Community Entry- A Day in the Life Of...

I'm about three months into my Peace Corps life. Here's a brief snapshot of a day in the life of a volunteer:

I typically roll out of my hut around 7:30am; however, I'm up long before then, usually about 3:00am, or whenever the roosters fall out of their trees and decided to start crowing! I eat a quick breakfast of oatmeal and then get ready for the day. This includes listening to the news on BBC Radio, checking the New York Times on my phone, and taking a bucket bath. To bathe in a bucket, I have a giant bucket that I carry to our water pump and fill only about half way, since I have to carry it back 100yards! From here, some people are ambitious and heat their water over fire before they wash, but I'm far too lazy to do something like this. I have a special grass structure outside where I bathe, I'm hoping to make a stand for my solar shower soon! After bathing, I hop on my bike and visit one of the various schools in my area to meet them. I'll tell you of my favorite school thus far, it's a community school about 3 kilometers from my home. I went to their Parent Teacher Association Meeting last week before classes started and all of the men that attended were dressed so that I felt that I was in 'Good Fellas' African-style! I thought about attempting to explain this to them, but I figured once we were passed the language barrier and cultural differences the humor of the situation would be gone, so I share with you all instead! I've discovered that one meeting a day is about all that I can fit into my schedule- Zambian meetings rarely start on time and take hours of time. Then I bike back to my home to reflect on the day and start devising project ideas based on what I've heard. Then I go for a run once the sun stops beating down on me and then I start cooking dinner. I've been surviving on watermelon and sweet potatoes, they're pretty delicious!

If it's Saturday, Sunday, or a day that nothing's scheduled- I'll either head into town or read books in my house. Since being posted about two weeks ago, I've read 10 books! If I keep this pace, I'll read roughly 400 books in two years!

Life in Zambia is much simpler and slower paced than in the States. While it was challenging to adjust to this in the beginning, I'm slowly starting to learn to!