lately

Things are good. The holidays have been good. The rains are here, so things are slowing down a bit. Mushrooms are in season, which is awesome!! I love a change in diet from time to time ;)

I got in a small bike accident. Nothing major. Glasses are a little crooked now ;) Mostly just a brusied spirit ;) It's beginning to be rainy season and so things are very muddy and slippery. I fell right by a school with the kids outside, embarrassing ;)

We went to Zanzibar for our first big vacation. It was beautiful. The water and sand was amazing! It was weird to be tourist though. So many people asking you to buy things, etc- just strange and expensive! We had to go to a nearby village off the tourist beach to feel a bit normal. I got real sunburn, I forget how amazingly pale I really am ;) During the trip we met with a friend here and lit Chanuka candles, and made latkes and chanuka cookies, super fun!

We are in Chipata now, celebrating Christmas with some other volunteers. We did stockings and I made eggnog from stratch for the first time in life ;) Gotta say, Safeway probably does it better ;) But it was good and nice hanging out with people. Hope you all had a great holidays!!! Write me and tell me about it, i miss you all!

A few weeks ago, our house was hit by lighting ;) We are totally fine! But craziness. Apparently the humidity here when it's raining lends to a lot more lightening. And we didn't know that you are supposed to turn your radio off in a thunder storm ;) ooops, so we had our radio antennea connected to our clotheslines for better reception and thus a great pull for the lighenting :( So the lighting found our tree, which was connected to our clothesline which was connected to our antennea. Needless to say, we do not have a radio anymore, it's fried ;) But everything else same and normal. Just learned a good lesson in turning things off when it rains ;)

I've been doing some monthly education trainings with my NHCs, on community planning and mobilizing things, it's going ok. And I did a mini training with my community health workers and my environmental health technician (EHT). It went well and I want to do more teachings on things they can do, but we will see. My EHT is going back to school, great for him, but sad for me and my community, he's an amazing asset that we are losing :( I'm also working with the traditional birth attendants (TBA) on making visuals for our upcoming TBA training with the district health office. I hope it goes very well. I'm excited to go to births with them in preparation to see how they do it here so I can add more to the curriculum on pointers on womens health, etc. It's been a while since my doula days in AmeriCorps, so I'm excited to see some babies be born ;) For world AIDS day, we had a HIV/AIDS tape viewing at my clinic and Q & A. I got the tapes from an NGO at the district and my midwife set up the battery and TV capacity, very nice. The NGO, Health Communication Partnership is great and I hope to partner more with them later.

not as advertised

So, there are many reasons why things don't go asa planned here. Largely due to resources! Sometimes lack of education/awareness about a certain issue also plays a part. Then there are other things, I could wax about, but I'll save you, and say something funny kind of ;) So in the past few weeks I have seen some things not used as where planned/advertised.. .

On transport, which is always interesting, we were in a minbus when one something in it malfunctioned. So we pulled off the road or better yet coulded go any further ;) And the conductor and helpers begin to try and find and fix the problem. And yes, I saw them use a condom to try and work as a make shift car part ;) Now it didn't work, not a shock. And we had to seek other transpot. But wow, I never thought about that use in school or in my trainings on safe sex or really anytime ;)

Another day, Rob was biking from a school he works with to our place and he saw some men fishing. Rob is always interested in wildlife so he stopped to chat and observe. And he happened to observe that the fishermen's net was in fact a mosquitoe net :( Yup, it happens here. Now not only have I never have or would suggest an insecticide treated net to be used to anything other than sleeping under to ward off the big problem of malaria here, but also I am proud to say in talking about nutrtion, I have never mentioned the helpful use of possibly ingesting insecticide either. But alas, it happens. And again resources lacking all the time, like food and income, fishing with a net (whatever you have) its understandably, but not good for health really, blah blah blah. Won't wax like I said, but also like I said, not as advertised.

There was more, but I forgot, sorry sorry. I hope all is well and I think I might try and journal so I remember my thoughts more for you in the future ;) Regardless, we are well, work is going along, and we are going on our first big vacation out of country. Zanzibar, here we come ;) Maybe we can load pics of us and water soon enough.

something is in the water

So lately it has been births galore in my neck of the woods. Women have children very often here, so I see new babies alot at the clinic and programs. But this month my neighbor had twins. Both cute and healthy! I get to hold them on occasion and then give them back when they cry, good deal. I also found out that my other neighbor is pregnant. So I am going to get skilled at babies in my time ;) And our cat just had kittens! Supercute. After 6 weeks we were able to wean the kittens and give them to people in our village that wanted them to help bring down their rat problems ;) So maybe something is in the water with all these babies coming ;) No worries though, I filter and boil out water ;) Family planning is also key ;)

Otherwise we have been doing well. We changed travel plans and our now planning on going to lake taganika to snorkel. It should be beautiful and again I'm looking forward to water. Work is coming along with my NHCs and clinic and I'm starting to plan the TBA training.

Rob is cute as ever. I am now is official haircutter, and I have to say that I'm getting pretty good at it ;) He has been in a crepe making stage lately, so my breakfasts have been amazing lately ;) We did a short life skills and basketball camp with some other volunteers, which was fun. And I helped show American culture by being a cheerleader for Rob on the court ;)

I found out from some other volunteers that people can send packages in a 'flat rate' package thats blue and white from the states and it will be $35 no matter how heavy. So if you are thinking of being real nice and sending a package please use that because packages can be real expensive otherwise.

I think that's all for now. Hope all is well where you are

P.s. Mom and Stacy, I hope you had wonderful birthdays!!! Love you

forgot some thoughts

So Rob's hilarous, right? ;) Here's one day in the life of him. I was at a meeting, he was waiting at home for someone to talk over some work plans with him. He rolled his ankle. How did this happen you might ask? He rolled his ankle because he was running after a pig. Why was he running after a pig? Because he needed to protect his goat skin of course ;) A little explanation, he asked for the goat skin from my meeting's goat lunch because he wanted to make a billows(sp?) to fan our new fuel efficient stove which we taught and had made by a women's group. So he was letting the goat skin dry and the pig ran into our yard to try and eat it ;) We have a fence (which my awesome nhcs made for us because cows were eating our soap on a hand washing station;) but no gate yet so animals just come in the door like they are invited. So Rob gets mad sometimes and chases them away. Don't worry though, his goat skin and him are fine!! ;)

Other notes that are more sad than funny. One of my best friends is getting married while I'm here :( I'm super happy for her, Helena, but way sad that I can't be there for it! Also two of my other best friends just moved to DC. They moved for work and it seems like a great move for them, congrats Arin and Lynn! But man, just when I leave you decide to move to a place that we could have all hung out together, sad stuff! I mean can't you all put you lives on hold for 2 little years, man! I'm just kicking of course, and I'm real happy for you all and want to here what's going on with you more. But man it's sad I can't be there with you guys. Miss you lots!!!

latetst update

Hey y'all,
Sorry it's been a while. Things are good here. I finished my big health care training for my neighborhood health committees (NHCs). It went well, and from the post test it looked like people learned stuff ;) Now we are having them do 'health assignments' every month like village inspections--basic assessment things to practice what we taught them and move in the direction of health interventions eventually. We'll see how it goes, I would love for them all to get to at least doing latrine building in their areas and sensizations so people use them ;) But if nothing else the training helped with economic development of the area, cause we bought alot of goats, chickens, veggies, from the farmers in the area to feed the participants during training ;) Also, the training served as a indirect gift donation drive, because we had drink cartons from our tea break drink of maheyo, which is a corn based drink here. The kids in the area scooped up the empty drink cartons and used them to make toy cars with ;) So every kid in my immediate village has a toy semi now, ahhh indirect benefits and recycling as well ;) Now we are working to get an clinic orchid with fruit trees that the NHCs will take care of and sell the fruits. It could be really good cause then patients get good nutrition options, the NHCs get a small income generating project which proceeds they can use for other interventions in their area later maybe some boreholes, and I get a mock market in my area--very exciting ;) I'm also working with the district and a local ngo to get mosquito nets provided to my area and to do a traditional birth attendant training. I'll keep you posted. But work is good.

In the village things are ok. My favorite part of walking through the village is sometimes little kids come up to me a greet me, this is standard. But now they are saying 'Muli Banji Amama Laura?" (aka how are you mother laura (which is super respectful) ;) Super cute!!!! A huge improvement from screaming musungu (aka whittie) ;) So I'm loving the kids, at times they make my whole day better when they run up excited to greet me ;) One of the kids in the village sticks her hand out to greet me whenever she sees me, which is soo cute, and much better than crying when she sees me--which happens still sometimes ;)

Lately it's been getting very hot, so my mud hut is becoming a sauna. Anyone want to visit my spa? ;) Rob and I are planning a trip to lake malawi, again anything to get to water ;) Other things are funny as normal, like Rob grew a beard, normal. But he had other friends of his grow them as well, he called it beared Benzy (friend) month and at the end of the month they did designs with their facial hair like sideburns, etc. It's hilarous how men bond, but cute nontheless ;) Rob had his b-day last month. We came to the PC house and went out to eat with friends, indian food--amazing! I also made a cake for him and some others did too, man he is spoiled ;) But he deserves it. I even made pot roast for him, it was a very domestic wifey weekend for me, but fun ;) I made pad thai in the village the other day, and it was amazing! I try more things cooking wise here then I ever would in the states cause no take out options here ;( It ended up being really good but again anything different we make in the village always seems more amazing then it probably would, than say if we lived by a quality thai food place ;) Some of you have been writing emails to me, thank you very much for the messages. But I don't see them often, so I wrote you snail mail letters back cause that's a better form of regular communication for me. I have gotten a few letters though, awesome! So I hope to see your letters back sometime ;) I miss you all tons. Hope to hear from you when you get a chance.

Did you know. . .?

Some insights from the village. . . Did you know?

If you have a glass bottle of coke and put it in a tub with water on cement ground it will get cooler ;) Yes, better to drink!

If you put a clear closed container with water outside in the sun for long enough and then bath with that water, it's like you just turned on the hot water nozzle in the shower ;)

Did you know, that most 10 year olds can carry more water than I could even try to. And they do it on their heads ;)

If you are riding a bike any animals from cattle to chickens feel the immeasurable need to run out right in front of your bike ;)

That's all for now, thanks ;)

Trying to help The Kids ;)

So we just had Child Health Week. That's when every 5 months or so the rural health clinics are charged with reaching children in the area for measles vaccinations, distributing de-worming meds, giving out vitamin a, and redipping mosquitoes nets with insecticide. It's a very cool program and it reaches alot of kids.

At my health center we do outreach called under 5 to each village in the area at least once a month where we give health education, vaccines, and weigh and chart growth of kids. It gets pretty good attendance but child health week gets better. So you're thinking good stuff, right?

Well, ya we reached quite a few kids but let me tell you a bit about how the days went. . . I gave a little health education on why vitamin a is important, how to prevent worms using clean water practices, how people sometimes get side effects from vaccines but it is still very important to get them, and about the importance of insecticide treated nets in reducing malaria cases. I also mentioned how the process would go for the day so people knew what their kids were getting, when, and why so there's no mystery to how they are helping their kids be healthy today. My Envirnmental Health Technician at my clinic translated, he is awesome. Then we had comunity health workers weigh and chart the kids, the nurse give the measles vaccine, a neighborhood health committee member giving vitamin a, the EHT recording ages of every child and what they get, and me giving the de-worming meds.

So sounds like a smooth process, right? ;) Well it was, except I didn't mention the about 4 hours of crying and very loud screaming from the kids ;) Oh, I know I didn't go into medicine for a reason ;) We are helping these kids, right? But they see a pill and flip out! They don't even need to glance at the needle for the vaccine, just the deworming pill that they just need to chew is enough to start the chorus of screaming accompanied with alot of kids spitting out the pills and enticing others to do the same ;) Oh the fun! I know we did good and needed things, but wow! I prefer the health education and I'll leave the dispensing work to my colleagues. One kid even ran away! I mean bolted from the area after seeing what was happening to the other kids and the mom had to take off in chase after him, hilarous and so sad at the same time. Oh, pedriatrcians are very strong ;)

Some thoughts

I'm doing good. I'm writing a health training for our neighborhood health committees on malaria, tb,hiv,integrated reproductive health, water and sanitation, and child health and nutrition. I am busy and really am looking forward to doing this. I feel like such an international public health professional on the ground ;) Good stuff. I also helped at a VCT (voluntary couseling and testing) day for hiv in my catchment and did not sanitation presentations too, all seemed weel received and needed.

So other things are well. We got a cat, Scout. She scouts for mice and conquers them ;) Too bad sometimes she is so proud of herself she brings them in the house to show her prowess in killing ;) Ah well.

I'm in the provincial capital right now. I'm working on curriculum stuff and eating some meat, cheese, and ice cream, oh ya ;) On the way here we drove by a some lake or a big pond, who knows. But I was mesmerized. Being in a land locked country is hard sometimes. I really love the water. I felt like my uncle Mike who lives in Arizona and almost cries everytime he sees big water ;) It's ok though we have a meeting in July and afterwards Rob and I hope to go with some volunteers to Victoria Falls in the south, so big water viewing here I come ;)

While at the peace corps house here I chatted with a volunteer who has her sister visiting here. Really I'm happy and very busy most the time, so homesickness isn't too bad. Plus I have Rob so I'm way luckier than most volunteers. But still being around two sisters made me sad for a bit. Man it's nice to see someone who looks like you and knows you so well you can talk or not and just be at home ;) Miss ya Stacy! Yesterday my Mom called and I seriously didn't know what to talk about but just wanted her to stay on the phone so I could hear her voice, yup, I'm 27 but sometimes I just miss my Mamsie ;)

So when we came here we didn't bring an ipod like everyone else. So if someone wants to send a cd walkman, AAA bateries, or cds feel free. It's fine mostly I read for fun but sometimes music would be nice. My mom was cute enough to send 2 musical cards so far and I kid you not we rock out to them from time to time ;) You know you use what you got ;)

So a highlight latlely in the village was the creation of mac n cheese ;) My sis sent velveta cheese and Rob melted it on pasta, AWESOME! I mean kind sad since in the states I would be repulsed by this fake cheese, but here it's a culinary delight ;)

Rob and I taught a life skills class in a local school. It went well. We tried to show that people from the states marry later and have children later, maybe role model a little and teach them a bit about hiv and women's empowerment stuff. They loved us, probably more for the novelty of us then the presentations them selves, but whatever works. Anyways now girls pass my around the village and say they want to be my 'benzy' aka friend, super cute ;)

I'm been trying to write letters to people, so far I've hit those that have wrote me. So please write me and send me your snail mail addy so I can write ya. Miss you all very much and hope everything is very good.

Some thoughts

Yes that's right. I'm in Africa so you might not think prom dresses when you first think of Africa. It's true that most Africans are very well dressed. Actually, it's very impressive how well dressed everyone is especially since handwash is the main method of cleaning here. So most professionals are dressed very well at all times. The only people that aren't really dressed very well are the OVCs (ophrans and vulnerable children) :( But regardless of what you think of when you think of African dress, prom dresses, might not be the image. But your image should change ;) See if salvation army can't sell something in the states it comes here. And so babies once worn christening, baptism, flower girl outfits come here. So it is very common to see toddlers in prom-looking dresses every day of the week here. It's so cute and hilarous. I truly think Africans would be shocked to see that US babies wear onesies most of the time if any at all. And that hardly any US babies wear taffieta at all times ;)

Other thoughts. I want a puppy. There are a ton in the village that people have. Have meaning they hit them with sticks mostly. But there is a very cute puppy that comes around our place from time to time. I want to adopt him. But everytime I try to pet him he runs away. I understand he thinks I'm hiding a stick. But I'm not. Man, he's real cute and it would definitly help pass the time and maybe keep some kids in prom dresses out of our yard if we had him ;) We'll see what happens.

I feel the love ;)

I'm in the boma for a bit trying to get some computer work done. And I got tons of packages from all of you (my wonderful freinds and family) for my b-day :) Thank you all so much for thinking of me and sending your love on. I really appreciate the great packages!! But mostly, I really love that I heard from so many of you!!! I wrote letters back to you that wrote and hopefully you will get them sooner than later ;) And maybe we can keep the letters going ;) Love you all.

What am I doing? Ask the people at the borehole ;)

I am really getting into the groove of things, I think ;) I have pretty much met everyone in my catchment (the 10 villages around my area). I have told them who I am and what I'm hoping to work on with them. I am also almost done helping the elections for all these villages new neighborhood health comittees (NHCs). These NHCs are groups of leaders in the communities who are interested in working to better their communities health. So once we are done doing all the elections my next task will be to compose a proposal with the health center committee chairman to coordinate a multiple day health education training for these new leaders. This training will encompass the 6 main health thrusts in the basic health care package here, which are; malaria, tb, hiv/aids, intergrated reproductive health, water and sanitation, and child health and nutrition. Hopefully, with my chairmen's help with the local language translation (he is an awesome translator for me when needed and such an asset to the community) we can create a training for these NHCs that will be interactive and educational. So, then they will better be able to provide accurate and fun health education within their villages as well as eventual some health intervention projects. I'm excited, things are coming along. Everyone has been really receptive and loves when I speak my garbled chinyanje ;) Other than writing talks in local language (which takes quite a bit of time for me ;), I have been biking alot to do talks, reading alot, and making some pumpkin cake (pumpkin is in season so people give us gifts of it alot--we are quite the basic bakers now ;). The heading of this post eludes to our housing situation. I really love our place and being right by the borehole is great because carrying water is heavy and I'm seemingly not as strong as most 10 years old here who carry water as well ;) But the borehole is also a social area, kinda like the mall for teenagers in the US ;) So when people get their water they also chat. They chat about alot of things including those 'musungos' (aka whitties--us). It's fine I know we are new and kind of interesting so people talk. I rather they come chat to us then about us but it will die down I'm sure. And I'm happy that my language skills are not perfect, because I probably don't want to know all of what they think of me ;) But waking up at 4am (that's when people start getting water cause the light is coming out;) to people chatting about you outside your window is rough sometimes. And sometimes it's just funny, really I am sure some people at the borehole now more about my life then I do ;) The other day we were eating nsima, the local dish, I have learned how to make it and we really do enjoy it. So we were having dinner outside and there was quite a stir around the borehole that the musongos were eating nsima ;) Rob and I kid about doing dramatizations in front of our place like after school specials about healthy relationships and things since we always have a pretty captive audience ;) Rob helped me carry water back the other day, people loved it ;) The lesson of the day sharing house work among couples, maybe ;) But really everyone has really welcomed us warmly and I feel excited about me next two years. Miss you all.

Miss you all

I'm really having a great time and am very glad i'm here, BUT I do have to stay I miss you all like crazy. And I think of you all the time. I wanted to send you all warm thoughts. I especially wanted to tell the following people I am thinking of you and am sorry I missed very special days in your lives that just happened, these include:
My Cousin Wil's Birthday--Congratulations Wil!!!
My Niece Jillian's upcoming Birthday--I love you Jillian!!!!
My Friend Cristina's B-day- Sorry we couldn't celebrate together like last year :(
My Friend Monica's B-day--Sorry we are not roller skating while wearing 80's clothes ;)
My Mom's half b-day---Mom I miss you everyday!!!
My wonderful parents-in-law's birthdays--hope you had a wonderful bday!!!
My Friend Kim's Bday---I hope you had a wonderful bday girl!
Passover with my family--Stacy I ate moatzoh and thought of you :)
My Friend Arin' and Monica's news of where they will be doing residency--Dr. Semel and Dr. Rani, Congrats!
My friend Ivette's wedding proposal--Congrats!!!!
My friend Helena getting her engagement ring designed---I'm soo happy for you gurl!
I miss you all very much, but I love you more than that :)
Hope you are all well.

my bday and the beginning

so for my bday we went into the boma and had dinner at a restaurant :) i had chicken and rob finagled some one in the boma to make a cake, very impressive. and we celebrated with the other pc volunteers in petauke area. it was nice.
i'm in the boma today so i get internet for an hour or so ;) i biked 30k to get here and it is hilly so you know i really wanted a meat pie ;) they sell them in the boma and cold soda!!! big treats for me for the next 2years ;) we are good. i'm just trying to introduce myself to everyone in our village now and tell them that i can do health ed for them and stuff. really then i sit and wait to see what they want to do because since pc focuses on development they dont want us to start things that the community doesnt want and wont keep up, makes sense ;) i've meet with the clinic staff and shadowed the doctor and the public health officer at a under 5 outreach doing immunizations. the staff our my closest neighbors and are really great. i have sat in on an antenatal clinic with the traditional birth attendants (one is always bringing us food from her field-she's so nice--so ive made a pumpkin cake from a fire, i will be such a great camping buddy when i get back ;). i have also met briefly with a community organization that work with aids ophrans (i might do some health ed and iga's with them), a drama group that does hiv poetry performances(hopefully we can have them do performances when i speak sometimes), a ngo that does voluntary testing and conseling (they seem really put together and hopefully we will do some testing in my village sometime and gettig arvs there too ), our chief (he's really nice and very educated--he speaks better english than i do ), and much of the rest of our community ;) I have also befriended someone who sells tomatoes, so hopefully we can get those regularly. i have met briefly with some neighborhood health comittee members who i hope to work with in the future (now they our working on improvements to our place, like putting a roof on our bathroom and they made me a toilet-ish ;) our community is great. the clinic i work with is very busy. please write when you get a chance i would love to hear more from you.
love
laura

Birthday Thought

So I am getting excited and nervous to be posted soon. We are in Lusaka getting gifts for our homestay family for our last week with them. And I am thinking about how soon I will be spending my 27th b-day in Africa :) Craziness!! Anyways, I miss you all, wish I could spend my bday with you. But Rob and I will try and figure out something fun to do that day hopefully. So if you were wondering what you could send me for my b-day, here are some things that would be great:
Beef jerky (since I dont eat meat much, because I would have to kill it myself ;)
Kool aid
Apricot face scrub (another volunteer has it and I covet greatly ;)
a loofah mitten (anything to make me feel cleaner ;)
maybe some fun lotion
postcards with pictures of us cities to put on my walls of my hut ;)
a us map to show ppl
fish oil pills for omega 3 ;)
us weekly magazines for fun
80s cds you have laying around
headlamp/batteries
granola cereal
nail clippers
tupperware that locks well to keep rats away ;)

any of these anytime would be awesome!!!! But the best would be letters. I miss you guys. Miss write me at my Petauke address listed on the left of this page when you can. Love you all the much. I hopefully will have lots of fun things to update on soon but may not get to update for a while. As for now, I might be doing passover in Lusaka with another PCV, Rob, and some others which should be fun. Also, I passed my language test so far so I can swear in as a volunteer soon. I also finished my technical competencies to become a volunteer, which mean interviews on health issues I covered in MPH pretty much ;) But it seems like it's coming together so that I will be come a volunteer soon ;) I even got a chitenge suit made for me, which is cultural appropiate and pretty cute ;) And I had Rob get a chitenge shirt made which he looks cute in as well ;) Hopefully we can upload pics soon enough. It will be sad to say goddbye to other trainees who will be in other provinces. They really are soo great. And It will be probably until our 6mth meeting until I see them next. So for now we our wrapping training up, prepping for posting and swear in, and wondering what will come next ;) Love you.

Chipata

So we just finished a week doing a site visit in the Eastern Province. Now we are in Chipata, our provincial capitol at the PC house. During the visit we saw our house briefly. It is nice. It has cement floors, I'm pumped about that. We will have to get the walls cemented though. and I hear if you 'lime' the walls it deters bugs and really brightens up the place, very important when you have no unnatual light :) So we actually have what is considered a 'bwana' house or expensive house. It has a tin roof, that means we wont hear rats running on our roof which is nice, but it will be very hot. poor rob, minnesota boy :( no fans, no air con. So if you want to send mini handheld fans that are battery powered please please do. He can only lose so much water weight ;) We plan on having ivy grow along the roof and maybe that will help with the heat and be pretty. I will post a picture when I can. The house kinda has two rooms, its smaller than alot of the other volunteers that are single, but we are thinking of having them do an additional storage room. That way we can have food and misc stuff somewhere to free up space. It sounds like changes to houses are pretty doable. Its just the matter of bartering and time it will take. Our bath shelter is tall enough for rob which is good :) our bathroom is good, just waiting for some westernernized inventiveness ;) Although, I gotta say I'm pretty used to the pit latrine now, not bad really. and our cooking area is pretty nice too and when they saw rob they said they would make us a bigger one ;) we only got to meet one person at my clinic I will work with, but he seemed nice. my clinic is really nice and big. i am excited to work there, I just hope there is enough staff for how big it is. Both our main work sites and our water is close so thats real nice. however, I can't say i'm not afraid. Our 30km ride from the boma (kinda a small townish) to our house is very hilly. We are more remote than alot of other volunteers that ar single and it seems like there really isn't transport to our place like some ohers, but it will work. I might have legs of steel when i get home ;) So we saw our site and then stayed at other people's sites for a week. I stayed with a health volunteer whose leaving next month and a trainee from my grop whose replacing her (I have a first time health site so I'm not replacing anyone). They are excellent. I'm really gonna be sad to see the volunteer go. She's from Eagan and she is just awesome. She cried when we drove away from her site for the last time and I cried with her :( The trainee whose replacing her, is great too. I really liked hangin with them this week. We basically did alot of greeting people, eating at people's houses, walking alot, listening to the volunteers ipod, (man i need one of those and a solar charger--i did not come prepapred like alot of others with thiis stuff ;) but basically we hung out. we tried to do some health meetings but they did not happen, pretty typical. I'm excited about trying to do a Traditional Birth Attendant training while I'm here. If I can pull that off I would be very happy. Also, I'm excited to try and hone my cooking skills since I will have the time ;) I was in a neighboring area to our site so I was a little bummed that I liked it so much but that's not where I will be ;) Rob had a volunteer to stay with in Petauke where we will live. So he got a better idea of how stuff will be. But it seems good. The Chipata house is beautiful. There are fruit trees (not any at our site unfortunately), there is also a hot shower, TV, a western kitchen, fridge, nice nice. So we will do language and tech here for a week with the other Eastern province volunteers this week. Then will finish up training in 3 weeks and go off to site. Things are good. I've only gotten sick once and it was just stomach stuff which I blame a pumpkin cake that we made at site. It was really good, but after not having sugar it was too rich for me. I also found out during site visit that I will be speaking Nsenga at my site, not Njanje like I have been learning, but apparently they are very similar so hopefully it wont be a hard switch. So if you want to send us stuff please send it to the petauke addy on the left of the site :) I would love to get letters from you. Hope all is very well. Love Laura.

Petauke

Hello y'all,
So Rob and I are doing well. We have a phone, if you can call ,it's number is 01126099298133 from the states. It would be very cool to hear your voices and/or get letters. Sun afternoons might be a good time for reception. We dont have voicemail on it though, so dont get frustrated if i dont pick up, its not that i dont love you. its reception and no machine ;) We are in Lusaka now for the day so I can post a bit of an update. In a month our mailing addy will be PO Box 560059 Petauke, Eastern Province, Zambia, Africa. You can still send stuff to the Lusaka address too though.

So far we have been doing language training and technical training. Language it good so far but promises to get harder. Technical right now for me is review from my MPH but promises to be different as soon as we learn how to do culturally appropiate presentations, etc in Zambia.

On an average day we wake at 5:30am. Well roosters crow at about 4ish and I fight my bladder and the roosters and try to stay in bed a bit longer. Then I get up and use the pit latrine. If my aim is good the whole day is soo much better ;) Its really not bad at all. Our latrine is pretty nice. A hoke is all ya really need ;) Then my host family gives me boiled water that they fetch for us from the well about 1.5k away. I use the water in my bucket bath. I stand in the bucket of water and use a cup to get wet. I put the bucket in a thatch square room with no roof. its our bathing shelter. its super nice and refreshing. then we have bread and peanut butter and tea for breakfast with our host mom. and go off to language training. rob bikes to his which is 6k away. he has already lost a bit of weight. cliff bars and gatorade powder would be appreciated ;) starbursts too if possible, I crave it all the time, the food is very good here but there aren't sweets really that we are used to. plus the kids love the sweets ;) language training is good so far. i have 4 other ppl in my class that will also be health volunteers in eastern province. they are very nice. then we go back home for lunch. lunch usually is egg and rice and tomatoes. i love tomatoes :) rob stays away for lunch because of his bike ride so i eat with my host mom and another volunteer (who also went to nu) who also has a hut on our compound. then we walk back to our thatched roof classroom about 1.5 k away for technical training with the same ppl plus 3 other health volunteers who will be in the northwest. class is over around 5ish and then we chat a bit with our trainers (they are awesome) and then go home. my hut has a thatch roof and cement floor and mud brick. we have a mattress on the ground on a reed mat and a bed net. its really very nice. i sweep everyday because there is always a lot of sand/dirt that gets in regardless of how clean i think im being. rob and i have dinner with our host mom and read and practice language together. we use our day light as best we can and our aa and dd batteries like water :) if you want to send some that would be awesome!! and any books you have read as well. i have gone through one so far which is pretty good especially since i go to bed about 8pm ;) its very low key and relaxing here. we meet up with the rest of our group once or twice a week for a large training. i miss you all. write when you can. love you.

In Zambia

So we did our training in DC. Then slept for a night in South Africa. Our hotel was pretty much like we were in the US ;) Now we are in Lusaka for training. Rob an I found out that we will be in Eastern Province in Zambia. Eastern is by Malawi and Mozambique so hopefully we will be able to visit them at some point. Mayb you can visi and we can travel together ;) We are in the South part of Eastern, about 5 hours drive from Lusaka, the capital. We will be speaking Nyanje (sp?). Our training as of yet has been good. We are in a training group with about 40 other Peace Corps Volunteers and they are great. We are the only married couple, but they all seem to like us anyway ;) Tomorrow we will be going to the Northwest Province to to a site visit for a week.It is cool because it' a different part of the country. Also there is a maried couple there, the only other couple in Zambia, so it will be good to her how their experience is in Zambia. Lusaka as we have seen it so far is good. We are at a mallish area today to get stuff for our site visit. Very deveoped, most of the time it does not seem like we are in Zambia, since we are with American all the time. But it's good. We went to the Peace Corps Zambia headquarters in Lusaka it's very nice. We also got more shots, I will be sooo set with immunizations for the rest of my life ;) Our training site for the next two months has electicity and cold water from 6am-8pm, pretty sweet! So far the wildlife I've seen are toads, mosquitoes, and catepillars, saty tuned ;) So that's all for now. We are good and safe and healthy. We heard that to get cheap calling cards to Zambia you should go on www.callingcardsplus.com. We are supposed to get a cell phone today so I wil post my number shortly hopefully. Love you

More info

Starting the 3rd of February going until the end of March, I will be around a cell phone on Thursdays. So if you want to give me a holler, you can call 011-260-97-210-831 or 01126097-210832. This phone will only be accessible to me during 8am-5pm Zambia time. Zambia time is 7 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. I hope to hear from you if possible. I also look forward to emails and letters. I will miss you greatly!!

nerve racking

So. . . I am excited about Peace Corps, Zambia, and everything. But it's the final crunch time right before we leave, and I have to say this stuff is stressful. You know, trying to get all your financial stuff straightened out so you might leave for two years involves a crazy amount of paper work and frustration. Packing all your belongings to be put away for two years is a bit daunting. Deciding what is needed in a place that you have never been is an interesting endeavor. Not to mention, trying to get a hold of all your loved ones and chat before you go away is just plain sad and depressing :( I will miss you guys!!! Please write. Nevertheless, we will survive this part, and hopefully it will make us appreciate this experience even more ;)

How to Visit Us ;)

To get to Zambia from the US:
African carriers flying to the capital include Air Zimbabwe, Ethiopian Airways, Kenya Airways and South African Airways. Lusaka Airport is 20km (12mi) east of the centre. South African budget airlines fly to Livingstone and Lusaka from Johannesburg - Nationwide has the most flights.

To get to Zambia from neighboring African countries:

*From Malawi, the main crossing point is east of Chipata, on the main road between Lusaka and Lilongwe.
*The only crossing point between Zambia and Botswana is the ferry across the Zambezi River at Kazungula, about 60km (37mi) west of Victoria Falls, though there are plans to build a bridge here.
*From Namibia, buses run from Windhoek to the Namibian outpost town of Katima Mulilo. From here you can cross the border into Zambia, go over the Zambezi on a ferry, then go via Sesheke to Livingstone. An easier option from Katima Mulilo is the bus, which runs through Botswana to Victoria Falls in Zimbawe, from where you can easily cross the border to Zambia.

More Travel info about Zambia can be found at: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/letters/afr/zam_pc.htm

Recent understandings

So, I'm getting all ready for the move. It's crazy exciting! But I also have the feeling like I really won't feel it's truly real until, oh a couple months into being in Zambia. I mean then maybe I will really understand that I am living in Zambia. So, I have been trying to connect with people that have lived there to see what I should expect ie what to bring, if I should try and connect with NGOs now, etc. I have been told that the most common desires when living in Zambia are as follows:
Crystal Light (to flavor the water)
Soup mixes (to flavor the constant cassava meal)
Batteries (to energize flashlights/headlamps, since we probably won't have eletricity)
Books (to entertain, since no TV/movies, etc)
So if any of you feel so sweetly inclined to throw a package my way while we are gone, these things would be greatly appreciated :)
Also, your presence would be the best package ;) I hear Victoria Falls in Zambia is 1 of the 10 natural wonders of the world! Also, there are photo safaris. Plus, you have a window of 2 years to come visit. So come visit! We will love to see you!!! But, regardless of your ability to come visit, I will love to visit with you through letters and blog posts. I will hopefully talk to you soon before I go.