Am I really in a Third World country?

Welcome to Lusaka where the playas play
And we ride on them things like every day
Big beats, hit streets, see gangsta's roamin'
And parties don't stop til' eight in the mornin'


Up to Lusaka to celebrate Halloween with the crew (last night).
The movie on the bus ride up here (China Strike Force) was so bad that Coolio was the best actor!

The first night we went to the Alpha Bar. One girl had a couple of guys following her, and another girl had something slipped in her drink and passed out in the bathroom, cracked her face on the toilet. We didn't stay long.

Yesterday we had Italian food at a great restaurant, went to a movie, had wonderful Chinese food and then we headed off for the Marine house, but we were too late for the party (it ended before 10.) So on Halloween night, we walked down a path lined on both sides with broad flat tress, eerie clouds drifting over the almost full moon - and no lie - bats flying at our heads. It was a fun walk :)

Some people left this morning, others are leaving tomorrow (including me). There's a huge event in Solwezi - CIST (combined in-service training) for our whole training group, both programs. Almost everyone is going to be there - the first organized event for all of us since April!
Gotta love Lusaka - way good fun!

(Original Post)

Rejuvenated

Been awhile

So the internet's been down for a bit - here's a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to write:

Here people tend to have two names, one "English" and one "Tonga". I thought Chipo only had that name but I just found out he has another, though I have no idea how this is Tonga. You'll have to know our family really well to understand why, but this is absolutely hilarious!!!! His Tonga name is: Barnabas!

I can def. tell I've gained weight - but I think I look better. Is that strange? ...maybe it has something to do with the fact that there are no mirrors ;)

Last week or so Ba Feya called me something I have never been called before. "Kwenya" Now of course I've never been called that before it's Tonga, right? except that in English it means "normal". Should I be offended?

Last bike trip to town I passed a guy riding with a coffin strapped to the back of his bike. If that wasn't strange enough, it was painted bright purple.

(Original Post)

A Bet

I forgot this story, somehow, from the party night in Kalomo.

Shane keeps insisting that I'm a lot taller than I am. A LOT of people do actually. But I always tell them, 'no, no, I'm five nine and three quarters.'
Shane didn't believe me and bet me 10 pin that I'm closer to 5'11 than 5'9.75". We marked me on the wall in the Kalomo house and measured it - exactly 5'9.75"! I win :) And now everybody's on the wall.

My dad is silly - "ice down your knee".... oh sure, let me just open up my freezer...oh wait, I don't have one, guess I'll have to walk down the hall to the ice machine - oh, I don't even have a HALL!

Mom, I sent you a letter today and I got the last package - woo hoo :)

(Original Post)

And we're back...

Our last night in Lusaka - we went out to the Irish pub. It was one of the bestest nights ever - I had 4 glasses of milk, garlic cheese bread, yummy soup - and then we went next door to get ice cream. I get my ice cream cone, dipped in carmel coating. I'm standing there holding my delicious yummy scrumptious rare treat, I turn around and EMINEM IS ON THE TV! It was so wonderful. I just stood there staring, didn't even touch my ice cream - trying not to drool. What a night!

We didn't stay in Monze the next night, made it all the way to Kalomo. Stopped at the Choma sports bar and played darts - I kicked vampire. Still lost some but I played well. We got into Kalomo pretty late and then had a fun few days.

We went impala hunting - Shane shot one right in the head! Saw lots of animals on the game ranch, impala, eland, zebra, waterbuck, etc, even ostrich! I decorated the bar in the house like my old walls in the dorm with magazine pics and everyone liked it :) And we hung Tim's friend's pic on the wall (Josie Maran) from a mag too.


The next day we had the first ever Southern Provincial meeting - really long. That night we had a BBQ with eland, impala, maybe even zebra - I don't know, didn't eat it. Great party that night - the whole Southern Province crew, Shane, Mateyo (now I've learned to spell it), Chris from Eastern Prov and a bunch of white farmers from the area. Everyone else got pretty drunk (other than Ariel, who's mormon). I had 2ltrs of milk :) I danced all night - until the old Indian guy tried to grab me and the farmer that took us hunting - Chesney - made some rude comments. But it was a fun time.

Next day it was off to L-Stone. Loads of fun. Hung out at the backpackers, played pool. Sunday we went white-water rafting. Shane, Josh, Amanda, Cathy, her bf Mark, myself and 2 German women from Koln were in one raft. We flipped twice - great time! Tim, Aiyisha, Ariel, Heather, Mateyo, Chris, Heather's friend Bryan and some other random ppl were in another raft. They flipped 3 times. Heather and Aiyisha and Mateyo sd they never want to do it again - wussies ;)

Today - back in Monze - tomorrow it's back home to Cheelo. I miss my Zam-Fam. It was a great couple of weeks - but I'll be glad to be back.

Hope everyone's well :)

(Original Post)

Thankful

LSK is crazy!

I'm in Lusaka - boy has it been a crazy week/end. I'll sum it up for you.

I left my hut at 04:00 on Thursday morning, had to walk the 1st 10k, too dark to see the road, even w/ my light - did see some little creature with glowing eyes, hope it was vegetarian, glad it didn't chase me!

A double-decker bus, coach bus and 2 mini buses later, I was in Serenje - arrival time: 19:00! What a trip. There weren't enough seats on the 1st bus so I had to sit in the baggage hold behind the drivers - pretty appropriate for a girl who took naps in an overhead storage compartment. It was actually nicer and more comfy than the reg seats.

Friday we had the party at Provincials =- Circus theme. This great crazy guy Steve was the ringmaster. He recited this poem about how much Central Prov rocks, just as he was finishing, Doc lit the fireworks and as the fireworks went off and Steve finished the poem, the circus music started! It was awesome!!! (Where do we get circus music in Zambia? My cd collection - hee hee. The fireworks, full size, were from LSK). We even had a popcorn machine and lots of food, 2 pigs this time. Great costumes, Spicer and Booze went as Siamese twins, had a special shirt made for it. There was a human cannonball, a half giraffe half woman, Joey - who's Philippine - went as a savage. There was a mime (not me) some clowns and all sorts of other great stuff. I was the little girl that goes to the circus :) Pink checkered dress (you all know it) white knee-highs, black mary-janes, pig tails with pink bows, a giant sucker I got in a package, the cute pink My Little Pony purse from Mommy and I had Daddy Bunny - perfect! Great fun - except I crashed early because the night before - when I had been up since 3:30, I went to bed at 3:30. Oh well.

Saturday we all got up late - I played cribbage all day and by all day I mean 6 or 7 hours. I only lose when we play teams. In fact, I've been labeled the best cribbage player in Zambia! (Told them they need to play Katrina or Daddy, they usually beat me.) Now, if I can just teach people Sheepshead.

Sunday we came down here - 16 people in the land cruiser, way way squished for the first few hours. We met up with other PCVLs at Kapiri-Mposhi and traded out some ppl. Then we were still squished but no one was laying across everyone else or sitting on the back of the seats and we could shut the back door.

Almost our whole training group is here and that was a great surprise. All the staff and PCVLs that have been around awhile say they have never seen a group with as much commradarie as our group. We rock!

Yesterday we had meetings - I got to be on a committee which means not only do I get input - I didn't have to take ANY vay-cay days to be here and I got paid to be her (per diem K65,00!). Sweet!

Since there's a lot of volunteers here, there are a lot of ppl to still meet. Yesterday Spicer introduces me to this guy Matteau (who's really full of himself and supposedly every girl here wants him) by saying this: "This is ------, she has the best breasts in our group." Thanks Nikki! yi! Not exactly a good way to meet someone - plus she's full of it, there are way too many great sets in our group to say that about me. But Spicer insists and has even started giving her reasons accompanied by descriptions of me and others - oh dear.

The place we went to dinner not only had great food - it had pina coladas!
And then last night we all went out to a bar - over ran the place, about 40 of us (10 in 1 cab). The bar had Jack! Ouch. Here you have to buy the soda and the liquor separate and mix yourself. Jack doubles = K20,000. Coke = K3,000. I had 6...hmmm...bad me. After the 3 pinas at dinner and that, not pretty. Well, everyone here thought they'd never see that and they prob won't see it again. At least most of them were so gone they won't remember. Emily can attest to how little I actually drink like that (unlike her, hee hee.) But I probably shouldn't have told Tim I wanted a lap dance - oh well, at least he's cute, and more importantly, has a sense of humor.

Today is just chilling for me. Tomorrow we head to Monze for a night (not all of us just the So crew, Shane and a few partiers). Then Kalomo for a few nights and then on to Livingstone - We're going white water rafting again!!! WOO HOO! And this time of year they start right at the bottom of the falls. Kick vampire. Oh - Katrina, I've got ppl here saying vampire now :) After that, back to Kalomo a bit then back to Monze and then finally back to my Zam-Fam. I miss them.

So everyone can see just how much traveling this all is, here's a Zam map site: The maps are a bit odd but I had to find some with the cities. http://www.zambiatourism.com/welcome.htm To see where I started select the Southern Map, to see where I passed through select Central and to see where provincials were in Serenje, select Great North Road. :)
Hopefully I'll update again soon(er than last time)


Mom, this website is for you and Kaite: http://www.zambiatourism.com/

(Original Post)

Crazy