So, life has come to a bit of a standstill for various reasons and I've decided to head off to see a little more of the continent for a while. I haven't really done any tourist stuff in Africa except for one weekend in Livingstone so this should be a serious (and much needed) change of pace for me. Certain things about living here were getting a tad too heavy for me (I've never been very good with heavy). I'm leaving tomorrow morning towards the northern border of Zambia to spend a few days on Lake Tanganyika...if anyone wants postcards they should send me a current mailing address...hopefully I'll find some good ones and I love sending postcards. Had a long cheesy farewell to Lusaka written but then decided better...hopefully I'll come up with some more ... read more

My computer is not working so wonderfully at the moment...which is sad...makes me think it may be near death. But for the moment I will not worry about it because I am at "home" and have internet! The joy of the situation is almost hard to believe. I have attached some photos of Mpika and Shiwa where I traveled last month. I went up to learn about a project intended to curb poaching in the North Luangwa. The idea was to teach villagers about farming and eco-tourism in order to convince them of a better way of life then selling ivory (which unfortunately is a very limited resource). There was a good deal of skepticism expressed by a local I met, but its still a lovely idea. I may make my way up there again to ... read more

So…for once I haven’t written for a while, not because I couldn’t think of anything to write, but because I’ve been too busy! Hard to believe isn’t it, that a volunteer job could capitalize so much of my time? Well…not all of it was work. Yesterday I spent all day cooking Thanksgiving dinner. And then I spent all evening awkwardly playing hostess while too tired to actually realize what was going on around me. You know how after thanksgiving you’re supposed to have stuffing and mashed potatoes for breakfast the next day? Well…there weren’t any leftovers, too many people came. So I’m sitting here on Sunday morning drinking ginger tea and eating a twix bar (they’re better here) for breakfast because I’m done with cooking for a couple days. Anyhoo, I’ve been busy. Last weekend was ... read more

I have a cold. Yup, its winter here in the southern hemisphere of the world and I have a cold. Always a strong believer on taking a day off, I am in bed drinking tea with milk and honey. I’m not sure how many people actually read this blog but my mom insists that I write more so here goes nothing. Over the past few weeks we have been working on a major project attempting to screen around 8,000 children for HIV. In order to do this we allied with a large Christian organization being run out of Texas. They hold a “summer camp” (did I mention that its winter? I’m not sure if I’ve talked about this, but living here is slowly teaching me how to hate Americans. Alright…granted, if you know me you know ... read more

So...haven't written in a while because I haven't been doing anything very interesting. My life has become rather formulaic. Erin and Scott (other volunteers at TTAF) are leaving so we had a going away party for them last night and today. Last night we went to a bar with a few of the guys we work with where they attempted to teach us to dance. Even Erin, someone who is a very graceful and coordinated person by American standards, cannot do the dances. I hope to eventually get some good videos (its usually too dark to take videos) to show some Zambian dancing because it is impossible to describe. The important thing to realize though is that Zambia has a very strong musical culture, everyone can sing and EVERYONE can dance. They start learning these dances ... read more