Swearing In Day 4/25/14
Friday, April 25, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
How do you explain......
I want to start off by telling everyone that I passed all my tests, even the bike one! I am very pleased and we were all given a beautiful certificate saying we are now official Peace Corps Volunteers, of course we have no where to put this and I hope I can keep it safe for 2 years and get it back home to show off!
We are now just doing a little more training and planning for what our first few weeks will be like in our villages and how to get settled in.
Now, here is my dilemma, How do you explain...
Space? My Batata wanted me to explain space to him, what is it, where did it come from?
Meteors? My Bamama and I saw a few meteors one night and I told her that is what they were, she says, "not witchcraft?" I said no and tried to explain what they were, where they come from, she looked at me with a very unbelieving stare, not sure at all. She surprised me by asking if they were like missiles? Stars they don't know about but missiles are common place.
How far from here to there? We all know of people that have never been out of the US, or Missouri, or maybe even (20 years ago) those that hadn't been more than 50 miles from home. But today that seems impossible, well, not in Zambia. With no roads, little transportation and no real need to travel more that the 6 miles to the next town, trying to imagine how far it is to the US is unfathomable. My Bamama was very surprised to hear how far away it was to the US. It really has no meaning to her, it's not something she can relate to, she was born in the Northwest and came here to the central, so she has been about 14 hours away from her birth place, and that is it.
Airplanes? How do they fly so far? How do they stay up?
Rainbows? Yes even something as simple as rainbows. In the US, we want to try to find the end of a rainbow, why, oh for the pot of gold, of course! But my Bamama says to stay away from the end or you will be sucked up and never seen again! No gold here...
It's interesting and makes me wonder, when and how to people become curious? Why do some want to know more and others don't? It's easy to see how things can be explained away by witchcraft or God, when the unknown is not within reach. It's hard for others to not look for more answers and wonder why, how where, and when?
Slavery? My Batata had never heard about slavery in the US. He had never heard that Africans were taken to be slaves there.
If you have answers, I'd love to hear them. I need all the help I can get, so many questions, so little time.
I want to start off by telling everyone that I passed all my tests, even the bike one! I am very pleased and we were all given a beautiful certificate saying we are now official Peace Corps Volunteers, of course we have no where to put this and I hope I can keep it safe for 2 years and get it back home to show off!
We are now just doing a little more training and planning for what our first few weeks will be like in our villages and how to get settled in.
Now, here is my dilemma, How do you explain...
Space? My Batata wanted me to explain space to him, what is it, where did it come from?
Meteors? My Bamama and I saw a few meteors one night and I told her that is what they were, she says, "not witchcraft?" I said no and tried to explain what they were, where they come from, she looked at me with a very unbelieving stare, not sure at all. She surprised me by asking if they were like missiles? Stars they don't know about but missiles are common place.
How far from here to there? We all know of people that have never been out of the US, or Missouri, or maybe even (20 years ago) those that hadn't been more than 50 miles from home. But today that seems impossible, well, not in Zambia. With no roads, little transportation and no real need to travel more that the 6 miles to the next town, trying to imagine how far it is to the US is unfathomable. My Bamama was very surprised to hear how far away it was to the US. It really has no meaning to her, it's not something she can relate to, she was born in the Northwest and came here to the central, so she has been about 14 hours away from her birth place, and that is it.
Airplanes? How do they fly so far? How do they stay up?
Rainbows? Yes even something as simple as rainbows. In the US, we want to try to find the end of a rainbow, why, oh for the pot of gold, of course! But my Bamama says to stay away from the end or you will be sucked up and never seen again! No gold here...
It's interesting and makes me wonder, when and how to people become curious? Why do some want to know more and others don't? It's easy to see how things can be explained away by witchcraft or God, when the unknown is not within reach. It's hard for others to not look for more answers and wonder why, how where, and when?
Slavery? My Batata had never heard about slavery in the US. He had never heard that Africans were taken to be slaves there.
If you have answers, I'd love to hear them. I need all the help I can get, so many questions, so little time.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Last Week of Training
So we are coming down to the wire. It's very busy as we work on getting ready for our testing. I'm doing really well with language and am more worried about my bike test. I am not very mechanical, but I guess there is only one way to take off a tire. Just hope I can put it back on!
We are also planning for our Swearing In Day. If we all pass our tests it will be on April 26th. I had a dress made, it is very pretty and my BaMama had to make sure it was long enough, it's about mid calf, which is good.
We are planning the meal for that day too. Our Zambian trainers got very tickled at our choice of foods. We decided on lots of different kinds of cookies, hot dogs, mac 'n cheese, but they really cracked up when we said tacos and sushi. That is when we found out that in Bemba, tacos means ass hole and sushi means farts! We don't care, we are having them anyway we tell our trainers as they are rolling on the floor.
Mail has been coming more regularly now, but I still have not gotten any of the packages I know have been sent to me, I hope to get them soon.
I will have pics from our Swearing In in a couple of weeks. Here is my dress
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