LUSAKA = Culture Shock

Um. . . Lusaka has far too many cars. It is totally a little slice of America. I'm feeling extreme culture shock after having been in the village and Nchelenge for all this time. I just had a cheeseburger and a milkshake for dinner and I bought cous cous at the grocery store to be cooked in my mud hut. So that's fun. It's a good thing Blessed likes "Muzungu food" so much. Lea and I made him guacomole the other night and he was really excited (even me, it was real tasty). If only I had a mojito to go with it. . . (that's a shout out to you Meks).

So, Lusaka is fun. I'm pretty excited that I got to go shopping today and buy a pair of jeans that fit (one of my only missions in Lusaka). Manual labor is the way to drop a few pounds. My water is about 1km away down hill to the lagoon, that's the toughest part of my daily routine. The bamaayos are concerned that I'm not carrying 20 litres of water on my head yet. I think I'll start small with 10 and see what I can accomplish. Blessed took a video of me drawing water so you can see the process, but we haven't figured out yet how to get it off of his phone and onto the Internet yet.

Right, so I only have a few minutes mpaka this place closes for the night. So, this might be choppy. . .

stories. . .

Independence Day (October 24th) -- I gave a health talk on the importance of VCT (Voluntary Counselling and Testing for HIV) muciBemba in the morning and was promptly invited to play netball in the afternoon. I declined by saying I'd never even seen a netball game before, so I didn't know how to play. So they asked if I could play football. Why yes. I enjoy playing soccer, or rather I did in my early teens. Anyway. Nine years had passed since I last set foot on the soccer pitch. They asked what number I wanted to play. I thought they meant what jersey did I want to wear (which was confusing because I thought they didn't have jerseys). No, in the rest of the world they number the positions instead of calling them midfield, striker, stopper, etc. I was assigned to play 4 or 5 after telling them I prefer defense. I don't know what I was doing, I was just trying to mark my man -- #7 Bekham. I knew they were all wearing Man U jerseys on the other team. I didn't realize they were all wearing #7 Bekham. Except for the 3 guys who wore #11 Giggs. Sweet. I did a crappy job defending and even totally missed the ball the first time it came to me. All this for an audience much much much larger than ever came to see me play at Brattleboro Area Middle School. Sweet. So, that's just a little story.

I have to go. They're closing
love you all,
LIBBY

Bwangu Bwangu (fast fast)

Hey everybody!

Sorry this is going to have to be short. I'm in Mansa just for the morning because I had to come in to FINALLY get my work permit and be all kinds of official. So, that's done and now I have two hours and a bunch of errands to do before I get back on the bus to Nchelenge.

Anyway, the most important thing to say is I'm doing REALLY well. I'm really happy here. That doesn't begin to express how much I miss you all at home though. I've been having some really sappy moments telling friends here how much I miss my friends and family at home.

My work is going well. Although, November is going to be a bit of a wash in terms of work. I'll be out of the village a ton this month and that's disappointing, but December looks bright with projects. I'll be in Lusaka next week for In-Service Training for my program. That should be good, I'm looking forward to cheap internet access and ice cream. Blessed is coming down for the weekend so I can meet all of his "Lusaka Lusaka" friends and some family. (Oh, by the way, I'm still seeing him. He's amazing and I'm so happy. Check for photos, if not on my site then definitely on Lea's blog. Many thanks to Brie for the introductions, BONSE MU NCHELENGE TULEMIFULUKA SANA SANA! How is being home?)

Okay, so I really want to check in. . . I don't get any news (except for the four copies of Newsweek I just found in my Mansa mailbox - along with Avery's birth announcement! So beautiful!) I did, however, hear that the Cardinals won the World Series (Sean, I imagine that you must have peed your pants???) And I am quite aware that there are elections tomorrow. Sorry United States, there's no way I could get an absentee ballot figured out from Kanyembo village. Please send me some updates about what's new in America. (And Kara, I would appreciate some pop-culture flash cards so I can catch up.)

Okay, I just updated some photos. More to come from Lusaka. I miss and love you all, and I promise to include more content from LSK where there is cheaper, faster Internet and more time to say what I need to say!

Hugs & Smooches,

LIBBY