Tuesday, October 26, 2010

AUSTIN!! October 19th - Nov 17th

This is what I originally wrote to start my blog, but then realized I might need to start with an introduction of myself and what I'm doing in Zambia. I'm going to update the blog on different experiences I have down in Austin, some Peace Corps related, some not. The overall idea is to get myself used to and comfortable with journaling and then transferring it into something I then share with anyone that feels like taking the time to read some.

Thursday, October 21st 
Moved/visiting Austin for the next month. It's a good trial run for the bigger end all of leaving for Zambia with Peace Corps. I'm not really quite sure what my plan is while I'm down here. I have a couple of goals.
1. Realize what I'll miss when I leave for Zambia so I can either bring it along with me, soak it in as much as possible between now and then, or just start to wrap my head around it so it's not as big of a shock.
2. Acquired a one-speed bicycle from craigslist that I'm working on riding all around town to start getting in better riding condition. Signed up for a bike maintenance class at the downtown REI in a couple of weeks.
3. Learn how to create/write a blog; publicly sharing more about my life.
4. Get connected somehow to the Austin community. Different ideas:
* Substitute teach: turns out to be an unrealistic plan because I'd need a texas drivers license, to get  fingerprinted in TX, and the earliest orientation is a week before I'm leaving.
* Volunteer with kids, immigrants, school system, etc... doing some searches on volunteermatch
* do a meet-up event - looking into soccer, outdoorsy, and food groups
* get out into the city, meet new people, learn here and there

Friday, October 22nd
Drove out to the Salt Lick Restaurant - famous in the area for their bbq. There was a fundraiser event for the Hill Country Conservancy complete with a buffet dinner, open bar, armadillo racing, live auction, country dancing, and a bonfire! We got free tickets to the event from a family Katelynn babysits for. It felt like a real southern country event with men dressed in their cowboy hats and girls completing their dressy outfits with a pair of cowboy boots! Need to learn the two step when I get cowboy boots.

Saturday, October 23rd 
Went to the downtown farmers market with Katelynn. We wandered around the market with her dog, Teddy; there was a dog costume contest going on with some really cute dogs all decked out - including one dressed like the hamburgler :) Reminded me of when Laura, my sister, used to dress up Kodi, our dog, and have photo shoots; took a picture and sent it to her. They have a great coffee stand so I could enjoy a dark roast while I wandered the different stands. I stumbled upon some prickly pear fruit! The night before I had a drink with prickly pear juice and was excited to discover that I had caught the tail-end of their season! Not really sure what to do with the four that I now have chilling in the fridge...

The same family that gave us tickets the night before to the fundraiser gave Katelynn two extra tickets to the University of Texas game; she had work so Emily and I got to go! But not before I had some fun with the bus system (turns out the routes change on game days because UT closes down streets - a new concept to me because the University of Michigan never shut down streets that I was aware of for the football games. We enjoyed the sunshine while sitting at great seats at the game and UT almost pulled themselves back into the game against Iowa State... almost. 

University of Texas Longhorns in the fourth quarter - just needed one more touchdown! 

Saturday night we went out to the Ginger Man, a bar downtown, complete with a beer garden, 70+ beers on tap, an oktoberfest celebration, customers that bring their dogs to the bar, and not just one accordion playing band - but two! Chatted with different Austin locals and learned about more restaurants, bars, country dancing locations, and taco stands to check out :) We ended our night by stopping by Surf-n-Turf, a taco stand/trailer and getting some delicious, generously portioned tacos before heading home on the bus. Their tables were secured  by a pole extended from the top of the trailer and no table legs- got to love it.

Sunday, October 24th 
Broke out the bike and explored the Wheatsville Co-op, which is quite similar to the People's Food Co-op in downtown Ann Arbor. Discovered an AMAZING new kind of hummus - spicy smoked bbq - made locally by a company called Baby Zach. The checkout guy told me there was a place in town that made vegan bbq from Baby Zach's company. Looked it up and going to need to visit the Halcyon coffeshop/bar/restaurant sometime quite soon to try out some vegan bbq esp. because I feel like I've been missing out on the bbq scene with my vegetarianism.

Met up with Emily who had run into our previous realtor at church - of all the churches in Austin. We're going to go to a concert tomorrow night. Really loving Austin being the Live Music Capital of the World!!

Not sure how I feel about chronicling my time... testing it out and see where I go from here. Tomorrow I'm going to bike down to the south side of Austin to Zilker Park where there's a least one place to swim, read my book club book (which I started today and am excited because I think I'm finally getting back into the reading zone after struggling to read much at all since August - quite unlike myself), and survive the projected 94 degree weather! I would never make it through an Austin summer!!! 

Monday, October 25th 
Headed out towards Zilker Park, a park located on the other side of the Colorado River. Just did a little google mapping and looks like I biked about 10 miles today, a bit shy of 40k but working up to it. Also hoping since Zambia's mainly a plateau there won't be big hills (fingers crossed) and having a mountain bike with different gears should at least make the ascents easier. There's a bike/hike trail called Town Lake that runs most of the south side of the river; it was nice to not be biking illegally on a sidewalk or frighteningly riding down the side of a road. Read my book club book at the park for a couple of hours, met a couple of dogs, and then biked over to S. Congress to meet up with Emily and enjoy a late lunch. In the evening we went to a concert where Bob Schneider played at the Saxon Pub on South Lamar. He played everything to rock/rap to slow songs; one of the band members played everything from the accordion :) to the harmonica, keyboard, and trumpet. It was great to experience the true Austin live music scene! 

One-speed bicycle I acquired from craigslist. This is on the Town Lake path overlooking the skyline!!

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Celebration!


Wednesday, October 13th 

Below find some thoughts I typed up around 3 am after getting home from celebrating the Peace Corps 50th anniversary celebration:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” - quote of the night

An estimated 300 people showed up tonight on the steps of the Union to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the day the idea of Peace Corps began; when JFK  gave a speech that inspired thousands to join the cause. The whole evening was inspiring. It illustrated a thought process towards service and towards being part of something bigger than yourself. At the student symposium component of the evening a conversation with a girl at my table struck me: “it’s the best time in our lives to be selfish (referring to becoming a Peace Corps volunteer) in the best kind of way”.  It got me thinking. I joined Peace Corps because I wanted to accomplish a particular set of goals, and I wanted to experience a particular capacity of life and culture different than I have at this point, and I wanted… I want to make a positive difference in someone’s lives and I want to accomplish this simple goal continually throughout my life. And because I want to accomplish these things I’m leaving for Zambia at the end of January. For the next 27 months my family and friends will be left behind in the states and I will miss being an active part of their lives. Thank you for all of those who have supported and continue to support me as I pursue my dream of serving in the Peace Corps. 
 JFK on the steps of the Union when he proposed the idea of Peace Corps 50 years ago.
 The crowd that gathered at the steps of the Union to celebrate the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary!! 
Pictures found on Michigan Daily website. 

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Pre-departure October 2010

Struggling with how to start this blog... going to start with the basics of where I'm at in life and some general Peace Corps information.

Things are a bit all over the place currently but here it goes. I've been living between my parent's house in Northville and my sister and brother-in-law's apartment in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Every week I pack up a bag with the different clothes, books, and whatever else I might need for the week because I don't know yet which residence I'll be staying at each night because substitute teaching is quite variable and most of the time the way the system works you find out where you're teaching anywhere from a couple days beforehand to a couple hours before showing up for a day of work. I've been substitute teaching in several districts, visiting different districts, schools, and classrooms everyday. This can get a little trying over time because you never have enough time with the kids; one of the reasons I prefer elementary school because at least then you're with them all day long.

So I'm taking a bit of a break down in Austin, Texas right now. The plan originally formulated before I had heard from Peace Corps. The idea was I'd help my friend move down here and then stay for an unknown duration of time substitute teaching while I waited to hear the final word from Peace Corps and/or develop an alternative approach to teaching overseas. Substitute teaching doesn't work out because I'm only down here for a month; I was invited into the system but by the time I took their orientation class I'd be leaving in less than 10 days. Not worth getting a Texas drivers license or paying to be fingerprinted in the Texas system.

On October 4th I received my Peace Corps packet!!! Or I should say it arrived at my home in Northville where my Dad promptly called me, opened the package (felt like it took FOREVER but there was a lot of packaging to get through in his defense). Then he read that I was invited to serve with the Peace Corps in Zambia as a Community Educator working with the Rural Education Development (RED) project. I depart January 31st for pre-staging; I'll spend two days stateside getting paperwork and final medical reviews taken care of and then fly to Zambia!!!

I received my Peace Corps packet and the next day accepted. I didn't quite know what to make of my decision. The friends that I know that have done/are doing Peace Corps all seemed to need to take a couple of days to process the invitation and decide if this is what they wanted to devote the next 27 months of lives to the Peace Corps. I didn't want to take this commitment lightly but realized that I wasn't making a rash decision I'd been waiting 13 months for this packet to arrive in the mail. I was planning to teach overseas anyways if Peace Corps didn't work out. With Peace Corps I'm able to go to Africa, teach in an underdeveloped area, and I'll be living in a rural village; there couldn't be a more perfect situation if I'd picked it myself!

I applied to Peace Corps because I want to have an overseas experience, to experience a culture completely different from my own, and to feel completely out of my element (pretty sure I won't be loving it at the time). The most important thing to me is to gain a better understanding of all types of people. I hope to make a difference in the lives of the people I meet from my village, the teachers or children that I work with in the schools, whomever really. I don't know yet how this will take form; I think it's better to be open-minded and approach every experience as a potential learning moment.

I don't know what I'll end up doing in my life (hopefully it'll include teaching elementary school) but regardless I think it'll involve education, formal and informal. The experiences I have in the Peace Corps will allow me to better understand the students in my classroom, not just the ones from similar backgrounds of my own, but the ones that are struggling in their new environment, the English as a Second Language students, the ones that the educational system really needs to work on reaching. 

So I accepted my Peace Corps invitation. In the thick Peace Corps envelope they sent me I found my exact job description and a bit of what the day to day should actually look like. Here's a brief little overview.

January 31st:
Pre-staging, located in the United States somewhere for two days. This is where we'll get any necessary vaccines including: rabies, hepatitis A and B, meningococcal meningitis, and typhoid. I'll also start taking Malaria medication which I'll be on the entire time I'm over there. Peace Corps starts all volunteers on Mefloquine which you take weekly; however, it has the great side effect of often making people get sick so if your stomach can't handle/hold down the Mefloquine then they switch you over to Doxycycline.

February 3rd:
Fly to Zambia to begin Staging (training for the next 11 weeks). We'll be training at the Peace Corps building located in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. I stay with a host family within commuting distance to the training center. During training I'll find out what region of Zambia I'm being sent to so I can start learning the local language. Peace Corps also provides training for your specific job, community educator in my case.

April 2011- April 2013:
Live in a mud hut in a village somewhere in Zambia without electricity or running water; cook over hot coals, use an outhouse, shower from a bucket, truly embrace life.

What will I be doing as a Community Educator working with the Rural Education Development (RED) Project? 
Great question - I wondered the same things myself. This is what I've put together from the information/sources that I have. I will work with 5-8 different schools in the area; it's common to have to bike up to 40 km, sometimes more, to the schools you work with. I'm not sure if this is one way or roundtrip? Regardless I need to get into WAY better shape to be able to handle 40 km on a mountain bike on rural dirt roads. The common situation is you're the only volunteer in your village, the nearest PC volunteer is likely a 40 km bike ride away. I'm also about 40 km from the nearest town. Peace Corps seems to love the distance of 40 km and I am about to become quite familiar with it and can foresee a love/hate relationship developing with it.  I'll be teaching HIV/AIDS, food security, and life skills to the community. I also have the opportunity to start side projects anywhere from bee keeping, community gardening, and after school programing; I'll have to wait until I learn from the community what skills/projects they're interested in.

Hopefully you have a better idea of what I'm doing for the next bit of my life and why/how I've come to this decision! I'll be continuing to post updates on Zambia as I research things while I'm down here in Austin - so check back every once in a while!
Zambian hippo. Heather, my sister, found the picture when she was first researching Zambia; it's now my computer background and figured I'd include a taste of Zambian wildlife. Zambia also has also giraffes, lions, alligators, and cheetahs to name a few!