my zambian journey

insights into the world of a peace corps volunteer in africa. ***"THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE MINE PERSONALLY AND DO NOT REFLECT ANY POSITION OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT OR THE PEACE CORPS."***

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Location: raymond palko, p.o. box 160073 mwinilunga, northwest province, Zambia

i'm a fun loving guy who is trying to find my place in the universe. hopefully i can do this while using my knowledge and education to do a little good in this world.

Friday, August 18, 2006

its official, i'm a peace corps volunteer.


yes i have made it thru training in one piece and with a lot more knowledge and stories than i came to zambia with. last monday was our swearing in ceremony which was very cool. there were speeches by all sorts of important people from the zambian gov't, american embasy & peace corps. also some of the trainees gave speeches in local languages and my language class sang a traditional zambian song which was thouroughly enjoyed by the audience. that nite was a lot of fun, very kumbaya-ish with all 52 of us new volunteers and our training staff having a huge bonfire and singing and what-not.

after a morining of tearful goodbyes we headed to solwezi, our provincial capitol to buy all of the stuff we'll need at our houses in the village. it's been a very busy few days and i'm anxious to get posted at my site tomorow, to begin the work i've come here to do.

a little bit about my province...northwest province has about 30 volunteers currently from all five peace corps zambia projects: rural aquaculture promotion, linking food, environment & income, hiv/aids project, learing at toanga market and community action health plan (for more info see the peace corps site). our new intake of volunteers is 12 people: myself, dan, kit, jeremy (rap), toper, tim doug (life), amy, beth, tess, bob & paul (hap). its a real interesting mix of people from new jersey to california and all over in between, so i'm really excited to spend some time with all them over the next two years.

well i guess thats all for now, it will be a while till i can post again but by then i will have some fish farming and village stories to tell. wish me luck!

Saturday, August 12, 2006

makota? nakota? (are you strong? yes i am strong)

wow i did it! the first step anyway, training. on monday i will be sworn in as an official pcv! the scary language test was passed and with much help from my amazing teacher, a golden. we had extra sessions each day, just conversining in lunda. along the way i realized not only my potential to speak the language but my love of being able to do it. and on our final tech test i got the highest score in the class!?!?! the felling of satisfaction from completeing training is indescribable...i am very excited to head off to the village where i will begin my work and become a productive member of the community. the road ahed for the next two years will certianly be difficult at times but i feel so blessed to have the opprotunities that will arise. there is so much natural beauty here in zambia and it can insire even this one on the roughest of days. so keep me in your thoughts and prayers during this next huge step that i am taking and please try to live out your dreams as well, you will thank yourself for it when you do.

twakadimona kumadiki (we will see each other tommorow(ok maybe not tomm. but we will see each other again))

Saturday, August 05, 2006

training is nearing the end

hey,

so theres only one week of training left and the swear-in ceremony is slated for the 14th of august. time really has flown by. it's a bit stressfull now preparing for my final language exam, but i'm putting in a lot of extra time with my teacher, so keep me in your thoughts and prayers that that all goes well. when we got back from site visit last week i had 11 letters and 3 packages waiting for me...talk about peer envy, i felt like the man. return letters are coming, slowly but surely. also i got a package later in the week and i don't know who sent it...i know that sounds crazy but i was rushing around, emptied the contents into my backpack and left the box at the training center never to be seen again. the contents rocked, lots of energy bars and trader joes green tea, so if you are the party that sent it plese let me know so i can thank you. guess thats about all the new stuff i can think of now, my brain is to full of lunda for much else, so wish me luck with this last week of training.