Hey everyone,
Sorry about the mix-up with blog addresses. Uber.com went out of business due to the recent financial crisis in the US (which was news to me). I hope all of you are coping well, and I wish you the best during what sounds like hard times in the states. It is a pretty unfortunate situation, because all of the blog postings/pictures from anyone who was an Uber.com member have been lost. I didn't even get enough notice from them to copy and paste things to this blog. Oh well... Anyways, this is the new blog address. As for pictures, there have been a lot of requests - I will try to get them up, but the internet here is too slow to load them. It will probably be about 3 months (the next time I'm in Lusaka) until I get them loaded.
Things here are going well. Just think - if you had all invested your US Dollars by converting them into Zambia Kwatcha, you would have made a lot of money. Pretty ironic. I just swore in on Friday, so now I am officially a Volunteer. It was an interesting ceremony, with some US Embassadors, all of the PC Staff here in Zambia, our teachers, trainers, etc. Usually more Zambian Government officials attend, but with the death of the late President Mwanawasa, the goverment is very busy with the current elections for the new President, which will occur in late October. After the ceremony, the whole group had some drinks together and went out on the town in Lusaka, which was an excellent time. It was really fun getting to know everyone, and I feel I have made some really good friends in these short 2 months. Saying goodbye was, as always, not fun. However, after saying goodbye to all of you for such a long time, things like this have become more ruitine and easier to handle.
I am now in Kasama, and I will be posted on Wednesday. I will be in my site for at least one month without leaving or using the internet, so during that time I won't be posting and won't be able to return emails. This is sure to be an exciting time, but also probably the most difficult part of my 2 years of service (I am told). I'm sure to face some loneliness and hard times in the village, but right now I've very optimistic about my time there, and am excited to finally get started on what I came here to do - help people. While I don't have internet access in the village, I will have cell phone coverage at various times, so feel free to call me if you have the interest/money. My number is still the same: 011-260-979-443-671.
I will keep you all in my thoughts and wish you all the best.
- J
