Dude, hand me the umbrella

Hello hello everyone! Thanks for all the comments. I can feel the love all the way from here. Sorry it has been so long since the last update, i have been really busy and also i have to use my phone to update this thing so it is painstakingly slow to write! Anyways, my apologies. Lots has been going on here to keep me more occupied than the presidents cabinet. I have been trying to form neighborhood health committees, which oversea health issues within communities here. It is a way to empower people from the ground level and make them realize they have a right to decide their own health choices. Therefore it is very rewarding from a long term stand point. For thanksgiving, all of the volunteers from within my province got together for some meetings and then had a great meal that would make john madden keel over. It was great to hang out with americans again, but i was excited to get back to work at my village. I hear the jayhawks are kicking some tail on the hard wood right now. Put me in bill! I am actually in the works of building a basketball hoop behind my house. . . So watch out world i will soon perfect my sky-hook. I just hope the zambians dont instantaneously dominate me, airplane the movie style. Hope all is well back home. Dont be afraid to email or write. I respond to those much faster! Rock chalk!

Boom goes the dynamite

First of all, thanks again for all the comments everyone! If you mailed me a letter to the old address, i should still get it, it will just take a little longer. Thanks! So i have become a bigger chiefs fan since moving to africa due to their recent superb play. . . . So did they win on sunday?! Me and three other volunteers met up in the biggest town near us, called mkushi, last monday to do some shopping for our houses. We got up around five in the morning at a back packer hostel to catch the end of monday night football. It was the most american i have felt in months! Speaking of which, being in africa has made me forget about many things that americans find very important. The clock function on my phone works only occasionally and my watch broke long ago, so i have nearly forgotten the concept of time. I told a friend it reminds me of that scene from forgetting sarah marshall when the two characters are in hawaii surfing. Old roommates will know what im talking about if no one else does! Also i forgot for an entire day how old i was. A man working with me at the clinic asked me, and i could not remember if i was twenty one or twenty two. I guess it was because i am loosing grip with american ideals such as age and time. Aside from that, most everything is going well here. I am still spending my time getting acquainted with my community and greeting people. I can now cook over a charcoal brazier like it is a george foreman. I am eager to get some health groups going with in my community as well. I have joined the local football(soccer) club. We are currently playing in the champions cup. It is a bracket against other local teams with the winner receiving money i think. You should probably check out the vegas odds on our team. Hope school and work is going well there! Think of everyone often. Rock chalk.

High stepping in africa

Thanks again to everyone for the comments! I miss you all so much. Ricky- i would like to wish you a happy birthday for tmrw and mr andrew reeves, happy birthday on oct sixth! Just in case i cant update this before then. I wish i could be there with yall to help celebrate. So i got a new address in care any one in uncle sam land wants to send their boy some love. Its brooks perry, pcv peace corps p o box 840038 mkushi, zambia so use this one if you wanna hear back from me! So things are going well here. I need some hg tv in my life to figure out how to decorate my hut. So far, i have some pictures up and then a lot of blank space. Im trying to figure out a way to artistically move the ants on my walls so they look decorative. So far it has been to no avail. Let me know if anyone has any expertise on the issue. I have recently built a fence in my yard. It doesnt really make sense to fence things in around here, but it makes me feel a little bit like im back in american burbs. All thats missing is wilson to peek over the fence and say hi and im home in the red white and blue baby! Besides getting my house fixed up, i am also trying to meet as many people in my community. I have spent many hours already at the clinic and school and market place simply trying to get names with faces. Its hard going into a town where everyone knows who you are and expect you to know them as well. Hopefully by the end of two years i will know at least a few names. I hope everyone is doing well. Rock chalk!

Woo, its Official!

So, I have officially become a Peace Corps volunteer! (Insert raise the roof hand motion). I can honestly say that swearing in to become officially a volunteer was one of the proudest moments of my life. The ceremony was held at the US ambassador's house. It felt kind of like a country club...with basketball courts, tennis courts and personal pools. It felt like I was at Daddy Warbuck's residence or something. There were all the important PC officials there as well as important Zambian officials. Our swearing in picture even made the front of the Zambian Paper. I have never felt so famous in my life. Fifty two of us volunteers swore-in and all of us now are heading to our prospective provinces. Out of those, only four of us are heading to central province, myself including. There are around twenty current volunteers already serving there. PC took us shopping today for items needed for our house. Tomorrow I will be moving into my hut permanently for the next two years...gulp! I am excited to set up my new residence and start my African bachelor pad. I have several PC volunteers around me. With the closest being 15 k away, 25 k away and 30 k away. My bike will be racking up the miles (or kilometers as us Africans say). The next time we will see other volunteers from different provinces will be around Christmas time. Myself and some of my friends here are already planning a trip to spend Christmas somewhere together. Anyways, I have appreciated all the comments, mailed letters and emails. All my friends here are jealous that my friends back in the States are so solid....so keep up the good work gang! Haha. Anyways, have a great day and Rock Chalk!

Thanks to everyone again for all the responses. It makes it more fun to post when people respond back! Matt the soccer here is pretty good but the playing style is completely different. At the village that i will be in there is a competitive team that i will try and get on. They travel around to other villages so i am hoping to summon my inner pele and join the club! Oh and yes the zambezi is basically in my back yard. Andrew i think the spring break idea is a great one! Ha ha. I move into masansa after swear in. Swear in date is sept 2 4 so it wil be soon after that. And about fantasy im just trying to give you all a break. You are lucky i am in africa. Next near they are gonna name the trophy after me ha. Andi i have decided meat pies are my favorite thing in zambia. The meat is a mystery but it sure tastes like paula dean made it! Our pre service training is almost done! We finish training in a week and a day. I have a mock final language test tomorrow and then the real one next wed. Everything has flown by for sure. Every day i feel more and more african. I can now balance water on my head for more than five seconds and i can start a fire within ten minutes. I even enjoy climbing under my mosquito net right before bed. It almost feels like a safety net of sorts. There is something re assuring about it now. Especially considering i first thought it was a ghost every time i woke up in the middle of the night! I got letters from a few people this week and it made my day. Responses are coming! Oh and i almost forgot, rock chalk baby! Stacia texted me and told me the news of the victory! I hope they heard the celebrations all the way in columbia. I also wanted to give my email address on here. It is baperry59@gmail.com this is the best way to contact me for sure. I check it every day several times. Im actually suprised obama has yet to contact me through it. I hope everyone is doing well! Stay classy america. Ha ha

Masansa departure!

Thanks to everyone for the comments! Glad to hear you got my letter ryan. And amanda i can already picture our click conversation we will have when i return! So as i said in my previous post, i will be going to central province! I will be staying in a village called masansa. It is about forty kilo from the district capital, mkushi. It is also nearby luangwa national park, which is a great safari area. Notice the plug to entice people to come visit me?! I am currently on a site visit which means that for those of us im training we get to go spend some time with actual volunteers helping them do their job. Myself and four others stayed with a volunteer near my future site. We also went camping for two days and got to spend some time at a waterfall that is around eighty k from us. It was a good chance to learn about public transport in zambia. . . . Or lack there of! On friday i got dropped off at my future residence in masansa. I have been meeting clinic staff, local leaders and also playing with the football club. It has been good to get a feel for what my future town will be like. I leave tomorrow morning for training in lusaka. Oh and for all of you wondering, no i am not as sun burnt as you might think! Bull frog sun screen. . . . I owe you my first born. I hope school is going well for everyone. Rock chalk!

Central province

Sorry but this will be a quick update! Thanks to everyone for the comments. Matt as always, i appreciate the insight and humor. Ryan i am glad peace corps gave you a thoughtful moment. Todd i hope the raiders win the big twelve(or ten) with the new man behind the helm. So i found out a few days ago where i will be spending the next two years! I will be in central province in around mkushi. The province has mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and forests. It has it all. So i am excited about that. I am about two kilometers away from another peace corps vol. So that will be nice as well. Tomorrow we will be going to out future sites for about a week and a half. So peace corps gave us shopping money to use at a grocery store in lusaka for two weeks of supplies. Apparently we stay a week with a current vol in the bush and then spend some time at our future site. Hope everyone is well back home!

Under zambian skies

Hello everyone, i hope this post finds everyone well. To those of you back in school im sure you all are unfortunately getting into the swing of things! Our training class here in zambia recently learned that ex peace corps individuals cannot be on the show survivor. The show tends to think that people that have been "surviving" for two years in a third world country are not fit for a show entitled survivor! Our training continues to go smoothly for the nor part. Still lots of language classes and technical class take up most of my day. Its like an accelerated semester in school, except it is hands on learning and it is usually things i have little back ground knowledge in. Last week we dug an environmentally sustainable well for a local village. Earlier this week we learned how to council aids patients. We also learned about mosquito nets and how to promote their use in a village setting. Those are just a few of the sessions we have had over the past two weeks. As for the village life, i am becoming accustomed to it for the most part. I have become friends with the mice that i share a room with. They even think we are good enough friends that they can share my peanut butter. Apparently my idea of friendship was a little bit different. It is very relaxing to take a bath under the stars every night. A great way to settle down for the evening. Not to sound like a hippie, but when i return to the states i would like to carry over the tradition of star-bathing! Also i have my house lit at night by candlelight. Upon attempting to blow out the candles for bed, a candle fell onto my wall and nearly burnt my entire thatch house down. It turned out okay thankfully considering the closest fire department is hundreds of miles away! Thanks again for the thoughts. Hope everyone has a great day!

Tums please?

Cungalupo! Thanks to everyone for all the posts! Andi- no fowl sightings yet. Andrew- i actually was thinking about my blow gun and how practical it would be here just yesterday. So i am just getting over my first (of many to come) stomach virus of zambia. I spent many hours leaning over the icimbusu (toilet) the past several days. I have a feeling that my host family thinks i am trying to make friends with the bathroom as they see me running from my hut to my bathroom every thirty minutes! Good news though, i am getting better and i ate food today for the first time since the kennedy administration without vomiting. In other news, i passed my first language test! I wish i had a refridgerator to put my score up on! I also want to tell everyone gearing up fro class starting soon that im thinking of you and wishing you all the best this upcoming semester. As billy madison once said, "do it mano e mano". I continue to get closer and closer with my host family. The language barrier has decreased a bit as my language skills have gotten better (or maybe my hand motions are just getting more precise). Also our peace corps training class is bonding nicely. We all are becoming more comfortable with each other, which is good considering we all are leaning on each other for support. Tomorrow we get to speak to a group of zambiams living positively with aids. It will be an exciting and emotional day im sure. Thanks for the continued comments and thoughts!

Winter in the summer

First and foremost i would like to dedicate this post to megan maloney, who recently celebrated her twentieth birthday. Sorry i was not there for it! Secondly, i want to thank everyone for their comments. It is great to know people are thinking of me back in uncle sam land. (matt i still cant believe you have moved to manhattan ha ha). To those of you who are unfamiliar with african winters (this includes me until a month ago) they are cold! I would never dreamed i would be so chilled in a continent associated with heat. I wake up every morning to cold air where i can see my breath. On a few mornings i have lost sensation in my feet i have been so cold ! The arctic blast ensues when i ride my bike thirty minutes to training every morning. However, the scenery makes it all worthwhile as i cross steams and hills and valleys. Usually the sun is coming up at this time and it is a sight most people would pay thousands for. For the past few weeks i have been living in a small agricultural village near lusaka so i have just been getting acquainted with my host family and immediate neighbors. However this saturday we are all going to lusaka to go to a mall there and go shopping and hopefully get a small glimpse of the big city. Then i will finally be able to get on face book again. I almost forgot what it was! The other volunteers that are with me are great. They are all very passionate about being here. It has also eased some of the home sickness knowing that we are all in an unfamiliar place. To storm, the only thing that has gotten me through a few nights around the campfire has been third eye blind. Thought you would appreciate that ha. Tomorrow we have our first language test. We are all very nervous about it. I wish they accepted the american dollar here because if so i might have to slip my teacher an andrew jackson. Anyways i am off to fetch water and kill a chicken with my host parents (seriously, im not even joking) ha ha. Shalenipo mukwai!

Testing testing. . .

Panono panono. Im Bemba, this translates to "bit by bit". This is something the locals say often and is something that can be deduced from their care free attitude and appreciation for taking things slowly but surely. During training, i am trying to adopt this panono panono state of mind. Peace corps training is one of the most intense experiences i have ever gone through. For this reason, keeping my sanity has been trying at times. It has been a challenge to learn a new language in am unfamiliar environment, but one that is exciting at the same time. As the days progress my language improves and we learn more about our tasks here. We now know how to teach about malaria and aids and can assist at local clinics and schools with these issues. I can already say i have seen some of the most beautiful things i have ever witnessed. Today we had been inside a school all afternoon learning about african nutrition and when the session had finished, we walked outside to a sunset with all the colors of a crayola colored pencil box in it. It was a "wow" moment. The foods i am eating with my host family are good. They are mainly rice or nshima. Which is a maize grounded and boiled in water. It is a taste i am still acquiring! To everyone back home, i miss you all and think of you often.

Still alive!

Mwapoleni mukwai! I have now received my cell phone and can use the internet and text and call again. Woo! I am updating this with my phone so bear with me. We had our first day of training yesterday. It was marked by lots of meetings and orientation material. We have had lots of shots so far and driven all over the country. Very exciting! I have recently moved into a host family home for the next nine weeks while in training. They seem very kind and generous. They are teaching me the language bemba, which is a main language here. My days start off early with a sponge bath followed by a bike ride to school along beautiful african scenery. I then have four hours of language class, lunch, and them four hours of technical training. Much of my evenings are taken up by studying by candle light. The people are some of the most honest and genuine people i have ever met. Thanks for reading and i hope to give a better update when i get on a comp next. Oh and meg i have been reading your letters and just opened number three...i will save the others for a rainy day! Oh and face book is down here for awhile so sorry if i dont respond! Love ya all!

Lusaka Low-Down

Hello folks!

Just to let everyone know, I have arrived in Lusaka, Zambia and am safely here! I cannot be on for long because I am at an internet cafe, just fyi. Our flight here was very hectic. Our group missed the connecting flight from South Africa to Lusaka so we had to stay an extra night at a hotel in SA. After another full day at the airport we finally arrived in Lusaka around 17:00 PM. Yes, they use military time.

We are all staying at US government hostile in Lusaka for a few night before heading out on a site visit to rural Zambia for three nights. Then we meet our host families that we will be staying with for the next three months, which is around the Lusaka area in a smaller village.

There are 58 of us total from the States. A good group and one I am excited to get to know better. Everyone seems very excited about what we are doing and it makes the passing time fun!

I will try and update again soon, thanks!

Brooks

Post One. (Real Original)

July 18th, two days from departure to Zambia. Tick..tick..tick.

Confession number one- I am very new to the blogging world, so bare with me as I stumble through this process for the first few times.

I am starting this blog as a chance to stay as connected with people back on Yankee Doodle soil as much as possible. It will be used as a means to update folks to my happenings and probably a way for me to stay sane as well! I am still uncertain how much internet access I will have in Africa, so updates might be few and far between and return responses might be limited.

Please comment! The more comments, the more motivation I will have to update my blog!

For those of you who do not know, I am heading to Zambia, Africa to work as a Community Health Extensionist. I will be leaving friends and family for 27 months to help rural Zambians become empowered with skills and knowledge to improve their general health. I will be helping to promote AIDS/HIV awareness, nutrition, maleria prevention, maternity health, and youth development. It will be from a grassroots level (I will be lecturing at local schools and health clinics) to a national level (I will also be working with non-profits, the government and national organizations to develop a health infrastructure).

Thanks in advance for any feedback or comments!

Brooks