Happy 2010!!!

Compliments of the new year, everyone! That's a new Zambian expression I've recently heard a lot here. Hope you all had a great holiday season filled with lots of cheer and good food, and hopefully you all managed to stay warm despite the bad winter storms I kept hearing about :-)!

We certainly didn't have a white christmas here in Zambia but it was amazing, nonetheless. Kate, Meera and I headed down to Livingstone on December 22nd and spent about a week there. We stayed a nice hostel called Fawlty Towers-most of PC Zambia stays at another hostel called JollyBoys but they didn't have mosquito nets, and since all three of us are especially prone to bites (we're extra sweet, I guess ;-)) we opted for Fawlty Towers. It was a classier hostel than the kind I stayed in South Africa...but oh man, was Livingstone HOT! I soon realized how much I love the weather in Mpika...despite my cursing of the wind some days, it really does cool things down..and in Livingstone, no wind=a LOT of humidity and hotness. Our room did not have air conditioning and we had a fan that didn't do much so every night we woke up in sweat from the heat! Luckily, the hostel did have a swimming pool so we used that almost every day to cool off. OH let me start at the beginning: Kate and Meera hitched down to me and spent a couple days at my site. On Saturday, we hitched down to Lusaka and were lucky in that we got three great hitches. I tell you, hitching is definitely the better means of transport here! Our first hitch took us from my site to Kapiri-Moshi, which is the turn off to Lusaka or up north the other way to the Copperbelt. He was a very nice guy who even bought us some cold drinks on one of our stops. From Kapiri-Moshi, we were picked up by two businessmen who were nice, but were more interested in talking to us than actually driving so it was a very slow ride-and we were only going 60k with them because they were stopping in Kabwe-a town about 110 k outside Lusaka. They were extremely friendly though and we got cold waters from them! They took us to a restaurant where we could easily find a hitch to Lusaka. Our last hitch was with a young guy who works as a pro-bono lawyer for the human rights commission. So, you see, we meet really interesting people on the hitches! Kate and I want to write a book on the stories of these people who pick us up...some are really interesting! So we got to Lusaka, spent a couple days there and then proceeded to hitch down to Livingstone. We got a hitch right away with a Zain car-Zain is one of the main cell phone providers here in Zambia and is the one I have. They have very nice pick ups and are always willing to give us lifts. So the lady driving was really great but they were only going to Mazabuka...which is only about 100k from Lusaka...so in Mazabuka we waited for a hitch to Livingstone. We finally got one with a guy who was going to open up a total gas station down there and he was so friendly, though he drove a little crazy. Meera and I were sitting in the back of a van like toyota cruiser and the last stretch of the drive to Livingstone is on a terrible dirt road so we were bouncing all over the place--no fun, but we made--safe and sound! So in short, we went from one end of the country to the other completely free of charge--that's what I call economy traveling :-)

So in Livingstone, we ate at a very nice Italian restaurant close to the hostel and it was so cheap! I had pesto-I'd been craving it for a long time, delicious! We met up with some other PC volunteers from Southern province-and it was so nice to see Brittany, the PCV who hosted me during my first site visit! She is so fun, and we found out she was doing white water rafting the next day as well so we all made sure to get on the same raft. So the next day was the great white water adventure...man, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into! We later researched and found out that the Zambezi is the 3rd best white water rafting spot in the world! I can't imagine what the 1st and 2nd are like! So we got picked up from our hostel by the rafting company, the provided us with a great breakfast and then we had a safety briefing before being driven to the rafting site. Our rafting guide was Steve and he was really great...he has been doing this for 14 years! I couldn't imagine! So we had 7 people on our raft, and lucky me I had to sit in the back near Steve. 5 of us were PCVs and the other two were a couple from France who were working in Zambia in education. We had a good team. So the first rapid we did was a class five rapid--and of course, our boat flipped! It was extremely terrifying at first...I swear I was under water for what seemed like an eternity but lucky I survived and ended up sticking it out for the rest of the trip! We went through 25 rapids, but the worst were all between 1-10. We flipped twice-during the first rapid and then on rapid 4, and I fell out of the boat on rapid 8 so three times for me! ON rapid 9, we had to get out and walk around because it's a class 6 and they don't let us go down that-thank god! The guides were so experienced though, they went down the rapid with the rafts and not one of them flipped! Unbelievable...so at rapid ten, we had a lunch break and then continued for the rest of the day down the river. The second half of the day was really mellow-only one class five rapid and we all managed to stay in the boat. When we got to the end, there was a cable car that pulled us out of the gorge...it was great! We were exhausted but were taken back and had a nice dinner where they showed us the film of our rafting trip. I bought it and have sent it to Mayoori and Sabita. If you are interested in seeing it, tell them to show it to you! Or better yet, come visit me and we'll experience first hand :-)

On Christmas Eve day, we went to see Victoria Falls. It was so magnificant and beautiful! There were a million rainbows! The water level wasn't at the highest but it was still very impressive, and we still got pretty soaking wet! After we walked around the falls, we went to the bridge were people bungee jump down into the gorge--Kate really wanted to do it but neither Meera nor I wanted to so she ended up not doing it (plus it's really expensive!) but we did step across to Zimbabwe--just a foot inside their border :-) That evening, we went on a sunset booze cruise down the Zambezi River. The boat was filled with PCVs from the intake a year before me so it was fun to meet everyone and a nice way to spend Christmas eve. We saw hippos and crocs on the river. We certainly enjoyed the unlimited alcohol and the food was ok-not the greatest Christmas eve dinner, but well worth the $20 we spent on the cruise.

Christmas Day, Kate, Meera and I headed off to Botswana for our two day one night safari. We went into Chobe National Park by way of a river safari--a three hour cruise where we got to see hippos, crocs, elephants!, birds, giraffes and water buffalo. It was so serene and beautiful--you really felt like you were in Africa. After our river cruise, we had lunch at our camp site..which was one of ten in the actual park! So cool! I felt like something right out of a hollywood safari movie! Unfortunately, a huge storm came right as lunch was being served so we ended up taking cover in the safari car and eating in there. The lunch was fabulous though so made up for the rain. That evening, we took a drive around the game park...we saw zebras, monkeys, more elephants (the park has 60,000 elephants and I think we saw all 60,000), giraffes and wild dogs! The wild dogs were so cool-our driver told us it is extremely rare to see a pack of wild dogs so we considered ourselves lucky! There are only two pacts in the entire park, and during the two days, we saw both packs! That night, we had dinner around the camp fire and a herd of elephant roamed freely in the plains outside the camp ground. It was so magical and so cool...really, a very cool way to spend Christmas day! The next day, we did a very long drive around the park..didn't see any new animals except for a hyena and a jackal, which were pretty cool. We also saw the other wild dog pack! We ended the day with another river cruise so all in all, a great trip. We didn't see any cats but oh well, better luck next time. The trip was so well worth it I don't regret anything at all.

We returned to Fawlty Towers for one more night and treated ourselves to a nice dinner as a way to end our vacation. We ate at a seafood restaurant-so great to have shrimp again! The next day, we hitched to Lusaka...we got a great (but crowded) ride with three guys from Cape Town who were headed up to Dar-el-Salaam. They were very friendly and got us to Lusaka. We spent a couple nights recuperating in Lusaka before heading up North again. We spent New Years in Kasama at the PC house which was quiet, but fun. And on Saturday, we went out separate ways and I returned to site.

Work wise, things are slowly picking up. We have village inspections next week, we did an ORS-oral rehydration solution-demonstration in my village because diarrhea is a major health concern right now, and I'm going to visit my neighbor's family tomorrow. My neighbor is so amazing, I'm really so grateful to have him around because he does all my handy work and asks for nothing in return! I'm going to buy him a radio because he loves keeping up with the news and doesn't have one. IT's the least I can do. He built a fence around my house so people can't trespass onto my garden, and has cleared all my land again and is digging my flower bed today. And he never complains! He is really great. He taught me what the colors of the Zambian flag represent: Green for farming/agriculture, Orange for copper-Zambia used to have a thriving copper business becuase of the mines, Red for the struggle for indepence, and Black for the people. Cool, huh?

So that's about all that's going on. Things are great and I'm doing really well. I miss you all and think about you all the time! Please please continue to write as I do love hearing from you all!!
Thanks to everyone who has sent me things, much much appreciated!!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2010 is great for you all!