On Thursday we got out site assignments. I am posted in the village of Lupwika, which is located in Lusaka province about 40 KM west of the Eastern province border. I'm in the middle of the Muchinga Escarpment, which is a mountain chain that's supposed to be gorgeous. I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow we leave for second site visit and during the wekk I'll actually be able to see my site. If you're wanting visual aids for any of that, I'm gonna let you go ahead and google that stuff cause your connection is faster than mine and you're probably not paying by the minute.

We are at the end of Week 3 of nine weeks of training. When we were on first site visit PCV's kept saying, "don't worry about training, just get through it, your two years are nothing like it." We all wondered how bad it could be, but we understand now. It's not that it's totally awful. It's just really long and draining days combined with the stress of living with nationals. My family, the Tembos, are awesome. My food is good, they take way better care of me than anyone should expect, but it's difficult to live with people who don't usually speak english and are from a completely different world. I'm slowly learning the language, which is Soli. I can greet people as I ride past them on my bike. I chase chickens out of my bathing shelter. I wake up at least once a night to the sound of a cowbell (and by that I mean an actual bell on a cow) or a goat. I'm definitely learning a lot and it's already obvious that my time as a PCV is going to push me and challenge me in ways I've never come close to before. All that being said, April 25 can't come soon enough.