Peace Corps Chapter 1 Capwa (finished in Bemba)

Hi America! So it's official I made it through training and swore in on Friday as a Peace Corps Volunteer! I really can't believe it has already been two months and I am done with training. Training was a great but very tiring experience. However last week we took our final language test, we cooked American meals for our home-stay families, we moved out and said goodbye to the Zambians that have been hosting us the last two months and we moved to Lusaka for our swear in ceremony. It was a weird experience as I was moving out of my home-stay families last Thursday. As I packed all of my things, said bye to my host- dad, sister, brothers, and exchanged our final gifts I couldn't believe that I had only known them for two months. They were almost like an "RA" in a college dorm, they taught me how to cook, how to clean, how to use a Brazier to heat my bath water and were always there if I had any problems. So although it was really sad to say goodbye to them, I promised I would visit the next time I was in town (probably after our community entry in January) and then wished me well. They also gave me parting gifts of a Zambian broom (no handle but shockingly effective), a pot and a wooden cooking spoon. The gifts were so sweet and thoughtful and things I will actually use in my village.
So we left our villages and moved to Lusaka for our big ceremony. Friday was the big day- SWEAR IN!! It almost felt like my college graduation. We all got dressed up, put on make up for the first time in Zambia (one of my male friends commented- "Kelsey you look so different today, I almost don't recognize you"- I took it as a compliment? ) and we were off to the Ambassador's house. His house was beautiful and as I told my parents looked like an American house in the middle of Zambia. There was real coffee, fried chicken, wonderful scones and I must say we all ate like we were going to move to an African village for two years- Oh wait, we are. So the ceremony was great, a few people made speeches in the local language, we took an oath to protect the U.S. , and we were officially sworn in as volunteers! I almost wish we had hats or something to throw in the air like graduation but instead we just clapped and took some great pictures next to the Peace Corps flag ( pictures to come soon). So the next day we hopped on a cruiser, drove 10 hours and finally landed in Luapula, my new home! So since being here we have been hanging out, enjoying some good movies for the first time since being in country, cooking on an actual stove and enjoying each others company. Today was a crazy day of shopping for EVERYTHING for our hut. From a bed frame and mattress, to pots, pans and nails we got as much as humanly possible as this will be the only time that a cruiser comes out to our site ( the rest of the time I will be carrying it on the back of my bike). So we are finally done, just with a few things left to get tomorrow before I move to my village for good!! I have mixed emotions as this will be the first time really living on my own and even more so living with people that don't speak my language but really I am also very excited. I am excited to learn more about myself, more about how I cope with living on my own, living with people so different than I am and living in and decorating/ renovating my very first home! As my mom said in her last letter to me "Your first house will always be a mud hut in Africa" which I think is very cool. So sadly that is all that is really new for now. Tomorrow I will officially start my "Community Entry" which means I am not allowed in the Provincial house until Thanksgiving and then after that until Christmas break. This is a time where I am supposed to not do so much "work" but really just get to know my village- get to know my neighbors, my counterparts and who i will work with and who I won't work with, and get settled in my hut and make it my home! So sadly I won't be able to update my blog until Thanksgiving time but I hope everyone is settling into Fall in the U.S. it is funny because we are coming into hot season here as October is supposed to be the "hottest month of all" ( i truly can't even imagine how it could get hotter than it is now but I guess I will find out!). So thank you to everyone who has e-mailed or facebooked me congratulating me on Swear in or just saying hello. I think about everyone often and although I might not be able to respond know that every e-mail or letter or postcard that I get means the world to me! They are little connections to home that make my day every time I get one so please keep them coming! So love to everyone back home, I think about you all often. Wish me good luck in the village and when I come back I am sure I will have many stories to tell! Love to everyone and miss you all very much!
Twalamonana ( see you later, more like talk to you later)
Kelsey

I'm famous... in Kalaba!

Muli Shani everyone! ( How are you in bemba). So I know it has been a while since my last blog post and although I would love to update everyone on every minute of my life here in Zambia, there is only so much time in a day and more importantly so much time until this computer probably freezes. So since I last wrote I have been in training learning as much Bemba as possible before I am posted at my site. The most exciting has been the last two weeks though where I have been on "Second site visit". So about two weeks ago I found out I would be going to Luapula Province for my service! I was so excited because after first site visit I really fell in love with the part of the country and it was my first choice by far. Last Sunday we all packed up and headed on our 10 hour cruiser ride to Mansa, which is the provincial capital of Luapula. Every province has a provincial house where peace corps volunteers can go to kind of "recharge" from the village. It is where our "Peace Corps Provincial House" is and where I will call my home away from the village over the next two years. It has a tv, shower, computer, library and anything else I could possibly want on my down time. So we spent the night at the provincial house and then headed to a PCV Brittany's site. I had met her on second site visit and she was great so I was excited to go to her village. I and three other trainees stayed with her for second site visit. It was incredible and we got to learn so much about her site and how she works there. We also got to spend a night at the waterfalls which was beautiful and such a nice break from our busy schedule in her village. Luapula is known as the province of waterfalls and I plan to visit many of them on my free time here!

Friday however was definitely the big day where everyone got dropped off at their own sites by themselves for the first time ever! Everyone was pretty nervous to see their house, meet their counterparts ( the Zambians in their village that would be our co-workers) ,neighbors and see the village they will be living in for two years. So my village is named Kalaba, it is 35k off the tarmac which means I basically have to bike 35k to get to the main road which I am oddly excited about and it is truly in the "African Bush". I am also what Peace Corps calls a "first generation" which means no other Peace Corps volunteer has lived in my village and I am most definitely the first white person that has lived in Kalaba, much less the first white person most of these people have ever seen. So I was to stay in Kalaba from Friday until Tuesday and wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do or who I was supposed to meet. Well was I in store for a surprise, the moment I got there my counterparts and everyone else it seemed in the village came to greet me and work on my house. It was a whirlwind of a few days which included very high highs and a few lows (which included me trying to climb up an ant hill beside my house to try and get cell phone service only to see the whole village staring at me like I was a crazy person). All in all Kalaba was great and I am excited to go back there in a few weeks and start working. They are a very active community but they have a lot of issues ( like having no clean water source, no nurse to staff the clinic) that I am excited to work on.
So many of you may be wondering what the title of my blog post is about. I wanted to give you all one little story from Kalaba so you could get a glimpse into my life. So Sunday is most people's day to rest and go to Church as most Zambians are very religious Christians. So I went to Church ( as I promised I would go to all of the Church's in Kalaba because as I explained to my counterparts Zambia doesn't have "the Church of the Jews"), and then my town was playing in a soccer game. I was very excited to go as my brother was an excellent goal keeper in High School and played soccer his whole life ( shout out to you B), and I truly enjoy watching soccer. So we get to the soccer game and this is when I realize I am famous. Everyone basically turns and stops what they are doing to stare at me ( Zambians arent afraid to stare for prolong periods of time). Then I sat down with my counterparts and was swarmed on both sides with children and adults alike who truly just wanted to sit near me. They stared a little more and then when I spoke my little Bemba I thought they were going to fall on the ground. Not only was I white but I spoke their language, how was this possible!? So the game was great although it did end in a tie (0-0) it was so much fun and I got a small bit of what Brad and Angelina feel ( without the cameras of course). It was a great time and I just had to laugh to myself and wish that all of you were here to watch my famous status in Kalaba.

So sorry this is shorter than some of you may hoped. I am exhausted from a physically and emotionally draining few weeks of speaking only Bemba and broken english, seeing what a true Zambian clinic looked like and how many problems it faces, and seeing my very own hut for the first time! So now I am back in Mansa and looking forward to making some mexican food and speaking english for a while. Tomorrow we go back to Lusaka where we will have a two day counterpart workshop with our counterparts from the village and then it is back to my homestay family in Chongwe who I truly do miss! So only two weeks of training left after that, I really can't believe how time has flown by but now I am just excited to get back to Kalaba and start my real work.

Love to everyone back home. For all of my fellow chosen people Happy New Year and have a easy fast if I can't update before Yom Kippur. Everyone else I send my love to you and thanks for all of the sweet e-mails and messages. I don't have barely any phone network in my village except for under a few trees so I will try and get back to all of your e-mails as soon as I can.

Mwende Bwino ( travel safe)

Kelsey