I can't believe it's almost June and my one year mark of living in Zambia is so rapidly approaching. Time is flying!
Well things have been going along pretty smoothly here in the village and the rains have stopped meaning that my time spent cleaning up spills from my leaky grass roof is over. I'm happy to report I survived my first rainy season!!
Last week (May 16)I had my big womens event in my village. The event was all about soya and brought together my 8 womens groups, representatives from the district health office, and the Peace Corps Northern team. All in all the attendance totaled at 143 people! Each of the womens group created a soya dish (we had biscuits, chocolate cake, sausage, milk, and pancakes to name a few) and then presented it to our guests from Kasama. And because this was a Zambian event a dance party featuring drums and bamaayos busting a move was also ever present. Did yours truly join in the party and show her moves? Why of course I did...surprised? Shouldn't be. It was severely embarrassing because from the moment I joined in with the icitenge wrapped around my waist the screams from all 143 participants escalated to insane amounts. My boss from Peace Corps followed me filming the whole thing so keep your eyes tuned to YouTube for all the embarrassing footage. In the end though, the embarrassment I felt was worth it because my bamaayos were just so excited that I joined them.
The other big news I have is the latest addition to my Peace Corps family. This latest addition is Finn, a now 2 month old puppy. I named him Finn after my favorite character in Glee, Finn Hudson. Lunga, my cat, is coping with the adjustments as well is to be expected, and in time I am hoping they'll be the best of friends. I'll keep you posted on their friendship :) He's been a handful, but also really fun, especially when I throw my village kids into the mix. My favorite, Mutukangi, refuses to call him Finn because to him that doesn't sound like a name and instead calls him "Fen". He also likes to think he know has part custody of Finn and like to discipline him whenever possible. It's adorable and makes me love that kid more and more each day. In fact my whole village is aware of this bond and calls me banamutukangi which means mother to mutukangi. I like to wear this name with pride :)
Well I think that's about it for now!Thanks for reading!!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Giddy with animal fever
Greetings everyone :)
Well it's finally happened, I've seen a lion, zebra, and giraffe in Zambia. No worries they weren't in my backyard they were in South Luangwa National Park in Eastern province.
My fellow peace corps volunteer and I headed up to the park for a jam packed 4 day visit. In a word, it was incredible. Each morning we were woken up by 0530 and out on our morning drive. Then we'd return by 11, have lunch and then relax by the pool till 16 then go out for a night drive. Salley and I really loved the night drive because we'd stop some place to watch the sunset and then go in search of hunting lions and other nocturnal animals. Each night we came across the lions and watched as the walked by a mere one meter from our open top cruiser. It was slightly terrifying but so exciting! I hope to return again sometime in the future! And visitors are more than welcome to join me :)
Now it's back to work and it's going to be a busy time. Coming up I have a huge event with all my women's groups. We're inviting people from the district and provincial health offices, peace corps staff and local village leaders to showcase what the women have been learning about nutrition and cooking with soyabeans. The soya recipes have been distributed, the lunch budget has been set, and the invites have been sent out. All in all we're expecting about 200 people to be there. So pray it all goes smoothly! It's happening May 16 so it's coming up fast fast!!
Also in the works is the beginning of the PD Hearth program. This program teaches ten mothers at a time how to prepare and serve their malnourished child one supplemental meal over a 12 day period. At the end of the 12 days the child will have gained weight, approx 200 grams. And then as the mother continues this soon the child will be out of the danger zone. That's the plan anyways. So my first step will be to get all the weights and upper arm circumference of all the under 5 kids in my catchment area during Child Health week mid-June. I'll keep you updated on the progress for sure!
Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you all had a great Easter!
Well it's finally happened, I've seen a lion, zebra, and giraffe in Zambia. No worries they weren't in my backyard they were in South Luangwa National Park in Eastern province.
My fellow peace corps volunteer and I headed up to the park for a jam packed 4 day visit. In a word, it was incredible. Each morning we were woken up by 0530 and out on our morning drive. Then we'd return by 11, have lunch and then relax by the pool till 16 then go out for a night drive. Salley and I really loved the night drive because we'd stop some place to watch the sunset and then go in search of hunting lions and other nocturnal animals. Each night we came across the lions and watched as the walked by a mere one meter from our open top cruiser. It was slightly terrifying but so exciting! I hope to return again sometime in the future! And visitors are more than welcome to join me :)
Now it's back to work and it's going to be a busy time. Coming up I have a huge event with all my women's groups. We're inviting people from the district and provincial health offices, peace corps staff and local village leaders to showcase what the women have been learning about nutrition and cooking with soyabeans. The soya recipes have been distributed, the lunch budget has been set, and the invites have been sent out. All in all we're expecting about 200 people to be there. So pray it all goes smoothly! It's happening May 16 so it's coming up fast fast!!
Also in the works is the beginning of the PD Hearth program. This program teaches ten mothers at a time how to prepare and serve their malnourished child one supplemental meal over a 12 day period. At the end of the 12 days the child will have gained weight, approx 200 grams. And then as the mother continues this soon the child will be out of the danger zone. That's the plan anyways. So my first step will be to get all the weights and upper arm circumference of all the under 5 kids in my catchment area during Child Health week mid-June. I'll keep you updated on the progress for sure!
Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you all had a great Easter!
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