#pczambia

[loveforjustice]

Missing my kids and community back in zamland ❤️#pczambia #howiseepc

[loveforjustice]

I made soy milk with my Bamaayo (village mom) today!! It was such a cool process to learn; it was definitely a workout and such a yummy and nutritious payoff! #pczambia #villagelife #pcvlife

[loveforjustice]

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity of doing a Sex Ed Session with my GLOW club! I did condom demonstrations (and gave condoms to the girls) and talked about sex and everything related to it. We addressed the issues of early pregnancies and HIV/AIDS as well as the more positive topic of sex for pleasure! Women getting pleasure from sex is a pretty new concept here, and they wanted to know more about it. They also asked about homosexual sex and about masturbation! The afternoon was full of important conversations and it was such a big success!! Also a huge shout out to my amazing GLOW counterpart! Thank you for bringing your insight and energy to the group! #Glow #girlsleadingourworld #girlsempowerment #pczambia

[loveforjustice]

My network isn’t allowing me to reblog from Ash, but I’m going to post my reblog from her post about visiting me!

Baby yes!! 6 months!! I know that seems like a along time, and by then it’ll be around 11 months since we said goodbye. That’s by far the longest we’ve ever been apart, and I know it’s not easy. But I’m so grateful that you’re staying with me and supporting me through my Peace Corps Journey!! I love you so so so much baby. Cape Town is going to be amazing!! And then after that it’ll just be another 16 months until we’re back together forever!!

[zanyinzambia]

Wondering why I haven’t been posting anything lately? Check out The Post, a Zambian newspaper to tell you what’s been going on.

Besides the usual reasons (i.e. no time to write, laziness, getting distracted while the wifi is available) Zambia is experiencing load shedding due to low water levels in the Kariba Dam, Zambia’s main source of hydroelectric power and electricity in general. It’s having huge consequences on Zambia’s economy and the Zambian kwacha is now around 10 ZMW =1 USD. We experience up to 12 hours a day of power outages (usually 8 hours is the standard in Choma) in town and it’s even worse in the capital, Lusaka. Businesses, factories, and mines have slowed production or shut down completely. Zambia may even reach full black out by November which will have some interesting social effects and detrimental economic consequences on the country. Coupled with low rainfall last year, predicted low rainfall next year and the price of maize soaring, this is going to be a tough year for Zambia. Or, more likely, at least 2-3 tough years for rural and urban Zambians alike. It’s difficult to watch the many side effects of load shedding: local businesses closing, food prices soaring, and the increased use of charcoal (and therefore deforestation) in town for cooking since natural gas prices continue to rise and demand increases. Despite these hardships, Peace Corps Zambia will remain in country unless social unrest becomes too rampant- which is unlikely as Zambia is generally a very peaceful nation.

However, most PCVs live in rural areas and are not usually affected by load shedding. However, it does make it tough when you want to come to town, get some work done, send some emails, update your blog and take a shower (yes, load shedding affects our water supply as well). These are only a few of the consequences that we are currently seeing, and we expect more to follow. Just thought you’d like an update on the situation, and I hope to get up some new posts in the next couple weeks.