Training

Welp, I am about 2 weeks in and it feels like an eternity. I am in the process of our 9 week training program. We started with a bang visiting a current volunteer at their site. We split into groups of four. My group went to the Southern Province. We drove on a highway for three hours and then drove on some dirt roads into the "middle of Africa" for about an hour. No matter how far we drove into the "bush," there were still people. I was amazed. We passed tons of huts and after some lefts and rights we stopped and out of a hut popped a current volunteer. We said hi, were introduced to her neighbors/family, and then they kindly invited us to witness the slaughtering of a goat that we ate later that evening. Welcome to Zambia. We stayed there from Sunday to Wednesday. When we all returned we were like deer in headlights. What have we got ourselves into? The next day, we shipped out to our training site for the next eight weeks. We are currently outside Lusaka about an hour and our living with host families during this process. I have my own hut the size of a small bedroom. There is no running water or electricity, but you get used to that surprisingly quickly. You wake up when it is light and go to bed when it is dark. During training, we practice language for about four hours a day. My language is Nyanja which means I will be eventually living in the Eastern Province near the Big Game National Parks (lions, tigers, etc.) The other half of the day we do technical training which in my case is learning about the education system in Zambia and learning how to teach in Zambia. I will be coteaching with a number of teachers in my district and we are wanted to spread the knowledge of child centered learning. After training, I usually go home and play a game of soccer (with a ball made of plastic bags) with the village boys, shower (throw water from a bucket on me), practice language with my host family, eat dinner (with your hands here!), then hit the sack (I think I got a mouse who sleeps under my bed). I got some good pics, but technology here is not the quickest yet, so I will find a way to add some more later. This is all I had time for. The two little ones you see are Tina (in red) and Patience (in Yellow). Tina is the daughter of my host mom and Patience is her cousin. The other picture is of the current volunteer's neighbor. A lot more to tell but I gotta jet. Doesn't look like I'll get to update this often, but I guess I will when I can.

Much love,

Grant