I'm coming back to America for a visit in less than a month and I have started compliling many lists of what I want to do, what I have to get done, what I want to buy and bring back with me, and most importantly what I want to eat. Here's my working list:
To Do (both want and need):
1. Weddings
2. Doctor, eye, dentist appointments
3. Go to the cabin
4. Drive my car...a lot.
5. Watch a new movie
6. Get my hair cut
7. Open house party
To Eat:
1. Chipotle
2. Steak
3. Pulled pork
4. Cheeseburger
5. Pizza (from Bulldogs and V.I.P)
6. Starbs (obvi)
7. French toast
8. Hotdog
9. BBQ sauce (I'll probably put it on anything)
10. Dr. Pepper
Well that's it for now but I expect it to continue. Less than one month!!!!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
"How are you? I'm Fine!"
Well, I survived my first child health week and let me say it was a VERY busy week! 2 times per year (June and November/December) the ministry of health has a week dedicated to child health where the purpose is to weigh every child under 5 and provide Vitamin A, de-worming meds, and even measles vaccine to all the kids all for free. In my catchment area we covered our 10 zones over a 2-day period doing 5 zones per day. It was crazy to say the least but we made it through!
My main objective was to collect my data for all the kids age 6-60 months for my upcoming PS-Ishiko project. I had to collect the names of all the mothers and children, their weight and corresponding status (eg normal, mildly malnourished, severely malnourished), birth date, and then mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). After all this data was collected I then calculated the overall nutrition status of each child and complied the statics for each zone. In each of my 10 zones there were HIGH rates of malnutrition totaling about 45-60% and normal children only being about 20%.
So the upcoming PS-Ishiko project will work to rehabilitate these malnourished children by having the mothers of the healthy children teach them healthy feeding behaviors. This will be done by holding daily sessions for 12 days where the mothers learn about a different health topic and then how to cook an improved porridge with the addition of a protein and vitamin source. The mothers will leave each day with a liter of this improved porridge to give their children throughout the day in addition to their regular meals. So the hope is that at the end of the 12 days the children will have gained weight and the mothers will have learned new behaviors to continue the weight gain and take their children to a healthy weight status. It's a lot of work, but the impact can also be really big as well.
The rest of my month has been spent doing work around my house. I am happy to report that after 8 months of being in my house I now have all my furniture! It was a big day when I finally placed the couch in my house and was a LONG time coming. I've also been working hard clearing the dry grasses from my yard to make it less inviting for snakes. So I purchased a slasher and then went to work and have finished with a blister to remember my hard work.
I also completed one of my goals of biking to Chishimba Falls, which is about 35km from my house. I set out one morning and made it in about 2 hours and was able to spend some time with some other volunteers swimming in the water before heading back. The ride back was much more difficult and took about 2.5 hours and for the next few days I was feeling that 70km!
So needless to say, June has been a busy month! Thanks for reading!
My main objective was to collect my data for all the kids age 6-60 months for my upcoming PS-Ishiko project. I had to collect the names of all the mothers and children, their weight and corresponding status (eg normal, mildly malnourished, severely malnourished), birth date, and then mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). After all this data was collected I then calculated the overall nutrition status of each child and complied the statics for each zone. In each of my 10 zones there were HIGH rates of malnutrition totaling about 45-60% and normal children only being about 20%.
So the upcoming PS-Ishiko project will work to rehabilitate these malnourished children by having the mothers of the healthy children teach them healthy feeding behaviors. This will be done by holding daily sessions for 12 days where the mothers learn about a different health topic and then how to cook an improved porridge with the addition of a protein and vitamin source. The mothers will leave each day with a liter of this improved porridge to give their children throughout the day in addition to their regular meals. So the hope is that at the end of the 12 days the children will have gained weight and the mothers will have learned new behaviors to continue the weight gain and take their children to a healthy weight status. It's a lot of work, but the impact can also be really big as well.
The rest of my month has been spent doing work around my house. I am happy to report that after 8 months of being in my house I now have all my furniture! It was a big day when I finally placed the couch in my house and was a LONG time coming. I've also been working hard clearing the dry grasses from my yard to make it less inviting for snakes. So I purchased a slasher and then went to work and have finished with a blister to remember my hard work.
I also completed one of my goals of biking to Chishimba Falls, which is about 35km from my house. I set out one morning and made it in about 2 hours and was able to spend some time with some other volunteers swimming in the water before heading back. The ride back was much more difficult and took about 2.5 hours and for the next few days I was feeling that 70km!
So needless to say, June has been a busy month! Thanks for reading!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Life as of now....
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!!
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!!
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!
Monday, February 28, 2011
There's No Place Like Home
Today I returned to Kasama after being back at home in my village for a solid month...it's crazy how much of a shock it is to come back into the "big city" after being in the village for so long. I can't wait to see what it feels like to return to the really big city of Americaland in a few short months!
So since arriving back in Misengo on January 28 I have been keeping busy by attending A LOT of under 5 clinics. (And I'm happy to report I have now officially visited all the 11 villages within my catchment area). My job at these under 5 clinics was mostly to record the kg of each child on their card. I also thought it was important to learn about the child's height to get a real sense of their nutritional state so I went to Shoprite and bought a measuring tape and brought that along to the clinics as well. Now while I'm here in Kasama I'll make a stop at the district health office to see if they have a graph of some sort so I can plot out the points and visually see if the children are stunted in their growth due to malnutrition.
February is the biggest time of "hunger season" here in Zambia as well as a high time for malaria cases, which in turn meant that MANY of the kids were very under weight if not malnourished. It was tough to see that a 2 year old was only weighing about 7kg when he should be weighing around 12kg, especially when in many instances the problem isn't about a lack of food for the family it's about a lack of giving that food to the child. This 24 month old, named Mapalo which means blessing in Bemba, I learned from the mother was only being fed porridge twice a day! Porridge consists maize (corn) that is pounded into a flour like texture and then mixed with water. There is no protein, no vitamins in it so this child is lacking two major things that would allow him to grow. After discussing this with Mapalo's bamaayo and teaching her about how many times her son should be eating and what he should be eating I invited her to that village's next women's group meeting where we will be cooking bread, high protein nshima, and a soya and pumpkin leaves relish. So here's to hoping that she will come and in March little Mapalo will be a few kgs heavier!
Because it's planting season here around this time most of the people in my village are out in the fields all day and therefore I haven't had any regular group meetings. So when I wasn't busy with under 5 clinics I have been spending my time working on my "secondary project" which is teaching. It's pretty informal and very basic, but I'm helping some of the grade 9 students with Math and English skills. I go in the mornings with an assignment in each subject prepared and then we work through the problems together and then I give another of the same type and have them teach me how to solve the problem. I'm really having to brush up on my algebra skills again! The students I am working with are really motivated to learn and even more motivated to pass there exams in November and it's exciting for me each time they really understand the problem! In addition to working with the grade 9 students I'm also trying to start a preschool with some of the kids in my village ages 5-7 in math and English. Last Sunday I have 3 of my little boys over at my house and we practiced writing the numbers 1,2,3,4,and 5. My favorite little boy, Mutuka wrote the number 3 all by himself and then got a huge smile on his face and said, "ba Emily naishiba ukulemba 3!" (translation: Emily, I know how to write 3!)I felt like such a proud mom in that moment. I know that many of you are teachers or teachers in the making so if any of you have any tips or tricks that you can give me I would gladly accept them!!
The other big project that will now take up my time will be the issue of malaria. While in Lusaka for training we had a workshop on behavior change with our counterparts. The behavior change project we decided on was about malaria with our specific goal being that by January 1, 2012 there will be a decrease in the reported cases of malaria in Misengo by 50 percent. Malaria is a huge problem in my village and most of that is due to lack of mosquito nets as well as lack of education about ways to prevent mosquito from breeding. In fact we've been having around 3-4 children die each week due to malaria which is heartbreaking to see because it's both preventable and curable. I visited the health office today and talked with the malaria net distributor about when my village would be receiving our nets and he said it will begin next week, so let's hope that is indeed the case. Be praying for my villagers during this time!!!
Well I think that's about all for now. I appreciate all the letters and care packages I have been getting from you all back in America so THANK YOU times a million. Be praying for health, safety, and open hearts among the people of Misengo!!
So since arriving back in Misengo on January 28 I have been keeping busy by attending A LOT of under 5 clinics. (And I'm happy to report I have now officially visited all the 11 villages within my catchment area). My job at these under 5 clinics was mostly to record the kg of each child on their card. I also thought it was important to learn about the child's height to get a real sense of their nutritional state so I went to Shoprite and bought a measuring tape and brought that along to the clinics as well. Now while I'm here in Kasama I'll make a stop at the district health office to see if they have a graph of some sort so I can plot out the points and visually see if the children are stunted in their growth due to malnutrition.
February is the biggest time of "hunger season" here in Zambia as well as a high time for malaria cases, which in turn meant that MANY of the kids were very under weight if not malnourished. It was tough to see that a 2 year old was only weighing about 7kg when he should be weighing around 12kg, especially when in many instances the problem isn't about a lack of food for the family it's about a lack of giving that food to the child. This 24 month old, named Mapalo which means blessing in Bemba, I learned from the mother was only being fed porridge twice a day! Porridge consists maize (corn) that is pounded into a flour like texture and then mixed with water. There is no protein, no vitamins in it so this child is lacking two major things that would allow him to grow. After discussing this with Mapalo's bamaayo and teaching her about how many times her son should be eating and what he should be eating I invited her to that village's next women's group meeting where we will be cooking bread, high protein nshima, and a soya and pumpkin leaves relish. So here's to hoping that she will come and in March little Mapalo will be a few kgs heavier!
Because it's planting season here around this time most of the people in my village are out in the fields all day and therefore I haven't had any regular group meetings. So when I wasn't busy with under 5 clinics I have been spending my time working on my "secondary project" which is teaching. It's pretty informal and very basic, but I'm helping some of the grade 9 students with Math and English skills. I go in the mornings with an assignment in each subject prepared and then we work through the problems together and then I give another of the same type and have them teach me how to solve the problem. I'm really having to brush up on my algebra skills again! The students I am working with are really motivated to learn and even more motivated to pass there exams in November and it's exciting for me each time they really understand the problem! In addition to working with the grade 9 students I'm also trying to start a preschool with some of the kids in my village ages 5-7 in math and English. Last Sunday I have 3 of my little boys over at my house and we practiced writing the numbers 1,2,3,4,and 5. My favorite little boy, Mutuka wrote the number 3 all by himself and then got a huge smile on his face and said, "ba Emily naishiba ukulemba 3!" (translation: Emily, I know how to write 3!)I felt like such a proud mom in that moment. I know that many of you are teachers or teachers in the making so if any of you have any tips or tricks that you can give me I would gladly accept them!!
The other big project that will now take up my time will be the issue of malaria. While in Lusaka for training we had a workshop on behavior change with our counterparts. The behavior change project we decided on was about malaria with our specific goal being that by January 1, 2012 there will be a decrease in the reported cases of malaria in Misengo by 50 percent. Malaria is a huge problem in my village and most of that is due to lack of mosquito nets as well as lack of education about ways to prevent mosquito from breeding. In fact we've been having around 3-4 children die each week due to malaria which is heartbreaking to see because it's both preventable and curable. I visited the health office today and talked with the malaria net distributor about when my village would be receiving our nets and he said it will begin next week, so let's hope that is indeed the case. Be praying for my villagers during this time!!!
Well I think that's about all for now. I appreciate all the letters and care packages I have been getting from you all back in America so THANK YOU times a million. Be praying for health, safety, and open hearts among the people of Misengo!!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Zanzi Vacay
Greetings from Paje, Zanzibar :) Otherwise known as paradise. I have been here since Christmas Eve and can't believe my time on this island is almost over in a few short days.
I met up with 5 other PCVs in Serenje, Zambia and we set off on our adventure by boarding the train for a 2.5 day adventure. This travel wasn't really all the pleasant due to many factors including lost reservations, which in turn led to us spending the first night in the booze car, poor toilet facilities, lack of sleep, unhelpful train staff, and extreme heat. However, the scenery once we crossed the boarder into Tanzania was beautiful and right before reaching Dar es Salaam we got to go through a game park and I was able to catch glimpses of giraffes, baboons, and some warthogs. It got me very excited for an upcoming safari I hope to take over Easter.
Following our arrival in Dar and taking a much needed shower and a good night's sleep we boarded the ferry to Stone Town the morning of Christmas Eve. It was a pleasant 2 hour trip crossing the bluest water I have ever seen. It was amazing!
So the first leg of our holiday was spent in Stone Town, which is the major town on the island. I was reminded to much of Italy while I walked around because it's an old city made up of small winding allyways with little shops tucked in every corner. My friend Salley and I spent much of our time helping the town's economy by shopping which is something that I haven't done in almost a half a year and I realized how much I enjoy a good day of retail therapy. Also in Stone Town we were able to go on a spice tour, which is a popular thing to do because Zanzibar has a history of being the spice island. We went to a plantation and got to sample various spices including cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, and also some fruits.
After a few nights in Stone Town we then headed up to the northern coast and spent some nights at Kendwa at a resort called Kendwa Rocks. The resort was beautiful and we stayed in beachside bungalows that looked like something out of a movie. I spent the first days just relaxing on the beach and working on my tan. One morning we also got to go kayaking on the Indian Ocean which led to quite the sunburn because you forget how close you actually are to the equator. Also on this beach I was able to take in 2 massages beachside which felt fantastic and erased any remaining traces of stress I had left in my body.
Next we headed to our second beach on the east coast in the town of Paje. This beach was a lot different and was less resort and more sporty. So the morning of New Years Eve we get up before sunrise and headed out to swim with some dolphins. We got onto the water by 6am and on our journey to find these dolphins we came across a giant turtle that had been speared by a hook and had died. So we hauled the turtle into our boat so our captain could enjoy it later as a meal.
The dolphin excursion was probably my favorite part of the trip thus far. We went out on the boat and when the dolphins were spotted our captain he would say "prepare to swim." These preparations included putting on flippers and goggles with snorkeling and then jumping over the side of the boat many times and chasing down the dolphins to see them swim underneath us. At one point there was approx 10 that swam underneath me. And as I prepared one time of my jump into othe ocean I got a little too excited and my flipper didn't quite make it over the edge and I fell backwards into the boat. This minor setback didn't hold me back though and I rushed up and made my second attempt at jumping into the water, which I am happy to report was successful.
Overall it's been a great trip and I can't believe it's almost over!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2283855&id=59511885&l=366f43424f
I met up with 5 other PCVs in Serenje, Zambia and we set off on our adventure by boarding the train for a 2.5 day adventure. This travel wasn't really all the pleasant due to many factors including lost reservations, which in turn led to us spending the first night in the booze car, poor toilet facilities, lack of sleep, unhelpful train staff, and extreme heat. However, the scenery once we crossed the boarder into Tanzania was beautiful and right before reaching Dar es Salaam we got to go through a game park and I was able to catch glimpses of giraffes, baboons, and some warthogs. It got me very excited for an upcoming safari I hope to take over Easter.
Following our arrival in Dar and taking a much needed shower and a good night's sleep we boarded the ferry to Stone Town the morning of Christmas Eve. It was a pleasant 2 hour trip crossing the bluest water I have ever seen. It was amazing!
So the first leg of our holiday was spent in Stone Town, which is the major town on the island. I was reminded to much of Italy while I walked around because it's an old city made up of small winding allyways with little shops tucked in every corner. My friend Salley and I spent much of our time helping the town's economy by shopping which is something that I haven't done in almost a half a year and I realized how much I enjoy a good day of retail therapy. Also in Stone Town we were able to go on a spice tour, which is a popular thing to do because Zanzibar has a history of being the spice island. We went to a plantation and got to sample various spices including cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, and also some fruits.
After a few nights in Stone Town we then headed up to the northern coast and spent some nights at Kendwa at a resort called Kendwa Rocks. The resort was beautiful and we stayed in beachside bungalows that looked like something out of a movie. I spent the first days just relaxing on the beach and working on my tan. One morning we also got to go kayaking on the Indian Ocean which led to quite the sunburn because you forget how close you actually are to the equator. Also on this beach I was able to take in 2 massages beachside which felt fantastic and erased any remaining traces of stress I had left in my body.
Next we headed to our second beach on the east coast in the town of Paje. This beach was a lot different and was less resort and more sporty. So the morning of New Years Eve we get up before sunrise and headed out to swim with some dolphins. We got onto the water by 6am and on our journey to find these dolphins we came across a giant turtle that had been speared by a hook and had died. So we hauled the turtle into our boat so our captain could enjoy it later as a meal.
The dolphin excursion was probably my favorite part of the trip thus far. We went out on the boat and when the dolphins were spotted our captain he would say "prepare to swim." These preparations included putting on flippers and goggles with snorkeling and then jumping over the side of the boat many times and chasing down the dolphins to see them swim underneath us. At one point there was approx 10 that swam underneath me. And as I prepared one time of my jump into othe ocean I got a little too excited and my flipper didn't quite make it over the edge and I fell backwards into the boat. This minor setback didn't hold me back though and I rushed up and made my second attempt at jumping into the water, which I am happy to report was successful.
Overall it's been a great trip and I can't believe it's almost over!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2283855&id=59511885&l=366f43424f
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.
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.
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