A lot has happened in the past couple months. In early December, I attended an in-service training for my intake of volunteers and those that came a year later, also under the HIV/AIDS program here in Zambia. It was good to see people and share stories and ideas and to see the changes people are undergoing as a result of being here as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
I then returned to my Zambian home and proceeded to assist in starting the new cycle for the project I work with. This involves choosing local facilitators and validating the vulnerability of new participants. I am also trying to help the general community in any way that I can with regard to HIV/AIDS activities. This involves keeping informed and chatting with everyone.
I left to Mozambique for 17 days the 17th of December, however the 16th, I found myself at a funeral for the junior wife of the headman at my old home in Keemba. She was a friend and family member here and it was very sad. I actually chatted with here 2 days before she entered the hospital to die 2 weeks later. She was suffering from malaria, high blood pressure, and diabetes. They think the two chronic illnesses contributed to complications while having malaria.
Basically my whole old village was there and I greeted tons of people. I was escorted and informed about the tradition and significance of each part of the funeral by my good friend and colleague Dominic Phiri (pictured before).
The 17th of December, I boarded a plane to Mozambique with my friend Frank Wong from Emory who mow works here north of where I stay by about 600 km.
We stayed near the ocean about half the time and swam, snorkeled, and ate copious ocean critters. We met tons of great folks (mostly travelers from other countries) and stayed in Maputo, Tofo, and Vilankulos (in southern Mozambique). It was way awesome. The ocean was warm and beautiful.
I returned January 2nd to Zambia and home the 3rd. I have since been looking after my maize and garden and getting the project I work with up and running.
Other than that, I am planning on extending my service here through July 2008. I will come back to states for about 6 weeks around the holidays this year and try to visit as many family and friends as possible. I also plan on applying to graduate school for a degree in food science/nutrition for August/September 2008 entry.
That is it for now. I hope the New Year has greeted everyone well and all are surrounded by love.
Best.
Niko.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
This is Mr Milambo, my good friend and Nchimunya, a boy that I work with. They are near a beehive that we keep as part of the project we work with. Mr Milambo is a agriculture extension officer and also does other random things that keep him extraordinarily busy
This is a photo of me with some of the kids that I work with. They want to use this for a website or something.
Anyway, it is one of the few existing photos of me available here.
That boy Nchimunya likes to flip whenver the mood strikes him. I caught him in the middle which was no small feat (for either of us).
There is a cute miniature gecko that I wanted to take a photo of with a pen demonstrating how small the animal is.
This is the backyard of my friend frank where I spent some days resting. It is about 500 km from where I live and work.
This is the old man that is my nearest neighbor. His name is Cleon Benos and his father was greek. He is very funny and kind and we get along great.
This is mpedcili, which means I am still here. She is a daughter to the late siblings of the wife to the old man above. They are keeping here and making sure she grows up with at least some opportunities. She is about 16 years.
This is a young boy to the old man. He is known as Beno. He is about 19 years. He lives in the country capital and is studying computers. He is good to hang with when he is visiting his parents and not at school.
Monday, October 30, 2006
October
Well, I have been here well over a year now in Zambia and a bit over a year in Southern Province.
The new project/site is going well. I am learning quite a bit and becoming adapted to my new surroundings (with electricity).
We are preparing for graduation of the current students enrolled in the program that will likely happen with fanfare around the middle of November. We are also finalizing some funding applications for the project that involves brainstorming, budgets, goals, and logistics for the coming year.
I am actually at my home only about 5 days a week as I find myself at our district planning headquarters about 60 km away in Choma very often. Peace Corps has a computer there and I use Internet to download and send necessary materials for the project. I get a little tired and busy as the project meets Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday and I find myself in Choma at least one other day a week. This usually leaves me Saturday as the only day that I am really at home and resting. It is worth it, though, as the kids are great.
Let me say a bit about the participants. The participants range in age from 13-18 and have been previously identified as vulnerable in some way. I would say that some of them can write, and less can write well, even in local language. They are fluent in the local language, but only a handful is able to communicate well in English. They understand well enough, but getting across new concepts is very challenging and something I usually rely on a translator for. My Tonga is getting better but trying to catch young peoples dialect is challenging even for me in English, much less another language.
Facilitators are also involved in the project and come both from within the community and from within line ministries. They are supposed to create a curriculum; lesson plans, and come to the teaching site to facilitate sessions with the children/project participants. The current reality with regard to facilitators is that coordination and interest sometimes appears to be lacking. . Lately, for a number of reasons, I have been the only facilitator in attendance. Others come sporadically due to family obligations, household work, official work, or other things. We hope to change this by my presence and by electing new community facilitators for the next cycle that will come regularly. This will hopefully lighten the load on the few that do attend now and encourage them to come in the future.
Rainy season is coming again and I hope to plant maize, sunn hemp, sunflower, and beans on a large scale (~1 kg of seed each) and have a small garden for vegetables and herbs. My neighbors, the nurse and her husband are still getting along famously. We greet each other daily and frequently chat. The old man speaks incredibly fast “old” Tonga that is making me come up to speed fast. He also speaks English, but he understands me better if I speak Tonga.
Anyway, life is still good and we are trying to do the best that we can.
Best and love.
niko
The new project/site is going well. I am learning quite a bit and becoming adapted to my new surroundings (with electricity).
We are preparing for graduation of the current students enrolled in the program that will likely happen with fanfare around the middle of November. We are also finalizing some funding applications for the project that involves brainstorming, budgets, goals, and logistics for the coming year.
I am actually at my home only about 5 days a week as I find myself at our district planning headquarters about 60 km away in Choma very often. Peace Corps has a computer there and I use Internet to download and send necessary materials for the project. I get a little tired and busy as the project meets Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday and I find myself in Choma at least one other day a week. This usually leaves me Saturday as the only day that I am really at home and resting. It is worth it, though, as the kids are great.
Let me say a bit about the participants. The participants range in age from 13-18 and have been previously identified as vulnerable in some way. I would say that some of them can write, and less can write well, even in local language. They are fluent in the local language, but only a handful is able to communicate well in English. They understand well enough, but getting across new concepts is very challenging and something I usually rely on a translator for. My Tonga is getting better but trying to catch young peoples dialect is challenging even for me in English, much less another language.
Facilitators are also involved in the project and come both from within the community and from within line ministries. They are supposed to create a curriculum; lesson plans, and come to the teaching site to facilitate sessions with the children/project participants. The current reality with regard to facilitators is that coordination and interest sometimes appears to be lacking. . Lately, for a number of reasons, I have been the only facilitator in attendance. Others come sporadically due to family obligations, household work, official work, or other things. We hope to change this by my presence and by electing new community facilitators for the next cycle that will come regularly. This will hopefully lighten the load on the few that do attend now and encourage them to come in the future.
Rainy season is coming again and I hope to plant maize, sunn hemp, sunflower, and beans on a large scale (~1 kg of seed each) and have a small garden for vegetables and herbs. My neighbors, the nurse and her husband are still getting along famously. We greet each other daily and frequently chat. The old man speaks incredibly fast “old” Tonga that is making me come up to speed fast. He also speaks English, but he understands me better if I speak Tonga.
Anyway, life is still good and we are trying to do the best that we can.
Best and love.
niko
Monday, September 04, 2006
This is the head mistress of Keemba Basic School with her grandaughter Royce (red hat) and daughter Joy (left)
This is when some incoming trainees for the HIV/AIDS program came to my site to visit before starting their training. This is a number of boys and men that stay in the compound including the headman (seated on a lazy chair).
This is a cookins shelter at my site in Pemba where the women wanted me to take a photo of them eating.
This is the entrance to the garden at the main project site in Pemba. The dapper young fellow is Chimunya and he is incredibly knowledgable, skilled, hardworking, and not camera shy.
This is Bonanza and Hakainda in Keemba. Bonanza was pictured before. Hakainda is the oldest boy staying at the Keemba compound and is incredibly strong, hardworking, knowledgable, and kind.
This is a photo taken at the project site in Pemba when some district officers came for a site visit.
I have been living in my home in
I share the house with Mr. Benos and his wife, Jennie Benos. Mr Benos’ father was greek and his mother indigenous
They are very sarcastic and kind. They are also forcing me to speak
I am starting a garden again as I have moved sites. We have already in the yard, papaya, grapefruit, avocado, mango, banana, and a hive of bees living in the main house, which I received a liter of honey from. I plan on growing some amaranth, a bit of maize, some beans, and some other plants sent to me by my good friends Will and Nathalie stateside.
The work is very busy. I go between Choma, Monze, and
The main project site is about 5 km from my home and is where about 30 children meet 3 times a week to learn about agriculture and other things. They are currently involved in mushroom production, beekeeping, and gardening. They will probably be graduating soon so we are looking into how to assist the graduates in starting up their own projects through micro finance or other assistance. There are other side projects of 30 adults and another of 30 children about 8 km from the main site.
One of my jobs is to try and assist in moving the project forward without losing any of the lessons learned already. It is challenging as always to get folks to communicate with each other. This has been something that I have seen in the HIV/AIDS sector and even within Peace Corps. People will go off and deal with their slice of the pie and be doing similar things without working together or communicating.
The kids are awesome and well skilled and the idea behind the project is desirable and possible here. I am enjoying working with this project very much.
In other news, my program supervisor quit. He was working too much and decided he had enough, as far as I know. The gossip abounds, which appears to be very Peace Corps. I miss him around, but I don’t plan on losing him as a friend.
I once again hope everyone is well.
Love.
Niko.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
July
In Choma at the provincial house, a place that volunteers pick up their mail, decompress, and come for tri-annual meetings.
I have officially moved to another site (pemba) about 70 km from my original one (keemba). The new site is near the road and I will have electricity and access to other amenities such as more than one vegetable and fruits. When I say official, I mean that by papers and such. However, there are some housing issues at pemba, so I will be in limbo, living at the provincial house for a couple weeks.
The project I will be working with is known as JFFLS and AFFLS (or Junior/Adult Farmer Field and Life Schools).
http://www.fao.org/hivaids/
They are supported by FAO (or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and work to assist more vulnerable members of communities in coping with effects of HIV/AIDS. This is done through some direct and indirect support such as food, seeds, agricultural knowledge, LIFESKILLS, psychosocial support, etc. Since I will just now be starting there, I think I will see how things are going there for a few months and will then provide a better picture of what my work actually entails.
They have identified some issues including lack of coordination and background in HIV on the ground and have agreed at a number of levels (district, national, local) to work with a Peace Corps volunteer at the site to assist in such things.
I have left my former community and will still be traveling back there to assist in bringing the new volunteer that will be posted there in about a month’s time up to speed and in checking on some work they are doing there. Given the short distance, there should be no problem accomplishing this.
My community wasn’t happy but they accept it. Many of them complained that they had grown used to my presence and weren’t happy. They are happy for the project and me but are sad for their “loss”. I will be visiting them about every month for a while as I still want to see how my new community and old community can learn from each other given the distance is short and I just want to keep in contact with my “family” and friends there.
On other notes, I finally visited the Victoria Falls for a day and was amazed. I went with a few friends that are working here (from Emory) and one of them bungee jumped off a bridge into a deep canyon. He enjoyed and I think the contact high may be the closest I come to trying it myself.
I am doing well, though I have been getting tired from the copious traveling from place to place setting up my site move.
Best be in the moment though, so I am happy in general.
I hope everyone is well.
Love. niko.
I have officially moved to another site (pemba) about 70 km from my original one (keemba). The new site is near the road and I will have electricity and access to other amenities such as more than one vegetable and fruits. When I say official, I mean that by papers and such. However, there are some housing issues at pemba, so I will be in limbo, living at the provincial house for a couple weeks.
The project I will be working with is known as JFFLS and AFFLS (or Junior/Adult Farmer Field and Life Schools).
http://www.fao.org/hivaids/
They are supported by FAO (or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and work to assist more vulnerable members of communities in coping with effects of HIV/AIDS. This is done through some direct and indirect support such as food, seeds, agricultural knowledge, LIFESKILLS, psychosocial support, etc. Since I will just now be starting there, I think I will see how things are going there for a few months and will then provide a better picture of what my work actually entails.
They have identified some issues including lack of coordination and background in HIV on the ground and have agreed at a number of levels (district, national, local) to work with a Peace Corps volunteer at the site to assist in such things.
I have left my former community and will still be traveling back there to assist in bringing the new volunteer that will be posted there in about a month’s time up to speed and in checking on some work they are doing there. Given the short distance, there should be no problem accomplishing this.
My community wasn’t happy but they accept it. Many of them complained that they had grown used to my presence and weren’t happy. They are happy for the project and me but are sad for their “loss”. I will be visiting them about every month for a while as I still want to see how my new community and old community can learn from each other given the distance is short and I just want to keep in contact with my “family” and friends there.
On other notes, I finally visited the Victoria Falls for a day and was amazed. I went with a few friends that are working here (from Emory) and one of them bungee jumped off a bridge into a deep canyon. He enjoyed and I think the contact high may be the closest I come to trying it myself.
I am doing well, though I have been getting tired from the copious traveling from place to place setting up my site move.
Best be in the moment though, so I am happy in general.
I hope everyone is well.
Love. niko.
Friday, June 16, 2006
June
I have just finished harvesting my maize and hosting 4 new volunteers that will be this years HIV/AIDS volunteers. My harvest should be around 400 kg of maize and was quite a task though the boys that live at my compound assisted me a great deal. Given that I eat about 10 kg a month, I will likely use the maize to support some of the poorer families in my area.
The dry season is here and the mobility is increased greatly. I will endeavor to visit all the health posts in my area before the rains come.
The HIV/AIDS work is going and I have cleared up some confusion about my role here. Some wanted me to “preach” the message of HIV/AIDS while my role is more of a facilitator drawing upon local knowledge and resources. I mentioned teaching might be part of my role if there were not so many trained people in my area (there are about 20 highly trained folks that can facilitate in a culturally appropriate manner and in local language). My job as I see it is to coordinate efforts and help all the trained folks learn from each other and discover what else the community might want them trained on (such as psychosocial support for those affected).
I had an interesting conversation with my headman the other day. He said people were complaining to him about my initial choices of company here. They told him that he should tell me to stay away from them but he said to them that he trusted my age and experience to come to same conclusions my community had already reached. They then waited as I quickly discarded these people as their motives for befriending me caused me some suspicion.
This came up as the headman was complementing me on my demeanor within the community. Apparently my choices have earned me some respect and I am not considered a boy, but a man, even though I don’t have a wife. Interesting how this works. I had a feeling everyone was watching me, holding their breath. It appears that everyone has decided to breathe again.
Other news is that I will be developing a new site that I will move to before August. The work helps our HIV/AIDS program as the site sort of works in conjunction with FAO and some agreements were signed at national levels regarding USG Peace Corps working with the UN, specifically FAO in this case.
It is work supposedly assisting vulnerable children and their families to access knowledge and social support funded by a variety of donors and working within the Ministry’s of Agriculture, Education, and Health. I don’t want to say too much more about it as I have yet to see the reality as I have only had high level meetings and have not yet met the community or district folks where this is happening. It is designed after the Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) in conjunction with FAO.
Another volunteer will take my site as I leave so my community won’t be left empty-handed and my new site is both within my province (same language) and about 100 km from my current site.
More updates to follow as I am going to get very busy with all this.
Take care.
Love. niko.
The dry season is here and the mobility is increased greatly. I will endeavor to visit all the health posts in my area before the rains come.
The HIV/AIDS work is going and I have cleared up some confusion about my role here. Some wanted me to “preach” the message of HIV/AIDS while my role is more of a facilitator drawing upon local knowledge and resources. I mentioned teaching might be part of my role if there were not so many trained people in my area (there are about 20 highly trained folks that can facilitate in a culturally appropriate manner and in local language). My job as I see it is to coordinate efforts and help all the trained folks learn from each other and discover what else the community might want them trained on (such as psychosocial support for those affected).
I had an interesting conversation with my headman the other day. He said people were complaining to him about my initial choices of company here. They told him that he should tell me to stay away from them but he said to them that he trusted my age and experience to come to same conclusions my community had already reached. They then waited as I quickly discarded these people as their motives for befriending me caused me some suspicion.
This came up as the headman was complementing me on my demeanor within the community. Apparently my choices have earned me some respect and I am not considered a boy, but a man, even though I don’t have a wife. Interesting how this works. I had a feeling everyone was watching me, holding their breath. It appears that everyone has decided to breathe again.
Other news is that I will be developing a new site that I will move to before August. The work helps our HIV/AIDS program as the site sort of works in conjunction with FAO and some agreements were signed at national levels regarding USG Peace Corps working with the UN, specifically FAO in this case.
It is work supposedly assisting vulnerable children and their families to access knowledge and social support funded by a variety of donors and working within the Ministry’s of Agriculture, Education, and Health. I don’t want to say too much more about it as I have yet to see the reality as I have only had high level meetings and have not yet met the community or district folks where this is happening. It is designed after the Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) in conjunction with FAO.
Another volunteer will take my site as I leave so my community won’t be left empty-handed and my new site is both within my province (same language) and about 100 km from my current site.
More updates to follow as I am going to get very busy with all this.
Take care.
Love. niko.
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