Saturday, November 19, 2011

Community Entry

Hello, I'm currently going through community entry.  I've been living in my village named Mutono Village in the Nchelenge District in Luapula, Zambia.  I've been reading a lot and getting to know (and master) the daily village routines.  Everyday I wake up around 6 A.M., sweep my hut with my two-foot-tall broom, sweep the dirt outside (to prevent ants), eat breakfast (usually the leftovers from the night before), and then I try to do a chore that doesn't have to be done everyday.  For example, I might wash my dishes, wash my floor, or wash my clothes.  I've started putting my bed outside in the sun once a week.  This is mostly because I'm paranoid about getting bed bugs again and it's good to air things out a bit.  My roof is thatched so a lot of dust falls on my bed, especially when a storm goes through and it becomes very windy.  Some of the chairmen on the Neighborhood Health Committee put plastic up along the inside of the roof to lessen the dirt, this also makes it sound like leaves when the wind goes through.  As for the bedbugs, I'm not sure yet if I've gotten rid of them.  I've been separating my clothes because to get rid of them you have to boil your clothes.  This means I have to light the brasier, boil water, wash the clothes, put them out to dry, and go to my borehole to pump more water.  It's quite the process, so I've been boiling some of my clothes once a week and then keeping the ones I boiled in a separate container.  I'm hoping the will work.  Please cross your fingers for me.

A couple times a week I've been going to my clinic to listen to the doctors diagnose people in the Bemba language, or to help out with small tasks.  But, I usually feel like I'm in the way and slowing them down even though they're very happy to have me there.
I spend a lot of time reading and lying in my hammock.  So far I've read about 8 books just during the 5 weeks I've been in community entry.  (I've made a list of them in my diary so I can look back and see all of them)
I've also visited my Peace Corps Volunteer neighbor a couple times.  She lives about 20 km away and it's a beautiful bike ride.  It's nice to have a destination to bike to and someone to cook food with.  The other day we decided we were going to bike around the lagoon and into the rubber tree forest.  This was a trip that was supposed to only take about twenty minutes, but we ended up getting a little bit...misplaced...and it took 4 hours.  But it was beautiful.  We biked through rubber tree plantations, kassava farmland, and past many houses.  We then asked for directions from Zambians, but it's tricky because they use bush paths to get everywhere, so they can't just say go straight down this path. 
I've been getting creative with what I cook, making different types of bread, lentil-rice burgers, and different variations of tomatoes and onions with rice or noodles.
I have the goal of bathing and cooking before it gets dark and then reading, writing, and doing yoga then going to bed.  The rats haven't been as big of a problem.  There was one night that I left larvacide out (to put in the toilet to kill fly larvae) and the rats ate through the container.  Ever since that night, I hardly hear them.
Everyday is an adventure where a plethora of things happens, so this blog entry could be many many pages, but I'm going to keep it at this.