2013.. And that's a wrap.

One of Peace Corps famous catchphrases is "PC: The Toughest Job You'll ever love. This is definitely a job that I love, but it's not that tough. Sure, people show up late to meetings (or not at all), they rarely follow through with projects, they learn one thing and do the opposite,  and they demand money for volunteering, but the work isn't tough. Maybe its the living in a different culture that's supposed to be tough, but if so, then I really lucked out with the village and country I was placed in, because I really love where I live. Perhaps it's the living conditions...a lot of people back home would find this way of life unmanageable or impossible, but, again, I find joy in the simple lifestyle that a mud hut without electricity or running water encourages. There are definitely challenges and frustrations here, and those might be different than what I've known back home, but that doesn't make life here tough, it makes life interesting. I am constantly being forced to think on my toes, be creative, and to have more patience than I have ever known. Because of this job, I will be better suited to deal with anything that comes my way in the future.

In my future home, I will never become too worked up about a leaky roof; a flooded house; a soaked bed; moldy clothes; children soaked in their own urine or other children's urine; cockroach, termite, spider, flying insect, or ant (biting or non) infestations; power outages; broken air conditioners or water heaters, because I'll have dealt with all of these things on a daily basis for over 2 years. No gas stove? No problem! I now know how to build a fine and cook just about any meal imaginable over it, including loaves of bread and cakes. I'll have no problem walking for many miles or biking for even more if the gas prices get too high. I'll be able to budget, live on a dime, and grow my own food. Being without a phone, computer, or internet for days on end wouldn't bother me, should there be an apocalypse. If I'm stranded in nature, I'll have the courage and
know-how to kill, skin, gut, and preserve an animal. I'll also always be able to tell the time, down to the half-hour, just by looking towards the sky at the sun. I'll look at weevils in my food as an extra source of protein. I could probably build my own house out of local materials; in fact, I can build almost anything out of almost everything. I'll be able to enjoy the world and all that it has to offer; to appreciate the earth and all that it gives, including death, because death is a part of the beautiful cycle of life. I'll be able to survive, in any condition, anywhere in the world. All because I took a chance at "the toughest job I'll ever love," I am a stronger, more understanding, more compassionate, and happier person than I ever was before.

2013 saw many successes, joys and opportunity for growth,  along with a few failures and life lessons. In January, shortly after shaving off my entire head of hair, a S.A. truck driver took me to an abandoned parking lot against my will, and I found that I have the ability to maintain a calm, sound mind in a moment of panic, and get myself safely out of a potentially dangerous situation. In February I started a girl's club at a school which, with its successes throughout the year, has now been recognized by the Deputy Head and the Department Education Board for playing a part in reducing pregnancy rates and encouraging girls to stay in school. In March I traveled to Malawi for the first time and achieved my scuba diving certificate. April was dedicated to all things Malaria, and although one of my good friends and counterparts sadly passed away to cerebral malaria, I was recognized in May for doing the most education and prevention work out of all Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa during the month of April. In May I also conquered a 125 mile bike ride in a day, started a boys club, and my best friend came to visit. Emily and I traveled to Livingstone where we saw Victoria Falls, played with lion cubs, rode elephants, walked lions, ran cheetahs, booze cruised with hippos, rafted the Zambezi River with crocodiles, and had tea with zebras and monkeys at sunset. She biked 23 km to my village where she worked with me, plotted in the killing of a chicken for dinner, played with little African children, learned some Tumbuka, and complained about the poor internet coverage and lack of Wi-Fi ;) At the end of her visit we relaxed on the lake in Malawi. In July and August, Peace Corps flew me to South Africa to be pampered before, during, and after a wrist surgery, while back in Zambia my fallen-apart hut was being rebuilt. In October I celebrated my 24th birthday in my village with friends, re-dedicated myself as a volunteer as I entered into my second and final year of service, and then I took off to Namibia. There I climbed sand dunes, camped in the desert, drank delicious German beer at Oktoberfest, and drove alongside numerous wild animals. I ate kudu, ostrich, crocodile, springbok, oryx, and zebra. Upon return to Zambia, we swam in the Devils Pool on the top edge of Victoria Falls as the sun set. In November, with the help of Steve, I put on a weeklong health training workshop in my community, the results of which I am extremely proud of. I celebrated Thanksgiving surrounded by over 40 other volunteers, including my best-friend-turned-boyfriend, all of whom have become an even larger extension of my ever-growing family around the world. In December I was chosen to co-facilitate an HIV workshop for other PCVs and their Zambian counterparts; I started raising laying hens; and a counterpart of mine and I were recognized on multiple radio stations and in a magazine interview for all of the HIV work we've done together. I spent Christmas lakeside in Malawian paradise with some amazing people; the only way it could have been more perfect is if my family was there, too (its hard to be away during the holidays).

In 2013 I stayed fairly healthy (aside from meningitis, a staph infection, a broken wrist, stomach ulcers, and the probable shistosomiasis or other parasites and bacterias floating around inside of me). I learned a foreign language well enough to be able to have a conversation, teach, and write a full letter in it. Two baby girls were named after me, Acaity and Caitilinni. I got to name a baby boy, Reptar Phiri (...Phiri means mountain). All 3 of those children are destined for greatness. I grew my first ever garden. I read over 60 books. I taught village kids, school students, adults, elders, men, women, headmen, chiefs, strangers. I learned even more from them. I played, danced, laughed, cried, hurt, rejoiced. I rejoiced more than I hurt. I laughed until I cried.I grew. I became better.

2014 appears to be another year of adventure, happiness, hard work, and change. This month, I am doing to grant-writing workshops and will be working with two different health committees on securing grants and starting huge projects. One of them is digging deep wells in an area where there is very little water supply and a high number of water-caused illnesses, including typhoid. The other project is to construct and stock a health post in a community too far from a clinic, resulting in high numbers of preventable deaths such as from malaria and maternal death. In February I'll get to explore Tanzania and Zanzibar at a 4 day music festival on the beach with Steve. In March my parents come to visit, in June/July two of my cousins come to visit, and in August another good friend treks out to explore Zambia with me. In April I return to California for my best friends wedding (!!!!). And on September 5, 2014, I ring a bell that signifies the completion of my Peace Corps services in Zambia. Who knows what else, who knows what's next.

Thanks for tuning in, and cheers to 2014 ♡

Pink Monkey spark notes

So apparently some people are pretty upset that I've been neglecting my blog for a long time (people seriously still read this thing??). I guess that all started when I typed up about 4 blog entries and they all got deleted, regardless of me hitting the 'save' button periodically. It also might have to do with the fact that when I get access to a computer now, my time seems to be consumed with writing grants, updating my resume, researching masters programs and jobs, trying to figure out what comes next, and reading the latest tabloids and viewing Miley Cyrus' most recent trashy half-nude photo shoots... because lets be honest, keeping up with someone else's trainwreck of a lifestyle is much more exciting than writing about my mundane day-to-day life living in a rural African village, right??

But I guess since I did my 'one year in Africa' updates a lot has actually happened, some of which is noteworthy. So I'll give you the cliff notes here and now, and possibly will eventually get around to writing more.

My service got shortened by one month. That means instead of serving 27 months, my contract is now 26 months. Instead of 'ringing out' on Oct 5, 2014, I'll close my service on Sept. 5, 2014. This applies to our entire health intake that I flew in with, not just me specifically.

I turned 24. We had a camp-out in my village. Killed two chickens and a goat. There was also a lot of drinking. A game of soccer. A ton of fun. And a whole lot of deliciousness.

I wrote my first ever grant!! A small one, for $2, 500 , but it was submitted with the incorrect budget sheet so I now have a couple thousand more dollars sitting in my bank account than I know what to do with. This is the richest I've ever appeared. Accidentally not spending it will be a struggle... no wonder corruption is so...easy.

I attended a week long workshop in Chipata with my host father. It's called PEPFAR and is all about HIV/AIDS which I feel as though I'm pretty much an expert on by now. I then got selected to travel to Lusaka in December and co-teach the same workshop. So I'm really excited about that!

I just had my mid-service conference. Basically a few days in the capital to do dental and medical check ups, meet with our superiors and discuss successes and challenges that have occurred in the last year. We also rededicated ourselves to our second and final year of service. While I was at the office I met with the woman who manages 3rd year extension volunteers, and we discussed different job opportunities for me if I want to stick around a little longer.

I finally got my cast removed! After something like 11 or 12 weeks in it.. Idk, I can't count. But my wrist seems to be healed from the surgery, it's just stiff and really sore, and hard to move. I had 3 physical therapy sessions and will do more whenever I'm within Lusaka.

We did some construction at my hut. I now  have a brand new brick bathing shelter with a cement floor instead of a dirt one. It's super nice. Other new additions include an extremely large porch, and chicken house so I can finally get my laying hens!

I took two girls from a nearby school that I teach at to Chipata for a one week overnight camp, Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). Although I got pretty sick from all the meat we were fed, and although the week was extremely exhausting, we had a blast. The days were filled with sessions ranging from sex education, healthy relationships, women's health, communication skills, goal setting, leadership, confidence and more, and accompanied by games, sports, arts and crafts, cooking, movies, night time chats, and a talent show. The girls also learned about HIV and had the opportunity to get tested, and learned how to properly use condoms.

I started doing pre-school with my brother Jones. He absolutely loves it especially because he gets two candies at the end of the lessons (which are really gummy vitamins). Because the families in my village are too poor to send their children to elementary school, Jones is already a lot further along than his 7 year old brother. He's my prodigy. I also teach him English and sign language. Which means among the useful signs to know (the alphabet and 'I love you') I taught him the shocker. You're welcome, ladies.

Well that is all that I have time for right now (because I like to pretend I'm really busy)... so until next time!

30 Day Blog Challenge

Saw my little cousin post this blog challenge on the igram, and since ive wanted to do a picture blog/pic-a-day type of thing, so I guess Ill do this! Just to add some direction to my picture posting :)

So the first day is a pic of myself and a description of my day. Im horrible at taking selfies, esp on an awkward phone, but at least part of myself made it into the photo. But thats me sitting on the side of the road by myself. Its about 90 degrees out and around 1130 am. So I guess that means that at this point in my day I cant really give a description of my full day. Maybe ill update later.

I never set an alarm in this country, unless theres something i absolutely have to be up for at a certain time. Id rather rely on a natural, healthy, cirdadium rhythm. They say if you spend only a week out in nature with no technology or stress waking you up, its enough to reset your whole rhytm again. Im pretty sure that mine is reset by now! I love waking up to the sun creeping in my windows, but I usually go to bed shortly after it sets so I have an ample amount of sleep time anyways. I typically wake up naturally from 530-630, although since Ive been in town I've been staying up late and pushing a 645 wake up.

Today my only goal was to get up before 7, pack my things, start heading into town by 730, run some errands, and be on the road by 1030 to hitch back to Lundazi. I didnt quite make that goal, but its okay. I had a lot more packing and cleaning and gathering of things at the house than I originally thought, and I spent a good, enjoyable amount of time sipping my coffee and chatting with our house mama, Ester. She's the sweetest.

I started walking along the road to hitch to town at 9. Many cars sped past me without even a glance im my direction at my outreached hand, nor a signal of communication. Usually they will flash their highbeams if theyre not going to stop, shake their hand from side to side to say they have no room for another person, or move their finger in a circle to communicate that they are "just within," meaning they arent heading into town or traveling a far distance. But, nothing from no one. Oh well. Its probably because Im a gangster.

When I had mostly walked the ~5km from our house into town, an Indian-Zambian man (not sure how to call them) pulled over to drive me the rest of the way in. Its always surprising to me meeting Indians and Europeans that were born and raised here in Zambia, making them full Zambians,  and then hearing them bust out the local language, even though they still have their ancestoral accents. But I guess that makes sense as to why and how surprised Zambians get when I speak local language to them.

In town I first went to print out some 26 pictures from camp. One of the Zambianisms Ive picked up here, which really annoys me, is the inability to 'cue.' Zambians do not know how to form a line and/or keep order. Doesnt matter how long you've been waiting, everyone will come in, step right in front of you, and go about their business. So, seeing a long line at the photo printer and me being on a time crunch, I decided to walk straight up to the front of the line and hand the man my USB. One thing I am is efficient. One thing (most) Zambians are not is efficient. They will stand there for hours at the computer going through which few out of the 10000s of random pictures on their SD cards they want printed, then of course they'll want them printed in doubles, or all different sizes. If you give a mouse a cookie.

So I handed the man my USB and said "theres only one folder, 26 pictures. I want them all printed l, all 4x6. Heres 52 kwacha, Ill be back in 30 minutes to pick them up." And walked out. Boom, efficient, see? Things dont have to be so complicated.

I then headed next door to purchase a new phone for my host father. They had a sign out front that read "genuine, authentic cell phones." I went to the display cases, told them I wanted the cheapest phone they had that contained a certain charge port, so I can charge his phone on my solar. They started showing me blackberrys and other touch screen smart phones, running for 800-1200 kwacha. Im wanting to only spend 50-100 kwacha. Close, but no. So I start looking at the cheap phones. The guy says, "oh, you dont want those. They are fakes, made by the Chinese." Genuine, authentic phones, eh?? But I bought Prince a phone.

Next I walked over to the local grocery store/cafe. The other place I needed to go was closed, but thats okay because Id rather not spend money, as I am trying to save wherever I can to go to Namibia in October. I got a delicious cappicino, and sat with some non-peace corps American friends who are out here working or doing studies. Its pretty cool how completely different all of our experiences are out here, even though we all live in the same small country.

When my coffee was thouroughly enjoyed, I ventured to the ATM so I can afford to hitch home today l. The first two were down. I went across the street. Those ATMs were down as well. The ATM security guard sitting outside the bank with his loaded AK-47 told me all the machines in town were down. Of course.

I grabbed my completed pictures,  returned to the house, dropped some things, picked my bags, and got a ride out to the Lundazi turn off, which is where we hitch from. And because this is Zambia, and the police are corrupt and like money, my friend who was driving me to the turn off got pulled over and had to pay a bribe. This happens all the time. The police set up rpad blocks, stop about 85% of all the vehicles passing through, ask to see their license, tell them to pull over, then make them pay about 20 kwacha ($4) to get their licenses back. Or they just confiscate the whole car and youre stuck on the side of the road. It sucks, but its the police, so theres nothing you can do. They make out like bandits, and the taxi drivers usually lose money.

Like mine today. I payed him 35 kwacha for the ride. He stopped and pur 30 kwacha worth of gas in. Then he paid 20 kwacha in bribes to the police. Its a hard knock life.

While the driver was negociating the bribe, some 3 little boys came up to my window and started speaking to me in English. I spoke to them in their language, and they answered me in mine. I think thats pretty cool. I shared my ice water with them, gave them my lunch, and some of my chips. Then they ran off and disappeared into the bush.

I started this post when I was sitting on the road waiting to hitch. Not many cars are passing because its lunch hour. But after only 45 minutes of waiting, some truckers picked me up. Semi trucks are extremely comfortable, but they drive terribly slow. I would have rather waited for a fast ride, but I have a feeling its a slow day anyways. And its hard to turn down a free ride.

Hitching in Zambia is one of the only/most efficient ways to get around. Sure, there are large buses, but those scare me because of the way they drive. Plus theyre overcrowded and break down a lot. Hitching doesn't scare me, although I was very hesitant after my 'kidnapping' experience. But in Zambia there are the people who own cars, and the people who dont. All village Zambians stand on the road and hitch hike. All car-owning Zambians pick up the people hitching on the roadside. Sometimes they charge, sometimes they get to know you and offer a free ride. Ive been really lucky with getting good hitches and many free rides, but I also dont mind paying. Fuel here is about 8x the amount in California. Hitching is a great way to meet all types of people, to learn about their lives or Zambia, to network, and to disseminate information. In fact, some of my greatest health talks have been to people in hitches with me.

As friendly as the truck driver was, he went really slow. 40km/hr slow. Our journey ended up taking 3.5 hours instead of 2 or less, and as 
I feared, I made it into town about 1 minute too late to catch a bus back to my area. granted the bus can only take me within 7km of my village, but 
Id rather walk 7km instead of 20km.

So I was stuck in town for the night. luckily there were a few other pcvs in town as well, because theyre heading to 
Lake Malawi tomorrow, which im totally jealous of. but i need to hermit down in my village for the next month and not spend any money.

theres a new canadian guy living in the lundazi boma, working a "women in development
" program for 6 months. i got to stay the night at his place in his little sisters bed. that was a treat.

when i was on the hitch into town, we stoppes to pick up a zambian girl and her two children. as the 2yo was climbing into the truck I reached out my hand to help her in. she took it as though i wanted to shake her hand, and proceeded to ask me how my afternoon was  at 2 years old, zambian children are more polite than most americans. i picked her up and sat her next to be on the truck bed. she held onto my leg the whole ride. she was precious. 

so thats my day. now that i look at all the topics on this blog challenge, i realize 
I wont be able to do many of them. like i dont have a favorite store, because i live in a village and there are no stores. and i dont have a current favorite tv show because i dont have a tv. and do you think i own a purse
?  
I dont know what the formatting will look like for this post on my blog, so i appologize if its all askew. this is my first time posting from my new phone, and im using the blogger app. its not allowing me to use capital letters or any special characters other than commas and periods. and that annoys the crap out of me. becauase i appreciate good grammer and proper punctuation. hopefully the next post is better.