Muli shani bonse mukwai? Ndemifuluka sana sana sana!! Ndesubila fyonse cisuuma sana ku America. Nkalamimona nombalinefye! (How are you everyone? I am missing you very very very much!! I hope everything is great in America. I will be seeing you just soon!)
Many apologies, this update is long overdue. The Internet has been out for a month or so in Mansa, and my recent trip to Lusaka went by fast fast, leaving me no time to adequately greet you all. I hope all is well with all of you. I'm missing everyone in America-Land, and very happy to report, for anyone who hasn't spoken to my mother in the last 72 hours, that I'M COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!! I'm so excited! It will be hard to leave Blessed here for our first married Christmas, but the visa restrictions are just too firm and unattainable at this juncture. He's been so incredibly supportive and I'm so thankful that he is willing to give me up for a chance to be together with family and friends this Christmas. In case you haven’t noticed or heard, I love him so much. I can’t wait for the opportunity for all of you to meet him too.
A bunch of things have happened since the last time I wrote. My community is building a new house for me in the village. As of one week ago, when I left for Mansa, it still had no hint of a roof. I would be absolutely shocked if I return to it on Saturday and nothing has been done, although such things have been known to happen before. The chieftainess has ordered the headmen that have not been helping on it to bring grass and poles for construction of the roof. However, for days after that mandate nothing happened. I have enough faith in the traditional leadership in my area (don’t ask me why, I have very little reason to feel this confidence) that they will get the roof on before the rain comes and melts the uncovered bricks back into the earth from which they came, that I purchased two pockets of cement to finish my floors (a sizable investment for me). Hopefully this will not be in vain.
I have big plans for my new house. It’s about the size of a postage stamp, so I pretty much had to start planning when it was still at foundation level. I’ll plastic the inside of the roof to make it leak-proof, and screw in hooks to hang our bikes from the beams (of course, both of these rely on the assumption that I will get a roof at all). Once the floors are finished, I’ll smear the walls with mud to smooth them out and then lyme to “paint” them bright white. It will be nice to have everything feel so new and maybe even a little bit clean, or cleaner. I’m not sure what will happen with the amenities. I may have to “ablute” at my current house (about 85 meters away) or at my neighbors’ house (now only 15 – 20 meters away), because you can’t sink a toilet in the rainy season, and my biggest priority at the moment is my roof. (Don’t forget, I used my neighbors’ latrine for the first 2 ½ months I was at my site – I wonder how long it will take for the community to provide me with privy this time around . . . ???) I’ll also be in need of a new bathing shelter – worry not, I built the current one together with my neighbor and have the know-how to do it again if absolutely necessary.
In other news, married life is great. Blessed and I have been fortunate to get over the who’s-gonna-do-what-housework syndrome, and we’re both feeling a lot better about life as a result. We’ll both be really psyched to live in America and not have to worry about who is going to light the charcoal in the braiser, who will draw the water, or who will break their back and wash the clothing by hand for 2-3 hours . . . so psyched . . . so, so psyched.
B and I have been doing a lot of HIV/AIDS meetings in my catchment area since he moved in after the wedding. We’ve now completed all of the meetings, which were held in 10 separate villages in our area, and we’ve managed to reach 400 new people that I’ve never worked with before – pretty exciting for me, and for PEPFAR. As a result of some of those meetings, I’ve found some new women’s groups with which to work – teaching them how to make compost manure to use instead of fertilizer, and how to make nutritious foods from soya beans. My extraordinary friend Lea came to help facilitate the soya demonstration, and as a result it was a complete success. I’ve finally been able to work with the Agriculture Extension Agents in my catchment area and they’ve been a great help with keeping people interested in compost and sustainable agricultural practices. It is one thing for an American – read OUTSIDER – to come and suggest you use garlic, tobacco, chili peppers, and soap as an insecticide, it is another thing altogether if the guy who normally sells you chemical fertilizer and insecticides to indorse it too!
The past week all of the volunteers have been in Mansa for a PEPFAR HIV/AIDS training for volunteers and their counterparts. Lea and I facilitated it together with Dr. Bowa, the Peace Corps PEPFAR Director from Lusaka. Everyone seemed to enjoy the training, which ended with on-site VCT on Thursday afternoon. My counterpart, Mr. Bupe, was great and we got to do a bunch of planning for potential upcoming projects. We had the chance to do some initial planning for a district-wide mobile VCT event to take place in May. It will hopefully include six days with testing in six different locations in Nchelenge District. More to come as this planning unfolds into something more substantial . . .
I’m pretty tired as a result of planning and facilitating and logistic-ating this workshop all week. I’m looking forward to going back to the village for a little bit of rest and relaxation. (We completed the HIV prevention meetings before Blessed and I left for Mansa last week, so I’ll go back to a clean slate – I forget what stress feels like sometimes).
Blessed will remain in Lusaka until Monday or Tuesday and then proceed to Luanshya to rehearse for Raven and Joshua’s wedding on Saturday the 27th. She caught the bouquet at our wedding (really . . . um . . . we didn’t plan it or anything) and they got engaged just a week or so later when she was leaving to go back to the States. Blessed and Lea are both on the “line up” and need to be there to rehearse so the rest of us can be thoroughly entertained, I mean, that’s their job as the bridal party, right? When in Zambia. . . A great many congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Joshua Chitalo and their families.
So, my friends, I’m so excited to see you all in December/January when I come home to Vermont. I hope to get to see as many of you as possible. I’ll just be home for about two weeks and then I’ll have to come back to the “grindstone.” I’m trying to save the rest of my vacation days so Blessed and I can take a honeymoon in Zanzibar.
Much love and many hugs to you all,
LIBBY
