Change Made!!!!

For the first time in America's short yet sometimes troubled history, we have elected a Black man as President. It feels very surreal. Sometimes I get down about being out of the country during such a historic time in my life and the history of the U.S., but then I realize in life one has to make sacrifices to reach certain goals. I had no doubt that Mr. Obama would win the elections but I'm still very proud of the voters of the U.S.A. just because it was a landslide victory. Maybe the country has really matured after all. Now, this is not to say that things have changed all that much, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

Anyway, as for the happenings here in Zambia....

The community school teachers in my village still have not been paid in 4 months, so the teacher that lives next door to me has decided she will only teach 1/2 days now in the morning, then tend to her garden in the afternoon. This way she will not starve and will have food to eat. So, I will talk to my APCD and some of the community members to see how they will feel about me taking over for her afternoon classes. I'm still thinking about it though, because I really don't want to have a mandatory schedule. We shall see.....

Kim

Elections, Snake Bites....

Zambia's presidential elections took place on October 30th with Rupiah Banda edging out opposition candidate Michael Sata by only 2%!!! This should be a lesson to all eligible voters in the U.S. that we all need to vote. Vote your conscience, your best interest, your religion...whatever makes you feel good. Just vote!!!! Preferably for Barack Obama. Being outside of the U.S. and encountering people from all around the world I really believe that we need a public make over! Vote for change!!!! A change in foreign policy (bringing diplomacy back), a change in taxation (middle-class tax breaks), and most of all a change from the old guard to the new. It's time!

Ok, my political ranting is over...for now!!!

Anyway, there was a wedding in my village yesterday and typically a village wedding lasts long into the night. Another volunteer, Q, was visiting me so we decided it would be a wonderful cross-cultural experience for us to go see the ceremony and dance and sing along with the villagers. After lots of eating, singing, and dancing until dark we left and went back to my hut. Soon after returning to the hut one of the ladies on my compound brought a child up to my porch saying "he's been bitten by a snake". The boy was crying hysterically. Both me and Q were looking at each other in shock wondering what they wanted us to do. After a few moments they finally took the boy (Masha) away to an insaka and put some traditional medicine on the wound. Masha was crying, vomiting...he was extremely scared and frankly, so was I. Then a few minutes later another villager comes up to us saying he found the snake and killed it, and that it was a COBRA! So, me and Q pay 200,000 Kwacha to some guy to take the boy to town to a real doctor because the hut is 40 kilometers into the bush! Let me remind you that this is taking place at 9 at night, and it takes about 2 hours to get in or out of the bush because there is no paved road. Anyway, so we get to the Doctors office and he is on holiday! That's vacation for us. So, then we took him to the hospital and they gave him a tetnus shot! Nobody had any anti-venom so I guess that's the second best thing they could do for him. I had nightmares about this all night. I went to visit him today and he seems to be doing ok. Hopefully he will recover 100%.

Talk to you all soon!

Kim