My trip back from Serenje to Mpelembe last time took twenty-seven hours. It should take two. I started trying to hitch at 8:00 AM and by evening hadn’t caught anything. I hadn’t eaten or drinken anything all day, and didn’t want to travel in the dark, so I headed back to Peace Corps and started fresh in the morning.

The Peace Corps travel gods may be harsh, but they are balanced. I’m in Lusaka now. I got a free ride most of the way from a campaigner for Sata (the candidate who ran against Mwanawasa last election and lost, but crookedness was suspected). He had posters all over his car, so people cheered and whistled whenever we passed through towns. (So much for “staying neutral,” as Peace Corps advised.) He bought me snacks and drinks along the way and let me stay at his house. He offered for his driver to drive me wherever I need to go in Lusaka and for his maid to wash my clothes. (The
only clothes I have are the ones on my back, however, so I couldn’t take him up on that.) Dinner, breakfast. He’s even paying for my internet! What luck!

I’m in Lusaka for the sole purpose of using the internet (and the fast internet café is down, so I don’t know if I’ll even accomplish anything!) My to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer and I can’t check things off faster than they’re added with the dysfunctional internet in Serenje. I figured that even after travelling eight hours and paying for a hostel (which I didn’t have to do anyways), coming to Lusaka to use the internet would still be faster and cheaper than trying to do so in Serenje.

I don’t remember last hot season being this HOT! I felt like I was travelling across the desert yesterday coming to Lusaka. We had to stop every hour or so to drink something, and even then I didn’t pee at all and was aching from dehydration. When we got to his house, I took a cold bath, which was the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.

Zambia has destroyed umbrella #5 (even including the one with the lifetime warranty!)

Thanks to the ash of citimene season, I got to see one of the coolest things I’ve seen in awhile. One night, I went outside and was stopped dead in my tracks by a blood red moon. I’ve seen plenty of orange moons over the lake, but nothing like this. It was red! Gorgeous.

I have not been able to milk Potato and never will. Sigh. The babies are still cute, but now they follow Potato around, so I only see them in the evening. Those little goatsies are very well spoken. When they say something, you can tell that they very confidently mean it. Usually they say, “Something happened. I’m not sure what to think about that.” For example, “I just jumped up into the air and landed back on the ground. I’m not sure what to think about that.” They have also started doing this adorable little cooing/garbling noise at night. It’s so sweet! Sounds just like little human babies!

Ever since the goats were born, I’ve been waiting for the inevitable to happen and it finally happened. Pegasus got frolicking around too hard and wound up in the trash pit. I ran over there expecting a very panicked little goat, and what did she do? Jumped right out of there! It’s like four and a half feet deep! I don’t even think Finny could jump out.

The herd has expanded, and now consists of Potato, Pegasus, Spud, the Mumba Goat, Kapiria’s goat, and two Mwelelwa goats (including the ugliest beast of a male goat you’ve ever seen.) They like to hang around and eat all my mango leaves. They also ate my small banana tree.

The herd has also de-panded because the Mumba male goat died a terrible gurgling death that the Mumbas invited me to watch. They are sure that someone poisoned it out of jealousy, and thought it a ridiculous suggestion that maybe it just died.

The Mumbas lost a chicken the same week to supposed theft (yet whenever I lose a chicken, they’re positive it was a chicken hawk, not theft), so I decided to give them Vulture, one of the rooster chicks, with the condition that they couldn’t eat him and that when he gets big enough to crow, they eat or sell the other rooster.

Others felt sorry for the Mumbas as well, it turns out, because someone in their family gave them two pigs! I’m not too psyched about it, cause I think they spread parasites pretty easily. So these pigs are now tromping around my yard as well. At least they make funny noises.

Swarm number four of bees absconded. Swarm five is in there now and will probably be gone by the time I return.

My dream of having a carrier pigeon has been rekindled, so I’ve been on the lookout for morning doves to capture as I walk through the bush. No luck so far. You’ll know I’ve found one when you hear a pigeon tapping on your window one day.

My couch/chair is infested with mites. Besides that little problem, I still think that my hut is the most beautiful house in the world, hands down.

One day, Joshua came over with a handful of wire and asked me to make him a toy bicycle. I was honored and flabbergasted that he thought me capable of such a task, and also very scared. The wire was thick and tough, which made it nearly impossible to work with, but I managed to mangle out a decent looking bike. Then Joshua said he wanted to wheels to move, so I had to take it apart and start over. The resulting bicycle had moving wheels, but didn’t resemble a bike anymore. Joshua smiled and claimed it looked good, but I think he was just saying that.

The neighbors have started begging me for small jobs every day, which is becoming a problem. If I say no, then they try to make me feel guilty by saying that Joshua will have to go to school hungry. It’s too bad if they don’t have enough to eat, but how can they put that on me? How can they expect me to support their entire family? They obviously survived before I came to Zambia and will have to after I leave. It’s difficult.

It’s interesting how the Zambian focus on appearance versus reality even extends all the way to hygiene. They wash their hand s with dinner, but after eating or using the same water. They hand you the bun you bought wrapped in newspaper, but they put the bun into the newspaper with their hands. They’ll use a side plate for eating, but still grab the food from the communal dish to put onto their side plate.

Well, pigs are flying in Mpelembe. (1) My Life Skills class had been put back on the timetable!!!!!!!!!!! We’re trying to start a tree nursery (both fruit trees as well as useful trees for firewood and timber), but it’s not going so hot so far. I was even laughed at by the “Agricultural Extension Agent” whom I went to to ask some questions. He thought it a silly project and warned me that it would be very hard to grow trees. When I asked why, he said, “Ah, because they grow too slow.” (2) The library committee has been formed!!!!!!!!! (3) The Zonal Resource Center has been completed!!!!!!!!!! Now we’re just waiting for the official handover.

I re-read “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and in one part, they are putting on a play circus and charging the kids a three pin entrance fee. I finished reading the page, then stopped and went back. It took me a couple moments to comprehend. He was referring to sewing pins, not “pins” the Zambian currency unit.

Oh, also, on our home planet, we most definitely can fly. I mean, I know how in my dreams. (I suppose on our home planet we also show up naked and late to school a lot too….)

In the Peace Corps newsletter, there was a letter commenting on the benefits given to Peace Corps Volunteers (almost none) versus the benefits given to military veterans (a ton). Of course, the latter are put through much more trauma and are risking their lives, but it’s interesting to see how our country places its value in war and peace.





Bonnibelle – The Toronto island sounds really cool! And no, my knitted pants are not done. They have come to a standstill. I guess bicycle spokes don’t make the best knitting needles. They stitches are very small and just kept getting tighter and tighter until it got to the point where I couldn’t even make anymore stitches. Sigh.

Doug – The purple trees of Kabwe/Lusaka are in bloom now! (The seeds fall next month though. Bad timing.)