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 groundThese 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. 
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