Travels with Trevor: May 2008

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Reading!

Although we don't have nearly as much free time as I thought we would, we have been managing to do quite a bit of reading. Karen requested requests.
There's a huge library of fiction here at the Eastern province Peace Corps house with a lot of recent literary-type stuff. Anything newish would fit in well, especially whatever the book club has discussed!
We're both huge non-fiction fans, and that's one area this library lacks much of. Trevor would especially welcome anything that deals with Africa. We have both read the recent AIDS book whose name escapes me at the moment, plus he read "The State of Africa" and just finished David Halbersham's books about baseball. Me, I'm more into memoirs. Before we left home I enjoyed one by a neuroscientist, "Julie & Julia" and "Eat Pray Love."

Cold season

Is relative. I would never have called a daytime high of 76 degrees “cold.” But that was before my bathing routine consisted of stripping down in the back yard to take a tepid trickle shower in a stiff breeze. I have a whole new appreciation for why Zambians are bundled in down coats and stocking caps.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Scrubby

The other day when we came back from washing the dishes at the spring, our host dad took the blackened cooking pots away from him and sent his daughter Precious to scrub them shiny.

It turns out I have also been washing my feet wrong. After eating shima and beans, my host mom and I were chilling out on the reed mat and she scolded me about my cracked, dirty heels. She told me I need to scrub my feet with the stone in our bathing shelter. It worked! My feet look better than they did in America.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Good fences

Our host dad is concerned that the neighboring villagers are looking at him, jealous of what he has. So he’s having a tall privacy fence built around the property, made of sticks and grass.

I have enjoyed the last of the box of wine musing about the many layers of irony involved in this.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Greens

In America, when you buy greens, they come tied in a bundle with a rubber band or twist tie printed with a bar code. Here, they come lashed with a strip of bark that has been soaked so it’s flexible.

I think I get charged the white lady price still, but it’s hard to be too grumpy when you’re spending about 15 cents.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Commute

Since we still only have one bike, if we want to go to town, one of us rides while the other walks, or in Trevor’s case, runs. We decided to check out the English-language service Sunday morning at the Catholic church. It starts at 7 a.m., so Trevor started running around 6 a.m.

I caught up on the bike and delivered his dry clothes so he wouldn’t have to sit in his own pew. As he ducked behind a building to change, a lady started up the path, so I called out, “Hurry up Trevor; here comes a nun.” Then I had that Beatles song stuck in my head all day.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Home improvements

Every day we do some little project to make our house more comfortable or functional. This weekend, Trevor and our host dad built a high-efficiency wood stove that we hope will run on downed sticks and branches instead of the charcoal that has resulted in deforestation around our area.

The stove looks like something you’d see in an Italian restaurant. I could make a killer pizza if only I had some cheese. Sigh.

House with outdoor kitchen; House

Package

Thanks to the amazing generosity of our friends, I think I am done panicking about things we don't have here. I must sheepishly point out that even though postage has gone up, the international priority box is a good deal. Also my dentist would want me to admit that we have enough candy for now, and I hereby rescind my request for fabric now that I have found a tailor willingto sell me the most amazing sacks of wonderful Zambian cloth. Thank you package senders, and be watching your mailboxes for letters.

People Who Read People

At home, I read People magazine while slogging on an elliptical machine. In Zambia I flip through People while tending the fire to boil water for instant coffee. Rebecca, sender of People, if you read this, I need your address to thank you properly. I carefully trimmed it off the envelope, then immediately lost it.

Everything is Illuminated

Wearing a headlamp to the outhouse means seeing a little more than you want to.

Common

It finally feels like we're really in the peace corps. We attended a meeting of a local women's group that was so long I finally finished knitting one of the purple socks I cast on last August. The women already raise corn and pigs. They are interested in literacy and English classes. Also they wanted to know if I would teach them to knit. Now we're speaking the same language.

Friday, May 9, 2008

small world

they call service in zambia the quote real peace corps. Not sure what that means but i do feel like i've landed on another planet. Yesterday we set out for town on foot, hoping we could catch a ride. Not a single car passed up on the 5 km walk. Or the walk home. But we did get passed by several oxcarts and about a zillion bikes, most carrying at least one passenger.