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!