Christmas in Africa

Greetings everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season.

I finished the 'community entry' period of my Peace Corps experience in December. Which means I am no longer just observing my community but now getting to work! When I get back to my village in a week, I can start any projects I see fit for my community.

The last couple weeks of community entry went well. The rainy season began in November, therefore the end of November and all of December everyone was found working in their fields. I spent some time with my host family in the field and even helped my host family plant maize. Got to experience seeing wildlife in my area. Saw and chased after the monkeys near my house and found three snakes in my hut. One was a cobra, but unsure of what the other two were. Shook me up a bit, but I'm okay. When I get back to site I'm going to snake proof my house.

The end of December I left my village and took a trip to Zanzibar, Tanzania with five of my friends for the holiday season. We took a 2.5 day train ride from Serenje, Zambia to Dar-Es-Sallam, Tanzania. Although the train ride itself was unpleasant, the view was beautiful. We got to see Giraffes, warthogs, antelope and monkeys. After arriving in Dar-Es-Sallam we took a ferry from Dar-Es-Sallam to the island of Zanzibar. Spent two days in Stone town. Went shopping there and wandered the streets admiring the beautiful architecture. After Stone Town we visited two different beaches, both beaches had white sandy beaches with turquoise blue clear water. Even though it was clear, on the first beach day, I stepped on a sea anemone.

I visited a turtle center at the first beach we stayed at. It was a small center that takes care of green and hawksbill sea turtles that have been injured. The center does night patrols and I was hoping to go on a night walk, but was disappointed to find out that the island of Zanzibar doesn't have many nesting sea turtles. At the second beach we took a dolphin tour and brief snorkeling trip. Set out at 6 am on a small local boat. While we were looking for dolphins we came upon a dead hawksbill sea turtle (Highlight of my trip, even though it was dead). It was floating and had a huge hook through its neck. The turtle was gorgeous and looked healthy otherwise The boat driver put it in the boat, and told us he would later sell it for a price of $20. We then found the dolphins and by that time so had many other boats. The 'dolphin tour' wasn't swimming in a nice pool with dolphin trainers. It was boats surrounding the dolphins and people jumping off the boats to try and swim with them. Once the dolphins had swam away people would get back in the boats and the boat driver would attempt to surround the dolphins again. It was funny seeing a bunch of Europeans in speedos frantically jumping off the boats to get close to the dolphins. Some of my friends got in the water with them, but I didn't partake in trying to swim with them.

I'm currently in Lusaka for more training. We are getting more fish farming training as well as training for gardening, beekeeping, behavior change, etc. This training is very useful because we get to meet with our trainers and discuss things we would like more knowledge of after being at site for three months. My whole intake is here as well, so it has been nice reuniting with everyone and sharing stories.
I head back to my site in a week. I'm more than ready to get back to my village. It is crazy I have been here for about 6 months now. The new intake arrives in about two weeks. Makes me think back to how I was feeling right before heading to Zambia.
Love and miss you all!

Kim