February 11 "Muzoongu!"

I was adventurous today and let me tell you about it. I went for a run this morning. Twenty minutes in the humidity and countless stares later, I survived my first run. Since D&D always run, hopefully the locals will get used to seeing me, too. In the morning, T and I started planning our ESL curriculum for next week, using the materials from the female D&D. We’ve got a plan established for next week, complete with preassessment, review, and new activities—doesn’t that sound fun! My next adventurous move was trying new foods. I had lunch meat and mayo, which looked questionable, on my sandwich today. Tomorrow, I will try the long life milk, aka, it’s not refrigerated until I open it….We also tried some real Zambian food for dinner, including enshima and cooked pumpkin leaves—they were both very good and filling! The next adventure was teaching 2-4 year olds about body parts on the fly today. Three of the four did a superb job and could wiggle their fingers, bare their teeth, and show off their muscles on their arms. J We ended with a riveting game of head, shoulders, knees, and toes (knees, and toes). I can’t wait to begin teaching songs and chants to them next week! So cute! Another adventure was trying to fix my flipflop, which decided to break on day one in Zambia. Well, in the battle of me vs. super glue, the super glue won, as it is all over my fingers still! The flipflops are currently fixed, for the time being. Another adventure was beginning our home visits tonight. We met five of the amazing families. They are all so excited that we are there to aid them. Everyone is so polite. Each of the kids sort of bows to us as they shake our hands. They welcome us to Zambia and ask how we like it. They invited us into their homes and asked us to come again. Although they do not have much, they are proud of what they own. The country as a whole is much friendlier than America; wherever I go, I am greeted with waves and shouts of “hello, how are you!” whether I know them or not. My final adventure was learning some Cheywa, the sort of standard dialect around here. English is the language of business, but unless you are a businessman, you most likely know one or several of the 72 dialects in Zambia. We learned three words today: muzoongu, odey, and zicomo, or white person, knock knock, and thank you. The last two came about as a product of the home visits, but the first one is a word we hear often in preschool. C, the teacher, told us what it meant. That, and sounds of “teacha!” (teacher, with a Zambian accent) ring throughout our days at preschool as this is what they call the teachers. I’ll leave you on one last note: T and I are struggling with technology at times. We often forget to turn on the outlets and plug in our USB Internet drives before connecting. J