Well hello there...

Time is funny. So much has happened in the last few months. The rains have come and gold has turned back to green. The bush has extended to the sky and the little dirt paths have been choked by the foliage. The critters have come out of hiding and the bush is alive with cultivation. Most of my villagers are in the fields from sun rise until the expected afternoon downpour. I am really enjoying life after a bit of a slump, and work is still moving. Unfortunately because of the world food crisis, prices of food have gone up so much so that we are unable to sustain the preschool with a chicken coop. DON'T FRET... we have transformed the coop into a beautiful classroom, and we are working on a new income generating project. We are trying to get a grinding machine, where everyone takes their maize to make flour for the staple food of Nshima. The closest one to Mwamba is 12k and people bike from many villages around us to reach the mill. There will be a lot of demand and it will not only benefit the school, but the surrounding communities. I am really excited about this new venture. We are trying to raise some more money for the extra costs and are going through an NGO that a former Peace Corps Volunteer and good friend of mine just started in the states and I, of course, will let you know how you can help.

I was fortunate enough to attend my second traditional pre-marriage ceremony in the village. I can't possibly describe the beauty and strangeness of this event. However, I will try to paint a simple picture. This ceremony is for women in the village who are about to be wed. It is a 2 day affair and the second day goes non-stop from 13:00-7:00 the next morning. It is exuberance, intensity, exhaustion, dancing, singing, drumming, passing and receiving of knowledge and ritual, all rolled into one. The ceremony I attended included 3 girls, all of whom were younger than me, who were to be married. They start in a remote location in the bush where a group of 'elders' who are maayos (mom's) in the community who act as the traditional teachers. They are accented with a white dot on their forehead and tirelessly facilitate the events. After events in the bush all return to a room totally cleared out except for drums and wall paintings. Through song, dance, drama, and wall paintings, teach the girls what it is to be a good Zambian wife. They teach about taking care of the household, drawing water, cleaning, cooking, birthing children, raising those children, and of course pleasing the husband...in every way imaginable. The climax of the ceremony is when the fiance's, and their parents, and the men's teachers, join the women and their leaders for the interpretation of the wall paintings. The most elderly of the women in the room will take a stick and facilitate the explanation of each picture painted on the wall. It is incredibly fascinating. The pictures range from the wedding day, the household jobs, cleansing of the body, to sexual positions. The explanation of all hundred pictures or so all come in song and dance form and take 2-3 hours to go through. This is just one small example of the endless hours of ritual. I ended up starting from about 18:00-7 the next morning and I was on cloud 9. After almost 2 years of living in Zambia, I was still completely in awe of what I was experiencing. I only wish I could've documented it so I could watch it over and over. The songs and beat of the drums transformed me to a magical place. The voices are so powerful and the energy infectious. Though many tribal traditions have been smothered by colonization and Christianity, ceremonies such as this one are still very much alive in rural areas. I just have to say that if you think a wedding shower is tiring, you have no idea what these poor girls go through. You can see the exhaustion seeping from them. By the end they have a hard time keeping their heads up. I am understanding, in very small bits, why the women here are so strong and unique. God Bless Zambia!!

Well thats it for now. Tune in next time. I wish you all the best of holiday seasons!!
lisa

Muli Shani. I have a few moments to send some love to everyone. Things in Zambia are still churning. Cold season is officially over and it isn't holding on a bit. The days have become quite toasty and I can't imagine just a few weeks ago, I was actually wearing long sleeves :). The land has become golden and my villagers have been gathering their dried maze to sell in town. Because we are using the village agricultural storage shed for classes, the preschool has been closed for 2 weeks to accommodate everyone's maize. We are hoping that the money earned from the coop will allow us to construct our own structure so we can avoid these closures in the future. The coop construction is going really well. The district agriculture officer has been supporting the project and the PTA has been working extremely hard. All 7,000 bricks have been cemented together and the roof is in progress. In other news, the official period of mourning for President Mwanawasa has ended, but people are still shaken by the loss. There will be an election around the 30th of October and a new leader will take over. I am interested to see what the elections will bring for Zambia. I am also thinking of everyone at home as elections there come close. I'll try to write again soon. Sending my love and thoughts..... Lisa

Hello! I am in Lusaka to help facilitate a training for the new volunteers. It was good to be involved and try to share some of my insight, but I am very ready to head back to the village. I just sent Lins back to the states last week and am officially in withdrawl. We had the best time. I am excited to continue work, wrap some of my projects up, and prepare for my replacement to come. I still have a year to go, so there's no rush, but it is good to think about things early. I am seriously thinking about extending in my village for an extra 6 months, meaning I will be home around Sep of 2009. It is not for sure yet, but I have a lot of work left to do, and I really love Mwamba. We were able to get a good chunk of the money we needed for the preschool and have started construction. This is very exciting, but we lost money on the exchange rate and were a few thousand short of our budget so my sweet mom is still collecting donations...wink wink :). It really feels good to see all of our work and planning come to fruition. The school is such an amazing place and it's nice to reward the communities hard work. I can never stop thanking everyone who has supported the project.
A few days ago, President L.P. Mwanawasa passed away and Zambia is in mourning. It is the first President that Zambia has ever lost, as the first 2 are still alive. Things here have been somber, but Zambians pride themselves on their peaceful unity, so no problems are expected. For 3 months the Chief Justice will lead the country until Elections take place. It will be interesting to see an election in another country as one is going on at home as well. It is strange that at the end of my service both pictures of the Presidents displayed at the Peace Corps office will be different from when I arrived. I welcome the change and hope it will serve both countries. Stay well.....

until next time....lisa

Sister Travel

HELLO!! Linsey and I are about done with our wonderful adventure. We started with a jaunt to Victoria Falls and then headed to my village. The falls were stunning and of course the village was wonderful. When we biked up to the school by my house there were hundreds of people waiting. The nursery kids were singing and the other village kids were dressed up in white paint and home made grass skirts to welcome her. It was overwhelming. Everyone was so excited to meet her. She loved the village, though I kept her busy with meetings and bike rides. We are headed off to Lake Malawi tomorrow for some relaxation and snorkling. It is really special for her to see my world, and to finally understand some of the things I've spoken about. I only wish we had more time. It is a gift to have her here. Hope all is well in your worlds!! I'll write more soon. Thank You again for your support, love, letters, packages, and donations. I always feel loved.

Mango Class

Milex Kids Dancing at Agriculture Show

Nursery Dancing

Teaching a Nutrition Lesson

Linsey Is Here!!!

Mwapoleni Mukwai Bonse!! (Greetings Everyone)..It is about that time for my bi-annual update. Today is an especially happy day because Linsey just came in last night on her 36 hour journey from the states. It is surreal to have her here and I am thrilled for our month together. I could not stop smiling when I started the 12 hour countdown to our reunion….ok lets be serious, the count down really started when she booked her ticket :). It is nice to have some vacation time, but I am always eager to continue work. I have been in Zambia for 17 months and am still in love with this place. I recently had a short period in my service where I wasn’t as confident in my role here. I wasn’t sure I was effective, or putting my energy into the right places. I was frustrated by some road blocks, was spinning my wheels, and felt a bit lost. This just goes with the job. One day biking from Mwamba to Kasama, I stopped for a moment and realized that beauty was all around me. I have such a deep rooted love for this country and culture and still muse at the small intimate moments that I wish I could share but only I experience. A child’s chalky bare feet moving though the dirt, the poised stance of a woman with a 20 liter bucket of water on her head and baby on her back, the men who attend my meetings in suit pants and tropicals (flip-flops) and their eager eyes as we try to work through their agenda, a red flour peeking out from the brown and green African bush, the laugh of the children as we dance by my house. The list is endless. At that moment, I knew that as long as I was still finding beauty amongst my frustrations, I was ok. Every day is a gift here and I will continue to cherish my time.
I want to thank everyone who has been so incredibly supportive of the Nursery School. I am again awed by the generosity and that surrounds me. Because the rainy season is approaching, we are forced to take the money we have raised up to now to get things started. This means cutting our budget significantly, but we will make things happen and are just thankful for the 7,200 we raised. My sweet mom will still be collecting donations, of course, so if there are any still floating out there don’t hesitate. The community is still motivated and excited to start building. They have molded about 3,000 bricks and are still working hard crushing stones and gathering sand for mixing cement. After the bricks are molded, the executive committee of the school will do a 24 hour burning to strengthen them. It should be an interesting process. We have been working with a District Agriculture Officer to make sure the coop will be successful. Proper chicken rearing involves a lot more than I thought. I always just saw chickens running around a little thatched mud hut and thought “how hard could it be.” But turns out, to run a legitimate business, there are a lot of hidden components. It has been fascinating for me to be more involved in these areas and further explore farming and agriculture. It is life here in Zambia. Other than the building aspect, the children are still eager to learn and coming to school in herds. We are all so thankful for this opportunity and also to the hard working teachers, who have yet to be paid and have put their hearts and souls into the education of these kids. I will try to post more pictures in an album if time allows.
For now I will be soaking up Linsey and enjoying our precious time together. Thank you for following my journey……Shalenipo Mukwai (stay well)

Lisa

Muli Shani!! (How are you?)

I just wanted to give you a quick update on everything. I am in Lusaka saying goodbye to my best friend here who has ended his service and is headed back to the states. There are so many incredible volunteers that cycle through each others lives, I guess I'm getting good at hello's and goodbyes. Things in the village are going really well. I am kept VERY busy with the preschool, nutrition clubs, the clinic, and my health committees. I want to sincerely thank everyone who has been involved in the school, whether it's donations, supplies, or support, I appreciate EVERYTHING!! We are currently clearing the land where we will build the chicken coop. Sr. Chief Mwamba, a high up Bemba chief for whom my village is named after, has given us his approval and allotted us a beautiful plot of land by the market. The village is also gathering stones and sand for cement, and starting to mold bricks out of mud found in a near by village. I am constantly awed by the work people do here to achieve things that are so commonplace in the states. The bricks will be made by putting mud into molders, then dried in the sun and burned with charcoal. We even had to make the molders out of planks of wood that were carried on the back of bicycles the 25 k from Kasama. The wood was so heavy, I could barely push the bike, let alone cycle it down the bumpy bush path to the village. Stones are found in the bush, crushed into small bits with mallets and carried to the location where the cement will be mixed. It is also harvest season and all my villagers are working in their fields and making the treacherous journey to sell their crops in Kasama. Life is bustling here in Zambia!! I am so so grateful to be able to experience this life, and see something change and develop that will impact so many lives. I wish you all could see the things I see and experience the beauty and struggle here. I am trying my best to keep you in the loop. Until next time.....loveeeeeeeee lisa

Milex Kids during outdoor activity

Boy from "Mango" class practiucing numbers
Mango Class
Latrine Break :)

Hello everyone. I have great news...my proposal for the expansion of a pre-school in my village is FINALLY up on the peace corps website. When I first came to Mwamba, I was invited to observe a class that Mirriam Mwamba, a local teacher's wife, had started the year before. When I walked into her tiny decorated classroom and saw how she interacted with the 7 eager kids there, I knew this was something special. Several months later the Mwamba's approached me and asked for my help to expand the school to accommodate more of the villages orphan and vulnerable children. The community was excited and supportive and our Peace Corps Partnership Proposal blossomed. Now there are over 110 students ages 3-7 who attend Milex (Mirriam + Alex) Nursery School every day. They are buzzing with knowledge and their voices can be heard throughout the village. We need help with basic supplies, classroom renovations, and construction of a chicken coop to sustain the school. Any donations would be MUCH APPRECIATED...you can help by giving online at https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=611-034 or go to www.peacecorps.gov under Peace Corps Partnerships, find Zambia and L. Sekulich. Any donations are tax deductible and we can't get any of the money until we reach our goal. I have attached a copy of the entire proposal here if you want to find out more. Feel free to e-mail or post any questions. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! And a special thank you to those wonderful souls who have already donated!!!

Im in Lusaka for my mid-term medical exams, which means that this is officially my mid-service mark. Hard to believe. I'm glad to report that I'm healthy and very luckily haven't suffered the various medical ailments I've seen in other volunteers. Strong Like Bull! This year has flown by and I have been kept very busy. The next few months will also be nuts as I work to raise money for my Peace Corps Partnership proposal expanding a preschool in my village, which I will write more about soon and be sure to bug y'all for donations :). Things in the village are good. The rains are tapering and the maize stocks are popping up. Mangos have finished but now the fresh maize is everywhere, which i LOVE. The village is lush, green, and soggy and my farmers are working hard in their fields. The season has brought all sorts of new critters including a few new snake sightings, and an ant infestation, which has come and gone several times. Luckily, my roof was patched so leakage is minimal and my beautiful yellow flower fence is in full bloom around my compound. I had a successful fish farming workshop and soya cooking demonstration in the last month and have another next week. It is hard to find good sources of affordable protein in rural areas and soya beans are great for that, but people aren't comfortable with how to cook with them and it is not a common village crop. A bunch of my nutrition clubs are starting to grow them this season, which I am really excited about. The groups LOVE cooking demos because they get to eat a lot of fun and new foods and also watch me struggle over the brazier. It's also a great opportunity to teach basic nutrition and empower the clubs to be more comfortable with giving nutrition advice. There is a lot of malnutrition in the village and people are really lacking accessibility and information. The clubs are always so grateful to have workshops, I usually leave with a barrage of gifts, banana bunches, sweet potatoes, maize, mushrooms ect. I am continually awed by the generosity and appreciation the villagers show. I want to end this post by thanking everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes and incredible packages. I am so LOVED and feel INCREDIBLY lucky to have such support! THANK YOU!!!!! nalimutemwa (i loveeeee you) lisa

Reflections

Time is flying by and my life is ever changing. It is time for reflection as I sit in Kasama on my second of three birthdays in Zambia. A year ago I was bright eyed and in a constant state of awe and confusion as I tried to take in all of the wonder and challenges of this new place. I didn't know what life in my village would be as I attended my bemba classes and sat through tech. training. I wondered how I was ever going to bring change to a community that was so foreign to me. I am still bright eyed and awed, but now my goals are becoming reality. As I become more familiar with my role and learn to weave through the complexities of development I only hope time will allow me to bring my plans to fruition. Mwamba has become my home away from home, and though I am often pulled out of the village for work and various adventures, and am often still flustered by the cultural differences here, I am always relieved to return to my little mud hut and the people and children waiting for me. I have learned to take what is offered around me and work with the skills and ambition that lies in my surrounding communities and to mesh that with my knowledge and my connections with home to enrich the lives around me. Though I am constantly striving for sustainability and change, I never fail to realize that the people around me have impacted me more than I can ever hope to impact them. I am truly living this life and it is beautiful to me. I am awakened by farmers planting their maize fields and children making their walk to school, tattered black uniforms and bare feet. I am kissed by the pouring rain and tickled by wall spiders. I always have dirty feet and finger nails, I feel the cool force of the sweeping river current. I stare at the rolling hills around me as I bike down the narrow red dirt roads that weave through the bright green bush. I am filled with the excitement of a health training and the sparkle in the villagers eyes as they answer my quiz questions or facilitate a lesson for the first time. My heart flutters as the children of Milex preschool sing in class and recite the lessons learned that day. With each joy the reality of the poverty of village life is still present. The sober touch of AIDS, malaria, and malnutrition is felt all around me. People live on. They work, love, laugh, sing and cry. The suffering and joy is life in the village. The support and love from home and the people around me keeps me strong and on my 25th birthday this experience, place, and the people in my life are the greatest present of all. Ever thankful... lisa

ps mom got 2 packages, havent opened yet but thanks...and lins SO GOOD to finally talk to you loooooove you!!!