Greetings from the Republic of Zambia!
All 68 of us have arrived safely in
country. My bags arrived safe as well and untampered with, though
most of my sunscreen exploded. Only one person did not get one of
their bags. Not bad for the trip they have gone through.
We are staying at a hotel for now. Me
and my roommate, Tom, share one room with two beds w/ mosquito nets
and a bathroom. We will be here till Monday morning, when we will go
to our first site visit. First site visit is when we 3-5 of us go to
a current volunteers site for 3 days to see what they do, how they
live, etc. Then we will officially begin training in Chongwe, get set
up with our host families, divided into language training groups, and
start living like we will live for the next 2 years.
Food here hasn't been as bad as I was
expecting. I think they are going easy on us for now. Lunch yesterday
was chicken and ox tail with shima (cornmeal porridge, tastes like
grits), vegetables, and salad. There has always been sprite and fanta
to drink.
It's funny, months ago I was dreaming
about what it was going to feel like to be here right now, and I
could only imagine it would be too surreal to take in. In fact, it
doesn't feel much different than where we were. It is winter here, so
last night it got down to about 40 F (but we all slept like babies,
it had been something like 3 days since I had a decent night sleep).
This morning it's dry and sunny, it feels great. No mosquitoes yet!
As it turned out, it was the last few
days in the states that was more dreamlike. I had prepared for months
to make this trip, stressed out about packing and how hard things
were going to be like here. I never imagined the hours before takeoff
were going to be the toughest times ahead of me. Once we got on the
plane, everything got better. I have to say, if we had not had a day
to meet with all the other volunteers, I would have had a much more
difficult time. Just knowing that there are 67 other people who are
going through the exact same thing, plus over 200 other volunteers
already in country who have done it before made it much less
stressful.
I apologize for no pictures yet. The
internet here is incredibly slow and we will be turning in our
computers and other valuables in the next hour to be put in a safe in
Lusaka for the duration of our training. This will most likely be the
last update for the next couple months. Internet and free time will
be a thing of the past for us. We already have a schedule for the
next week all laid out for us, and I'm willing to bet every minute is
already scheduled for us for the next 3 months.
So, hold tight, I promise I'll have
good pictures eventually.
