Hi everyone. I can now say I am officially writing you from Zambia! So the journey so far has been that, quite a journey. We had our pre-orientation in Atlanta where everyone met, we got our yellow fever shots and then got to the airport Wednesday night. Unfortunately our flight left an hour late from Atlanta and then was delayed a bit more in the air, giving us approximately 20 minutes to get 60 people, half of which didn't have boarding passes (stupid delta) onto our connection to Lusaka, obviously that didn't happen. So we spent a few hours in the Johannesburg airport trying to talk to everyone from Peace Corps in D.C. to Peace Corps in Zambia to the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to try and figure out our little pickle. Around midnight Zambia time (we arrived around 615pm) we finally got the message to get a hotel and fly out the next morning. In the Peace Corps spirit, that didn't happen quite as planned either. Half of our group that was supposed to fly out at a 10 am flight was bumped to a 7 pm flight and the other half got on the plane.. we thought the peace corps gods were testing us at this point, but still remained in high spirits! So we spent another day in the Johannesburg airport, needless to say if you ever are there I can tell you where all of the good napping places can be found! But we enjoyed our last few "western meals" and got on the plane and arrived in Lusaka last night around 9pm to a welcoming peace corps staff! It was so nice to finally be in Zambia and breath in Zambian air. We got into our government hostel, had a few Zambian beers and fell into our beds under our mosquito nets (which are quite whimsical if I do say so!)
So today was finally the beginning of training! We had a few intro sessions about medicine (started my malaria meds today, bring on the crazy dreams!) and then broke into our two groups- Community Health and Rural Aquaculture ( I am health but my program is called Community Health Improvement Project (CHIP) so they call us Fish and CHIPS, get it? ) So we had an overview with two wonderful women from CHIP about what we will be doing and our first site visit which starts Monday! So I found out two really exciting things. First, I will be learning BEMBA as my language! It is the most spoken language in Zambia and means I will either be placed in the Northern, Central or Luapula province, I am beyond excited to start learning. Secondly I learned that for my site visit I get to go to Luapula! Two other girls and I from Health along with 4 people from Fish will hop in our land cruisers on Monday morning ( at 6 am!) and head 8 hours north to Luapula ( the fish people have to go 15 hours so we got lucky!) Everyone has said how beautiful Luapula is and refer to it as the "Water province" because it is known for all of its beautiful waterfalls and rivers. It is in the north western part of Zambia, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo ( but no worries mom we are completely safe!)We get in Monday night and stay until Thursday morning when we head back to Lusaka. I am so so excited to finally get to the African Bush and see how another CHIP volunteer lives, and she speaks Bemba so I can get a jump start on my language! So right now we all just went grocery shopping for our site visits ( smores and pasta two of my favorites on the list) and now we have some free time in the local "mall" to walk around. Tomorrow is another day of shots and measurements for our bikes, another thing I am extremely looking forward to, not the shots but the bike riding!
So I know this is an extremely long first post but I just feel like there is so much to catch everyone up on! So much happens in a day here and it is all so exciting and amazing. I also forget to say I had my first meal of nshima ( corn maize) with some greens ( look kind of like collard greens) and a few wonderful zambian bananas ( they are much sweeter than the ones in the U.S.). So I am considering going back to being a vegetarian while I'm here as Zambians eat mostly red meat ( kidneys as one of the common meals) if meat at all and I think it might make things a bit simpler. So we will see, it is only day 1 really and so much has already happened!
I should get my phone soon and it is supposed to have internet so feel free to send me some e-mails with updates on everyone!
Ok love to everyone and I hope you enjoyed my first real post! Sorry again about any misspelled words or crazy sentences, Zambian internet isn't quite as fast as in the U.S.!
