Myself and 33 other environment volunteers have just completed 11 weeks of training in Zambia, and have sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers. During the majority of those 11 weeks, each volunteer stayed with a host family. This picture is of my host parents Peter and Liah, my nieces Anita and Winnie Frieda, my sister, and my nephews Freddy and Kiko. They were amazing. I was very lucky to have such a great host family. I will miss them in my new village.
This picture was from another day when some of my young neighbors were over to visit. Zambian villagers are absolutely amazing. Most are incredibly kind, hospitable, and friendly. The children (iwes) here are at least as impressive. They are sweet and happy and fun. These children in particular, are just perfect.
I thought this was a great photo of Ba Freddy with one of his home-made footballs.
This is another picture of mostly the same kids. They would all run to greet me everyday, every time I would come and go from my home-stay. Although some of the kids may not look ecstatic, they are actually all very smiley and gentle. They were smiling just before and after this picture, but it is sometimes hard to communicate to children in the village, the concept of all getting together and smiling at the same time. These kiddos are very bright, but the language and cultural barrier makes it challenging.
This was a funny and unfortunate misunderstanding. My host family knows that I enjoy looking at birds. So they caught me one. I don't know how exactly, that was lost in translation, but this poor little sunbird is alive and apparently well. When they fist showed me the bird, I showed what I thought was the appropriate amount of gratitude, and then asked them to let it go. They said I had to hold it first though, and I obliged and snapped this picture. I also took a funny shot of holding this bird up in front of the sunbird page in my field guide. This is one of many amazing birds there are to see in Zambia, and I hope to post pictures of some others once I start using my other camera for birding.
