Happy Belated New Years everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and start to 2011. My holidays were spent slightly differently this year as they were my first holidays in Africa. I was lucky enough to spend Christmas day with some close friends at a home stay family here in Lusaka. We went swimming ( yes the weather is still very warm here, even with the rains), watched TV and made a delicious Christmas dinner for some other friends who were in Lusaka. The next day we were off to Chipata, the provincial capital of Eastern province. My friend Tiffany and I got a lovely hitch from some men who worked at Barclays and who bought us chicken on the way as a snack. Truly lovely people. I think that is why I love hitching so much, it can be a pain and sometimes it can take forever, but you always meet different people who have different stories. I really wish it was safer in the States so that I could just get rid of my car and hitch everywhere! I have started keeping a "hitching journal" where I tell about our hitch and the people we meet. I hope to look at it at the end of my service and have such good memories of all of my travels throughout Zambia and the surrounding countries. So we arrived in Chipata and met up with some fellow PCV's who were going with us to Malawi. Spent the night there and then we were off to Nkhata Bay! It took us another full day of taxis, mini buses and big buses to get there but once we did we knew it was worth it. We stayed at a lodge which was right on Lake Malawi which other PCV's had recommended to us and it was BEAUTIFUL! It was right on the water, we all had our own porches overlooking the lake, and the people, food and atmosphere was unmatched to any other vacation I have taken. While there we went on a boat tour where we got to go cliff jumping ( not really a cliff but more like big rocks), saw monkeys and eagles and played soccer with some locals on the beach. The rest of the week we really just laid on a platform in the middle of the clear blue water, went snorkeling, ventured into town to explore and ate good food. It was wonderful with amazing company of 12 other PCV's, truly a perfect ending to our Community Entry. So we ventured back into Zambia after another LONG day of hitching and getting back across the border, then stayed in Chipata for a few more days. Chipata is really a beautiful city with green mountains surrounding it. I was happy to get to explore another province for the first time since being in country. My goal is to get to all of them before I leave, they are each so unique and I think you have to see all of them to get the real feel of Zambia. So from there we hitched back to Lusaka, a hitch that should have taken 6 or 7 hours which took 9, ah the life of a PCV. So now I am back in Lusaka for training for two weeks. It has been wonderful eating good food, Thai, Chinese, Irish Pubs, Indian, really anything you could want! However now I am ready to get back to my village. It really has become my home and I miss my friends and family back in Kalaba. So I am here another week and then head back to beautiful Luapula. So I know this blog entry might not have been as profound or "cool" as my other stories from the village, but I thought it was important to know that as Peace Corps volunteers we work hard and play hard. So far 2011 has been an incredible year that I only hope will get better and as these past almost 6 months have been, I can't see it going anywhere but up.
Love and miss you all! Keep the letters, emails, and good thoughts coming. Oh and of course, GO STEELERS ( I will actually be able to watch the game tonight!!!)
All my love,
Kelsey/Bupe
