Local Time Sorry, no Java  -

Zambia Time Sorry, no Java

Oct. 14th 2000     

This is an email from my parents (Major and Rose) who have gone to Africa to see my sister and take a little vacation.  They will be in Africa for about 2 weeks. This was sent from Lusaka, Zambia using a Sharp TM-20 Telmail E-Mail Organizer on a regular Zambia payphone.

HI MAJ,

WE ARE DOING GREAT SO FAR. WE WENT TO THE SOUTH LUANGWA GAME PARK AND WENT ON A NIGHT RIDE AND A MORNING RIDE. BOTH 4 HRS LONG. SAW LEOPARDS AND LIONS WITH CUBS, MANY ELEPHANTS, ZEBRAS, IMPALAS, GIRAFFES, HIPPOS, CROCKS, BABOONS AND SEVERAL OTHER ANIMALS. WE SPENT 3 NITES IN LARA'S VILLAGE HUT. DAYTIME 105 DEGREES, ATE SHIMA AND LOTS OF HOMEMADE PEANUTBUTTER WITH JELLY ON BREAD. THE ROAD TO LARA'S VILLAGE IS NOT GOOD. TOOK OVER 8 HRS. THE PEOPLE LOVE LARA AND ARE VERY FRIENDLY. GOING TO VICTORIA FALLS AND WHITEWATER RAFTING.GOT SWEPT OFF RAFT & WAS UNDERWATER A LONG TIME. IN LUSAKA TONIGHT AND FLYING TO LILONGWE TOMORROW THEN TO ENGLAND. YOU WILL LOVE IT HERE. LOVE , MOM & DAD

Sep. 28th 2000     

This is the email that they sent when they first got to London on their way to Zambia to see my sister.

WE MADE THE FLIGHT FINE, C5-A. TOOK TAXI TO TRAIN STATION, TRAIN TO LONDON. STAYING AT VICTORY CLUB ABOUT TWO BLOCKS FROM HYDE PARK. TAKING DOUBLE DECKER BUS TOUR TOMORROW. CARRYING BAGS TO GET HERE WAS UNREAL, 144LBS PLUS OUR BACKPACKS. NOT AGAIN. WE LEAVE SATURDAY FOR MALAWI THEN ZAMBIA. WEATHER FINE SO FAR. SO ALL SOON. LOVE DAD & MOM

Aug. 21st 2000

A NEW Email to Everyone!  And Pictures!!

Hello Mom, Dad, Maj and everyone!

I'd love to say I was writing from the peaceful surroundings of my village, but alas, part of that peacefulness comes from a lack of things like phones, computers and modems that make such instant communication as this possible. Life is full of tradeoffs. 

So, here I am in Chipata (my provincial capital), still two days of travel from my site in Chama. I rode up yesterday from Lusaka with Scott, Sam and Bridgette on a somewhat comfortable eight-hour bus ride. Comfortable means I had more than six inches of chair space and didn't have to carry all my bags on my lap the entire way.

We were in Lusaka for the past week with the other 40 or so health volunteers from all over Zambia, including all the vols from our training group. Since most of us hadn't seen each other since our swearing-in ceremony in April it was fantastic to get together! Everyone looked good. Some of us had put on a few nshima-induced pounds, but others actually lost weight and everyone looked very healthy.

What a busy week!! Our "in-service training" was designed to let us share project ideas and talk about how the health program is working out in the villages. We met lots of local officials and people from other aid organizations so that we can work together (i.e.: get funding) and ostensibly do better work. 

We also managed to pack in an overdose of social time too. A few nights of late-night dance clubbing, many many pizzas ordered into the hotel and some awesome dinners out on the town.

Sam's birthday was just before our Lusaka trip, but well, if you know Sam you won't be surprised to hear that the celebration lasted for a good two weeks solid! Jessica organized a big group dinner out at the Lusaka Club, where the pepper steak is phenomenal, and tried to pull it off as a surprise for Sam. Unfortunately, some of the other volunteers blew the surprise so we scrambled for another way to surprise him. Here's what unfolded...

Around 5 pm, as Sam showered for his birthday dinner out, at least 20 of us (mostly female vols plus a trainer or two) filed quietly into his hotel room, planning to yell "SURPRISE" and sing Happy Birthday as he came out of the shower. Among the crowd was Crazy Eddie (a vol from my training group) who has a penchant for getting naked. As we waited for Sam, Eddie proceeded to COMPLETELY disrobe in front of all of us and then stand nonchalantly by the bathroom door!! Emily burst out laughing and nearly blew this surprise too, but Sam apparently didn't hear anything and came sauntering out of the shower, clad only in a towel around the waist.

I can only imagine what Sam was thinking as he turned the corner, saw all of us, heard all of us yell "SURPRISE!" and THEN saw Eddie, in all his glory, sporting his very own birthday suit in Sam's honor!

The shock was apparently only momentary, though, because almost immediately, as cameras flashed away, Sam dropped his towel too and hugged Eddie in a celebratory embrace!

It was a moment that already has become legendary! And believe it or not, there ARE photos to document this event! Word traveled quickly among the volunteers from other training groups and we are now known as being quite the wild bunch.

Everything afterward was rather anti-climactic, but still we had a great time.

Now, it's back to the village...

I'm ready to get up to my site again and return to my normal routine, but I'm also expecting to feel somewhat deflated after I arrive. It's always a tough adjustment after being with so many great people for such an intense week or two to return to the village where the word "isolation" comes to mind frequently. The extremes of Peace Corps are what make the experience so tough. One minute you're with 20 of your best friends enjoying a very Western lifestyle and the next minute you're in your mud hut, back to speaking only Tumbuka and wondering if you really can ever relate to anyone in your village as a true friend. Everyone battles this, and the best strategy is usually just to stay very busy.

For me, I don't think staying busy will be difficult this time. Shortly after I get back to site, my friend Matt is coming up to visit for a few days from his site in Mwata. It will be fun having someone to talk with, cook American food with and take some long bike rides with.

Meanwhile, work is also getting busier and busier. My clinical officer and I have organized a Chama District AIDS Coordinating Committee to develop better AIDS education programs throughout the district. It's a HUGE area geographically and rather sparsely populated, so reaching out to the remote, rural villages where the education is most needed is quite a challenge. There are roughly 80,000 people in the district, which we have divided into four "zones" where we will go in with a variety of programs. We want to work through our Neighborhood Health Committees to identify people on the village level who are willing to promote AIDS awareness among their neighbors. We'll train these people to be "peer educators" and then return with a few follow-up programs to make sure the education is continuing. Since I am the closest PCV to Chama, I am working closely on the overall organization of this. But we have a few other vols in the district (Sam plus two who are in different programs) who will be helping with the program in their areas. There is just sooooo much emphasis on AIDS programs right now that I can't imagine focusing on much else, or at least tying everything else into some sort of AIDS education.

My group of high school journalist wannabes is going to publish an AIDS-focused newsmagazine at the end of the year. And Sam is organizing a soccer camp that will incorporate AIDS education into the program. And EVERYONE is begging for red ribbons to wear as a "badge" that they are part of our programs!

It's cool to work when you find people truly motivated to help. It gets very frustrating when you also have to work with people who are driven by other motives. I suppose in that way it's just like any job, but when you're still trying to unravel all the nuances of a new culture it can feel much tougher. Jealousy (or "ukwa" in Tumbuka) is the number one problem among villagers, some of whom I believe would rather hold everyone down in poverty than see one or two prosper. The idea that those one or two could then pull the others up with them just isn't imaginable. I try hard not to let my work get bogged down by ukwa, but it can get maddening at times.

Anyway, the work is going well. My women's groups are busy figuring out how to make sesame oil to sell in the market to raise money. And another village group wants me to help them develop a poultry operation so they can raise chickens and eggs for sale. Didn't know I was qualified to give agri-business advice, did you??? Neither did I!

In any case, life is good.

And now I am just counting down the DAYS until Mom and Dad arrive!!!!! It was fantastic meeting Emily's parents and Joel's mom this past week. I hope they get a hold of you when they return so you can get some good travel tips. Meanwhile, I'll work on arrangements from this end.

I should wrap this up now as I've been hogging the computer all morning. We're going to try and head up to Lundazi this afternoon, but there's no telling if transport will be available or not. Send me good travel karma!

I love you all and miss you much!

LARA

May. 12th 2000

More Pictures have arrived! Here they are, not in any particular order (as usual!)

Click Here for the Photo's for May 12th 2000

 

Apr. 16th 2000

A NEW Email to Everyone! This will be the last email from Lara for a while.

Hello everyone!

I'm on the brink of being posted at my site and wanted to send out one last big HELLO to you all!

Tomorrow's the big day... the final push out of that proverbial nest and into the big unknown world of village life. Whew!!!

I've spent this past week here in Chipata doing all of my shopping for supplies and preparing for site. In one day I managed to blow 600,000 kwacha on everything from a charcoal cooking stove to jerry cans for hauling water to plastic basins for bathing, laundry and dish washing to enough pasta, tuna and canned tomatoes to feed me for two months!

Aside from the provisioning, we've been getting some much needed R&R here, enjoying the comforts of Chipata where we have a VCR, email connection and even a pool in the backyard! OK, so the pool isn't functional right now but still, it's nice to look at! I've assembled my new Trek mountain bike (transport for the next two years), cooked some scrumptious dinners in the huge semi-modern kitchen we have here and even whipped up a few pitchers of smoothies for all the PCVs to enjoy during the daily guitar jam sessions!

It's been a good week.

By Saturday afternoon I will be moved into my village, Kampemba, and will be meeting all my neighbors. If all goes the way it has for some of the other volunteers, the villagers will likely greet me with some sort of welcome ceremony of speeches, songs and dancing. Or they'll just stare at me and wonder why on earth this Muzungu (white person) has come to their village!

Probably a bit of both. In any case, it will be a huge day in my little speck of the world.

Then, over the next couple of months I will get settled into my house, start my vegetable and flower gardens and start figuring out what the heck I'm going to do for the next two years! I've already met the District Director of Health, Maxwell Musunga, who will be something like my boss. He is a very nice, well-educated man who lives in Chama and made the 3-day trip to Mwekera last week just to be present for our swearing in. I'm looking forward to working with him. Sam and I also have already met some people involved in a mosquito net distribution program that is very active in Chama. We will inevitably be working quite a bit with them. Beyond that, it's a lot of wide open space ahead of me! I will have to assess what my area needs before I'll know what sort of projects to take on. It could be just about anything from teaching health in schools to helping organize women's health groups to organizing soccer camps where kids also learn about AIDS prevention. Really, I'll have no idea till I get there!

So, until then, I'm concentrating on that huge task of GETTING THERE!!!

Tomorrow it's about a four-hour drive up to Lundazi, where we'll spend the night at another PCV's village. Then Saturday morning we'll take the little dirt road another four hours up to Chama.

From there, I will be mailing out as many letters as humanly possible.

Hopefully, they'll reach your mailboxes before 2001 arrives!

Before I sign off tho, I want to thank Lisa and LeeAnn for all the packages and letters that just arrived for me today!!!!!! I'd been a bit depressed about the slow mail service, fearing I'd receive nothing before being posted. But your mail arrived today and COMPLETELY brightened my day!! Thank you sooooo much! (I'm suspecting that Joe might have something to do with the quick journey through the postal system, but that's just a hunch!).

Lucia, congratulations to you and Fred! I can't wait to see the video!!!!

On that note, I will be writing you all as soon as possible and can't wait to hear from you too.

Much love,

Lara

Apr. 11th 2000

Just got this email from Lara.  This will probably be the last email from her for awhile.

Greetings from your daughter, finally an official PCV!!!

Hello!

Sam, Scott, Emily and I arrived in Chipata this evening (Monday) after a long (but comfortable in our brand-new Land Cruiser) ride from Lusaka, where we spent Sunday night.

Whew! This is really it! No more training. No more hot baths prepared by "bamama". No more cushy PC support staff tending to our every need!

It's a bit overwhelming. I think reality started sinking in this afternoon as we approached Chipata and were talking about the logistics of moving to site. On Friday, Krista will drive me and Sam up north of Lundazi where we will spend a night with Matt, another PCV and my closest neighbor (aside from Sam). Saturday morning Krista, Sam and I will go up to Sam's site, move him in and go meet the chief (he's my chief too). 

Meeting the chief is a big deal. We have to take him gifts (live chickens are good) and can only speak to him in Tumbuka. We'll have to kneel before him and be really formal.  After meeting the chief, Krista and I will leave Sam and go to my site. Krista will stay with me there perhaps for two nights because she has to meet with someone nearby the following Monday.

That's good. I mean, I'd love to say that I'd rather just be left alone and spend my first night alone and be all strong and all. But.... I'm really happy about the idea of Krista staying there with me at first.

Let's see, that will be about April 17 when I'm finally all by myself. By then, though, I think I'll be ready.  The following week is Easter, which is a long holiday here. That will be a good thing to look forward to.

We're also making plans to see Scott and Emily in about six weeks too. I hope that works out.

 Anyway, I actually am really looking forward to getting to my house, setting up my new little world and meeting my village. It's just scary and exciting all at once so it feels a bit overwhelming.

Also, I'll try calling you either Tuesday or Wednesday morning. (This was today the 11^th of April.  We talked for 35 min, collect)

Oh, by the way... swearing in was FANTASTIC!!! The ceremony was nice, dignified, formal. Our speeches went over really well and the party afterward was fun.
It was VERY hard to say goodbye to the Zimbas. Oh.... my packages arrived the DAY OF swearing in!!!!!! How perfect!!!!!! The Zimbas were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO touched by your letter and loved the t-shirts (and badada wore the Goodyear hat all night!!). I'd already bought them some other gifts (thinking the packets wouldn't arrive) so they got quite a bit from me. I found a Spanish dictionary for Winford (pretty expensive in Kwacha) and I think he was stunned. He said he was going to cry when I left. And badada said I'd moved his family to tears. I also was pretty weepy.
Well, I better go so I can stop hogging the computer. More when I get another chance!!!

I love you lots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LARA

Apr. 2nd 2000

Here are some MORE photographs that Lara sent back

Click Here for the Photo's for April 2nd 2000

They aren't really organized or anything yet, I'm seeing what information I can get about each photo...

Be sure to check out all the Photo's listed at the bottom of the Contents section to the Left. 

Mar. 12th 2000

Here is an aerogramme that Lara sent to me.  As you can see, you can fit a lot on one of those and it's only .60 cents (USD) to send.

22 February 2000

Dear Maj,

     Hey badumbu! (That is "brother" in Tumbuka) Muli Uli? (or how are you?)
Life is good here in the Great Republic of Zambia or GRZ as they call it here!  This week is a trying one, though, because we have left the cushy comforts of our host families at the training center town of Mwekela and are spending 6 days living the village life, much as we will be in our real sites after April 8!  But, this is tough now because we are living with village families who are truly poor, and we are at their mercy for just about everything - food, water, sleeping arrangements, etc. Let me tell you, being poor is not good on the stomach!  There are six of us placed in this village, and we're all starving!  Not really, but food is not plentiful so it's fortunate we all stashed some snacks in our bags before we left!

This Zambia gig is hardcore PC living, Maj!  It's sooooo cool, but it's rough!  When you have NO electricity for MILES, darkness is a whole new experience.  The people in this village (particularly the kids) have had practically zero contact with muzungus (white people) and so generally they just follow us and stare at us everywhere we go.  As I sit and write, dozens of kids just zit and watch me.  We feel very much like space aliens who just crashed our UFO into this village!  But they are all so extremely gracious hosts.

Today a blind woman was escorted over to my house to meet me & Sam and speak Tumbuka with us.  She thanked us for coming to live in the villages of Zambia and to unite the black and white people.

My host father here, Agripa Nyirenda, asked me to give his 3 children middle names so I named them Chicago, Illinois and Julia (2 boys and a girl), and for Agripa I gave him the middle name of Major!  So now he is Agripa Major Nyirenda!  He is very proud!  Agripa's brother's wife just had a baby 4 days ago and so they have asked ME to name the newborn girl!  I offered Rose in honor of Mom, but there is already a Rose in the house.  So now I will offer Kathryn, my middle name.  Lots of pressure here to think of good American names they can pronounce!

It's later now and I am writing from beneath my mosquito net by the light of my handy-dandy headlamp, which makes readying, writing and using the latrine far easier!  In this village, the people are very careful to lock all the doors and windows because we are just a few kilometers from Congo (Zaire) where a ware is going on.  Border incursions are not common, but also not unheard of.  Better to lock the doors. 

The other PCVs and I are all a little overwhelmed this week by the remoteness of village life.  It's not any one thing that gets us, but more the idea that damn, we really are going to be out in the middle of frigging nowhere for 2 years!  This afternoon Sam & I walked the few km to the nearest 'town' (meaning it has an open market and a bar/grocery) and had a Coke.  It was the BEST coca-cola either of us had tasted in a LONG time.  Then we just hung out and played Yahtzee and Gin Rummy while the local people stared at us not too subtly.  That will be my life for the next two years - except I'll probably only see Sam once a month so I'll be working on my solitaire.

Ah, but I don't mean to make it sound so bleak.  It's not, and I am actually very excited to get to my site where I can set up my own house and start settling in.  I will be living in a prime area for travel, so it will be so cool when you come visit!  I'll be relatively near Lake Tanganyika, but closer to some places in Malawi and to some game parks in Zambia.

Transport is a bitch, though, so don't expect to get ANYWHERE quickly or on time.  On one day, getting from point A to point B might take 3 hours, but on the next day it could take 12 hours or 2 days!  There are so many variable involved that you wouldn't even dream of!  Unlike in America, time in Africa is very elastic.  So true!  But you will have a great time experiencing my village life if you just kick back and go with the flow.

I'll try to prepare you the best I can, but I can say now that you will be rising with the sun (if you're not up by 6 the village and the roosters will WAKE you up!) and going to sleep shortly after sundown.  Like everyone else, I have become extremely frugal with my flashlight use (conserving battery power and light bulb life) and prefer to burn candles.  Easier to just take advantage of the daylight.  Plus, all the creepy bugs and snakes come out to play at night so I'd rather be under my secure mosquito net then!

Well, I'm running out of space so I'll wrap this up and get to sleep.  Marie and I are meeting at 6:30am to go running - we go about 5k every morning - it's the only time (while we're running) in Zambia it's acceptable to wear shorts!

Love,

Lara

Zambia Tip # 1,232:
Never shine your flashlight down the latrine. Scary!

Zambia Tip # 2,875:
Close up your luggage at night or you may discover some creepy things living there the next morning.

Zambia Tip # 4,936:
Everything does taste better if you drown it with salt!

Zambia Tip # 3,291:
Bedbugs suck.  So do biting ants!

Mar. 6th 2000

Here are some PHOTOGRAPHS(!!!!) that Lara sent back

Click Here for the Photo's for March 2000

They aren't really organized or anything yet, I'm seeing what information I can get about each photo...

Be sure to check out all the Photo's listed at the bottom of the Contents section to the Left. 

Mar. 4th 2000

Here is a letter that Lara emailed home.  She wrote this on 3/4/2000.

Subject: How to eat nshima with your hands...

...and other skills I'm learning in Zambia!

Hello all!!

Or, Muli Uli, as the Tumbukas say! I'm livin' it up in Zambia these days, learning the local language and giving up more standards of cleanliness everyday. 

I hope you all have seen the website my brother's keeping up for me. I believe some letters and photos have been posted. 

So far everything has been great here! I think of all of you often, yet I do not long to be back in the States. Rather, I wish each of you could be here with me experiencing this life. It is incredible. 

I am living in conditions I wasn't sure I could really tolerate and loving it. It's amazing how quickly you shed your need for electricity and running water! It's an incredibly simple life here. Simple beyond words simple. And that is good and bad. A simple family life is the ultimate importance to a Zambian and that is beautiful. But simple also means there is little to do here, little infrastructure and few resources. This is truly what they mean by "poverty". Basic needs (like schooling and medical care) are just NOT met and it's difficult to get to know such wonderful people and know that unless some miracle occurs they will NEVER have the opportunities we have in the U.S. 

We all struggle with realizations and thoughts like this everyday and it generates some interesting discussion among the PCVs. Few answers, but good discussion. 

Ack!! Unfortunately, I have just run out of email time!!! Yikes! 

Anyway, we're all having a blast here in Zambia. My training group is very cool and we're all getting along well. Tonight we're going out for our big night on the town!!! Hitting the disco of Kitwe after a pizza dinner!!! Wa-hooooooo.... the things we get excited about these days!!! I'm listening to more bad American music here than I EVER heard in the States (Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys, etc.!!!). I'm going to come home with some BAD music taste!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope life is great for you all!!   Write letters whenever you can... we LIVE for mail!!!!!!!!!!! 

Love you, miss you! 

LARA

Feb. 18th 2000

Here is a letter that Lara mailed home.  She wrote this on 2/2/2000.

Dear Mom, Dad & Maj,

     Hello!  We finally found some of these aerogramme's, which are the best way to mail letters from Africa.  Wow.  I'm REALLY here!  It's almost hard to believe as we walk around these tiny villages that this is now 'home' for the next 2 years.  The people are SO nice!  This week I am with Big Ed (the dentist) and Emily (not the one I met in SF, but the other one) and we are staying with Karla, a PCV in Eastern Province.  Her hut is not large, but we've managed to squeeze in.  It's the rainy season so it wasn't practical to use my tent here yet.  My therma-rest, however, is wonderful to have!  Thank you for insisting on that.  Karla is in a meeting now so the three of us are all sitting here at the Post Office writing home.  Have you heard from Erika's parents?  They live in Richmond so we are trying to hook you all up!  Erika was going to be near email and planned to send her family your name and number.

As I mentioned on the phone the other day, we chose our language which determines which area we will live.  I am going to study Tumbuka and will live near the town (or 'boma') of Chana in the northern part of Eastern Province.  Sam is the only other person in my language training so we will live somewhat near each other, which seems like a good thing.  He's a good guy and has already become an easy person to talk to.  Actually, we're all quite close now!  I guess PC does that!  This Emily I'm with now also will be in Eastern Province, but in the southern part.  She's been great to hang around with and she was my roommate in Lusaka so we are becoming fast friends.  So far everything is going very well.

This visit to Karla's village has been an eye-opening experience, watching Karla cook on her charcoal stove, using the latrine, working by candlelight in the evening, meeting her neighbors and so forth.  Nothing was particularly unexpected, but it does have more impact to see it in person and realize this is how you will live for two years.  They say where Sam and I are going is more remote than most PC sites.  But we also will be very close to Lake Malawi, Tanzania and some game parks, so there are some benefits!  We will be in new sites, meaning no PCV's before us.  That too has it's pro's and con's, but I wanted a new site so I am happy.

Right now there are two teen girls staring at us through the post office window.  I'm getting used to that already, though.  Usually you just smile and they smile back with the most friendly big smiles you've ever seen.

Write a lot!  I can't wait to start getting mail!  I dreamt last night that I got to come home to DC for about an hour and used the computer and had some of mom's green marshmallow dessert!

I love you all!  
Lara

ps - feel free to post this on the website

Thanks Lara, I will! - Maj

USPS AirMail Rate Information

Jan. 27th 2000

Lara just sent this to me, here is her schedule from now until she is settled in Zambia... until May 2000

-- Lara's Itinerary

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2 pm: Report for Peace Corps service in Washington, D.C.
Friday, Jan. 28, 7:30 am: Assume job as pin-cushion and receive many many immunizations
Friday, Jan. 28, 6:05 pm (D.C. time): Depart Dulles Airport for Amsterdam
Saturday, Jan. 29, 7:45 am (Amsterdam time): Arrive in Amsterdam and train into city for 12-hour layover!
Saturday, Jan. 29, 8:10 pm: Depart Amsterdam for Johannesburg
Sunday, Jan. 30 (SuperBowl Sunday), 7:50 am (S.Africa time): Arrive in Jo'Burg
Sunday, Jan. 30, 11:05 am: Depart for Lusaka, Zambia
Sunday, Jan. 30, 1:05 pm: Arrive in Lusaka
Jan. 30 - Feb. 2: Peace Corps orientation in Lusaka
Feb. 2 or 3: Bus to Peace Corps training center near Kitwe in the Copperbelt Province
Feb - April: Training
May: Move out to site for two-year posting

Jan. 15th 2000

My sister Lara has joined the Peace Corps and is moving to Zambia on the African continent!

Lara hasn't left just yet.  She will be flying out of Washington, D.C. on the 28th of January.  After that, I should have some material to post into this web site to keep everyone up to date on Lara's Life in Zambia!

Until then, check out some of these tidbits of information that I've gathered for your consumption!

If you have any information that you would like to share, please let me know so that it can be included in this continually evolving site.

-Major