8 months down, 1.5 years to go. It's going so much faster than I thought. It's hot season now. It's hot, but it's gonna get REALLY hot come October. Eek!

I'm very mad because I STILL am not able to post that big long entry I wrote many moon ago. It seems like forever that I even wrote about anything of interest. I think even all the stuff about the fires is on that entry. Arghghgh. I had saved it on my ipod cause my USB thing stopped working, but now when I plug my ipod in, there's no option for me to open the folders or anything, so I can't access it. I don't really even remember what all was in it, but I'm sure it was very wonderful and fascinating... Oh well.

I'm in Lusaka now, on my way to Chipata, Eastern Province for a "training of trainers" about how to start libraries. This month has been so ridiculously busy, I'm not even excited to go, even though I get to see another province. Since Camp GLOW, I haven't been in my village for more than a few days at a time. I've had to leave for SOMETHING every week. Kabwe, Lusaka, Serenje, blah blah blah. It's been awful. Hitching and traveling around is so stressful. After this library thing though, hopefully I'll be done for awhile.

The only main things I can think of that were in that entry are the new critters! We now are the proud animal husbands (all the books about keeping animals are called "animal husbandry")of two chickens - Fireball and Pocahontas! They've laid about 10 eggs so far between the two of them! We've made eggs, pancakes, and disaster banana bread. At first, Fireball tried to get in the house every night and we had to grab her and take her back outside to the chicken coop that Doug built out of bamboo. They're pretty funny to watch. Not the brightest of creatures. The main problem is the neighbor's rooster who tries to beckon them over to his roost every night, and sometimes they want to lay eggs over there too. The neighbor's ugly chicken just had chicks, and while five of them were ugly like the mother, one looks like Fireball and one looks like Pocahontas. Seems rather suspicious to me...

We also have a beehive now, but not much luck with getting any bees yet.

Believe it or not, last week, I FINALLY GOT MY SHELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The old carpenter is MIA, so I found a new one who finished it in a month. (He claimed to have it done in a week, but that's pretty good by Zambian time.) It was nice to finally take my clothes out of my suitcase and my books off of my chair and finally put them away. I found out, however, that the rats had chewed apart some of my clothes during this whole shelf-less ordeal. Oh well.

Doug's having problems with getting his work permit. The immigration officer is completely incompetent and full of himself. Way back when, long before Doug ever arrived, I asked what information was necessary for him to obtain his work permit, and what he told me was completely opposite to what he now claims. When I called him on this, I think I embarrassed him in front of the other officers or something, cause then he got even more irate and absurd, yelling at me for interrupting him and threatening to not let us finish the meeting until the next day because he knew we wanted to get home that day. Finally after yelling at us and berating us for several hours, he made me cry right there in the office and I walked out. In the end, I think it made him either feel guilty about making me cry or afraid that somehow the US government will come after him, because the next time we went in, he was much nicer and more helpful. Still don't have the work permit yet, but we're working on it. So far it's taken two trips to Lusaka and will require at least one more. Argh. I hate coming to Lusaka. It's soooooo expensive and just a hassle. On a bright note, Kabwe and Lusaka have these very beautiful trees with hardly any leaves - just covered with purple flowers! They're so cool.

Three of us education volunteers had a big important meeting with bigwig Ministry of Education officials to discuss issues with IRI (radio program), community schools, and community school monitoring. I think we made some good points and maybe some things will be done. Anyway, it was a pretty big deal for us peons apparently.

When I was coming back from Serenje one day, I met this Austrian guy who was backpacking through Africa. He hadn't really seen a Zambian village yet, so I invited him to stay with us for a night. So we set up a tent in the backyard. It was fun having someone else to show around. It was an interesting American, Austrian, and Zambian cross-cultural exchange. After he left, we decided to keep the tent up and go camping in the backyard, so we made a fire and had smores (thanks for the marshmellows, mom). It was funny cause most people would consider the way I'm living to be "camping" already.

One night we heard Peg, the headman's daughter just yelling and crying up a storm. They live close, but not THAT close for it to be that loud. We asked the next day what the problem was, and the first explanation was that she was cleaning her eyes and the second was that she was possessed by demons. Interesting.

Animals have been more prevalent lately it seems. I've seen several flocks of small birds around the hut, which amazed me. And for several nights in a row, I've heard the graceful squawk of the bushbaby and ran outside with a flashlight, only to find nothing. I MUST see a bushbaby before I leave! I also saw a camelion of some sort on the road as I was biking to monitor community schools. It was black and white speckled just like the road! I almost hit it! I picked it up and it tried to bite me, which was just ridiculous because it has no teeth. Also, after our backyard burned, all the teeny teeny frogs (and all the bugs) have moved into our garden. The frogs are soooo cute! About the size of my pinky nail. Light green with little yellow sticky toes. They just sit there on leaves allllll day.

Like I said, I don't remember if I wrote about the chitimene yet or not. This is when they burn down Zambia every year, claiming it is necessary to burn everything before it can grow again. When the fires reached the hut, it was sooooooo exciting! Huge towering flames that are so hot it feels like you're cooking alive! We helped guide the fire along with torches of bundled grass and keep the fire in line by hitting it with tree branches. The headman thought it was funny when I asked him to spare our mango trees. They really don't care WHAT they burn down, it's so strange! Just last week, a fire got out of control and burned the roof off of the neighbor's icimbusu!

The garden is doing pretty badly. Moles pulled down all the sweet potatoes and a bean plant - just like in the cartoons! Rats are eating the tomatoes and strawberries. Root miners are destroying the Portuguese Cabbage. The Chinese Cabbage has caterpillars. The watermelons have aphids. The roots of the bean plants are being destroyed by ants. The passion fruit mysteriously drooped, and the pumpkins are just not producing. It sucks. I've only gotten a couple meals out of the damn thing, and I've been watering it for six months!!!!!!!!

Another important thing to know about is "falling down pants boy" - this cute little village kid whose pants always somehow seem to fall down and he has to reach back and pull them back up, usually looking back at me with his big eyes hoping I didn't see. It just cracks me up soooo much. This one time, we were walking back from playing in the fire, and he was really happy and started running and skipping in front of me. Then, oooops, there go the pants and there's that little buttcrack again. It was necessary to continue skipping though, of course, so he just tried to hold them up and continue on his merry way. I could barely walk I was laughing so hard.

I really wish I was able to post that other post. It was so long! I even typed up a thing about what I'm actually DOING here workwise. Oh well. Maybe someday.


Mom - Happy Birthday!! I got the mint, but it hasn't kept the rats away. And the reason I haven't been calling home when I've had reception is that my plug converter stopped working so my phone battery has been dead for a month. Just this weekend, I was able to put my card in someone else's phone, but I STILL wasn't able to call home, because it's been so long that I've been able to call, that "home" is gone from my recent calls list, and my phone will only let me call from that list, not from my phonebook. Someone gave me their old phone that just needed a new battery, but I checked in several different stores and I wasn't able to find a battery for it. SO, I guess I need a new converter....... My battery charger broke too.... As well as my memory card USB drive - which is the only way I can put photos on the computer because you actually stick the card right in it. Not that I have batteries in my camera to take photos with anyhow. It's all just a big mess.

Pookie - Why'd you get robbed?

foo - I finally got your letter! Congratulations on getting a real job! Thanks for the links for school supplies too. I don't know if I have time to check them out now or not. I always think I'm going to have more time on the internet "next time," then next time, I have just as much stuff to get done. Ackkckck. Anyhow, I'll save the rest for a letter back to you.

bo-bo - Also congratulations on getting becoming a real person. And "bobo" means "one who talks too much" in Bemba, or something like that.

Vince - Hope college is going well. STUDY ABROAD!!

Michelle - I just now got the message to give to Doug, but I think it's all sorted out now.

Frank & Debbie - Sorry to hear about Tucker.

Sarah, Brittany, Jamie - If my bike donation thing works, I'm really gonna need your help getting the word out in the bike world for donations. I've already hit up family and friends for ghost book donations and library book donations, so I'd rather rely on other sources this time.

Other Carrie - I can't think of anything in particular that we need, but thank you! Packages are always very exciting!