Zambia LIFE

Yesterday I received a call from the Peace Corps Headquarters in Zambia. I had been expecting this call for a couple of weeks-- several people I've met on Facebook who are going to Zambia in the same group as me have mentioned getting calls-- but as the Day of Departure loomed nearer and nearer I gradually stopped anticipating the call and started focusing on other things, like fitting two years' worth of stuff into 107" and 80 lbs (plus a carry-on). I had thought of a a bunch of questions I could ask when they called, but I starting guessing at the answers so I could move on to the next thing, so by the time they called I didn't have anymore questions that I still needed to ask. Our conversation, while friendly, was short and a little awkward because a) the time it took for words to travel over the line meant a lot more pausing and waiting and accidentally talking over each other, b) as I said, I didn't have any questions left, so there wasn't much to talk about, and c) it was only nine in the morning, so I wasn't really mentally prepared to receive a phone call from anyone.

That said, it was really nice to receive a call from Zambia-- it made the whole thing feel a little more real, like I'm not just buying camping gear and getting my passport photos taken for kicks, because something is actually going to happen, I'm actually going to go somewhere. The concept of knowing there were people on the other end of the line waiting to meet me was really the greatest highlight of the experience. Here's what else I gleaned from the conversation:

1) bring sweaters/warm clothes, because it's cold there. I actually already knew this-- it says so in the Welcome Book that the Peace Corps e-mailed to me. Zambia is tropical, located just below the Democratic Republic of Congo, but it's relatively far away from the equator and on a plateau (hence the name of this blog), so during the dry season/winter (our summer, May to October) it can get down to the 50s during the day and the 30s at night. This is good news because I'm going to have to bring a couple of warm things (gloves, leg warmers, fleece jacket, sweater) just to survive the 2 days in Philadelphia, so this way the stuff I bring for the brief Staging period won't go to waste for the two years in Zambia. Right now it's summer in Zambia, a.k.a. the rainy season, and it is currently 72 degrees Fahrenheit with 100% humidity in Lusaka, Zambia's capital. It is also nighttime; during the day the temperature can get up to 80-90.

I've done some preemptive research on Zambia-- I've learned its location (landlocked, just south of the Democratic of Congo and north of Zimbabwe), its tourist attractions (Zambia shares the largest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls, with it's neighbor Zimbabwe; it is also full of national parks used for safaris), and its health. What I know now is nothing compared to how much I'll know about Zambia in a month's time. It's so strange to think how different my life will be then.

2) bring a headlamp. I found a headlamp in my mother's desk a few days ago, and I sort of wish I wasn't bringing it because it's one of only two things I'm bringing that runs on batteries (the other thing is my travel alarm clock), and my battery charger is bulky, heavy, and annoying. All the other electronics I am bringing (flashlight, ipod, shortwave radio) are wind-up, solar-powered, or can plug in to my solar charger. Even my camera charges via USB port and can therefore be "plugged into the sun."

FYI, if you want to buy a camera that charges via USB, buy Kodak. I bought a small Fuji camera on Sunday because the sales clerk told me it was USB-chargeable; it wasn't. I took it back, and the Best Buy people very kindly exchanged it for a red Kodak (I was thrilled; red is a much cooler color than black) that I had admired back on Sunday before choosing the Fuji. According to Best Buy, Kodak is the only company that makes cameras that use only 1 cord for both charging and uploading images (it comes with an adapter plug so you can also charge it in the wall like any other camera if that's your preference).

3) They speak English in Zambia. Ok, this one I already knew, I was just looking for an excuse to bring it up. Some of you may remember that I studied French for awhile during my senior year of college. When I was first nominated to the Peace Corps, the plan was to send me to a French-speaking African country (there were no spaces open in English-speaking ones), and in September of last year I was invited to French-speaking Guinea. Unfortunately that didn't work out, and I ended up being invited to Zambia, formerly the British territory of Northern Rhodesia. So the bad news is that I wasted a good deal of time and money attempting to learn French (and mostly failing) for no reason; the good news is, I will be going to an English-speaking country so I can focus all my language-learning skills on learning a local Zambian language (there are several, but I will be studying either Bemba, Nyanja, or Kaonde).

After staging, which is next week in Philadelphia and will basically involve 48 hours of paperwork, immunization shots, and intense bonding with my fellow volunteers, I have a long trip to Lusaka (we leave the hotel by bus at 2am next Wednesday morning, then take a plane from New York to South Africa to Zambia), followed by two months of pre-service training. During this time I will be staying with a host family in Lusaka. My first two months in Zambia will go roughly something like this: each day I will wake up with my host family in Lusaka and commute by bike to Peace Corps Headquarters. There I will have training from 8am until 5pm-- language training in the mornings, and technical training in the evenings.

My "technical training," in addition to covering survival training (how to purify water, etc.) and a cultural education, will be focused on forestry, agriculture, and environmental education. I am going to be part of Zambia's LIFE program (Linking Income, Food, and Environment), which means I'll be working in a rural community to promote both profit and sustainable agriculture through environmental education. Though Zambia's cities, like Lusaka, are highly globalized and modernized, I will probably be spending the majority of the next two years in a mud hut in a rural community. To be perfectly honest, I am looking forward to living off-grid, using very little electricity or resources. I may change my mind very quickly once I arrive, but for now I am excited.

Excited and crazy-busy. Just when I think I've done everything I need to do, I remember a piece of paper I forgot to fill out or realize that I've packed an object in the wrong bag. And just when I was thinking I was almost done, I get an e-mail this morning telling me I need more passport photos for documentation in Zambia (my adventures in passport photo-hunting are numerous-- I had some trouble tracking down a place for my Guinea passport, then again in London for my Zambia visa, then the Peace Corps lost my application so I had to search London (at Christmas when everything was closed) for the right store (and most passport stations in England make 1.5" passports, and I needed a 2"er) until I finally found one tucked away in a corner somewhere). I wish I had gotten that e-mail a week ago when I had a little more time to spare.

But like I said, this is the Peace Corps. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.