long time, no update

A lot has happened since my last post!
I went on vacation with my parents in South Africa. I was completely overwhemed by the malls in Cape Town, but did get to fulfill my craving for McDonald's chicken nuggets (go figure! I move to Zambia and want McDonald's for the first time in I don't know how many years!)
We toured around Cape Town and the winelands. The highlights were clearly the food (sushi) and wine... oh! and the cheese! Overall it was a very nice trip, although I still wish family and friends from America could see Zambia and my village here! (hint hint)
Back in Zambia I went to Josh's village to help him host "second site visit"... this is when new volunteers get to practice language, HIV/AIDS facilitation, and try out life in the village. Daira, Asha, and Michelle are the 3 new Tumbukas- we love them! The 5 of us had a really good time (despite me being horribly ill for a few days!)
On site visit Asha began referencing stories from a blog she had read (i.e. banana pancakes!) and was familiar with some of my stories already. She was embarrased to admit it, but it turns out shes been reading this blog since she got her invitation for PCZ. I admit its pretyt strange to meet someone for the first time who already knows a bit about you! Anyway, this blog entry serves as a "shout out" to Asha's friends and family who are surely continuing to read this blog! She is doing just fine and will soon be telling us all stories about her teaching the 1,000 kids at a school 500m from her (soon-to-be-completed) house! Although, I did hear from her that in her first week in the village she ate a lot of bread and honey... apparently Josh's efforts to teach how to cook on a brasier have been lost on her thus far (ha!)
Afrer site visit, I nursed myself back to health and then went to training for the new volunteers to assist their trainers for the last two weeks, it was nice to meet all of the other new volunteers!
After all of this "hooplah" I finally returned to my village to find my long-in-the-making (5 months) mud hut STILL unfinished. I then played a game I like to call sit and watch my house not be built and ask a lot of questions that have answers like: it just didn't happen; soon it will be finished; ah, yes, its not done yet; another day they will come to work; i know there aren't walls, but Ketty, we dug the hole for your latrine at least!. Mostly I am grateful that as of august 21 I have lived in a village for 1 year so answers like these are no longer as frustrating... but rather, added amusement to my day. (*since writing this entry in my hut, my house has been completed, and i can FINALLY move in on thursday... hooray!)
Other amusing tales from the village include being yelled at my an elderly man (so i couldn't really argue out of respect for him) becuase he didn't get a mosquito net during the national net distribution program... I just explained over and over that theonlly net I have is the one over my own bed! The other day I was sweeping and swept 2 baby scorpions out of my house. Liz came to visit a few nights ago and ran around with a big stick trying to kill a BIG mouse... who we later named Ralf S. Mouse after those "mouse and the motorcycle" books... becuase we swear he did a double back handspring with a tuck from my roof to my wall to scurry outside!
Thats all for now.