuka which seems to be the forgotton language of Zambia... wow, theres just so much I can't list it!
I did make a breakthrough with the little kids who scream bloody murder at the sight of white people... I bribed a little girl in my village with one of the 150 banana pancakes I made last weekend so that she would come near me without running in fear. Then at an under 5 clinic there were 2 year old twins, a boy and a girl. The girl was terrified of me, but the boy just toddled up, shook my hand, climbed on my lap and started touching my arm and playing with my hair (very common for kids who have never seen a foreigner). Then when it was time for him to leave, he refused to go with his mother and said he wanted to stay with me, how cute!
I'm currently in the process of trying to upload more photos on the internet, but it seems to be taking REALLY long... so sorry Mom if it doesn't work out this time around! (one of these days)
Lets see here, what else is new... i guess I can't really think of anything now... another post will be forthcoming. Sorry for the sporatic entry, I'm just a little overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the capital!
Oh, I have kept forgetting.. but a shout out to Josh B. for leaving his handle bar extensions on his bicycle when he left... I inherited them and wouldn't be able to do all the work I do without them, they are lovely... THANK YOU, and you are missed!