Language and other barriers

While people are the same everywhere, it's so much easier to see the differences.

In Zambian culture, its not normal for husbands and wives to show any affection in public, fathers do not hug their daughters and mothers do not hug their sons. For us touch starved Americans, this is very hard to understand. When we get together as we did this month for In-Service Training, we hug, hold hands and simply nap together, just for comfort and closeness. We miss the affection in touch.

We also learned that things we hate or put up with are sometimes the things Zambians love. Have you ever been to a meeting where they did the "icebreakers", or the "stand up and stretch". We put up with those, tolerate them, but do not generally find them fun. Zambians on the other hand call them energizers and they LOVE them!

Our Training this month was on Grass Roots Soccer (a way to teach kids about AIDS/HIV prevention). They gave us soccer balls, training kits with games and a book full of energizers. We came to training with a counterpart from our villages to learn and train with us. My BaTata came with me, he had fun, sometimes too much fun, as drinking for the Zambian men was a normal, daily activity, but something our trainers were used to. He loved the energizers so much he asked if he could take the book with him to the Palace for meetings, I have visions of the king and other dignitaries standing up and doing the Hokey Pokey (one of the favorite ones in the book) at important meetings!

Our training went well, we all learned a lot from each other. We also cussed and discussed life in our villages, with our families and other pitfalls or highlights of our service. I learned that my village was more formal than I thought it was, and that I was well respected in some ways and not in others. I learned that my wearing skirts and not going into places where men were drinking saved me a lot of hassle by the men in my village.

It was also wonderful to have hot water, showers, internet and I got to Skype with family and friends, and spent lots of time on the internet.  I ate lots of food, we went out often to restaurants. I did some shopping, and did I mention internet! I also ended up getting sick, a good old cold. I went back to Solwezi, to the Prov House and spent a couple of extra days there resting before going back to Kowama.

I was excited to see my family and my cat, Korna. She was excited to see me as well. She had gotten up in my family's roof and not sure how long she had been up there, but she ate and drank a lot when I got her down, then followed me around for 2 days not letting me out of her sight. I mostly laid in bed and rested, her right there with me.

Also since the fire and my cat's rescue during it, I have found that when people greet me as they pass my compound, they have started greeting my cat. I also found out that while they thinks it's odd we have pets, they like our's better than the ones that freely roam the countryside because they think they are American animals and therefore smarter. Most of the PCVs show up to a site with a pet, so they think we bring them with us from the USA. I can't decide to tell them the truth that she is a Zambian cat and they might start treating her badly, or just let it go......

My family was excited to have me back, my BaMama hugged me and in English said, "Welcome back, my daughter." I found out that Maureen no longer needs a pumpkin to hold to help her sit up and even the boys were glad I was there and for a few sweeties, they ran to get my water. Lot of yard work to do, leaves have piled up since I was gone. Krona killed a bird in my house, feathers everywhere, more cleaning. Also killed a spider with my frying pan, yes...it was that big. A little sweeping will hopefully take care of any others.

This week I started teaching an English class at school, it's fun to talk about different American things with them and find out what they do and don't know. I found a box marked Literature, it had never been opened. It was full of different books in English. I asked why they weren't using them, they said they didn't know what Literature meant, so they never opened it.

I looked through them with some of the kids. There was a book with Asian people in it and they wanted to know if they were blind, I didn't understand until they pointed out that their eyes were slanted and looked shut to them, so they assumed they were blind. In our part of Northwest, there are not many Asian people until you get closer to the copper mines, they had just never seen any. There was another book that caught their fancy it was about the movie Star Wars, they liked the pictures, wanted to know what kind of an animal Jabba the Hut and did we have them in America, was not really able to convince them he was not a real animal. They tried to fix my hair in all the Princess Leia styles.

But at least now we have a few books to go over. Mom sent me world map so we will use that as well. I was excited to get a letter and package from the Chapel Haven West School in Tucson, AZ, where a friend Lori Busiek works. We will be answering and sharing letters from our school to their's.

Hot season has hit at full blast! It is hot, sticky and sweaty. I make fans out of anything I can think of. I really need some of the ones you used to see and church revival meetings, big square and on a stick!

A few of my favorite words.
Mwulala bulungo- good evening
mute- sun
mwabucca biepi - how is the morning or good morning
mute bulungo - good afternoon

If you ask how are you today, they might say -bululnguto - this means "just good" to us but to them means "there is nothing bad", which is better. 

adding an m before a word makes it formal, such as
wane is thanks, I'd say it to the kids,
but to people that deserve respect just as adults/parents/teachers/strangers  I'd say mwane
such as
mwane sankuyo- thanks for...

mtaco -butt (great for the Hokey Pokey dance)

and my favorite is
kafwako - is literally means silence but is used as I have no answer, or nothing to say about something.
When I ask the kids at school, do you have any questions, if no one answers I say kafwako. Besides being a fun word to say ka-fwak (like hawk) -o. it has so many uses, just ask my Mom, I say it to her on the phone all the time. It's kafwako, no way to explain!

Thanks to everyone that is supporting me and enjoying my blog. You can write or send packages to me at
Hannah Perry
C/O Peace Corps
PO Box 110264
Solwezi, Zambia
 You can also comment below.

I have included some pictures that I was able to get downloaded.
You will see pictures of the area around my compound before the fire and after.

These are the before, you can see it is browner than when I took pictures of the area in Feb and March, in older blog post, that is just the seasons changing.

These are from all around my house.

In the back ground you can see smoke from another area that is burning.

mango blooms

The whole tree

My kitchen in the back ground

These are after the fire. All round the same area.

Mango tree a little scorched.

I have string up where my garden is going to be. I have about 20 different plants and seeds to try.

The carving on my pounder stick

The pounder was made by the Witch Doctor I met. The reed mat standing to the left I used to rebuild the walls of my baffa (bathhouse). Also my ever present eggs. They have no idea why I buy so many. I love eggs!

This also shows how close the fire got, that is my dishrack that sets next to my house.

Little House on the Savannah on FIRE

I read all the Little House on the Prairie books, but I wish I'd paid more attention to some parts of it. Such as...

Being sick
I am been a little sick the last week. I tend to get sick when the weather changes, sore throat, runny nose and upset stomach. So I have not been feeling well, and the normal things I take in the states are not working quite as well.

Cooking
It's harder than you think to come up with things to cook when you only have a braiser to use. I miss bread. I dream of eating sandwiches, something I never liked at home. Mom sent me ketchup, because I was craving it. It was horrible, I'm now used to Zambian ketchup and hated the taste of the old standby Hunts.

Building
I am not crafty, I really need my Mom here! I have trouble figuring out ways to build and make something out of nothing.  Mom can explain most things over the phone, so I can try.

Animals
I don't know much about chickens or goats, but thanks to Mom and Dad, for putting how to books on my Kindle, I'm learning.

Fires
I wish I remembered what they did to combat prairie fires. It would have been very help today. My sister Rhoda asked me to go to church with her, it is one that starts a little later, so I said yes. About 8am I smelled smoke looked out and saw the savannah was burning again.

I found out that they burn the savannah to flush out the rats to catch and eat them.  If someone starts a fire, and it burns fields, the person that started it has to pay the farmers, so you rarely find out who starts them.

As for the rats, I know it's rats, but they are as big as ground hogs. I have not been able to bring myself to eat them yet, even though my American family keeps reminding me that I ate squirrels and they are rats too, but I just can't do it yet.

So anyway, the savannah by my house is burning, about 9am I see my brother Fumpa with Maureen strapped to his back standing in my yard watching the fire as it comes closer. A few minutes later, I see Rhoda, with her son Joseph strapped to her back, come running from their yard to mine, with a handful of brush on fire, and she starts setting the grass around my house on fire.

I go outside to see the fire just meters away. My Bamama, brothers and sisters and I are running around putting out fires and it is getting hot, smokey, loud and closer.

The people in the church across the road come out and head to my house to help. The men are putting out embers that are landing on my roof. As others start helping me carry stuff out of my house. My bike is the first thing they yell for me to grab. Remember, when that is your most expensive item as well as your only mode of transportation, it's very important. I hate biking and am thinking, just let it burn! I am grabbing my electronics and bug-out bag and Krona my cat. It's all about your priorities.

Krona jumps down, is scared and heads straight into the fire, I yell for her and for the boys to grab her, which actually scares her more, I'm devastated, but keep working on putting out fires.

I watch as my baff, bathhouse, goes up in flames.

I am a little worried about people clearing things out of my house, one PCV worker had a fire and the villagers that took things out of her house, stole them. I can't worry about it now.

The smoke is awful, tears running down all our faces, everyone covered in soot and the fire is moving towards my family's compound. Krona comes running out of the fire straight to me, I pick her up and she is a little singed. My brother Popo brings over a cup of water and starts brushing it over her fur. I've said before that everyone including my family thinks it strange I have a pet cat, but they were all looking out for her and even the men from the church tried to catch her for me. Popo said he was worried about her. They know how important she is to me. She hid up under my skirt and tucked in to my leggings.

My house in now in the clear and we are all working our way to my family's compound. They are having more trouble putting out the fire on their roof and have lost bits of it here and there.I help carry thing out of their house, then Mama and I head to her silo to keep it from catching on fire. She is throwing water on it and yelling "ena, ena", which means "no, no"! We were able to save her silo, but she lost all her fields. Most of them only had a little harvest left in them, and they are not dependent on farming for their income, so they will be alright.

After things settled down the kids went to the fields and only came back with a few handfuls of what was left.

Nothing was stolen from my house, I live in a wonderful village with great people that have become friends. And the people at the church know me, as I do attend there every few Sundays.

My Mama kept asking me if I was alright, I told her I was. She was distressed that my baff was gone, but I can't tell her it's okay, as I something bath in my house, they think that is very dirty, so I told her, I could use theirs and that made her feel better. I also ate with lunch with them. I tried to take a small piece of chicken, but Mama yelled at me (the first time) and took the small piece and gave me a big one, and made me eat 2 lumps of nshima, because she knew I had been sick.

My sore throat is now worse from the smoke and I can hardly talk. But I hate to say I think the nshima helped my stomach and I do feel a little better.

I sure hope the rest of the week will be much quieter, I could use it.

Change of seasons

I have said that the seasons here, are Wet, Hot, Cold and Hungry. The Wet season will start with it is hot and end when it starts to get cold.

One night last week the wind started blowing and it was so loud and fierce it woke me up. I looked out to see the grasses blowing sideways. I was afraid my roof would come off. But my morning it had stopped. But I also noticed that the temperature at gone up a lot. It's been in the lower 50s at night and lower 70s during the day. But now it felt much hotter.

I went to get fire at my family's and my BaTata asked if I heard the wind. I told him I had. He said that was the change of the season. That we were now in the hot season. It has been highs in the upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s. He said a wind will always mark the change of the seasons.

I'm thinking the wind brings change like in the movies Mary Poppins or Chocolat. Can't wait till the next change sometime in Feb.