I was trying to think of a good way to tell everyone what our lives are currently like and I decided the best way to do that was to chronicle an average day for us. Right now we are in training outside of Lusaka, the capitol city. We are just finishing up week three of training and we get sworn in as official volunteers on April 25th.
We usually wake up at sunrise because that is when our host family gets up to start cooking and cleaning for the day. We live with an older couple, Ba Jane and Ba Nkausu and whatever grandkids, cousins, children, etc that are staying with them. We have our own two room hut, so we try to sleep as best we can until 6:30 when we get up to take a morning bath (with hot water heated up by those who woke up early-it’s pretty nice) and eat breakfast. Our family usually doesn’t really eat breakfast, but we usually have peanut butter and jam on bread, sometimes eggs, and only if we’re really lucky, fritters ( fried dough, pretty great).
After breakfast we go to four hours of language training in our village. Collin and I are in different classes, but we are both learning Bemba, the language of the north part of Zambia. Four hours is a long time for language but they are trying to get us to learn as much as possible before sending us out on our own. We also have to be able to pass an exam to be sworn in as volunteers. Language classes are small groups-only two or three per class so you get a lot of one on one training.
After language we return home for lunch. We eat nshima, a corn based thick porridge, and different relishes, usually one made from leafy greens (pumpkin leaves, okra leaves, rape) and one protein (fish, chicken- including the gizzard and feet, or soya- my favorite). Before eating, everyone washes their hands, starting with the men. We eat everything with our hands. To scoop the relishes, you roll some nshima into a ball, make an indent with your thumb and use it as a spoon.
After lunch, we bike to the training center for technical training. Tech training is done as a large group, about 30 of us. So far we’ve dissected fish, measured out fish ponds, and dug out a fish pond (pretty miserable in the heat and humidity). I’m looking forward to more pond management training and I’ve been thinking of some potential personal projects to work on if we have our own ponds. We also have other Peace Corps training we have to do on topics like safety, diversity, and cultural issues.
Sometimes in the afternoon there is time to stop for a beer with friends where we can choose between two light lagers, Castle or Mosi, both only about $1.25 each. Not the best selection, but at least they are cold. Everyone has a curfew though-we have to be back at our host family by dark, around 6pm.
On our bike ride home we attract a lot of attention from our friendly neighborhood kids who yell “muzungu” at us, which literally means “white person”, and then they chase us and try to touch our bikes. We like them and will play chase with them. They are so excited to hang out with us yet terrified at the same time. My favorite little girl has eyes that get so big every time she sees me-to play with her I just point at her and she runs away screaming. Speaking of scared children, the two year old that was living at our house would burst into tears anytime he saw me.
When we get home, we take another bath. Zambians bathe a lot and really want to make sure you bathe often too. It’s actually really great to be able to wash off the sweat and dirt multiple times a day and the whole bucket bath in an outdoor shelter is really nice. Culturally, Collin should bathe first, but we don’t always follow that rule. After bath time, it’s time to study. It sucks being back in school with lots of homework. We have flashcards and workbooks and our host family likes to practice with us. This is great, but there are so many different regional nuances to the language that sometimes what we learn at home is different than what we learn in class.
Dinner is basically the same as lunch, nshima with different things. Funny fact- nshima is not the local language word for what they eat, our host family told us it was the English word for it. We just agreed. The meal setup is different in Zambia too. Families don’t eat all together, instead the men will eat inside and the women and kids will eat outside, usually on the ground. We both eat inside though with our host parents because they are used to hosting Americans, but in the village Collin and I may eat separately. Zambians also eat late-we have dinner at 8 pm and some of my friends eat after 9. So after dinner I’m usually ready for bed because we wake up so early. Before bed though is one of my least favorite parts of the day-visiting our pit toilet in the dark. I have to use the broom to brush away the cockroaches that live in there and hope they don’t crawl out while I’m using it. Another cultural thing: even among friends you never talk about using the bathroom. You aren’t allowed to leave toilet paper in the toilet but you also aren’t allowed to let anyone see you carrying to to the toilet. If you need to go, you literally say something like “I’m going to pick mushrooms” or “I’m going to talk to my cousin”. I’ve never seen anyone in our host family walk anywhere near the bathroom- I think they just make sure to go when we are busy or gone. Very proper.
So that’s it. Our life is pretty structured right now. We do have Sundays off so we usually do laundry, go to the market, and play games with the kids. Last weekend we had a big group of kids playing like four different games over at our place. Our host mom’s plants got destroyed so I think this weekend we’ll go to a real field.
RAPpers' Delight 