Safari at my House!

Despite what the lion king would have you believe there are not zebra, lions and giraffes running around my house in the bush. I do however get some pretty interesting wildlife.

Black Mamba (The HOLY SHIT snake)

To be fair I get plenty of non death inducing snakes (currently snakes sightings at my house are 12). But I will never forget being cornered in my house by this jerk. I was minding my own business in the middle of a bright sunny day, going in and out of my house cooking when all the sudden right in front of my doorway was this HUGE snake just staring me down. Now I’ve become used to seeing snakes near my house, until recently I had a snake family living under the bricks near my house. I’ve even killed snakes before. But this thing was a beast, I screamed like a little girl, grabbed my hissing cat, slammed my door shut, and hid in my house until I was sure it was gone. I’m convinced it’s somewhere in my yard still…

Seki-Seki (Demon mice)

I’m not sure what they are called in English, but try to imagine a chinchilla and a mouse fused together. This thing is adorable; it also has the capacity to fill me with nightmares. They crawl around my roof at night and make surprisingly loud scratching noised. This isn’t an issue I’m used to that, however they laugh at you. I’m serious they don’t squeak they laugh, it sounds like in the horror movie when evil children laugh at you.

Scorpion Spiders (Kill it with fire!)

There are some big spiders in Africa, but none freak me out more than this guy. Despite not being poisonous they are super aggressive. These guys show up out of nowhere and run at speeds you cannot imagine and if you don’t see them they snap at you! I don’t know what is about them that I hate, but they are the reason I have declared a war against spiders…

Impashi (Not again…)

My house is plagued but these. Imapshi are also known as flesh eating ants. They appear from nowhere and come in the hundred to the thousand and invade. The ants actually march and war on other ants/termites. So every few days, I get thousands of biting ants appearing to attack the termites that live in my trees. The thing about Imapshi is that they don’t care what is in their way. Oh you have a house? That’s nice they will just walk up the walls and continue to go straight through. You have to arm yourself against them and try to deter their path. Your weapons: fire, ash, soapy water, boiling water, or a stick to pound the living crap out of them.

Widow Birds (OMG a dragon!)

I don’t know anything else about these bird other than they are so cool to look at. The first time I saw one I seriously thought it was a little dragon. They have beautiful long tail feathers, and the fly in this really graceful motion that you can help but notice. Supposedly they only look like this when they are in mating season, the rest of the time they look like sparrows.

Other Creatures:

I have plenty of other creatures near my house; I get chickens, goats, cows, dogs, my cat and Iwes (children).

How to Take a Bucket Bath

Having new Peace Corps Volunteers over reminded me of the first time I took a ‘bucket bath’. In PC Zambia, there is generally no running water so bucket bathing is the way to go. I remember before I came here I was somewhat confused about how you can take a bucket bath, so now being an expert I present a short guide.

What you need:

• Large basin/bucket
• A cup with a handle
  
• Water (My baths are literally one 10L bucket of water.)
• Eye of the Tiger

How to take a bucket bath:

1. Put on your game face and fetch about 10L of water from you borehole/well/river. (10mins)
2. Start a fire (10-20mins)
3. Heat half the water in a large pot to a slightly hotter than comfortable. (20-40mins)
4. Combine hot and rest of cold water together in basin. (1min)
5. Using your cup, slowly pour water over your body. Make sure to get your hair soaked through, and your entire body wet. (2-5mins)
6. Soap up, shampoo hair (I tend to combine my conditioner and shampoo here). Take care to not get any soap in the water basin the idea is to keep the water clean. (5mins)
7. If you need to shave, fill cup with water and set to side. Shave using conditioner or soap, using cup to rinse razor as need be.
8. Take cup and proceed to rinse, cupping water over your head and parts of body. (5mins)
9. If you lucky you’ll have a bit of water left over, pick up and dump contents over head. You’ll feel like a boss.

Alternatives -

Water Saving Option:

- When first wetting hair and body lean, over basin so water falls back in and doesn’t simply fall on the ground. Or wash feet first, and then step into water basin and cup water over your body.

- Then proceed to soap up and rinse outside of bucket. Your water will still be relatively clean for rinsing. And you’ll save about half or so of the water.

Congrats! You have now just taken a bucket bath.

One Year in Zambia

So it is officially February 2012, that makes a year of Peace Corps service. Well technically I think I was on the plane on Feb 1^st last year, but I’m counting it. To mark the occasion I got to host first site visit for the new RED’s coming in this year. It was a blast, I tried to give them an experience of everything. I took them to school to observe classes and talk to the teachers. My HIV support group came over to talk to them about working in the community. My favorite part though was making a huge Zambian dinner with Nshima, chicken, chiwowa (pumpkin leaves), soya, soupu, and potatoes. My counterpart came over and helped us kill the chicken (well the trainees did) and cook. The people at the dinner included teachers, villagers, my host family, my pcv neighbor, and the new volunteers – it was pretty great. It was really heartwarming to see all the people my village that matter to me in one place sharing a meal. Happy anniversary Zambia.

Women in World

We had our first meeting with the G.L.O.W. girls club; I have to say this has been one of the most rewarding parts of my Peace Corps service. 76 girls came from grades 5-9, and 2 Zambian female teachers came to help facilitate. Since this was just the first meeting we worked on the rules or the club (attendance, time, etc). But we already started talking about women in the world. It was sad to me to see that 90% of my girls didn’t believe that a woman could become president or hold a position of power. A lot of the village girls think the only thing they can do is get married and have children. The next meeting is called “girls can do anything”, we intend to talk about famous and influence women in history and talk about setting goals (long term and short term). So I plan on presenting a list of famous and powerful women:

Zambians:

1. Dambisa Moyo – Lusaka Born Zambian, now a international award winning economist and author. She holds a PHD in Economics.
2. Susan Nakazwe – Female mayor of Lusaka
3. Julia Rosa – Zambian born actress, famous on American Television.
4. 21 women in the Zambian national assembly.

Female Presidents and Prime Ministers

1. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka
   Prime Minister, 1960-1965, 1970-1977, 1994-2000.
2. Indira Gandhi, India
   Prime Minister, 1966-77, 1980-1984.
3. Golda Meir, Israel
   Prime Minister, 1969-1974.
4. Isabel Peron, Argentina
   President, 1974-1976
5. Elisabeth Domitien, Central African Republic
   Prime Minister, 1975-1976
6. Margaret Thatcher, Great Britain
   Prime Minister, 1979-1990.
7. Maria da Lourdes Pintasilgo, Portugal
   Prime Minister, 1979-1980.
8. Lidia Gueiler Tejada, Bolivia
   Prime Minister, 1979-1980.
9. Dame Eugenia Charles, Dominica
   Prime Minister, 1980-1995.
10. Vigdís Finnbogadóttír, Iceland
    President, 1980-96.
11. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway
    Prime Minister, 1981, 1986-1989, 1990-1996.
12. Soong Ching-Ling, Peoples' Republic of China
    Honorary President, 1981.
13. Milka Planinc, Yugoslavia
    Federal Prime Minister, 1982-1986.
14. Agatha Barbara, Malta
    President, 1982-1987.
15. Maria Liberia-Peters, Netherlands Antilles
    Prime Minister, 1984-1986, 1988-1993.
16. Corazon Aquino, Philippines
    President, 1986-92.
17. Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan
    Prime Minister, 1988-1990, 1993-1996.
18. Kazimiera Danuta Prunskiena, Lithuania
    Prime Minister, 1990-91.
19. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Nicaragua
    Prime Minister, 1990-1996.
20. Mary Robinson, Ireland
    President, 1990-1997.
21. Ertha Pascal Trouillot, Haiti
    Interim President, 1990-1991.
22. Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, German Democratic Republic
    President, 1990.
23. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar (Burma)
    Her party won 80% of the seats in a democratic election in 1990, but the military government refused to recognize the results. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
24. Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh
    Prime Minister, 1991-1996.
25. Edith Cresson, France
    Prime Minister, 1991-1992.
26. Hanna Suchocka, Poland
    Prime Minister, 1992-1993.
27. Kim Campbell, Canada
    Prime Minister, 1993.
28. Sylvie Kinigi, Burundi
    Prime Minister, 1993-1994.
29. Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Rwanda
    Prime Minister, 1993-1994.
30. Susanne Camelia-Romer, Netherlands Antilles
    Prime Minister, 1993, 1998-1999
31. Tansu Çiller, Turkey
    Prime Minister, 1993-1995.
32. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, Sri Lanka
    Prime Minister, 1994, President, 1994-2005
33. Reneta Indzhova, Bulgaria
    Interim Prime Minister, 1994-1995.
34. Claudette Werleigh, Haiti
    Prime Minister, 1995-1996.
35. Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Bangladesh
    Prime Minister, 1996-2001,2009-.
36. Mary McAleese, Ireland
    President, 1997-.
37. Pamela Gordon, Bermuda
    Premier, 1997-1998.

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.