KAMWAMBA & COBRAS

Learning a new language. Check. Bathing from a bucket. Check. Eating dried fish with eyeballs. Check. Watching amazing sunsets. Check. Waking up to roosters crowing at 2am, 3am, 4am. Check. Watching my host family kill a spitting cobra. Check.

Life in the "bush" is all of these things and more. I left the airport 2 weeks ago, and already it seems like a lifetime ago. Things here are so different, and I often find myself laughing just thinking about how to describe things to all of you! So the things I've listed above, they are now my life, which is just so insane. I arrived in Mwakera West 2 days ago, and I am staying with Baa Grace. I have been given the Tonga name, Chipego, which means "gift". I have my own "hut" which is one room with a thatched hut. Andrea, another Peace Corp volunteer, stays with Grace's daughter and so we eat our meals together and do a lot of laughing throughout the day! I am really thankful that she is here with me now, but it will be really hard to part ways in 9 weeks and be alone in a village.

I am confident that I can do this, can live here in Africa and come to love life here, it is just a matter of sorting through all of the emotions that come with that. It is really hard to have all of these experiences, but not be able to share them with the people that know me, with people whom I have a history. So basically everyone needs to come here and experience it with me! I can't put into words what life is like here, the beauty and pain of life in Zambia. The people are wonderful, loving, warm and welcoming. I've come to realize more that we are all the same, seeking, searching to be known and understood. I am reminded each day of the differences also. Children are sick and there is no medical care for them, people have to walk miles to get water and don't understand the importance of sanitation. While at the clinic in the southern province a pregnant 18 year old girl learned that she is positive for the HIV virus, and she will most likely not have the medical care needed to keep her child from contracting the disease. It is being surrounded by these situations that remind me of why I am here, how I can help. But is is overwhelming and the problems seem insurmountable at times.

I've tried to upload photos here, but the computer is not letting me, so sorry about that! I will continue to try in the future. I will try to bike into town each Sunday and email and update you all - so you can email me too!

As I fall asleep at night, under my mosquito net, I think of home back in the States and I miss you all. Blessings!