Community Entry Part 2

Well, I've finally met all the other fabulous volunteers in Central Province! This past week we came together at our Provincial House to have our yearly Peace Corps meeting. The week was filled with many activities including roasting an entire pig in the ground, needless to say after months lacking meat protein it was delicious!(A note on Provincial Houses: Peace Corps is kind enough to provide a house complete with electricity and hot showers for every Province, we get four days a month to go and relax and clean ourselves.) There are 27 of us in Central(about 250 in all of Zambia), it's interesting to note the wide variety of people attracted to the Peace Corps.

Life in the village is much the same. However, teachers have been on strike these past few weeks, wanting more money from the Ministry of Education. Therefore, I don't have much actual Peace Corps work, in terms of visiting schools to be doing. Instead, I've been filling my days spending more time with my family and continuing my copious amounts of reading, I'm a bit embarrassed the amount of books I've read in the short time I've been here! Harvesting is almost complete, now farms are waiting for the government to set a price for the crops and start buying them. It's an interesting system, I don't know of any private companies that are buying the crops only the Zambian government. I believe the women in my village have started to become used to my daily jogs, in the beginning they would come out from their insakas (cooking huts) and tell me I look tired and try to show me the short-cut back to my home; either that or I look much less tired and out of shape! This past weekend, I attempted my own laundry, my sister who normally does it is very very pregnant, it went ok, and to my untrained eye my clothes look clean!

In other Zambian news:
The Zambian soccer team won the game this past week that will send them to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa! And in village news: The Chief (very important man) is coming to stay with us in August. The village is busy preparing everything for him, including building him a new home!

Here are a few books that I highly recommend(I am pretty much an expert by now!):
Empire Falls, Richard Russo
In the Lake of the Woods, Tim O'Brien
God's Pocket, Pete Dexter
Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier

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!

Brrr...Cold Season

It's officially cold season below the equator and I was shocked to find that it's actually a bit chilly! The days are still sunny and hot but nights and mornings are cold enough to require a jacket and I can see my breath!

In other news: Five days until I become an official Peace Corps Volunteer! Technically this all depends on my Bemba language score this Tuesday. So, send me all your thoughts and prayers as I take my final test! Friday will be our big swearing-in ceremony at the US Ambassadors home. I'm excited and ready to complete training. Although after two months of constant American interaction, I'll have a bit of a shock moving into my village. However, I'm looking forward to returning to my new village. I had a fantastic week long stay in my new home during training. Once again, I'll be living in close proximity to a host family. This time though, I'll be much more independent, they will not be cooking for me or doing my laundry. While I'm ready to start cooking my own food again, I am dubious of my laundry skills- I'll probably end up paying a woman in my village to do it for me! My new family is wonderful; they've had two Peace Corps volunteers prior to me so understand Peace Corps and my American-ness. I'll have my own home on their compound and in terms of Peace Corps homes it's a mansion (actually it's a two roomed brick hut)! And it's fully furnished thanks to the volunteer before me. Another added bonus is that my water source is a water pump only 100 yards from my front door. And the real selling point is my backyard is a banana orchard!!!

My first three months at site are for 'community entry.' Technically I'm not supposed to be doing an Peace Corps projects or work, my job during this time is to meet all the families in my village and travel to all the schools in my district to meet the teachers. For those of you who know how bad I am with names and faces, this is probably going to be more work than actual projects I hope to accomplish! However, after these two intense months of training I am looking forward to the slower pace of being in the village. Following community entry, I'll go back to Lusaka for one final week of training and then I can officially begin my Peace Corps service.

Zambian factoids:
For those of you that follow soccer, Zambia has a chance to make the 2010 World Cup Playoffs! This is big news here and it's hard not to get drawn into football excitement. I broke down and bought an internet phone. I'll have the same phone number but will now be able to facebook and email more easily and it'll be cheaper than texting for all you in the states. And finally, it's harvest season here and since my new family has a large farm I'm about to learn the art of harvesting corn- wish me luck!

I have a new address, keep the letters coming! I love any and all news from home!

Cindy Schuchart/ PCV
PO Box 840038
Mkushi, Zambia
Africa

I've Got A New Home

We received our site placements! I’ll be located in the Central Provice only 5 kilometers outside of the Mkushi town. I’m going to be a boma volunteer, which means that I’ll be working at the district level of education. (Zambian education starts at the National Level, Provincial Level, District Level, and finally Zonal) For the entire next week I’ll be staying at my new home in the village meeting all the people and discovering what my job will be. I am so excited to see where I'll be living and working for the next two years! I will also be getting a new mailing address that'll be closer to my site. So, STOP SENDING MAIL TO THE LUSAKA ADDRESS! It wont reach me by the time I am finished with training! I am appreciating all the letters I've been recieving... I'll let you know as soon as I can my new address!

Training is still going strong! I am happy, healthy, and loving Zambia.

Here are some more factoids:
The rainy season in Zambia is coming to an end, followed by the cold season. I am appreciating the cool nights and mornings brought by this season after the hot and muggy weather brought by the rain! I took my first fall off my bike last week and in true Cindy-form it was both ridiculous and graceless! I was riding with my friend Mary and once she was able to stop laughing she pulled my bike off of me, because of course it landed completely on top of me! I'm still struggling through a new language, I'm pumped to test out my skills in the village this week!

Peace Corps Training

I’ve arrived safely in Zambia and have begun my third week of Peace Corps Training! I’m loving every minute here in beautiful Zambia, it truly is a gorgeous country! At the moment we are in the rainy season so everything is green and luscious. I’m staying in the Central Province which actually looks a bit like the Ozarks in Missouri. There are so many new and different aspects of my life here in Zambia that I’m not even sure where to begin!

After being whisked throughout the country for the first week to visit current Peace Corps Volunteers to see what life in two months will be like for us; we have finally settled in a village just outside of Lusaka for training. Training is a bit intense; it’s a collaboration of many aspects. The largest, and most challenging part of training, is the homestay. I’m living with a Zambian family to help me better assimilate to the culture and learn the language. However, everyday is a new adventure with the fam, slowly I think that we are coming to understand each other. I have my very own hut away from the family and am learning to successfully live without running water or electricity- I am now a successful bucket bather! The other two aspects of training are language and education technical training. I’m learning Bemba, a language spoken in Central and Northern Provinces. It’s a challenge, but the more I learn the better able I am able to communicate with my family. We had our first language assessment this past Friday and I’m doing much better than I thought, so maybe there’s hope for me! The technical sessions are interesting, it seems that my job for the next two years will be to help train teachers and offer them teaching resources. The education system here seems to be in chaos, so hopefully my type A personality will be effective.

Here are some other factoids of life here:

My village calls me ‘The Girl Who Prefers Trousers’ because, I don’t wear the traditional long skirt called a chitenge(it’s just way too hard to bike in!) I’ve become a biking pro- who knew? I miss sugar more than anything- you can buy whatever chocolate you want here but not sweet candy. So, feel free to send candy (chewy sweet tarts, skittles, starbursts and gum)! My training group is pretty fun, so don’t worry I’ve made lots of good new friends! I’ve only seen one snake and it was tiny, if possible Zambians are more afraid of snakes than we are. And not packing my hiking boots was a good life choice since I have not even put on anything other than my J. Crew flip-flops for two weeks!

I miss you all! I’ll be thinking of the Bethel Crew as you move into your new building this week- Good Luck!

Training Address

I will be able and would love to receive mail at this address from March- May:

Cindy Schuchardt/PCT
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 50707
Lusaka, Zambia
Africa

Mail can take up to 4 weeks to reach me, so send early and often! If you're interested in sending packages, the US postal service has free international boxes you can fill with numerous great things for me; such as, Chewy Sweet Tarts and copies of InStyle magazine. And please don't forget to specify Africa in the address, we don't want to make our trusty mail personnel whip out their atlases.