Work, Mom, Wrapping Up

I know, I know, it’s been too long since I have updated my blog. Therefore, I will probably forget a few things.

Work:
One word: BUSY! Fish farming has taken off…finally. I am cycling 150k many weeks to meet with new and existing fish farmers. I’ve been getting help with translating from some Dept. of Agriculture officers. Basically I create the training plan and prepare the flip charts and say everything in English and they translate into Chewa for everyone to understand. Several new ponds have been started and the existing ones are now better managed. I finally feel like people are seeing the benefits of fish farming.

Mom:
Mom just left yesterday :( We spent 2 nights in Lusaka while she adjusted to the time difference and I did some work. We then flew to South Luangwa National Park to live in luxury (by my standards) for 2 nights and go on 2 game drives. We saw elephants, hippos, giraffes, puku, impala, leopard, lions, warthogs, buffalo, monkeys, baboons, birds, and some other animals that I can’t think of right now. We stayed at Flatdogs in the posh chalets. We had a hippo in our yard the first night and an apple thief in our kitchen the second night. Flatdogs gave us a lift to and from Tribal Textiles to facilitate our shopping. All in all, it was a great few days.

Upon leaving Flatdogs, we got on a Canter truck to Chipata. This is just a flatbed truck that moves people and supplies all over Zambia. The road from Mufwe to Chipata resembles a moguls course and I felt carsick. Mom was tough and stayed in the bed of the truck for the entire 4-hour trip and I moved to the cab of the truck. We stayed in Chipata one night and mom was able to experience the inconvenience of being in a city and not having electricity or water. The next day we were off to spend 7 nights in my village. Mothers are respected in this culture so she was treated like royalty. Mom got to see what my life is like in Zambia and practice her Girl Scout skills. She made a great fire and got water from the pump-action borehole. We saw fishponds, fields, gardens, made peanut butter, washed clothes, and went to Katete to get mail. At night we played cards and went to bed early. Village life is tiring but we made the most of our time. After 7 nights of roughing it we spent one more night in Lusaka and then she was back on the plane. The time went too fast but I felt like we got to do everything we wanted. I’m so glad she was able to visit me in Zambia.

Wrapping Up:
My time in Zambia is winding down and now I have to start preparing to leave. The preparations are mostly of the paperwork kind but there is also the mental preparation. At the end of April we (the group I came in w/) attended our Close of Service (COS) conference. Peace Corps treated us to two nights at a resort (Chaminuka) near Lusaka. Chaminuka makes cheese so we went to a cheese tasting. They also have elephants, lions, hyenas, and birds and we went on a mini game drive. They even had washers and dryers (the electric kind)! The 2 days of luxury was Peace Corps’ way of saying ‘Thank You’ but it was also to help us get ready to leave. We have several reports to write and lots of forms to fill out. We also have to think about how the last 2 years is going to affect (or maybe not affect) the rest of our lives. Some of us will go back to school, some will stay on the development work track, some will continue seeing the world, and some will go back to the States, get a job, have a family and bore our children with ‘when I lived in Zambia’ stories. There are other paths but those seem like the common ones. I am choosing the first path. So in the next 3 months I have to put my last 2 years to paper and enjoy what little time I have left. I’m going to be busy.