11/13/08

It's been a while since I wrote last. I think it was just after the death of President Mwanawasa. Zambian elections were held on 30 October. As Peace Corps volunteers, we're forbidden to express opinions on politics. I don't think we're forbidden to express opinion on our forbiddance to express opinions so I'll say I don't like it. One goal of PC is cultural exchange, for Zambians to see what Americans are like, and most Americans have opinions on politics. Instead we just appear apathetic, which I am not. Anyway, Rupiah Banda won. Upon hearing the news, I was overtaken by a wave of extreme indifference!.........

Work is coming along nicely. My field is ready for rain and seeds. I'll be planting the same stuff as last year, just more of it. It was considerably easier work this year because I'd maintained the land and weeded it. Well, half of it…the other half hadn't been maintained and had stumps, weeds and lava flows to deal with.

My farmers are doing well. They're helping each other with surveying, measuring, even building their ponds which makes my job easier but now I'm getting overwhelmed with too many farmers. I like it though, it keeps me busy.

My best farmer out here, George, harvested a couple weeks ago. He got about 10kg which isn't great, isn't horrible. I bought 2kg from him but instead of money, he asked me to buy him baby clothes next time I went to town. Well, I'm a smart man and three days later concluded that his wife is expecting. So the last time I was in town, one of the other volunteers helped me pick out baby clothes. But she thinks there's going to be a little half white baby in Kapeshi village. No idea how she came to that conclusion…ok, I do know how, but after knowing me for 16 months, no idea why she'd believe that.

Mwenso is doing well. He's a dad now too. He disappeared one night around 6 and never returned. I looked for him, called him, he didn't show. A man was selling bush meat and I started to worry, but a passerby said he was at Mr. Beselo's house. Mr. Beselo has a female dog. An ugly bitch with an underbite (I can say that, she's a female dog!). I think Mwenso could do better but maybe she has a nice personality (which I don't think so because she always growls at me). So I went to get him and he was lying down right beside his little pup. Mom was maybe 12 feet away. I called Mwenso and he came running but turned around about halfway because his pup started whimpering. It was really cute. Mwenso was torn between me and his new family. I won because I feed him. Yet another deadbeat dad…Oh! He also does a new trick. I put food on his nose and he balances it until I say ok and he flicks is up and catches it. A few days ago he held it for 45 seconds!

Emily Richardson came to visit me all the way from the states. Well, she came to visit her sister Julia who is a volunteer in the next province north, but they came to visit me at my site which was great fun.

I went to Lusaka in late September for my medical checkup. My liver's still there so that's cool. After that I helped the newest batch of volunteers do their shopping for the next 2 years, but none of them took my advise and bought 2 years' worth of fresh veggies. They'll be sorry…Since I was leaving 2 days later for a fishing trip it was decided I needed a mullet. I'd been training for this moment for the past 7 months or so and I was ready. It went well with my mustache I'd worked on and the cut-off jean shorts. I met my fishing buddies for dinner and afterward we crashed a party with a Miami Vice theme. Three of the four of us had cutoff shorts though I don't think it was ever discussed, just a natural thing to do. We looked ridiculous and put the party host to shame with our awesomeness.

The next morning we hitched south for our attack on the Zambezi. The last few km of the trip a crazy drunk lady offered us a ride. I ended up driving which was a good idea. We set up camp, cooked a delicious dinner of steak in a mushroom and garlic cream sauce and baked potatoes. We spent the next morning holding fishing poles beside the river. We decided it was better to take baby steps. Once we got the appearance of fishermen down, we decided to start catching things. That was the evening's plans. So we caught some baitfish- 4 small catfish. The plan for the next morning was to cast our lines with baitfish on the end. We understood the importance of crawling before walking. You don't just show up on the 'Bezi and say "I'ma catch me some tigerfish!" But just after we decided to start catching them, one of my group got a call from the bosslady…Busted for being AWOL. So we packed up, hitched back to Lusaka. He had his meeting while I had a pizza. His punishment? Not allowed to leave his district until forever…Foreverrr…FOORRRRREEEVVVVVEEEERRRR…

We had our yearly (sometimes) Lala tribal festival here in Lala land. Being some of the laziest people ever (the name lala means to sleep) last year the festival never happened. This year wasn't great. Just a lot of drunks trying to buy my white female friends from me to take as wives. I have SO many goats now!

As always, I had to say goodbye to some friends since the last email. At least 7 PCVs have left—either finished service, were medically separated or quit to go home and find out that the grass isn't really that much greener. I'm still considering extending my time here, but there are times I've decided that no way am I going to extend. My grandfather died in October and I really would have liked to have been there with him and the family. I've heard of several friends getting married, buying houses or starting real life, though I hate to say it, I'm a little jealous. But I consider the problems with our economy, port job market and our ridiculous dependency on well…everything- convenience, oil, electricity and suddenly my hut is more of a home.

I'm planning a nice little vacation to Lake Malawi for Christmas. Then down to the coast of Mozambique (where I hear its very nice to spend a week or two, according to Mr. Bob Dylan) for New Year's and to meet Lou and Astra and we'll travel through Swaziland into South Africa.......

It's an interesting time to be in Africa. Political changes in South Africa after their president resigned..... And then there's Kenya celebrating the US elections and of course we had our Zambian elections.

I'd have loved to be in Kenya for our elections. They took a great deal of interest in the outcome, just as I and many other volunteers did. We had a big party in Mkushi to watch the updates. Good times.

Well, I'm bored with this as you probably are too. But in closing I'm going to list my ideas for post PC life that I'd like your input on. Should I 1) Build a raft and raft the Mississippi Huck Finn style? 2) join a band of Somali pirates? (They're having a decent year, unlike the Pittsburgh Pirates last season) 3) Wonder aimlessly around the world until I find something to keep my attention? 4) NGO work (maybe in Ethiopia if that guy ever responds to my email)? 5) Find a real job stateside? 6) Teach English in Asia? 7) Spend another year in Zambia? Please say #2!

Take care and please keep in touch. I'd love to hear what's going on at home

8/26/08

Wouldn't you vote for me? I would

Hello again. I hope that everyone is doing well. I sure am. I've had an interesting couple of weeks since the last time I wrote. I don't really remember when that was, or what I wrote about. I think it was just after the 4^th of July and I'd just returned from a long weekend of camping at Mutinondo Wilderness. Then went in to Lusaka to see some friends ring out (PC slang for their closing ceremonies). After that, I went back to my site and did some stuff there. I finished wiring my light which is pretty sweet. I don't use it much; I prefer candlelight but I just think it's cool to have.

It's hard for me to remember what I did without my journal in front of me. Everything kinda runs together. It's already August. I just completed a year at site which I celebrated by not being at site. At the end of July, we got our newest batch of trainees in. It's an exciting time when we get newbies. My group was the newbie group for a long long time then we got two more sets in the matter of a couple months it seems. So now it's like I'm a junior in high school with the senior class graduating in April and my class in August.

I got to host 5 newbies for their first site visit or as some people refer to it as the demystification. It's to show what Peace Corps is really like. When they arrived I wanted to be seated in a throne with a big headdress on with a fire blazing in front of me and the local children kneeling with their hands on the ground in your typical praising position with another child fanning me with a banana leaf, maybe a pig head on a pike and some kind of sacrifice happening nearby, human or otherwise. But I never got around to it. So the 5 newbies enjoyed themselves. We saw a few ponds, went on some hikes, stumbled upon what I'd bet 5 newbie lives on were 2 mambas mating and the next day a third one that was enjoying the single life.

After they left I did more stuff around site for about a week before I set off for Livingstone. But ended up turning around and heading back to site after about 100km. I hung out at site for 3 days and took off for Lusaka where I had to get bloodwork done to see what kind of damage these TB pills are doing to my liver. I've been told my liever enzymes are doing well. I've always prided myself on my enzymatic awesomeness.

I spent all of next week in Chongwe assisting with training the newbies. Monday and Tuesday was all about fish farming—making flipcharts, A-frame levels, staking ponds and such. I really enjoyed it. Wednesday was their homestay day (ie a free day for me to spend watching movies and eating fried foods in Lusaka). Thursday I held a session about the benefits/drawbacks of volunteers having their own gardens (free veggies!/ Hoein' ain't easy). On Friday, I went back to Lusaka with the other trainers to get fingerlings for the training ponds. Saturday was slow to start with but picked up mid day when I got to go to the airport to pick up my friend Emily who came to visit her sister Julia who is a volunteer here in Zambia. We got a bite to eat and then it was back to Chongwe for the night. I left on Sunday to attend the viewing of our late president, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa who passed away on Tuesday morning after more than a month of life support. He had a stroke while in Egypt and never recovered. When I got to the showgrounds, the only place large enough to support so many people, the lines were ridiculously long and I gave up. People had been there for 1½ hours and didn't make any headway before turning around. So I went to a friend's barbeque instead. Not quite as culturally sensitive but it was enjoyable.

The death of the president has left many of us in a state of unknowing. No one seems to know who the next president might be. For the next three months the vice president will be acting president, but because he is appointed and not elected we will be having elections after 90 days.... It'll be an interesting time to be here in Zambia for sure. I just hope everything stays as peaceful as it is.

Update on the best letter contest—Keighty is winning in the non-Becky division, with Kimmy in second place. And in the Becky division, Becky is winning.

That's all for now. No crazy costume parties recently.

7/11/08

Happy 4^th of July! I hope your cookouts were delicious and fireworks were explosive. Or vice versa.

I have lots of interesting things to write about, hopefully you'll find them as interesting as I do. It's nothing too exciting. That doesn't mean you should stop reading though)

At the beginning of June we had our provincial meetings/party. To kick off the meetings, we had an Iron-chef competition. The secret ingredients were soya pieces (meat protein replacement, much better than tofu), bananas, and avocados. My team won. We made an appetizer, two mains, and a desert. I don't want to use the word "best" to describe my orange chicken flavored soya pieces, but I really don't think there's another suitable word. After our meetings, we had our party and we always have themes for our parties. This one was Cowboys and Indians. We can get pretty creative with our costumes. Once again, for lack of a better word, mine was the best. I'm not going to go into details but I will say that my costume was homage to Brokeback Mountain. It included a strategically placed dummy. My boss found it funny, but it made for an awkward first introduction for the bosslady from another program. The next day it was off to Lusaka.

We had our Mid term evaluations which is Peace Corps for Medical Exams, program meetings, and partying. Maybe a 20-20-60 breakdown, but it means that we're about halfway done. The meetings were to reflect/report on our accomplishments, what we plan for the next year, and for me to fall asleep in the middle of a meeting with the top people in Zambia's Department of Fisheries. Not my fault though. 1) The meeting was boring and 2) I'd just gorged myself on a huge cheeseburger and fries.

The medical exams went all right, though I tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis. So that means that now I have to take pills everyday for 9 months and go to Lusaka every 4-5 weeks for bloodwork. And if I drink any alcohol, even a single drop as I'm told, my liver will explode. Hey, could be worse. Instead of having a social-life threatening disease, it could be life threatening. I could have Ebola Virus. I bet then you'd write. I know we're supposed to maintain "medical confidentiality" and telling 150+ friends and acquaintances isn't exactly confidentiality, but it's not like I'm admitting to you that I got crabs AND the clap from that hooker at Alpha Bar (…and she wasn't even that hot).

After Lusaka I went to site for a week and back to Serenje to arrange for transportation for a fish transfer to my farmers. Coincidentally, we were having our going away party for the 5 volunteers leaving soon. The theme for this one was gameshows (specifically 70's). We had a very competitive Family Feud with questions pertaining to life in Zambia. (Thirty Zambians were surveyed and asked which is the best alcohol that comes in a plastic sachet? And the survey says Double Punch. Hands down). My costume got a lot of laughs from lots of folks. Plaid trousers pulled up high, red polo shirt with a tie, combover, and mustache. When the game started, the tie was removed and the trousers came off (I had red shorts on underneath), my hair was put into a top-pony tail, a W on my chest and a No $ sign on my back. I was one-half of a double whammy with Kathy completing the duo. No whammy, no whammy, no whammy STOP!

I'd mentioned to one of my fellow volunteers that I wanted to put a lightswitch attached to nothing on my wall. Because I'll be hosting the new trainees, he bought me one to trick them with. I put it on my wall but then got the motivation/inspiration to wire a light in my hut. So I did. Now there's a usable lightswitch attached to a bicycle headlight and a battery pack. The wires are too short to be useful, but I just bought some new wires and I'll do it properly. Next, maybe running water.

The fish transfer went surprisingly smoothly. My farmers are doing well. Work has stalled for a few, never started for a couple, but the ones who are working are doing splendidly!

Because of the holiday this weekend, a friend and I decided to go camping. We went to a beautiful place called Mutinondo Wilderness. We went horseback riding, canoing, mountain biking (more for transportation to the campsite than for pleasure, but it was still fun), hiking, found some rock art (accidentally while lost), and read our books on some rocks in the middle of the river. Great weekend. I even found some lion tracks about a km from the site.

Every Peace Corps Volunteer has their primary project. Mine is fish farming. We are also expected to have our secondary projects. Good volunteers have their tertiary or quaternary projects. Mine have included the chicken vaccine and the library, but the most important side project was narrowing down my Grateful Dead playlist from something like 180 songs to my favorite 30. Literally I'd been working on this for months. I was also deleting duplicate songs from my MP3 player. Tragedy struck when I got to Right Said Fred "I'm Too Sexy." When deciding which version to delete (yep, I had 2 copies—I guess that's a tragedy in itself), there was an error which deleted ALL of my playlists and ALL of my pictures. And it won't let me add new music or make new playlists. Now, for the life of me, I can't find "Luckenbach, Texas" by The Highwaymen and I really wanna hear it). So if anyone has an old MP3 player loaded up with stuff you know I'd like (most anything) just sitting around collecting dust because you just got a new Ipod that holds 80 million songs (because 60 million just isn't enough), plays videos and a programmable laser light show, I'd be happy to find a loving home for ol' dusty. (Mine still works; I love it but like when a girlfriend gets an ugly haircut it's not quite what it used to be and I love it a little less. Just kidding, just kidding).

I'd like to announce that Kimmy is currently winning the best letter contest in the "Non-Becky Category." Runners up include Laura and Carly. Becky is winning uncontested in the "Becky Only" category, having written every week for more than a year. And the Zambian postal services were kind enough to deliver all but two! I don't think they were as generous in delivering all my packages. (I just got my birthday package from the USDA Lab. It and some CDs from Dr. C have been sitting in the post office since February. They complain about PCVs not picking up packages, but they don't give us our notices.) A few people said that they were going to send me something (and I believe them) but they've yet to show up. So if you've sent something and not yet gotten a response from me thanking you, let me know and I'll inquire at the Post Office. Some mail genuinely takes a long time because it gets sidetracked and distracted, forgetting it's on a mission and takes a holiday in Indonesia for a couple weeks. It's been known to happen.

So please write. I'd love to hear from you. Even emails. I'm getting a phone with internet from a departing volunteer so I'll be able to check email in my hut (!). But it's always nice to get letters, especially those that contain pictures. And only mailed letters will be considered for the "Best Letter Contest." (Entries must be postmarked by October 31^st and the winner will be announced after January 1^st…but that doesn't mean you should stop writing…ever.)

Hope all is well at home. I miss you all.

time to announce the winner (it ISN'T you)

April 26, 2008~
It's been a while since my last email. I don't even know when that was. Sometime in February I'd imagine. I think the last one was just me saying nothing interesting has happened in the past month since returning from Zanzibar…in case I didn't send this supposed email, I'll recap. Nothing happened. Not until March. Most of the month of February was spent working diligently with my farmers aside from a week long trip to Mike's site in the Copperbelt. It was a beautiful place, a couple km from Lake Kashiba, a sunken lake with a bottom more than 300 meters deep- on the sides (or so I've heard). After returning from Mike's, I started my preparations for Amanda's visit which were mostly cleaning, weeding, and slashing the yard which is essentially cutting the grass with a slightly sharpened 9 iron. On the morning of March 6, I picked up my sister, Amanda, at the airport in Lusaka and we went to Eureka Campground where we took a bushwalk through the brambles and weeds as tall as we are. Amanda saw her first wildlife there (besides drunken amaguys)- giraffes. We saw many others later, but isn't that a great introduction to Africa? Then we searched for monkeys for about an hour before giving up. As we returned to the chalet, we saw about 900 monkeys hanging out at the carpark. Mostly smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and listening to Skynyrd blasting from a lifted pickup. Wait…nope, that was last time. This time they were jumping around from branch to branch. The next day was a nice easy day at the zoo. Amanda got to enjoy her first mini bus experience then her first hitch hike with a nice grandmother who was late for church, but still wanted to show us around her neighborhood. We spent the night at my friend's house and departed the next morning to go North to Chimfunshi where there's a sanctuary for chimps who were captured and smuggled to enter the pet trade. There's one who was rescued from a life of alcoholism and cigarette smoking (no Skynrd, hence the need to be rescued) as a form of entertainment. We got to play with the chimps for a couple hours. They ranged in age from a year and a half to more than a year and a half and in size from small to freakin' huge. I got peed on. They're amazing climbers and are ridiculously strong. Each one had its own personality. Dominic, the youngest, was hyperactive and is in training to be the next Chuck Norris continuously practicing his roundhouse kicks. Gus was too cool for school. Alice was the mature one with a grandmotherish side to her and would play with Dominic until she got tired then retire to a branch too high for him to climb to. After leaving the sanctuary, which is also home to Congo African Grey parrots also rescued from the pet trade, we headed to Kapisha to find the "hot springs." It was an adventure. We didn't know where they were, and apparently neither did the locals. "It's close, just there." We'd go just there, and no hot springs. The next local would point to where we came from and say "It's just there" and well…no it's not. We ended up at an open pit mine that reminded me of the American southwest. So we gave up and ate some porkchops. All in all, I'd call it a success. We headed back to Lusaka where my boss picked us (Amanda, the district Dep of Fisheries officer, and me) and drove us out to my site so that he could do his site visit. We met with some of my top farmers, checked out a pond, talked about what I'm doing here and they departed leaving Amanda and me at my house. We hung out there for a couple of days. I took her to my hill, to the school where the children were playing soccer and netball in honor of World Youth Day. While the boys played, the girls sang and danced their way around the field. It was good fun and I think a good portrayal of children's life in the village. Our time in the village ended too early. Amanda didn't want to leave and was just getting the hang of how we do things. I don't know if she didn't want to leave because she liked it or because she knew that leaving would entail biking 18 km. We took the easy long path instead of the hard short path, which I actually enjoyed and decided I might change my route. We got a ride from a few crazy birders from Holland, caught a bus, caught another bus, and arrived in Southern Province in the town of Choma where we stayed at the PC house. The next morning we checked out the Choma museum and hitched a ride to Livingstone in a big rig carrying 35 tons of copper to South Africa. Then we caught our first glimpse of the massive Victoria Falls. You can see the mist of the falls kilometers away from the actual falls. It's impressive. I'm sure you're bored by now…even me. We went to Chobe in Botswana where we did a river cruise followed by a game drive, saw millions of impala, some giraffes, some lions, antelope of many varieties, hippos and the only elephant we saw in the park was dead in the water and being devoured by crocs. We took a microlite flight over the falls. A microlite is essentially a motorcycle with wings. It's an open seat with a rear mounted motor and prop and now I know what I'm doing with my readjustment allowance. They can be bought for $6,000 or less (so I've heard). The flight was amazing, giving viewpoints only seen from the sky, including a few elephants. We saw the falls from every angle on the Zim and Zam side and even at night, which on a full moon you can see a rainbow. We also went on a walk with lion cubs. Cubs which weigh twice as much as me but they were just like huge housecats which they advise you not to think as you're petting them. I think my favorite part of the trip was the adrenaline activities. I got a package deal which included a flying fox (essentially a zipline where you're attached from the back and you run down a runway into nothingness and zip ¾ of the way across the gorge at a relatively slow speed), a zipline (hooked from the front and zipping downwards at 120-140km/h) and my favorite the gorge swing (a 70m free fall attached to some cables which transitions you into a smooth swing back and forth 40m above the rolling river). We also spent a lot of time in the markets. I made as many friends as I could and by the time we left, all the shopkeepers knew my name. It was fun. We definitely had our favorites and they got most of our business. I even directed others to their stalls. After Vic Falls, we went to Chongwe to visit my host family for Easter. We stayed at Erin's Lodge in essentially a storage closet with 2 beds, but it was close to the Mwansa family. On Sunday morning we met them for church which was held outside in the hot sun and was long long and in Nyanja. I understood maybe 5 words but it was still interesting. After church we went to the market, got a chicken, then mom cooked it up and it was delicious. We spent that night in Lusaka near the PC office so that I could do email stuff, but never got around to it. Instead, we hit up another 2 markets for last minute souvenirs. The second morning in Lusaka was Amanda's last morning in Zambia. We headed to the airport, she flew out to London then home, I guess…haven't heard yet. (Update: she's home). I spent the next 2 days in Lusaka seeing movies, bowling and eating. Now I'm at the Serenje house waiting until I can eat lunch and head back to my site. My new project is a library that I'm starting at Serenje Basic School and with the help of Mr. Calloway's Sudlersville Middle School class and a fundraising project of selling copper bracelets, should be able to fund the construction of bookshelves, tables and chairs. If you have books, send 'em! (Especially ones you think I'd like to read before I put them on the shelves) **Now the part you've all been waiting for:** The package contest has come to a close. I've decided to split the prizes. Dr. Connaughton's awesome package of junkfood, books, spices, baseball cards, games, etc won him the grandprize. Theresa's package of roughly the same, but not quite as good got her first runner up, and Becky's weekly letters warranted a prize too. I sent it all home with Amanda so she can ship them out for me. Much cheaper from Philly than from Serenje. So expect something sometime in the next however-long-it-takes-her-to-get-around-to-it. Thank you to all who participated. It was greatly appreciated by me (and my vulturesque volunteer friends). I'm trying to write each of you a letter, but sometimes, as with Angie and Ike, I've lost your address. It's not that I'm unappreciative or, well, even that busy…just lazy, forgetful, distracted…hey, what's that….
Also if you want to see some pictures or go back and re-read any thing to point out hypocrisies, go to http://patrickhorley.blogspot.com/
pat

Pictures from March

This is Pat's sister updating his blog for him. Enjoy the pictures of Chimfunshi Chimp Sanctuary in Zambia, Pat's village, and our trip to Victoria Falls and the surrounding areas in Zimbabwe and Botswana.


Chimfunshi

Bathing Shelter, Insaka (gazebo), Waking with George (a farmer and friend), Family, Cheering section at the school soccer game

Impala, Hippo, Giraffe, Chobe National Park, Botswana




Watching the Falls with the locals

Zipline, Flying Fox, Gorge Swing with Danielle

no witty subject title‏

hello all

Not a whole lot has happened since the last email. I returned to site for only a few days before leaving again for PEPFAR training. Not sure what it stands for, but it was a week full of AIDS education. Go on, ask me anything. I should probably know the answer. Not saying I will, saying I should. While at this training, we stayed in the Peace Corps house in Serenje, and two volunteers got sick from the mold and dust and just genuine lack of cleanliness that associates itself with the typical Peace Corps volunteer kind. One volunteer, Scott, was sent home because of an allergic reaction. But hopefully he'll return.

As I returned to site and got out of the bed of the truck I was hitching in, I dropped my pack down to the ground (as gentle as could be) then I jumped down but before I could move, the pack was run over by the truck crushing my camera. So no pics for a while. My sister is (hopefully) bringing one for me. Everything else was covered in veggie oil. I salvaged most, but a bag of Combos sadly was a casualty. Other things were broken too, but hopefully insurance will cover it.

Back at site, I weeded and weeded and weeded. And slashed the grass in my yard. But not enough to make the snakes feel uncomfortable enough to leave. I almost stepped on a green mamba a couple days ago, but I did a triple reverse back handspring and landed 15m away in the open field. (actually it was more of a shriek, jump and a run, but all the same). I started to build a dove coop. I'm getting some doves with plans of training them to carry messages for me to my farmers. Instead of bringing development, I'm taking a step back. Screw cell phones. They're unreliable and cost money. And, unlike a phone, if they don't work, you can eat them. My stove is almost done but I want to add a spit for rotisserie because I think my plan is destined to fail (hmmm strikingly similar to a cell phone).

So here I am at the PC house. I came in to help my friend Kathy fix her bike and to take pills for my infected wounds that just won't heal (and I think I have worms now too! YAY). But mostly because my buddy Rod said I had some packages at the post office. Today I picked up 7 (!) packages from: Becky (It finally arrived! Along with 4 letters), Walter & Keighty, The Bownes, Ms. Hain, Mom & Dad, Eric Ferree, and Dr. Connaughton who is currently winning the package competition by a few lengths, but I'm not closing the polls yet. Last week, I got packages from Theresa (2!), mom & dad, Amanda, my Grandparents, Ike & Angie, and my USDA coworkers. You guys really know what I like. I got a few cans of Old Bay (which go splendidly with my few cans of crab meat!), baseball cards, car magazines, candy (I've eaten more candy these past few weeks than I have in my entire "adult" life), a knife because Walter knows I like to stab and cut things and people, but I most enjoy reading about how you guys are doing so let me know. Don't leave that stuff out.

The other day, I was going through my goodies thinking how much I love my friends. And I got the song "Big yellow taxi" in my head. It's not that I didn't know what I had til I was gone, because I always appreciated you guys, but I don't think I knew how good of friends you were when I was still around. I don't think I took enough advantage of the time that we had together. I'd kill for another wing night or bowling night or even just to punch Walter in the face, because, well, we all know he deserves it.

My sister, Amanda, comes to visit in March. I'm excited for that. I spent a couple vacations touring around with my big sister, twice on her turf, once on neutral, now I get to be the tour guide, so I'm trying to put together the best itinerary that she can afford, for herself and for me.

That's all, nothing exciting this month. My next travel plans include going to Mike's site in Copperbelt. He lives on a lake where he goes spear fishing, cliff jumping, all kinds of things moms don't want to hear about. But it's ok, mom, because we're going to use needle drugs before we do any of it, so we won't even feel the pain.

Thanks guys, for being awesome…sincerely. I mean it. Well, some of you…you know who you are.

Pat

Happy Holidays from Africa‏

Happy Belated holidays everyone! I just returned to Zambia after my hottest Christmas to date and one of my hottest New Year's on Zanzibar Island just off the Tanzanian Coast. But first, let me rewind a little bit.

In my last email, I'd just finished my bout with dysentery and had returned from In-Service Training. Both equally as enjoyable. In the period between that and now, I've done quite a bit, so hopefully I can recall all of it, and hopefully you won't be too bored by it.

I got my field all ho-ed and planted. I haven't seen it in about 2 weeks but I'm sure that my weed plantation is booming. I've planted: spring onions, white onions, green peppers, chili peppers, garlic (hey, anyone want to make out??), cucumbers, carrots, green beans, sunflower, peanuts, pigeon peas and a row of moringa trees. Before I left, most had sprouted so hopefully everything will be ok when I return to site tomorrow. After a half day in the field, I like to spend some time relaxing in my awesome new hammock with a mosquito net (Thanks mom!)

My fuel efficient stove is almost complete. Hopefully by the next installment, I'll be able to give you a review, preferably a positive one. My hut now has a table! I'm movin' on up! Mwenso has been killing rats like it's his job, only thing is they're mostly in the field and I want the ones in my house dead. I bought a bicycle for my counterpart, George. He's paying my back a little at a time, panono panono. He's making some mad cash on the chicken vaccine IGA (income generating activity) and everyone is happy about the results. So he should have me paid off in no time. If not, I'll have to break his thumbs.

Perhaps the most exciting news, other than Zanzibar, was about 3 weeks ago. I had just biked out to the road where I hitch rides into town and saw that the police officers at the road block were teasing a bird. At first I didn't notice what kind of bird it was; I'd just figured it was a chicken. Then I got closer and saw that it was a falcon. I asked them why they had it and apparently it had been hit by a truck not too long before I got there. So I told them that I was taking it. They said no, they were going to eat it. I repeated myself and went to the little market, got a box came back and took it. Suddenly I was a falconer, a weeklong dream come true. Literally. The week before I had a dream about being a falconer and then I thought "hey that'd be kinda cool." So I took it to the PC house in Serenje where I fed him meat scraps and chicken necks, but he didn't want that. He wanted other food. So I bought a slingshot at the market and my buddy Mike and I tried to shoot small birds to feed him. I realize that it's kind of hypocritical to kill many birds to keep one alive, but hey, it's the food chain (and fun!), but we didn't kill any. We did however successfully shoot a bunch of beer cans. So I took the falcon (named Fistcraft during a rousing game of Scrabble) back home and let him guard my kitchen for me. I like to think he ate some rats, but in reality I'm sure he just sat there, occasionally knocking my pots and pans over and crapping all over my floor. The first day, he tried to get out but I found him grounded about 200 meters from the kitchen, so I picked him up and brought him back. The next day, I had to go to Mkushi to get the vaccine (and to watch Monday night football at ATB Lodge at 2:30 in the morning). When I returned, he was gone. Nobody could tell me where he went or how he got out. Well, maybe they did but my Bemba just isn't bwino enough I guess. All for the better because then I left for Zanzibar.

Look at a map, right now. Find Central Province Zambia, then find Dar Es Salaam. Then think about a train ride from Kapiri Mposhi to Dar. How long do you think? Maybe 16 hours? 24? Can't possibly be more than 30, right? 48 hours after getting on the train, I got off the train. The ride was fun though. Very enjoyable. We had an impressive Peace Corps group of about 18. We had 2 first class cars together for 8 of us, the rest scattered amongst second class, so my car was the hangout place because everyone wanted to avoid the cholera, plague, and leprosy that is found amongst the second and third class denizens. (Ok, maybe not really, but 1 st class is substantially roomier and only about $4 more expensive). The rest of the car I was in was made up of a bunch of white people from around the world- Austrians, British, Germans, and all over the natural range of Crackerus honkeyii. When I asked the Austrians where they were from, they answered "Austria." I responded with "Ahhh….Austria, put another shrimp on the barbie!" They didn't think it was as funny as I or my friends did. We passed through a game park and got to see giraffes, zebras, water buffalo, warthogs, someone saw elephants and someone else claims to have seen a rhino but "it might have been a bush pig." Huge size difference. Hey guys, is this a honeybee or an eagle??

So we arrived in Dar, and got hassled at the train station. The man wouldn't accept our half price student rate tickets because he'd never heard of "Washington College" or "Idaho State University" or "Pepperdine." So it was up to my sweet talking to get us out without paying a fortune. I showed him my student ID, Peace Corps ID, and Andrew Jackson's ID. After a discussion of what Peace Corps does, he returned all 3 IDs. It's probably the first time ever that a bribe has been returned. We stayed at a nice hotel for about $12, ate a nice dinner and the next morning caught a ferry to Zanzibar. We got there around 10 then got a van to a resort. Absolutely beautiful. Right on the beach, nice restaurants, good swimming, good people, everything was GREAT! We snorkeled on Christmas Day, then feasted at night on squid, octopus, some kind of fish, veggie curry, rice, and all kinds of goodness.

The day after Christmas, I met a man from Ethiopia who is starting a Non Governmental Organization NGO with a focus on preserving the environment. He wants to get people using sailboats on Lake Tana instead of motorboats and he wants to promote fish farming. I told him that in a year and a half when I finish in Zambia that I'd like to work with him. He got pretty excited about the idea, so hopefully Christmas 2009 I'll be in Addis Ababa. Or maybe in the oceanfront house that I told our fishing captain that I'd buy from his neighbor. But since we got shut out fishing, I don't know how I feel about that house anymore. Other activities in Zanzibar included: Spice tour where we learned about the spice trade, snorkeling with dolphins and sea turtles, watching monkeys monkeying around in Jozani forest, museums, art galleries, and rockin' in the New Year with DJ Yusuf. Though my favorite activities were harassing shopkeepers or eating. Tim and I liked to mess with the shopkeepers and the guys selling stuff on the streets, asking ridiculous questions or making ridiculous offers and several times almost killing each other with Masaai warrior clubs or knives. It's made much more fun by their inability to understand English. They enjoyed it though for the most part. Not as much as we did though. As for eating, oh man….every night in Stonetown they have a seafood fest. Crabclaws, lobster, shrimp, shark meat, tuna, blue marlin, red snapper, barracuda, all kinds of delicious foods to exceed my daily recommended mercury intake. I ate myself stupid for about $7. And for anyone who has eaten with me, you know what a great deal that is. I also met an absolutely gorgeous Finnish girl who I hung out with until late. As we split a banana and chocolate pancake, I met a man who I thought was going to kill me simply for being American. He's lived a rough life; most of it on the street. In 2002, he witnessed his father being murdered and mother and sister being raped and beaten by American soldiers. He said he wouldn't feel bad about getting revenge on an American for what had been done. But after talking with him for about 45 minutes, he admitted that American people are not all represented by our government or our armed forces. He understands that we're not all bad people. I know that I'm a government employee and that I'm supposed to be defending the US government's name and whatnot, but I think that this cultural exchange is much more valuable, especially considering Bush's low low approval ratings. And it could have gotten both of us hurt.

The next day my group of 4, plus this beautiful Finnish girl, wandered around Dar Es Salaam. We ate delicious food and ice cream. I angered the owner of a Swiss watch store by asking if he had any stolen or fake Rolexes. He said something in whatever language he spoke (not English, not Swahili) then glared at me as if he was going to kill me. So then I thought it'd be funny if I went out to the street and bought a fake Rolex, took it back to him and asked him to remove some links or change the battery. Not more than 3 minutes after I said that, a man approached me with a Longines watch. I said "nope I'm only interested in Rolex." Then he reached into his other pocket and produced a wonderfully fake Rolex which I promptly bought for $4. But when I went back to the store, his death stare was even deadlier, so I opted to stroll past and buy a pizza instead. Great decision.

Next morning it was back to the train station. 40 some hours later, here I am in Serenje. I met a very pretty Zambian girl living in Lusaka studying to be a travel agent, so I hung out with her for most of the train ride. We exchanged phone numbers and next time I get into Lusaka (maybe as early as August!) I've got a dinner date!

Tomorrow it's back to site…5 packages heavier! I don't know who they're from yet, but I know I have 5 packages awaiting me. I also got 9 letters/cards in the past 3 weeks. One from home, Theresa, Carly, The Mitchell's, Maria (a PCV here in Zambia), and 4 from Becky. I'm saving them for my hut, but thank you very much!

Take care everyone. Hope it's not too cold (nor too warm what with global warming and all). So until next time, keep on rockin' in the free world!