Addendum
Fri, 23 Sep 2005 18:52:58 +0200
It's 0650hrs now, I was hoping to sleep a little longer, but with 37 (or so) of us here at one house, it's a little too crowded and noisy. This morning the meetings start, ending later this afternoon. A pig was purchased and killed yesterday, it's been roasting in a pit overnight and will continue to cook the rest of today. Yumm. That brings me to several points that I forgot to include in my first email, so here's (hopefully a quick) addendum.
Meat in the village -- it depends upon the village and the people there, but meat is a bit more rare than Amer. are used to. I have not yet actually eaten meatmeat in the village, but not really by choice, most of us become vegetarians while there. There are chickens and pigs and sheep and goats all over the freaking place, but they aren't looked at as food. More a status symbol maybe? Which is beyond ridiculous when you're going hungry. The chickens aren't proficient egg-layers, due to extremely poor animal husbandry (ie none-at-all sometimes) so I can't buy eggs in my village, but the word is out that I'm looking. Killing and eating a chicken is rare event, usually done when someone very important is visiting, but I haven't seen it done in my village.
*** as a side note, it just started raining here. 0657hrs 23 Sept 2005 in Solwezi, the first time since March/April? Bob mentioned that it was this time last year that it first rained while they had the meetings, so it's right on time. Maybe, if we're lucky, the rains will start early this year to help relieve the mini-drought.
I think it's stereotyped that sub-Saharan Africa is filled with wildlife. Not here. Such animals that are of any large enough size to be eaten, have been already. There are a number of National Parks, (maybe even the largest in Africa if the rumor I heard is correct of Kafue NP) and that is where we can go to see the wildlife. I'd like to be able to do that before my tour here ends.
While biking here, and daily for that matter, the children are obnoxious. Everyone greets anyone they see many time throughout the day, this is just their culture, something Americans are very unused to. The standard simple greeting literally translates to "how are you". However, they don't understand what they are saying, they are simply programmed in school to yell that at white people, expecting a response. If the white person ignores the yelling, they yell it faster and louder, and faster and louder, they even continue as you pedal out of earshot. Extremely annoying.
Okay, so now it is 1838hrs. It rained this morning, a clap of thunder 0711. This is the normal first rain date of Solwezi apparently. My house won't see the first rains for another week or two. It was very cool to walk through the rain and hear thunder, something I haven't done in many months and missed much.
Alright, so today was the Provincial Quarterly meetings. We spent 2hrs talking in our project groups, talking about what we're doing, what help/support we need, etc. Then we had a province meeting which was followed by committee meetings. It is a great support network here, because of what we're going through as PCVs, everyone is a friend and is there for support. Which brings me to a point I wanted to clarify... Bob has mentioned this to me before and it has been repeated today. The first three months are extremely hard, and everyone thinks about ETing during the hard days, after the first six months, everything will be much easier. So, yeah, I know, anything negative sounding in my emails will eventually be replaced by a busy schedule and progress. I just wanted to throw that out there.
It was discussed during today's meeting that PC/Z is unique in the PC/world. Most PC programs in most countries have shifted to more urban settings, teaching English, IT, ecotourism, business ed., etc. When PC extendees come to Z for a third year, they comment how they didn't know PC like this existed anymore; that is to say, it is so out in the bush, still working in villages and sub-villages. We talked about it as a boost to our morale, if we can survive this, it's an accomplishment. It thought I'd pass along this tidbit too.
I'm not sure what else I missed that I wanted to include. The Killers' CD was just popped into the CD player... a very good thing :)
I hope all is well at home, I've been cut off from any news for the last 10 days, so I'm not sure what's been happening. Take care everyone, and please keep the letters coming!
Thanks, love you all,
nathan
It's 0650hrs now, I was hoping to sleep a little longer, but with 37 (or so) of us here at one house, it's a little too crowded and noisy. This morning the meetings start, ending later this afternoon. A pig was purchased and killed yesterday, it's been roasting in a pit overnight and will continue to cook the rest of today. Yumm. That brings me to several points that I forgot to include in my first email, so here's (hopefully a quick) addendum.
Meat in the village -- it depends upon the village and the people there, but meat is a bit more rare than Amer. are used to. I have not yet actually eaten meatmeat in the village, but not really by choice, most of us become vegetarians while there. There are chickens and pigs and sheep and goats all over the freaking place, but they aren't looked at as food. More a status symbol maybe? Which is beyond ridiculous when you're going hungry. The chickens aren't proficient egg-layers, due to extremely poor animal husbandry (ie none-at-all sometimes) so I can't buy eggs in my village, but the word is out that I'm looking. Killing and eating a chicken is rare event, usually done when someone very important is visiting, but I haven't seen it done in my village.
*** as a side note, it just started raining here. 0657hrs 23 Sept 2005 in Solwezi, the first time since March/April? Bob mentioned that it was this time last year that it first rained while they had the meetings, so it's right on time. Maybe, if we're lucky, the rains will start early this year to help relieve the mini-drought.
I think it's stereotyped that sub-Saharan Africa is filled with wildlife. Not here. Such animals that are of any large enough size to be eaten, have been already. There are a number of National Parks, (maybe even the largest in Africa if the rumor I heard is correct of Kafue NP) and that is where we can go to see the wildlife. I'd like to be able to do that before my tour here ends.
While biking here, and daily for that matter, the children are obnoxious. Everyone greets anyone they see many time throughout the day, this is just their culture, something Americans are very unused to. The standard simple greeting literally translates to "how are you". However, they don't understand what they are saying, they are simply programmed in school to yell that at white people, expecting a response. If the white person ignores the yelling, they yell it faster and louder, and faster and louder, they even continue as you pedal out of earshot. Extremely annoying.
Okay, so now it is 1838hrs. It rained this morning, a clap of thunder 0711. This is the normal first rain date of Solwezi apparently. My house won't see the first rains for another week or two. It was very cool to walk through the rain and hear thunder, something I haven't done in many months and missed much.
Alright, so today was the Provincial Quarterly meetings. We spent 2hrs talking in our project groups, talking about what we're doing, what help/support we need, etc. Then we had a province meeting which was followed by committee meetings. It is a great support network here, because of what we're going through as PCVs, everyone is a friend and is there for support. Which brings me to a point I wanted to clarify... Bob has mentioned this to me before and it has been repeated today. The first three months are extremely hard, and everyone thinks about ETing during the hard days, after the first six months, everything will be much easier. So, yeah, I know, anything negative sounding in my emails will eventually be replaced by a busy schedule and progress. I just wanted to throw that out there.
It was discussed during today's meeting that PC/Z is unique in the PC/world. Most PC programs in most countries have shifted to more urban settings, teaching English, IT, ecotourism, business ed., etc. When PC extendees come to Z for a third year, they comment how they didn't know PC like this existed anymore; that is to say, it is so out in the bush, still working in villages and sub-villages. We talked about it as a boost to our morale, if we can survive this, it's an accomplishment. It thought I'd pass along this tidbit too.
I'm not sure what else I missed that I wanted to include. The Killers' CD was just popped into the CD player... a very good thing :)
I hope all is well at home, I've been cut off from any news for the last 10 days, so I'm not sure what's been happening. Take care everyone, and please keep the letters coming!
Thanks, love you all,
nathan
posted by nathan at 14:17
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