Sabata

Check out photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ehoelting

I visited my soon-to-be new village, where I'll be living for the next 2 years! It was such an incredible experience. The people are so nice and welcoming and generous. They taught me how to make peanut butter! My village's name is Jimsangu and I am now the daughter of a group headman. So the hierarchy of the traditional system in Phikamalaza is:

Chief
8 group headmen
10 or 11 headmen underneath each of the group headmen

My Zambian "father" is a group headman over a certain area of the Phikamalaza chiefdom. His last name is Nyasulu or Zulu for short. So my name is now Erin Zulu. Everyone calls me Anya Zulu (Anya is like "Miss"). Also, "r's" are usually interchangeable with "l's" so my name sounds like Ellen Zulu! :)

My village actually wanted a female volunteer. This is a very good thing! There is a very strong and large women's group already formed in my village. They have a few fish ponds built as well. They want to learn American crochet stitches and want to teach me their Zambian stitches!!! As you can imagine, I am very excited about this! I received many gifts while I was there (bananas, papaya, teas, a fruit called cabeza). I was even given 2 live pigeons...one I ate for supper that day, the other for lunch the next day. They left the one in my house in a pot over night. When I woke up the next morning it had jumped out and was sitting in the corner!

The 3 volunteers that have been living in Lundazi district for a year are amazing human beings! I am very excited to be a part of their "Dazi family." I really did not want to leave, but I had to come back to training so that I can swear-in and become an official volunteer (I'm still just a trainee).

Eastern Province is very beautiful! Lots of mountains and rolling hills. However, Lundazi district is on a flat plateau...just like Lubbock. But there are lots of mango and banana trees everywhere! Bananas here taste so much better than any I've had before. Lundazi also has a castle! Don't believe me? check out my photos (link at the top)

We did not have enough time to set up a P.O. box at the post office. Soooooo unfortunately I have no address to give you at this time. It makes me sad. Next month I will be able to give you an address.

I have a week and a half left of training! We will swear-in on Sept. 25.

Yesterday, we went into Lusaka and saw lions, monkeys, birds, camels, lots of different ungulates, wild dogs, and a cheetah! We got to swim and I ate a crocodile burger! It was quite a lot of fun. There was also a 22nd year anniversary concert for Peter Tosh going on, so I got to hear some reggae! MAMA AFRICAAAAA!

I'm starting to wear chitenges more and more. Chitenges are pieces of cloth that women use for all kinds of things...usually as a skirt, but they also use them for aprons, blankets, to sit on, to carry a baby with, towels, etc.


Here is a list of things to send me....if ya feel like it:
hard candy (life savers, jolly ranchers, butterscotch thingys, etc)
gummy candies (jelly beans, gummy worms, sour gummy worms, etc)
drink mixes (koolaid, whatever)
COFFEE! (there is only instant coffee. except for one grocery store in Lusaka)
soup mixes....heck, if you can fit a macaroni and cheese box in that would be incredible!
velveeta cheese
magazines (doesn't matter how old the issue is!)
books
fun paper scraps
YARN!!!! (any color, any style. the yarn here is super thin)
crochet patterns
thread
kleenex packets
maps (good for educating the kids)
crayons, markers, crafty things to foster creativity in the children
anything lightweight laying around the house that you don't want.