Disclaimer
8/8/2008
Jessica has new a cell phone!
Her number is: 011-260-979423976
I'm relating what Jessica shared with me about her experiences during her first 2 weeks in
“...wow, the biggest grasshopper I’ve ever seen - just jumped on my bed right now! Because it is the dry season the bugs are not as good as they will be when it's the rainy season-a lot more variety! ....I found 5 huge, ugly spiders in my hut this morning when I woke up. They look like huge ticks…but are harmless."
...Today I rode my bike from the Peace Corps training center to my host family's hut for the first time by myself. Before then I rode with a small group of Peace Corps Volunteers, following a supervisor, in order to learn the route to each of our host families. It's probably about a 20-30 minute bike from my hut to the training center but these past 2 weeks it has taken us much longer because there is one girl who (bless her heart) can’t ride a bike very well and ends up walking it up and down hills. It is pretty treacherous terrain, very rocky and dusty most of the way.
...I like my host family a lot. The hardest part for me so far are the cultural differences-but not the food or even language. It's the gender differences. For example, I am not a guest in this family's home. I am the guest of the man in the family. So at dinner I sit at a small table in their hut across from him. The mother and children do not eat with us. I feel uncomfortable having the woman serve the 2 of us. The first night I just couldn't chew the chicken enough to even swallow it. I felt bad but since then the the food has been OK. The woman in the home serves the man of the house and me bread, tea and coffee after every meal...sometimes she joins us.
The children in the family had not approached me for the first 2 weeks...maybe out of respect...or fear? I'm not really sure. But last night, I was so happy that they came close enough to me that I could show them a piece of paper. I drew on it and handed them the paper and pen. They giggled, chattered back and forth and had fun showing each other their drawings.
The man is the only one in the family who speaks any English- and very little. Last night, he walked me to my hut before dark. He made such an effort to talk English. What he said was quite touching: "You are safe in my family... free from problems. This is my country but I will never travel and see it. You will. I want you to tell me about my country."
(He has a cell phone-perhaps a benefit of being a host family?)
I am in training every day but Sunday. I don’t have any free time right now. After dinner it is dark. With no electricity it is really dark!! Everything takes such a long time to do...eating, bathing, washing my hair in a bucket-I hope you will appreciate your toilet paper!!! (I have to count out 4 squares)
This Sunday my group will go into the closest town - Chongwe. That will be cool. It’s closer than the Lusaka, the capital, where we landed. (which is about a 40 minute jeep ride from my host family)
Peace Corps volunteers are guaranteed their own hut, bathing area and latrine. My hut is made of mud bricks. Part of it has a mattress with about 1 ½ feet of space on either side. The other area is for bathing. My hut is pretty dark even during daylight cause there are only little triangles of light that come through. After dark it is SO dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face. The sky is so incredibly full of stars -there are no words to describe it..............
Well, that's as much as I can remember of our long conversation.
Before we hung up Jessica specifically asked me to pass along these words to you:
Please tell them I am doing well. Please tell them I don’t have anyone’s addresses so PLEASE write to me and I will write back as soon as I can”.
(your addresses are stored in the phone she took with her. It “died and is a real hassle to charge”- I'm helping her resolve the problem
I know she is hungry for news from friends and family.There is a huge lag time for her to receive letters. I sent her one the day she left and she hasn't received it yet- almost 2 weeks later. She will not have internet access. It’s really expensive for her to call the
Her address, again:
Jessica Petrone/PCT
Peace Corps
phone number: 011-260-979423976 (no need to dial 1 before #)
