Hello From America-land!

My family flew me home for the holidays! To be honest it’s a bit strange, I wasn’t expecting a trip home until I was done with Peace Corps, but this has been a nice break from the bugs, and heat. So what do you notice about America when you have been living in Africa for almost a year?

• - THERE ARE SO MANY WHITE PEOPLE
• - THEY ALL SPEAK ENGLISH
• - Everyone seems to dislike color (compared to Zambia’s chitenges)
• - There is so much food!
• - Why do we need 400 types of everything?
• - Everything is so easy! Laundry you throw in a machine, you can just turn on a shower, and you can cook for on a stove.
• - There is constant distraction, tv, internet, ipod, radio, movies, etc.
• - You rarely interact with the actual climate, the air in our houses, cars, shops all have artificial climates.
• - America caters to everyone, I went to the museum of sex on one block passed a church and a palm reader on the way.
• - Transport is easy, if you don’t have car there are trains, planes, buses.
• - You can’t do anything without money

Most surprising of all was how easy it has been to come back. I was a bit nervous that people had moved on that I couldn’t just glide back into life. It has been very easy, from the moment my plane landing I have been surrounded by friends and family and they want to talk about Zambia more than I do. One of my friends actually introduces me as “This is Lisa, she’s home from Africa!”. Granted it’s a great pick up line “So I just got back from Africa…”

Anyway enjoy the holidays! I’ll be back in Zambia Jan 2 or 3^rd.

Camp GLOW!

One of the projects in Peace Corps I am the most excited to be taking part in is Camp Glow (GLOW = Girls Leading Our World). This is a worldwide activity that PCV’s around the world put on every year. It’s a girl’s empowerment project, which is something I think is very important for so many young women around the world. This year I came as a sort of helper/observer, next year myself and 2 other volunteers in my province will be in charge of organizing the camp (yay grant writing!).

This year’s camp focused on so many topics. Unfortunately in Africa girls are lowest on the totem pole. There are a lot of opportunities denied to them, usually their education. Worse is that many are in sexually abusive environments and have no one to turn to for help or even understanding. Things are getting better but it is still a huge issue. On top of that, they have to deal with all the same issues American teens do; acne, boys, getting their period, and weird body changes. This camp is a safe environment to discuss it all.

This year we talked about sugar daddies, prostitution, HIV, STI’s, hygiene, self-esteem, puberty, did condom demos, counseled them on sexual abuse, talked about staying in school, offered STI testing and on top of it all we got to do some rock climbing and canoeing.

It’s a really brilliant program and it is a pleasure to be a part of it.

Video of our slideshow!

Individual Photos Here