Well, in Lusaka again on my way back from the Library training, which was pretty uneventful. The main problem was that the facilitators were Zambian and Zambians love to taaaaaaaalk. So basically there was a lot of talking and not much information. We didn’t get through all we were supposed to and of course missed out on the parts that were most important to me. The info we did get (e.g. Dewey Decimal System) I could have just looked up on the internet myself. Jamie, it was really funny when we arrived at the conference, cause apparently for a lot of Ministry of Education meetings, there are sharpshooters!!!! They took our pictures as we were coming in, then printed them out and laid them on the grass, then yelled at us when us muzungus didn’t buy them. (Zambians loooooove “amasnaps,” so of course they bought them all up.) Sound familiar??? Another thing to note about MOE meetings is that claps are very important. There are many different “claps” that can be given to someone after they are done speaking. My favorite is the “clouds are forming clap” where everyone rubs their hands together, then claps lightly, then claps louder, then finally smacks. Sounds like rain and thunder.

It was nice seeing another area, though. Leaving Lusaka Province is beautiful!!!!!! Must be the nicest part of Zambia! Very mountainous and hilly and curvy. At some points, it was kinda scary cause the road twisted around on the edge of a cliff, and at every point that there was a guardrail (which was at the really bad dropoffs), you could see that it had been totally mangled. Zambians are such bad drivers. There was a particular area where someone saw a bunch of baboons, but I never got to see them. I’m very sad about this. Eastern Province is ok. More open than Central, but nothing that special. I’m very worried about when I get back to site, because I am going to have to confess to Doug that during the ride, I saw over 20 Baobab trees. Seeing a Baobab tree is the only reason he came to Zambia, I think. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, though. Most of them were probably still too young. Only a few of them were really impressive. We were speeding along though, of course, so I wasn’t able to take any pictures.

The bad thing about traveling though, is that I REALLY don’t like not being able to speak the language. I felt just like another muzungu who just talks to everyone in English. Sometimes I would speak Bemba anyhow, just so they knew that I wasn’t one of these muzungus who don’t even know how to say muli shani!

Since I was in Chipata, I wasn’t able to get back to Central Province for our “Provincal Meeting,” so PC told me to attend the one in Eastern instead, which seems silly because it’s supposed to be with your PROVINCE. I was really angry, because when the newsletters were distributed, I saw that my bike project announcement was NOT in there. I was REALLY relying on it being in there, so every PCV could read it and I could start gathering numbers to see if enough people are interested to go through with the project. It’s going to take a looooong time in itself, so this just delays it even more. I’m not too happy. A big part of Provincials is also the party, so I was sad I wasn’t able to go to the one in Central. I only stayed a short time because we weren’t staying at the Eastern PC House because it was full and we had to leave early in the morning. The theme was superheroes. So I was “Super Nshima Woman: Here to Stir and Protect!” My talent was that I could stir nshima at 200 rotations per minute. I wore a chitenge for a skirt and a chitenga for a cape (I wanted a mealie meal sack, but couldn’t find one), plus a belt around the head for extra superhero effect. Another girl poured mealie meal over me, which actually felt surprisingly good), so it was all over my hair and face. It’s still in my hair now I think.

I’m having trouble getting my roof rethatched before the rains. I went on a five hour grass gathering mission with Peg one day. It was terrible. Soooo far. Chopping grass forever. Carrying it back on my head for kilometers. And the result was only ONE BUNDLE OF GRASS!!! I’ll need about 20 I think! I’m trying to get fellow villager Justin to do it for me and I’ll pay him. Technically, the community is supposed to do this for me. It’s part of the PC contract. But it IS a lot of work, so I don’t expect them to just do it. Who knows.

Another thing I remembered that was on the missing blog is my toe disaster. After IST and picking up Doug, a minor blister on my toe got ridiculously infected. It was absolutely disgusting looking. I won’t even try to describe it. On the first day, the pain was so excruciating (I seriously put it in the top 10 list of the most pain I’ve ever been in, which seems so silly, cause it’s just a little TOE!) that I couldn’t even sleep. And of course, the PC House had NO painkillers in the “medical cabinet” at all. I ended up taking an antibiotic and it healed up after awhile. I felt bad though, cause I wasn’t really able to walk, so I had to keep sending Doug (who had JUST arrived and didn’t know where anything was or how to speak the language) off on his own for various errands.

A couple weeks ago while waiting for transport in Kapiri, I saw my first semi-tornado!!! I still don’t really consider it a REAL “tornado” though, but it was cool. I heard this loud BANG and saw that the tin roof of a building had lifted up and smacked back down, then I saw a wind cyclone thing about the size of a tree. It had a small amount of dirt in it, so you could see what it was. There was also a piece of debris waaaaay up high swirling around, so that was pretty cool!

All the villagers have been really accepting of Doug. The clinic and school too. It’s funny cause I have this one neighbor, Iron Mumba, who has never even GREETED me unless I greet him first. I couldn’t believe it when Doug arrived and good old Iron Mumba WALKED over to my hut and GREETED Doug! And since then, he’s done it several times!!! It’s nice that Iron Mumba (whenever I refer to him, I always use the full name, cause it’s just so goofy, especially cause he’s this small shriveled old man with a name like that) likes him, but it annoys me. I’ve also noticed that sometimes people who I have known for a long time will greet Doug before me, or ask Doug questions instead of me, just because he is male.

That’s all for now I guess!