Becoming a Northwesterner (and new address)

First of all before I forget here is my new address for Northwestern Provence:

Andrea Moehle PCV
Peace Corps 
PO Box 110264
Solwezi Zambia

Back down in Lusaka Provence for training. I have two and a half weeks left until swear in and then I'll be heading back to Northwestern Provence for good! Really excited to make it out to my site and finally settle into my mud hut. I've been traveling between places now since August. Before coming to Peace Corps it was between my parents and sisters house and now it's been living out of the storage locker and my smaller hut at my host family's during training. Having visited Northwest I now feel like my mind is in three places at once (Lusaka, North West and America) and looking forward to taking it down to two again.

Life has been flying by. Here are a couple of updates. Northwest Provence has about 32 other Peace Corps volunteers that are currently serving so while I was up there I was able to meet a handful of them. I am about half way between Solwezi and Mwinilunga and live near the largest mine in Zambia possibly the largest in Africa currently. They are continuing to find large deposits of copper and I think I couple other minerals. I hope to find out more about all the mining when I return to Northwest. Because it is the mining region there is constant transport. Buses come by in the morning to pick up the miners for work around 4 or 5 am and then drop them off again around 17/17:30. So long day for them. Most of the miners know english which is helpful. I have been learning Kaonde which is the official language of the schools where I am living. But because I live nearby the border with Mwinilunga District my entire family and village speak Lunda. So going to be working on learning Lunda once I get out to site. For right now I need to continue with the Kaonde so I can pass the final language exam.

Northwest is absolutely beautiful especially compared to the Lusaka area. It's the rainy season right now so everything is very green. It rains far more in North West Provence than down in Lusaka because it is closer to Rain Belt so every day I was there it poured at least two or three times. And I must say the rains that come down in Africa are nothing like anything I've ever seen anywhere in America. The rains grow delicious pineapples which is another thing Northwest is known for. I'm hoping to make some pineapple jam once I finally move up there. The country's currency is kwacha and it's about 5,000 kwacha to the dollar. You can get a pineapple when they're in season for somewhere between 500-1500 kwacha - which is about 10-30 cents. If only Peace Corps paid us an American salary instead of Zambian.

Going back to swear-in my brother is a tailor and he finished sewing my dress for swear-in while I was in Northwest. Everyone in Africa wears a 2 meter colorful patterned fabric called Chitenge. Everything for the next two weeks is getting to the point where we're ready to head out to our village so swear-in on April 21st is the next big date on everyone's mind.

I'm getting way more used to navigating around Zambia as well. I feel more oriented after making out to Northwest. We were lucky enough to get a cruiser (Peace Corps vehicle) ride all the way up to our provence about a 12 hour ride to Solwezi and another hour and a half to my site. And then since being back navigating out to Lusaka to Arcades (a shopping complex) where I am now. Used to the mini-bus business and how much fare should be to get to one place or another. My brain is also starting to think in terms of Kwacha and no longer converting to USD (well except for earlier in this post with the pineapples). Zambia is becoming my new home, which is completely necessary if I'm going to successfully spend the next two years here. I feel most comfortable in Chongwe where we are doing training and with my host family. I'm looking forward to the challenge of making Northwest my permanent home and intergrating myself into the community and my family.

Love and miss you all.Take a moment to enjoy your light switch or your constant ability to obtain chocolate :) Thank you to all that have mailed me letters - training is a crazy time. Your letter will not go unanswered and once I'm at post my responses will be speedier. If you mail me a letter you will receive some zambian mail - it just might be on zambian time (most zambians in the rural area tell time by using the sun - so most things are not prompt/timely)

Mushale Bulongo (remain well)