Muli Shani? (How are you in Bemba). It is my first of 3 birthdays in Zambia and luckily today is the day we are in Lusaka for internet use...boo yeah. I wrote a detailed letter that mom will post at a later date, but I wanted to give a quick update now. I moved in with my host family 2 weeks ago and it has been quite a change. I live with a woman with a heart of gold and her 4 grand children in a house near the town of Chongway. I am one of 3 volunteers that has an urban home for training because there were a shortage of Bemba speaking families near the training center. So I have a cement room near my families house with electricity and a tin roof. Living with a family is full of what I like to call trials and triumphs. It is incredible to be in a Zambian house hold, see how they live, work and eat. I am treated like a queen and a child all at the same time. Bamaayo (my mother) wakes me every morning with bathing water and tea. My 3 sisters want to carry my bags and my brother studies Bemba with me every night and goes running with me every day. I don't think I could go out alone if I tried...so no worries there. Because 3 of us live near the town, everybody seems to know everything about us. It's actually quite remarkable...the province we are in natively speaks Nyanja and Soli, but EVERYONE knows that the "mizungu" (foreign/white) girls are learning Bemba, so they speak to us in that language. People here typically speak 2-3 tribal languages and English. Speaking of....BEMBA is HARD. There are only 15 letters in the alphabet, EVERY word ends in a vowel, and every combination of letters is a different word, even the pronunciation of the same word can have multiple meanings...so needless to say language has been a huge struggle. I miss Spanish. It is however, an incredibly fun language....lots of fun letter combinations like njeleleniko (excuse me), and my favorite fosholo (shovel). Ohhh and another thing there are letters that should never be put together...like nj, nd, nsh, combinations that my mouth physically won't say. But it's only been 2 weeks, I will succeed! Living near the BOMA (town) also has its ups and downs. I am near the market and shops for sweeties (candy), but also near the LOUD cheezy bar music that blares all through the night and endless Ama Guys (Zambian dudes) that offer proposals (respectfully). People are incredibly friendly, almost to a point of innocently invading the "bubble" that Americans like to have. Just an image...me running down the tarmak (main road) with the Zambian sun setting in the HUGE sky and a PACK of kids running behind my brother and I. They love it. Some kids will run the entire 3 miles in bare feet, girls will run in skirts and flip flops behind. It's absolutely awe inspiring. I love it. As far as the future goes, I will be assigned a site at the beginning of March, be sworn in (after passing language and tech tests) the end of March and leave for my very own mud hut in April. I still have a LOT to learn and a lot of language to master. I will have a 2 week site visit in a month to a location near my post where I will meet my clinic staff and get to know my area. The first 3 months is community entry where I will basically try to meet the villagers and explain my purpose. It is nuts that I, and 38 other volunteers, committed 2 years to something I really knew very little about. As things come together I am more and more excited to be out in the bush working on decentralization and sustainable change....Ahhh there is so much to tell. so much to say. so little time! I will try to write later today (there is quite a line for this computer). Until then, thank you for your LOVE!!!!! Shalenipo Mukway (stay well)
lisa