So.

I have been at site and in Zambia for about a month from vacation.

I have been working with the JFFLS program that I previously mentioned and we are trying to coordinate activities at the main site and work on activities at a Cuulu (around 12 km from me and 7 from main Pemba site). We are trying to construct structures for growing mushrooms, honey production, and equipment storage at the main site. We are also trying to stimulate more activity with regard to growing vegetables and such at Cuulu. There are two other sites that are working and are further away (about 25 and 120 km from my home respectively) and I have less direct contact with them but we are trying to visit from time to time.

I am also growing maize at a farm and a small garden near my house in my off time. I have gotten stronger again from working the fields and biking the 17 km to where my maize field is twice a week. I may add I have only eaten my own maize since august and will not likely buy commercial until I am no longer living in Zambia. It is nice to subsist in what you grow. Fulfilling. I planted sunflower and pigeon pea (as a green manure) as well, but the management is poor. The maize is doing ok, but the rains just stopped and that may affect the harvest. The garden is mostly herbs that I want to introduce to the project, but I will probably grow some greens (collards, chards, etc.).

I am also working with a youth group made up of late teenagers and early twenty-somethings. They do peer education, film viewing and discussions, and condom promotion. I squeeze this in sometimes when I am not involved with project work and offer them materials and advice, though they do well on their own.

I am also working on PhD applications in the field of nutrition/food science. I am starting with initial groundwork and requirements and am so far looking at Cornell and Davis. It is a process.

I am also submitting paperwork for extension at site, which is a bit of work.

My language is getting better, but by no means fluent. I can get most of what people say, but when they start speaking fast or loosely, I get lost. I translated for some folks recently and it was taxing, but I felt like I can actually express myself, at least if we are not using the conditional tenses.

Things that are nice lately are:
Fresh mushrooms, fresh roasted maize, fresh curcubits (squash, cucumbers), field greens (cleome, amaranth, blackjack), people, and babies.

Mosquitoes and other biting critters are annoying at this time. I literally coat myself with DEET when I go to the farm and still return with unknown and itchy bites. Small price for delicious produce, I guess.

Anyway, that’s the news. Hope everyone is well and I’ll eat something fresh for each of you. Best and love.

niko.

This is world AIDS day 2006 in Pemba, where I live. Lots of folks and the area member of parliament came.









This is taken from where we stayed in Vilankulos, an old charming town that felt a bit sketchy. I felt as if people were casing us constantly. They might have been. Probably due to the numerous tourists coming there.






This is morning in Tofo, on the coast of Mozambique. it was incredibly hot and beautiful. The ocean was warm and the sun was scorching. i think this picture should be around 5:30 in the morning.










This is another angle at the same time and place in Tofo. It was rough to wake up to this every morning. I usually took a dip to wake up, which was sometimes not that intelligent, but was fun as I got hammered by waves.






This is some huge prawns we got in Maputo. delicious meal. Had to take a photo for memories.










This is an island off the coast of Vilankulos. Too beautiful. I had a cold but remained conscious enough to marvel at the beauty.











This is the same island as above and the boat we came in on.





This is my family in Pemba, Zambia. Top left is Mutinta, to her right Beno, to his right the old man, to his right chiwana or garfield, me, khola to my right, and mpendcili standing to the right of khola.

new year

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.

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.

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

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 Pemba about a month now. I am getting used to having electricity, sink, tub, and such. The water only runs indoors if folks aren’t filling their jugs at the main tap and it happens to be during the hour and a half a day that the water is on.

I share the house with Mr. Benos and his wife, Jennie Benos. Mr Benos’ father was greek and his mother indigenous Tonga people. Jennie is a nurse at the local clinic and also a facilitator for the project I work with. Mr. Benos is a welder and is incredibly active, usually working in the yard from about 7 hours to 18 hours daily. The have about 4 children, only one of which is around, but is mainly at the farm some distance from town. The others are in Lusaka. Some children of dead relatives stay with them and are essentially treated as their own.

They are very sarcastic and kind. They are also forcing me to speak Tonga by speaking all the time in Tonga. My Tonga is getting better, but still needs work.

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 Lusaka meeting with folks about the project. It is a lot of coordinating and chatting, which I am getting better at.

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 will be taking my first official vacation to go around with my friend Laura from NM checking out health related projects in Zambia. I have a whole week off and am actually looking forward to not really having a set schedule.

I once again hope everyone is well.

Love.

Niko.