PST Recap 23 Apr 2009

Sitting at ISTT, a hostel we are staying at until we disburse to our separate provinces, being entertained by my fellow trainees, soon to be sworn in as PCVs as we enjoy one of our last nights as a big group. Training was definitely challenging, but a good rite of passage before being dropped into the Zambian bush alone. Some of the best moments in training were spent laughing about cultural faux paus made accidentally, whether among my host family or stories of blunders my friends made. But that is how training is designed, while they are preparing us to take care of ourselves for the next two years by giving us language, technical training and logistical administrative information, we are constantly being exposed to this new culture in a safe environment. By that I mean that we are living with families who have been sensitized about Americans, some who have hosted PCTs previously, and we are training with Zambian natives who can gently correct us if do something culturally insensitive without realizing it. Soon my cultural and lingual security blanket will be stripped from me and I will be the only white person in my village, with limited phone network, so I am going to experience a kind of independence I have never known. The name of my village is Kumadzi, which means on water, and they speak Chichewa, which is a little “deeper” than Chinyanja. Essentially, that means the accent is thicker from what I have been learning in class and there will be less words borrowed from English, they will be able to understand me, it is just going to take some time for me to pick up on some of the differences to comprehend and formulate responses, but this is completely normal.
And…the big question you all want to know. What will I actually be doing at my post? Sadly, I am going to give you as vague of an answer as Peace Corps had given me before I left, so brace yourself for disappointment, I’ll do my best to offer some information sharing though. I have learned a lot about the RED project over the course of the past 9 weeks. Before I left I had a sort of understanding that I would be doing work with LTM (Learning at the Taonga Market) which is a radio broadcast educational program facilitated by teachers in community schools, which is what the project framework originally was for education volunteers in Zambia. But the NGO (Non-Gov’t Org) Changes 2 which was funding this program is pulling out of Zambia, the MOE (Ministry of Education) is continuing to use the materials created for LTM and broadcasting the program for all grade levels during the same time schedule but the work of a RED PCV has been tailored differently for the past 2yrs toward different goals and the program coordinator has been working closely with the MOE to ensure that we do our best to help them meet their own personal development goals across the Zambian educational system. So, that being said, we are all being posted in very different parts of this country, so the needs vary greatly for each site. They have done an excellent job teaching us about all aspects of the MOE at all different levels and we have had resource PCVs and PCV tech trainers each week that have given us examples of how they have helped in various schools in their catchments. So now we are equipped with more than enough knowledge, and resources galore to expand our knowledge where we find the schools and communities express a particular need. So I am not getting posted and have a “to-do-list” per say of things to accomplish over the next two years, in fact I think that would be counterproductive.
The first 3mos at site are called “Community Entry” they strongly discourage leaving your village, obviously you can if for medical or safety reasons, but it does not show people that you have a sincere interest to work with them if you move in, and suddenly two weeks later disappear to go on holiday. This time is not intended to “do work” meaning that you aren’t supposed to springboard into projects immediately, and this is for a few reasons. For one, our language skills are only enough to get by with for now, so we need to spend time talking to people further developing our language skills. This will be more effective than during training, because we have language for 4hrs, then its off to tech training where we speak English and socialize with our friends, and even most of our homestay families speak a fair amount of English themselves, being so close to Lusaka, but the further into the bush, the less English villagers speak. Teachers do speak English as it is taught in schools, so on the work side I will not be crippled by a language barrier, but my village speaks little English, so it is a necessity that I develop my vocab so that I can speak with the people I am living among. And as I heard someone describe earlier this week, Peace Corps is a recognized NGO in this country, not because of putting a large amount of funding to large buildings (because thats not what we are all about) but if you ask someone in Zambia if they know about Peace Corps they might respond with something like, “Are they the ones that live in the village and speak the local language?” Its all about gaining respect through integration and honestly that is what people need. They need to feel like you truly care for their needs and then the truest needs will come forth and we can offer our skills to assist them. Out of many of the PCVs I have meet during training, many of their shining moments were almost a year into service and they weren’t necessarily in their work projects as much as they were just sharing life with people around them and getting feedback on how much of an influence they had been in individuals lives. I am not even in my village yet, and I’m excited to get out there and just meet people where they are at, the projects will surface in time, I recognize that for a period of time it will feel like I am being idle but it is also the most crucial aspect to my service, and that period of integration really is work in its own sense. Many people have a hard time comprehending what would possess a bunch of privileged Americans to choose such a rural lifestyle for two whole years, by choice, but our work will be some of the most memorable interaction many villagers have with NGOs, and the most rewarding part of our own lives as well. I am going to give you an example I learned about during training. A few years back some people from Irish Aid came with funding and equipment to dig a much needed borehole (closed well) in a village, they made this wonderful resource for the village and left. That borehole is not being used. Why? It was put in the middle of a funeral plot, which is culturally taboo. What went wrong? They didn’t consult the community. Perfectly good funding and man power gone to waste. If they had spent even a day to converse with some members of the community they would have found out that part of the village was not a good location and could have avoided such a mistake. Knowing this, I will be as conscientious as possible to meet the needs of my community within the realm of their resources.
So with that explanation of why my job description is so vague, I can tell you that as needs surface I can share what I am doing and, in turn what I am learning myself from the beautiful people I am living among. I can tell you that even in my few days in my village during second site visit, the women were drawn to me and very excited to learn more about me as I am replacing a male volunteer, so I am already encouraged by the enthusiasm to welcome me into their community! I hope this helps summarize and explain a little bit more than I have been able to, and this can be a introduction to many more updates on life in Khumadzi Village.