Deuteronomy 31:8

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8







Saturday, December 18, 2010

Community Entry: Complete!

Well my first segment of being a volunteer is complete! Today marks the end of my 3 months of community entry!! I honestly can't believe how fast it went and that tomorrow I am on my way on my first (and hopefully not last) African holiday :)

Since my last posting almost one month ago I can say that not much changed and that everything is going well in Misengo. I have been not as busy with meetings lately due to caterpillar season being in full swing leading most of my villagers to be out in the fields daily to collect them. And it's also planting time so people are either planting crops or getting the fields ready to plant beans in a couple of months.

My adventures in farming continue slowly but surely. If anything this whole process is a community effort because I have no idea what I'm doing so I have invested the help of many of my community members who I think enjoy assisting me. And thankfully they don't laugh too hard when I ask stupid questions such as, "is this a weed or is this a vegetable?"

I've also been keeping my soya cooking going with my women's groups and our latest creation has been a chocolate cake which was VERY delicious. Hopefully one of these days in the future I will be able to arrange a cooking competition with all my soya making women with the winning group to receive new ingredients (flour, sugar, cooking oil etc) so they can keep on cooking! I'll keep you updated on any progress in Iron Chef: Zambia.

I have also been making progress in teaching my children that frequent my house a little english. Mutuka now will tell my cat Lunga "Stop it!" I finally asked him the other day if he knew what it meant and he said no so I said, "Stop it cimo cine Leka" (translation: stop it is the same as leka which is the bemba word for to stop." So now when Lunga is causing problems he says "Lunga, stop it cimo cine leka." It's not only adorable but also a big help to me :)When I return to site in January hopefully we'll be able to learn some more and also work on some basic math.

December 1st is World AIDS Day and for the day I went with the agriculture camp officer from Misengo to a neighboring village for a full day of festivities including a march, dances and skits put on by various groups, and my favorite was a tug of war competition between the bamaayos (women) and bataatas (men). The women I'm happy to report dominated the contest, which isn't so surprising given the fact they make large post of nshima multiple times daily.

Well since I will be doing A LOT of traveling over these next few weeks please be praying for safety and good health!

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year and I'll be back after some time in Zanzibar and then training in Lusaka and Kasama.