Routine

So after a long day of cleaning and doing some laundry, i feel like i should talk about my routine. Its been a little off lately because of the rain, but still somewhat the same.

So lets start off with days in which i go to town. Depending on whether or not i have something going on i might set my alarm or not. When i first got to site, i would wake up at about 430 every morning. This definitely was not by choice! A combination of malaria drugs and one annoying rooster would wake me up so early. Now, i tend to sleep in. My sisters normally want me up so around 9 or so they will greet me in bemba and i will groggily greet them back while in bed. Once im up, i make a visit to my pit latrine and then start my brazier to make breakfast. Oh how i wish i had a stove! Getting the brazier started and then cooking can take quite a bit of time but its a good way to start the morning. Depending on whether i have things to do in town, ill either leave right away after breakfast or ill stay a little longer and read or send emails on my phone. To get to masansa, i have to bike about 4km on a bush path and then 6km on the road. It can be a pain sometimes to bike there and back, but it keeps me active. Once in masansa, ill drop my bike off at one of my shop owner friend's house and then walk to school. Basically all i do at the school is hang out in the teachers workroom. I wish there was more for me to do, but im not the boss! After being at the school for a while, ill go to the market to buy a few things and then i bike back. There is another volunteer who has his work in masansa too so he and i hang out ever now and then. Once i get home, i relax a little and then have dinner with my family which is nshima and a vegetable for the relish. After dinner, there usually isnt anything to do after dark so i go to bed. On days i stay home, i do a lot of cleaning and laundry. Both are pain stakingly long ventures. Laundry is done by hand and then hung out to dry. If my family is around, they will do it for me which takes them a fraction of the time it takes me, but cleaning the house is all me. I have two rooms to my hut so i start with my bedroom sweep it all out and then move to the next room. The problem with cleaning is that i have to move everything and in small quarters. I started at maybe 11 this morning and didnt get done until 4 or so. With a grass thatched roof, a lot of dust and other particles fall and land on everything, so the house needs to be cleaned often.

Then there are the days i want to leave masansa entirely. On those days, i have to get up early to bike to masansa by 730 to get transport 50km to the boma, or large town. Transport consists of a pick up truck jammed packed with people and their belongings on a dirt road. If i want to go to the peace corps house in serenje then i have to hitch another 100km. Its a hassle and takes hours, but its nice to spend some time at the house every now and then.

Ok. Its 730 in the evening right now, but im absolutely exhausted so i think its bed time!

Trainings

So in the past few months, ive been invited to facilitate in a couple trainings set up by USaid. They have been good. Made me feel like i was actually doing something. The first two were for training untrained community school teachers and head teachers, while the other was for training teachers on the ipod which would be given to community schools to enable them to access the iri (interactive radio instruction) program called learning at taonga market. Iri is broadcasted by numerous radio stations throughout zambia with most being through community radio stations in the towns like mkushi, the closest town from me. The problem is that not every radio station has a good signal radius so some schools cannot access the program. So for those schools in some districts, they are given an ipod so they can still play the program and conduct the lessons.

Right now, im sitting in the masansa zone workshop for the iripod training. There are about thirteen schools here with most having two teachers each crammed into a small room. One of these days ill describe a zambian workshop, but right now i should stay positive. I will say that most zambians need a workshop in time management! I wasnt always the best with time management, but i think being here has made me so much more mindful of time!

So i stopped right there because i dont really want to put my opinion on this whole thing. If you really want to know my opinion, you can ask.

But at this point i am really happy to have been given the opportunity to facilitate in the workshops. A lot of the time i feel like masansa isnt taking advantage of my skills and so i dont really do any work but just hang out in the village. I think i need to put up the whole note about my opinions not reflecting the opinions of the united states peace corps before i write about work subjects.

So i think im going to watch these clouds roll in and enjoy the rest of the sun for the day!

Oops

Ok so i probably should have been keeping this up but since i have been here, i never really have a desire to get on a computer. I have an internet phone that serves me well, so i hope to make a daily thing out of this. I guess not only for other people to read and see what is going on but also so i can go back and remember what all has happened while i was in zambia for two years. Im not much for journal writing but we will see where this goes.

So i got into country on february 23rd of 2008 and its nearly february of 2009...nearly a year in country. Since we have two months of training, our service didnt actually start until april, so i wont be done until april of 2010. But if its been nearly a year in country now, everything else is bound to go by just as quick.

So right now, i am sitting in the house of one of the shop owners in masansa. He lives right in town and has electricity so i get to charge my phone and ipod whenever im in town, which is several times a week. The electricity isnt the most reliable, its gone off three times since ive been here this morning, but its so much better than nothing. Im here earlier than i usually am because it is the rainy season right now and since the sun was shining, i decided to beat the rain and get here. Nothing like biking trying to get home in the pouring rain! But it would be so nice for the sun to stay out all day. Its been mostly cloudy lately which can be depressing sometimes. What i wouldnt give to even be in the hot season again. At least once you get done sweating, it dries and you dont feel so gross. But during the rainy season, you sweat and its so humid that it takes forever for it to dry, so you feel gross, it feels gross to be wearing sweaty clothes, you just feel slobbish. And then it rains on you. So you have a mixture of sweat and rain on you. Now its time to wash those clothes! You get that gross mixture out of your clothes, but then because of the humidity and lack of sun, it takes forever for clothes to dry. What i wouldnt give for a washer and drier!

But life isnt as bad as it may seem. It just takes some getting adjusted to. Each season brings a new challenge, so i need to face this one as well and it will be just ok!

I know my writing is a little spastic going this way and that, but i hope to make sense and explain what is going on here as well as possible. Also, i want to remind everyone that its always good to get mail over here. It definitely doesnt have to be a package...unless you are in a really giving mood. Just a letter, email or anything helps! If you dont know it, or have lost it, here is my address again:

Phil Bradley PCV
PO Box 840038
Mkushi, Zambia
Africa

Well i think i should maybe go to my school or something. Either tonight or tomorrow, ill write something else. Who knows! Hope all is well!