The Zambian life, and I am loving it!

First, I want to say that Burke, I am glad you found the blog!!

These last two weeks, I have been living in Chongwe, Zambia. I am staying with a host-family and also another volunteer. My host family consists of a mother, Judith, and her son Jono. Jono is about 15 years old and a little quiet. He may not know a lot of English though which would explain his quietness because I don't know much Lunda (my language to learn) yet. I am getting there though. I had my first full Lunda spoken exchange today. That made me feel really good about where I am in the language skills. My host mom, Judith, is a wonderful lady. The Peace Corps has it set up to where we don't have to do a whole lot around the house just yet, that comes in a couple weeks I believe. So, she does the cooking and dishes and Jono gets our water for both bathing and drinking. It is nice not having to do those things but at the same time I feel like they believe we are helpless. So I may jump into the grind of things a little sooner then the PC would like. Chongwe is a beautiful place to see. The sunrise and sunsets are amazingly beautiful. I have a ton of pictures of both. The sky at night is another site to see. Upon the billion stars that are always out, you can also see the Milky-Way. Yes, I have pictures of that too :)
THE FOOD!!!!
The food out here has been a big surprise. Nshima (please google) is not very good, but they say I will come to love it. I disagree. But, Nshima is served at every meal except breakfast so I hope to come to love it soon. That is were the bad ends. Every night I am served either fish, beef, goat or chicken supplemented with two of either cabbage, spinach, rice, beans, soup or fritters (fried bread). Lunch is usually a pasta or rice dish with regular bread or soup. Oh, last night I had sausage. Breakfast has been boiled or scrambled eggs, the classic PB&J, or fritters. All meals are followed by "tea" which is either coffee (my favorite), tea, or hot chocolate. It is Lunda culture to not have anything to drink while eating. That is super hard to accomplish when eating nshima, but I have not broke tradition.
THE AMAZING GROUP OF PEOPLE!!!
Although we have already lost four people to ET (Early Termination) I can say that I have 54 amazing friends here with me in Zambia. A few of us have decided to make a new tradition among our group by having cut-off chitanga Thursdays where we have a fabric "chitanga" made into a shirt with no sleeves and Bichi Fridays (fresh friday), where we dress in our Sunday best. We are currently looking for other ideas for the other days of the week lol. The other volunteers are from all walks of life in America and not one is from FL. I have come closer to a few people that are going to be in the Northwest Provence with me for the two years of service, but everyone has every ones phone numbers too. I don't think we have a single outcast in our entire group. I would actually be upset if any of the 54 that are left decided to quit. Our youngest volunteer is 21 y/o Leigh, she is from Cali. Our oldest is 62 y/o Cheng, from Washington. My NWP group consists of Jack from Idaho, Michelle from Washington, and Hunter from Rhode Island. Let me just say this, my language group (Jack, Michelle, and Hunter) are freaking hilarious. I can't tell you how many times I have cracked up laughing in class. Our teacher is always right there laughing as well though.
On to the story I have told 20 times... My boy Will was definitely feeling this girl one night and flirting with her. They were talking about scars and other things about each other when Will decides to take his short sleeve shirt completely off to show her a scar that was literally by his armpit but still on his arm. Mara (a volunteer) and myself busted out laughing when he did this. I was wearing a snap-up shirt and proceeded to rip it open while saying "Mara, check out my scar" all while pointing to my calf... Just to show how pointless it was for Will to take of his shirt when showing the girl his scar. Mara and I as well as 10 other people in the room are now ALL laughing. That is just a little info on the great people that I am sharing this experience with in Zambia.
CLOSING!!!
I have had such a great time out here so far and I hope everything continues to go this way. I will write again when I can, but I don't know how long it will be from now. I hope everyone is doing great back in the States and remember, always write me letters because other PCV's say that is what gets you through the rough days. I love and miss all of you

Zambia? no. Jo-berg? yes. Zambia on Friday? Possibly

This is our group in the line for Customs! We were constantly overwhelming these people because it is not easy to handle 58 Americans who want sleep haha!

Here is 2 of the people in our group (the only married couple) Shaun and Megan with a group of Soccer players from Namimbia

Hey everyone. I just wanted to say that I made it safe to South Africa but we missed our connector because of a delay in ATL. We got to spend the night in some hotel in Jo-Berg last night and let me tell you, it was a blast. Myself and 9 others went downtown via taxi and went to a club. It was the best time and I also figured out who the "fun" people are going to be... lol. I have slept a total of maybe 8 hours in the last 3 days... Too much to do and not enough time. I figured since I was able to go out in downtown I now don't have to make a trip to Jo-Berg in the near future. So Cape Town will be my next South African adventure.

I want to say that the Peace Corps is doing so much right now for us and have been a huge help in getting us rooms and getting some of us back on flights haha. We had about 15 people on a 10:55AM flight to Zambia this morning, another 15 or so scheduled to leave at 6:50PM tonight and the rest are on standby for hte 6:50 flight and not sure what will happen to them if they don't get on that flight. But flexability is what the PC is all about isn't it?

Everyone here is super interested in getting started in Zambia, but now we are just hoping to make it there :)

Everyone is just waiting on the information about where we will be staying after just missing our connector!!!

Everyone about to go through customs!!! Jo-Berg here we come!

Getting Ready :)

As you all know, I am leaving for the Peace Corps in 4 days! These past few weeks have been so crazy with trying to get everything together and telling everyone goodbye. I have been looking forward to this moment for so long and now I am so close! Not a day is going to go by that I don't think of everyone back home but at the same time, we all know we have to grow up and venture out at some point... my venturing point is now.
Packing is insane. Think of all the clothes you have in your closet or dresser and then think of which 4 t-shirts, 2 pairs of jeans, 3 pairs of slacks, and 3 dress shirts you want... yea, that's all you get to take for clothes. Most of y'all that know me, know that I have a ton of clothes. I want to bring every piece of clothing I have too lol. I have an 80lb pack limit which, trust me, isn't much for a 2-4 year trip. I have managed to get all of my essential items in one of my bags (now i just hope it isn't stolen once I land in Africa). One thing that I have noticed about the packing though is that I already feel like I have an understanding of what it will be like over there... Everyone wearing their best clothes every day and not really having much else other than what is on their back.
The amount of blogs that I have read is insane. I googled "Peace Corps blogs in Zambia" and just started reading the crazy amount of blogs that have been written by other PCV's in Africa. I would recommend y'all doing the same thing if you really want to know what my life is going to be like over there ahead of time. I know I was interested. One thing I was able to pick out of most of the blogs was that my first month of service (after the 3 months of training) is going to be the hardest. This is the time that I will not know anyone in my village and feeling lonely and missing home even more. So as soon as I get my permanent address, please start sending letters right away. The more the better!
My U.S. comforts; I am bringing a solar panel backpack to charge both my camera and my iPhone. Although I will not have service, I am bringing my phone because it has a lot of pictures of my friends and family. My backpack will charge both the camera and phone completely on one full charge. I am so excited to use this thing, you have no idea.
Living conditions in Zambia; I will not have electricity or running water. Although there will be a clean water source near me, it will still be a hike to get to it. my bathroom will be a pit latrine (hole in the ground). I will also be living in a clay brick house with an all grass roof. From what I hear, it will leak. But I could not be more excited for this adventure. The things that I will see, and send y'all pictures of is going to be one heck of a lifetime experience.
I am going to miss all of you.
Please take care of yourselves and keep me in your prayers.
I will update this blog as much as possible once I am over there so keep an eye out.

God bless
<3 Kenny Ray