Sika | June 8, 2009
Edith asked me to come to PST (pre-service training) for the newbies. I was excited because I was pretty sure Zomba was getting Marla, and I thought it would be nice to get to know her a bit better. Also, I hadn’t had/taken the chance to spend more than a few hours with the Health [...]
Sika | July 13, 2007
Today was our village farewell. It was pretty awesome. The amayi of Mterera and Paolo have been practicing their dancing and singing. The schoolchildren danced for us, too. Christine, as the acting CD (country director), got up and gave a speech. She mentioned that the people back home tend to think that the hardest part [...]
Sika | July 8, 2007
I got a phone! I got a phone! My # (including country code and access symbol thingie) is +265 9476765. If you’re calling from a land line, it’s 011 instead of +. I can receive text messages and calls free, but for me to call the U.S. costs me about $10 for 5 minutes, and [...]
Sika | July 8, 2007
I carried water on my head yesterday! My amayi was super impressed and immediately offered to take me to the borehole and let me carry some water. Not being an idiot, I refused. Well, actually, I said that I already had to do it again this morning so we could water our newly transplanted seedlings, [...]
Sika | July 8, 2007
My 3-year-old sister, Cecelia, fascinates me. We went to the river to wash our clothes (apparently I was not supposed to go as I am a wussy American & who knows what I’m going to catch from the river water–especially with these cuts in my thumbs–I probably already have schistosomiasis.) This morning, Cecelia threw a [...]
Sika | July 8, 2007
I learned how to remove the hard kernels from the corn cobs. I finished the ones in amayi’s basin and then, after dark, started helping achimwene Lami do his. Eventually, I felt a corn cob that was kind of sticky (to which I was like, eewww, yuck). And then, it wasn’t just one cob. And [...]
Sika | July 8, 2007
I’m not sure how to catch y’all up. On one hand, not much has happened. On the other, tons has happened. It feels like the 21 of us have been here forever. As if for forever we have been getting up at 5:30, stumbling out to the chimbudzi in the dim dawn; bathing in the [...]
