Greetings from Zambia. I apologize for my sparse correspondencelately, things have really been busy. Work is coming along ratherwell and I finally feel like I am getting the hang of the way thingswork here. I didn't realize it would take me 6 months to becomfortable with the work infrastructure in the village. I took theavailability of information and the basic organization of the statesfor granted. It seems like you can find out almost anything with thestroke of a computer key or a phone call, but here you can askquestions till your blue in the face and receive ten different answersand you wont find what your looking for until you have been around fora while. I understand now why this is a 2 year commitment. It ishard to become familiar enough with the system to work or changeanything in a shorter amount of time.

The work opportunities are vast here, especially in the health field,and it was overwhelming for a while to decide what to focus on. Itseems like every one of the 6 health thrusts (malaria, tb, hiv/aids,integrated reproductive health, child health/nutrition, andwater/sanitation) is a problem in the village and there are so manyprojects to undertake. After realizing that 33% of my areas childrenunder 5 years old are underweight, I decided to focus on child healthand nutrition. I asked all of my NHC's to form nutrition clubs intheir zone to support underweight children and mentor their parents onnutrition. I told them I would train both the NHC and Nutrition clubtogether on the health thrusts. Trainings are a big part of myproject and provide knowledge and guidance to NHC's and various clubs. A lot of the time people are a part of a club, but don't have theresources or information to make the club thrive. Some of my longtime NHC (Neighborhood Health Committee) members didn't even know whatan NHC was, or what their roles and responsibilities were.

My zones were excited about the project and one had a communitymeeting the next week, formed their nutrition club and we had a 6 daytraining the first week of September. I had to pull it together injust 2 weeks, but I had help from one of my counterparts in a near byvillage and a peer educator I met in Kasama, and the training wentreally well. It was 4 hours a day in the Kasonde Mwamba (7.5 k pastmy village of Mwamba) Catholic Church. It was an incredibleexperience and I enjoyed teaching very much. The 12 members of the NHCand the 12 Nutrition Club members showed up every day with the pensand paper I gave them and were excited to learn. My goal is to have each NHC participate in the next training so thatwith each zone that is trained, I am doing less and less facilitation. It is vital to have the club members become confident in spreadinginformation so that the health education will thrive when the PeaceCorps leaves the area. Sustainability is key.

The first training got the area moving and I've had multiple requestsfor trainings. I am planning another one for the second week ofOctober, which is the height of hot season and will probably be achallenge. I am missing the cool evening air. The days have becomequite uncomfortable and I have had to make multiple trips a day to thewell to keep my garden alive. I have tomatoes, onions, and cabbageoutside of my hut, and it's glorious to see my own produce sprout andgrow. I waited for weeks for my cabbage to grow in the middle of thegreen leaves that were sprouting and I thought it was strange that theballs in the middle weren't forming. I just figured cabbage took awhile until one of my neighbors asked why I wasn't eating it one dayand I realized it was Chinese cabbage. Here I was waiting for theround cabbage I was use to to form as my edible cabbage was dying. Iguess I have a long way to go in my gardening career. I willdefinitely not confuse my tomatoes…that's for sure!

During the dry season (April-November) the people of Zambialiterally burn the entire country. Instead of slashing the tallgrasses that grow around the bush, they simply light it on fire andevery night I see an orange glow in the distance as the fire rages.It's incredible that a country that is 95% flammable is set ablaze andamazingly kept under control. I still don't know the trick. One dayI looked out my window and saw the 15 foot flames a few yards from mystorage hut and prayed it wouldn't spread to my thatched roof. I'mjust waiting to come home one day and find my hut burnt down, butIt's still standing so far. The bush is beautiful right now, thehillsides are covered with turning trees, from green to red, to orangeand then brown. It's nothing like autumn in the states, but it's niceto see some color in the mass of green and brown.

I hope to get more pictures out to people and up on the blog, butI've had some unfortunate luck with my camera. The lens broke at theend of training and after sending it back to the states, paying tohave it fixed, and transporting it back with some visitors to Zambia,it was stolen out of their luggage. I am hoping to get a replacementsoon. Theft has been my biggest problem so far in Africa. I had mywallet stolen at a busy market in Lusaka and a few small items takenfrom my hut (soap, laundry line, ect). But overall I feel really safehere. My community is very protective of me, and if there is ever aproblem, the village Headmen and Chief get involved right away.Zambians have a very jovial in nature and peaceful spirits. It seemslike people know my name everywhere I go and I almost feel too welcomeat times. My favorite thing is to hear the kids shouting at me as Iride my bike on the dirt trails, "muli shani ba Lisa!" (how are youLisa), or "mulya kwisa ba Lisa?" (where are you going Lisa?).

I started to give English lessons to one of my counter parts, who isalready quite competent, but wants to polish his grammar andvocabulary. Good thing spelling isn't involved or we'd be in trouble. I found myself at a bit of a loss trying to dig into the vault ofthose jr high English classes. I think it will be a good opportunityto practice Bemba as well. We were doing sentence diagrams and aftermy example I asked him to give me a sentence. He thought and said"Lisa is very fat." I laughed for a good minute and he lookedconfused. I explained that though that is a compliment here (Ihope), it is quite taboo to call a girl, or anyone for that matter,fat in the states. I thought it was the greatest sentence he could'vesaid and it made me smile. In a country where food is scarce, havingenough to put some skin on your bones is a sign of prestige. If onlythey knew how obsessed Americans are with staying thin. What a world.

Overall I am feeling a lot more confident in my ability to access mysituation and create sustainable change in my area. I really love myvillage and am becoming attached to the people I work with every day.My Bemba is still lacking and It is one of my main frustrations, butluckily there is at least one person in each club or group I work withthat can translate for me. I hope to dedicate more time to learningvocab and hopefully it will start to click. For now, I am stillpainfully incompetent. I still long for home, friends, and family. Ialways feel a boost of confidence knowing that all of your thoughts,letters, and sentiments are coming my way. I am learning so much fromthis experience. My life will forever be changed by Zambia and I amthankful every day for this roller coaster I am riding. The ride goeson….until next time! lisa