Friday, July 11, 2008

7/11/08

Happy 4th 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 31st and the winner will be announced after January 1st…but that doesn't mean you should stop writing…ever.)

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