Lisa's Friends Visit Her!

Some of Lisa's dear friends (college crowd that she went to Europe with, Guatemala with, lived with in college and later all moved to Seattle for the past year are teaching in Kenya and recently took a 5 day train ride to visit her. Here is their note that I thought you might like to read.

Sandy...
.we are back in Kenya... lamenting our departure from your darling daughter. we love her so soooo insanely much and words simply do not do justice to the amazing experience we had with her. she is healthy and let me TELL YOU has a village that is FANTASTIC. villagers stopping by her hut left and right to offer to fix this, or build that. they are so proud to have her there. her view is STUNNING and we can't wait to get you pictures somehow... or as soon as possible... (may have to be June). the first night we got there we stayed up till 430 talking... please rest easy know how excited the community is to have her there and how willing and present they are. she has a momentous task ahead of her indeed. one that is challenging becuase of the intangibility of the results.... but ulitmately she is the right person to be first generation in a site. she is motivated. we think that africa is going to be really good for lisa. she is going to come back in two years and be soooo relaxed. it is just about impossible to be uptight here... you can't and don't really need to stress about time and such.. so, great. :) we love you and spoke often of how much we love you.. you are so fun! thanks for bring our friend into the world. our lives are better becuase of her... and soooo many others. i know you are so proud.... know that we love YOU and can't wait to see you again soon sometime when we are not galavanting across the world :) love love love courtnae, ada and lori--

"We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between "master" builder and worker. We are the workers, not the master builder; the ministers, not the Messiah. We are the prophets of a future that is not our own." – Oscar Romero

Life in the Village...

Hello from the village in Africa (via my sister Linsey on her computer. Because I have no access to internet whatsoever, Linsey is typing for me as I dictate over the phone)! It's my second full week in the village and things are going really well. I am lucky enough to have had some visitors to help me get settled my first week. Ada, Courtnae, and Lori made the five day journey from Kenya to dwell with me in my little hut and meet my community. We had a ball and they were able to share in some firsts with me: my first community meeting, my first really intense bike ride through the african bush, the first time that I've taken the blood pressure of expectant mothers, my first two and a half hour Catholic mass in Bemba, and my first village dance party. It was quite a tease because now I'm adjusting to the village all by my lonesome, but ironically, as the only american that has ever lived here, I am rarely alone. I have a stream of constant visitors walking up the path to my hut, and there are always iwes (village children) sitting on my porch or peering in wonder at me through the bushes. My first three months at site are what Peace Corps calls "community entry", which is basically me getting to know not only my own village, but the six other zones in the area I am responsible for. My primary job is to support the decentralization of the health care system in Zambia. I'm here to make sure the chain leading from the community to the capital is in tact. My primary focus is on the Neighborhood Health Committee, which consists of volunteers at the community level who are responsible for the well being of their villages and for communicating their health needs up the chain. I have seven NHC's and my goal is to meet with each of them and discuss their activity and knowledge and make sure they're serving the communities. This will probably entail extensive health training with each group. I live within a five minute walk from the rural health center (clinic) which serves the seven zones of my catchment area. I'm also going to be doing a lot of work there and with the staff. What sets Peace Corps aside from other aid organizations is its focus on sustainability. Every project that I undertake, right down to the decisions I make on an everyday basis, should be sustainable so that when Peace Corps is no longer in the village, it won't be a loss for the community, but they will be able to function independently. This idea is what makes this process so long and difficult. For example, instead of facilitating a training to NHC by myself, I should instead try to train other members to do the talks themselves because that is more sustsainable. The health sector of Peace Corps can be one of the most challenging ones because it's hard to see results and we're really depending on the motivation of the community to achieve success. I know it will be a challenge but I am really excited about my work, I have definitely kept very busy. I don't know where all this free time that I'm supposed to have is. I think once I get used to life in the village and the way that things work here, things will settle down. I've been doing a lot of work helping out at the clinic, which serves around 2,000 villagers and has a 3-person staff. Last week I witnessed my first birth at the clinic, a seventeen year-old girl delivered her baby in a room with a table and a bucket of water, then not even a week later, the first death. It was a four year-old girl who lost the battle to Malaria, the second largest killer here in Zambia. Sometimes it is hard to strike a balance between the awe inspiring beauty of the culture I am emersed in and the feelings of helplessness at the reality of their hardships. Every day brings new joys and new challenges. Earlier today I was feeling frustrated by the crowd of kids that were staring at me, as they often do. I just wanted some alone time. But then a minute later I was laughing as they tried to teach me Bemba and help me as I sorted through my laundry. Norman Vincent Peale once said, "change your thoughts and you change your world." I found that to be so true. Every day and every situation is what I make of it. At the end of the day, I couldn't be happier sitting on the porch of my mud hut staring at the stars by candle light. Until next time, love and prayers from Zambia.

Lisa Graduates!

Lisa passed her tests, even the very difficult language test, graduated and is now an official Peace Corps Volunteer!! She is so excited and leaves tomorrow morning for her village (Mwamba), where she will spend the next 2 years. The goodbyes were sad for the group heading in a different direction and she says the Northern team is great. She loves getting your mail so please keep writing to her.
Sandy