There's only a letter difference between friend and fiend

There's only a letter difference between friend and fiend.

Is it theoretically true that there always will be a challenge?

Is it theoretically true that there always will be a challenge? For, if everything was easy, finding a challenge would, in and of itself, be a challenge....
But because it is a challenge, and a challenge is part of everything, given the first perimeter, it must be easy

Cloud computing is an ancient art

Cloud computing is an ancient art,

First mastered by the bats in the sky,

Their encoding is masterful, subtle and strong,

And safe because of its age

Our analog analogy we seen as unsound,

But the truth is we need it to have it make sense,

As brains run this old program, and do it quite well,

So well that in fact we have lost its source code,

And have invented numerical systems instead,

In our quest to regain this old skill.

What the bats and the sharks and dolphins and bees,

All remember and use to their gain,

Is that the flaw in a digit is it’s finite nature,

That a bit is a bit and nothing more,

But it’s analog meaning that we use in our brain,

Has infinite complexity.

-Aaron E-J

I finally got rid of the annoying ads that kept showing up after the first post!

"Of course, all comparisons are gnarly by nature. What is the “London Calling” of television? Who is the Jane Austen of automotive design? Madame Butterfly is not less beautiful for having no car chase sequence, peanut butter no less tasty because it cannot dance." -Jeffrey Zeldman

Because mommy was born on this day...

Because mommy was born on this day,

And the poem that I wrote is this way,

I never do forget,

That mom has always whet,

Desire to shout out hearty yay!

Went to a workshop put on by Microsoft on HTML5 today. It was actually somewhat productive and they didn't focus exclusively on windows based things (although it was still windows centric). When I went to ride home I realized that my bike had a flat tire and that I had to take the bus. Hopefully the tire and tube hold up long enough that when I bring my pump tomorrow I can make it to the bike shop.

∞

There are those things in life that can be predicted using certain criteria and algorithms and there are those events which one chooses to have happen.  But what is one of the things that makes life both interesting and frustrating is the fact that it is the actions of another entities that play perhaps the largest role in shaping where one goes and how they get there.  An individual's conscious plays a small role, but the collective unconsciousness of everyone else's consciousness, plays perhaps the largest role.

switchport trunk encapsulation elephant

switchport mode trunk

...

arrooga!

Who are you when we are one?

If you are the ground, I am the sky,

If you are the world, I am everything else,

Together, we can do great things

-Aaron E-J

The scroll of tomorrow does not exist… yet… so I baked brownies instead.

Brownies (made mainly of black beans, chocolate and sugar) are done (unfortunately a triple batch [all that will fit in the food processor and then some] will not be enough to last me until the end of the year).  OS homework mysteriously not due until next Monday, meaning that tomorrow does not exist.  Regardless of its absence, for the first half of tomorrow I will make a test run for a scroll expander engine, then head to Hartford to learn more about networking.  First though, I need to figure out whether tomorrow will actually come to pass… I have a suspicion that when I wake up tomorrow morning, it will still be today.  But then, I've existed now forever.

The obvious obscurity

What am I going to do today when today is almost over and almost gone?

When today is a replication of other days spent trying some fruitless attempt at being useful. 

Why do those who have infinite ideas fail while success comes easily from those who play by the game set forth by no one, least of all they.

I know this may be hard for no one to understand, but no one is listening to our plea not to have to plea.

It is silent, your indifference, but it is heard loud and clear all the same because that is how indifference is played out.

But the ramifications indifference has make – and have made countless times before – nothing all that much closer to a reality

So how to proceed?

How to seek comfort from like minded nobodies, keeping in mind that they are alike because they are nobody and they have also failed?

Why seek them out?

Why can't we, we that are like I save for location and how they got to be like I, be we?

The obvious obscurity is that, if the collective I learned this crucial skill, we would no longer fall into this category.

The category we long not to be the last of.

-Aaron E-J

bzT and the of Bible across!

I just got a spam message that read the following:

They can be exhausted by human activity in the long run.
Is the most suburban in character of the five boroughs.

My rule of something is so absolute that I have actually become something

My rule of something is so absolute that I have actually become something. This something may or may not be arbitrary at any non given moment, however moments have to exist to be given. Therefore something is not arbitrary and, by proxy, neither am

I. Arbitrariness, however, is a part of everything and, as now is all there is, arbitrariness must be something. What is certain, for the umpteenth however, is that this statement falls into the category of being arbitrary… but wait, I'm writing it now…

While what was remains hidden in plain sight from your mind,

Why…

Some freak occurrence sends you, me us, flying, together, to another realm,

Each in their own shared world of isolation,

Right here…

Where?

Recovered what never was, and therefore still remains unrecoverable,

While what was remains hidden in plain sight from your mind,

Masked by the future we want,

The steps unachievable without finding what is,

Now is all there ever was and will be,

But now changes…

Change is what makes life, life, but it does not make life lively without interaction of other lifelike things that cannot be proven to be alive,

Or can they?

For what is life but the exchange of conscious entities?

If there were but one entity, life would not exist, change would not exist, and I would not exist.

But I do, and forever will.

-Aaron E-J

If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists.

If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Can you tell I'm in that percentage of the population that is currently unemployed?

---From NYTimes Op-Ed piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/opinion/03reich.htm
Although I mainly agree with the column, the most important thing that needs to be done to boost the economy is to rethink the education system. What has made America what it is today is innovation, and the school system needs to reflect that. Standardized testing does not spark innovation. Teaching innovation also does not need to cost money. Spending money on large corporations that haven't had a new idea in centuries is ludicrous, much better to provide direct seed money to innovative ideas. This is being done to some extent (mainly in the area of alternative energy), but what is needed now is to broaden the playing field to include people from all walks of life. What I mean is to empower all citizens to innovate new ways of making money, or better, making money obsolete.
Do parents pay a fee to their children for eating supper? No, they love them and do it out of love. At a party, do people pay for the food that others cooked? No, because everyone chipped in. It is only when an exchange of goods is done between participants who do not love each other that money is needed. We're a very, very long way from when that will become the reality…
In the mean time, it’s a dog get run over by a SUV world…
(also, can you tell I'm in that percentage of the population that is currently unemployed?)

The Limitations Logic Has

Another day,
Another dream,
Another way,
Another mean,
Another ray,
Of hope does glean,
When I listen to some music,
Or write a brand new poem,
What's achieved is intangible
And is one thing where logic fails.
There is no degradation though,
It is not a lesser act,
The limitations logic has,
Are the intricacies of life.
Their creation can be logical,
But their meaning oh cannot,
For meaning is a willful act
And life does not use math,
Instead it uses consciousness,
And without it we would not think,
About a dream,
I had today,
That realized thought is all there is,
–Without it I would not be.
–Aaron E-J

...everyone I meet...

...everyone I meet, I meet with a blank slate and the connections that we form are transient in that they can always be revised but permanent in that they are never forgotten.

I've got malaria even though I've been back for almost 2 months

2010-06-17
I had been really tired since I got back from the anniversary celebration and my heart had been racing even when I was sitting. I just thought that it had to do with my lack of sleep when I was at Hampshire and the fact that I had drunk a lot of coffee. On Tuesday afternoon though I passed out and when I came to, went to the emergency room. They ran a bunch of blood tests and my red blood cell count was less then half of what it should be. I've been in the hospital since then and they've been giving me blood injections and ORS through IV. This afternoon they said that the test they did for malaria came back positive and so they've been giving me some form of malarone. I'm glad it was malaria and not something else but I can't stand being hooked up to an IV. Hopefully I'll come home tomorrow.

A HAIKU ABOUT MY WRITING SKILL

Write hundred plus poems
Written a full length screen play
Critical Writing

string dateWriten = 2010-04-29;

int dateWriten = 2010-04-29;

if (dateWriten <= NOW) {

print "Well, my jet lag is almost gone... now down to business designing Kale (a top secret power source that will revolutionize the renewable energy industry... and make a tasty salad at the same time although using different technologies) and shopping for replacements of all the dead electronics that bit the dust (is some cases literally, it's really dusty in the dry seasons) while in Zambia. Oh, also looking for a job and studying Calculus, Physics, Neuroscience and Python/Generally doing some refreshing of my Comp-Sci skills that I haven't used for the passed 2+ years.";

};

Thoughts turn to home coming, the journeys end...

Thoughts turn to home coming, the journeys end. Because in a sense, it's the coming back, the return, that gives meaning to the going forth. We never really know where we've been until we return to where we where, only where we where may not be as it was because of who we have become. That, after all, is why we left.
-Unknown
A quote that was written on the door to my hut when I got posted. Meant to put it up just before I left the country but was doing a thousand other things.

And only about 34 hours late

2010-04-26

Well, I'm back in the States for the foreseeable future (note, the future is more then a little blurry so trying to foresee it is figurative and the figure is all scribbles in the sand at low tide). Getting pulled from my site went remarkably smoothly and I think, all in all, I did achieve something during my two years. This isn't to say that I wouldn't have liked to achieve a great deal more, but in the past month or so before leaving many things finally clicked into place. I posted my Description of Service report in the last post if you want to see the 'glorious' achievements I have done. And, of course, since all my potential employers enjoy reading my blog they will gobble it up and contact me immediately.

When I got to Lusaka I was inundated with paperwork until minutes before I rang the COS wheel-bell and was somewhat frenzied until I got to the gate for boarding the plain to Addis Ababa. Well, things did not start off well for my journey home because the plane did not lift off until about three hours after it was supposed to due to fueling problems. This meant that we touched down about 15 minutes after the plane I was supposed to be transferred to left. The next flight to Washington, my next stop, didn't leave for a day so this meant I needed to spend a night in Ethiopia. Fortunately there was another PCV (or actually I guess now we're RPCV's) on the same flight and we shared a room together in the hotel. The hotel was pretty descent and had good food if bad coffee (isn't this supposed to be the home of the best coffee in the world?). Well, after a day spent mainly watching TV, we finally got in the air again and after roughly 16 hours sitting in fight and about an hour or two in Rome for refueling we made it to Dulles Airport at about 8:30AM (back in America so I need to start practicing the AM PM instead of the 0830 hours).

Customs went remarkably quickly and I was directed to the United Express ticket station to inquire as to when my flight had been rebooked to. It hadn't. And to make matters worse, the flights to Bradley were booked until Monday. I got a standby ticket and the third wait began. The first flight at 12:20 was already overbooked and although I waited with bated breath, or at least as much of one as I could muster given how tired I was, no seats presented themselves. So then it was to another terminal for the next chance five hours later. It wasn't looking good as there was a huge group of high schoolers' coming back from some trip but when everyone got on the plane it turned out there were two seat remaining. I was just about to head to the terminal when those two people with the tickets to those two seats rushed up. And so it was back to waiting. Fortunately at this point the ticket takers realized that I was extremely tired and they were really helpful, so much so that they did some computer magic and got me a definite seat for the 10:30 PM flight. I slept on the seat for about an hour and woke up worried I had missed the flight. I hadn't and was the first person on the plane. After about another hour I touched down for the last time, only about 34 hours late. And thus ended the two year, two month chapter in my life.

Now I need to figure out what I want the next one to be about.

Back until I leave?

2010-01-29~2010-02-12
On the last Sunday of the month I headed back to Chipata. I had the taxi driver take me to the Lusaka post office because the Zambian mail company has a fairly ingenious idea of combining a mail service with a bus service. I had read in an old travel guide that the post bus only ran on Tuesdays and Fridays or something like that, but I thought it would be worth the short diversion because they definitely leave on a schedule. To my joy they were "going today so I paid the taxi and got all my stuff out. It was only when I heard a number of people talking about Ndola that I happened to ask where they were going, which was not Chipata. Annoyed to no end, lugged all my stuff back to the street and flagged down another taxi. The second bus I got on at the Intercity Bus Terminal was the fuller of the two that were headed to Chipata. I was going to wait at the curb until the first bus headed out but the teeming crowd of ticket salesmen (the number of ticket sales men to customers at intercity is probably four or five to one) convinced me to get on theirs, agreeing that if another bus left before them, I could get on it. Another bus did, and fortunately I was able to rush out, flag it down, argue with the ticket salesmen, load my luggage and get on the bus before it left the station. And thus, I left at a near record of just after 9:30 and got back before dark.
The last Friday in January I had called a guy who ran a computer training institute in Chipata and who is knowledgeable in hardware about having him see if he had a replacement monitor for my laptop. I had set up a meeting with him for Monday morning and went to his school at the third floor of an old British built quasi-government building he rented space from. He seemed to be able to help me but he was either really busy or pretending to be really busy so the whole thing took all day and he hadn't put my laptop back together before close to 1800 so I needed to spend another night in Chipata. Tuesday he had checked just about everything there was to check and the diagnosis was that the actual monitor part and the tube that makes the screen light up (that I thought would be the logical thing that had gone as the screen goes black) where not the problem but it was the part that process the information that will be displayed on the screen that was, and that was the part that he did not have. So, although now I know what the exact problem is, I'm not sure it was worth the countless hours I spend waiting for him to spend another five minutes on it before he was interrupted. Late on Tuesday though I finally made it back to site where I will be, maybe until I leave for good unless I got to the house in mid March.
Since I've been back I've been working on getting the Inoviropreneurship program going full swing (first project is doing a version of the TLUD stove that uses only clay) and getting my pedal powered generator working. Alright, need to go get some more chain for the generator.

Back from Chamanuka, Discussion at the Deputy Heads Ambassadors house U.S. on development

Thursday 2010-01-28
Back from Chamanuka, a bwano kwambili resort, for our COS (close of service) conference. Most of the actual conference was fairly straightforward info about what we had to do before we left and options for when we returned to the states. The food was really good and I don't really need to eat for the remainder of my service.
This evening many of the volunteers, several Zambian PC staff and US staff who work at the embassy or for various NGO's went to the deputy ambassador's house (where I had stayed a little over a year ago in the PC home stay program) to discuss development, what it meant and how it was best implemented. The discussion was very productive and really showed how much the people who work in Zambia (be it PCV's, Gov. employees or NGO workers) collectively have a grasp on how to best carry out development. The basic points that clarified, enhanced and added to my idea of how to bring development and/or the challenges in bringing development during the meeting were:
1. That skill and knowledge aid should be the primary focus and that financial aid should only be implemented when it is the only limiting factor impeding the organization from growing.
2. That when possible, any form of aid should first be sought out locally
3. That a large factor contributing to lack of development is the lack of motivation to improve and bring new change and new ideas.
4. That one likely reason for this is the lack of an education system that has resources and sparks innovation in the children of Zambia
5. That, turning the camera in the other direction, if a Zambian came to America and said that they were here to help your town develop, would you except their idea with open arms and readily stop what you were doing and turn to embrace whatever development strategies they employed? The Zambians, in large part do, but the more radical a suggestion is, the more resistance a volunteer faces.

Now all we have to do is actually take these ideas and turn them into action (as is one of my signature* quotes:
Vision without action is a daydream,
Action without vision is a nightmare,
One needs both to succeed.)

20010-01-08 (is the date in which this synopsis [rundown {abridgment}] is being written)

Got back to Dovu village a little after 900 Wednesday and was very, very tired; not having gotten much sleep the two nights (or knights as I had, for some reason, written before reading again). I attempted to put a new rime (the old one was very warped on the special hub that was custom made for my cycle but this tiredness progressed into a headache and a general feeling of bad. I lay down and fell asleep until 1830ish when I debated falling back asleep but finally decided to have some tea and rice. Yesterday I finished putting a chabwino wheel on and biked to the Zingalume Basic head teachers house but he was in Chipata.
Next week I will be doing some or all of the following:
getting the Inoviropreneurship project revised and started with the Zingalume head teacher; getting my pedal powered generator working; making a solar stove using cheap bathroom mirrors; hopefully finally succeeding in making soap; if the big goat in my village has kidded, milking her
The two weeks after that I will be in Lusaka, on vacation/starting to figure out what I am going to do when I return to the states the first week, then attending the COS conference the second.
Wanting to go back to the states but wanting to get more things done here before I leave.

Garden, Generator, Malawi Vacation, Chipata and Quarterly Reports

Well, the month of December and therefore 2009 has almost ended. While I was in Dovu I was mostly working on getting my garden finished being planted and on finally making a pedal powered generator. Then about two weeks ago I headed to Chipata on rout to Malawi on the 24th. After a hectic and expensive travel (the "taxi" [Canter truck] cost me 3,500MK to take me probably less then 10km) I arrived at Wheelhouse Marina in Senga Bay. There is a gorgeous view of the lake and a yurt kind of thing that is on stilts over the lake where there is a bar. Unfortunately the bar plays very loud music all night and I had to camp in my tent. So I moved to Monkey Bay, the town just outside the national park in cape Maclare, early. There I stayed in a dormitory and they didn't blast the music all night. But there were no mosquito nets over the beds and the food was way over priced. The water was very nice and the shore is covered naturally with sand. Although I enjoyed swimming and the view I left early because I was spending too much money being board and because I was getting eaten up even though I put on three different kinds of bug spray every night. I have to say, even though I can't stand dealing with transport of any kind, the bus system in Malawi is much better then in Zambia as there are legit busses that actually leave on a schedule (although they don't go to Chipata so I had to sit in a crowded mini bus and deal with being hassled. Anyway, now I can say I've been to Lake Malawi.
I'll be in Chipata until January 5th or 6th relaxing and working on my quarterly report, then head back to Chadiza to get my Inoviropreneurship program underway.

A Friday of BOMailarging

2009-12-18
In Chadiza charging things and checking email. Have been working on getting my dimba (garden) up and running and finally making a pedal powered generator using a very, very old Landrover generator. I just hope the tork is not too much when I connect it up to a battery. I'm going on vacation in Malawi from Dec. 24th to Jan. 4th and heading to Chipata on rout there pa Sunday. I will be in Senga bay from the 24th to the 28th –monkey bay from the 28th to Jan 2nd and then Senga bay from the 2nd to the 5th (traveling back to Chipata on the 5th).

TLUD, Dimba, Thanksgiving, Getting Stuff, Electronical Failure Mango Chutney, and....

TLUD, Dimba, Thanksgiving, Getting Stuff, Electronical Failure Mango Chutney, and....
The last two weeks before I left for Chipata about a week ago I was basically focusing on two things: dimba and BioChar stoves.
The BioChar stoves (a type that uses small branches and fibery weeds and consists of an inner chamber where the solid fuel goes. This inner chamber has many holes in the bottom for fuel and is coated with a narrow outer chamber that encircles the inner chamber and draws air up so that when it reaches what would be smoke, it is preheated and this smoke can catch fire, meaning that little toxic fumes reach the environment and people's lungs.) have been a huge success. People are really exited about the idea. After doing a test run in my village, I got the students at Zingalume basic to make a second version. At first they were kind of uninterested in the project but when it was done, and the stove was lit, they were very impressed, as was the head teacher.
My dimba has been a lot of work, getting the beds made and beginning to plant. I so far have five beds (about a fourth or fifth of the garden) planted with some tomatoes, two beets (had a bunch more but the grasshoppers love beets, even tephrosia only slowed their demise), some soya, broccoli seedlings up the wazoo, popcorn, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe(?), and a few other things.
I have also been trying to get strong enough potassium hydroxide (homemade lye) to make soap. I'm almost there. In the BOMA I've been trying for the umpteenth time to get internet in Chadiza, although as of the last meeting with one of the interested parties the meeting still had not happened.
On Monday I spent pretty much all day trying to find transport to Chipata with no success. I finally left Tuesday morning for the provincial meeting and that night we had pizza from probably the only semi Italian family in eastern province (well, there's a radio station called Radio Maria that has broadcasting towers here... maybe it's owned by that family... or maybe it's Spanish).. That afternoon I had also tasted some sour ketchup and threw up all over my sheets that night, feeling miserable until Thursday. The meeting was somewhat uneventful but a little later in the evening we had a talent show and I was impressed at some of the talent, one in particular where one man played the guitar while another woman sang a lengthy witty song about Peace Corps Zambian life she had written. On Thursday at about 10:00 all the LIFE'ers trooped over to the office of the provincial forestry officer where we shared what we were up to and found out what she was wanting to focus on. Then we, or at least some of us, myself not included, got back to preparing our thanksgiving dinner (there were a little too many cooks and another would have spoiled the meal). They had been working on cooking since I got to Chipata and I was very eager to see what they had made, probably compounded by the fact that I hadn't really eaten anything for the last two and a half days. The meal was really good and the dessert equally enjoyably. To say I was not hungry anymore would be an underestimate.
Friday was Eid and since most of the shops are owned by Muslims, everything was closed which kind of put a damper on my plans to get things I needed but I did finally find a reasonably priced old vehicle generator so that I can finally, at long last make my pedal powered generator. This is a good thing because it means I won't need to keep lugging it to the BOMA and back every few weeks.
This weekend I began making some mango chutney that has turned out to taste really good. Why is it that if it can be canned, I can cook it, if it isn't cannable it doesn't turn out quite like I planed?
Going back to Thursday, when I had tried to plug in my external hard drive, nothing happened. I tried to disconnect and reconnect everything that was connectable, to no avail. I am now almost certain that Zambia is host of the electronic demon because my palm is also beginning to freeze up every once awhile (removing the battery, shaking it and bumping it and putting the battery back in usually fixes it). This means that I will be podcastless until at least midterm conference.
Monday I was walking with a heavy backpack for about 8 hours and on my feet from 5:00 until about midnight with only a few breaks, buying things from shops in the "down shops," trying to get MTN to have reliable internet again (the MTN shop is about 4km from the PCPH) and bottling my mango chutney. I didn't get everything done so I won't be going back today but will go back on Wednesday.

A blog post for the tenth of November – the only tenth of November that shall ever come to pass in the year 2009 (all the rest are just fakes, don't buy them)
Well, I've wanted to have my garden planted by now but it hasn't rained enough so the ground is very hard to work. Probably my most successful venture is still my work with Zingalume Basic in doing the Inoviropreneurship program, although we have a bit of a problem of the students coming on time.
The internet program is still facing delays – no one wants to attend meetings but when I talk to them they say that they really want to do it. Hopefully I get something done on this front before I have to go.
My latest push is "top lit updraft" (TLUD) stoves. Basically they are stoves that use small fuel that can be grown quickly and burn the gas that would otherwise come out as smoke. I made one with the head women and that is what I am currently working on at the basic school.
Well, today (right now) we had our second really good storm. (There's been a few quickies that haven't left much) I hope there was the same amount of rain that came down in Dovu. I hope someone plows my garden when the rain lets up.
Of last regard, my solar panel doesn't seem to be working well enough to power my battery (and there have been several days that I hardly think you even need a solar panel photons to charge my battery the rays have been so scorching). My multi meter ran out of juice and it needs a 9v that can only be bought in Chipata so I'm going to have to wait till the end of the month to assess the problem.
Alright, all for now, there's probably more I could add but I should be packing up soon... I hope it stops raining before I need to head out.

A blog post for the tenth of November – the only tenth of November that shall ever come to pass in the year 2009 (all the rest are just fakes, don't buy them)
Well, I've wanted to have my garden planted by now but it hasn't rained enough so the ground is very hard to work. Probably my most successful venture is still my work with Zingalume Basic in doing the Inoviropreneurship program, although we have a bit of a problem of the students coming on time.
The internet program is still facing delays – no one wants to attend meetings but when I talk to them they say that they really want to do it. Hopefully I get something done on this front before I have to go.
My latest push is "top lit updraft" (TLUD) stoves. Basically they are stoves that use small fuel that can be grown quickly and burn the gas that would otherwise come out as smoke. I made one with the head women and that is what I am currently working on at the basic school.
Well, today (right now) we had our second really good storm. (There's been a few quickies that haven't left much) I hope there was the same amount of rain that came down in Dovu. I hope someone plows my garden when the rain lets up.
Of last regard, my solar panel doesn't seem to be working well enough to power my battery (and there have been several days that I hardly think you even need a solar panel photons to charge my battery the rays have been so scorching). My multi meter ran out of juice and it needs a 9v that can only be bought in Chipata so I'm going to have to wait till the end of the month to assess the problem.
Alright, all for now, there's probably more I could add but I should be packing up soon... I hope it stops raining before I need to head out.

Well we had our first rain yesterday, probably 3-4 cm at least

Well we had our first rain yesterday, probably 3-4 cm at least. I was really worried that the new black plastic my villagers had put on would blow off because they hadn't had a chance to tie the udzu (long grass) down yet.
What I've been working on:
Well, I've had quite a few fairly successful classes with some students at Zingalume basic on trying to get them to think in innovative ways. It is interesting to see what things they can do and what things are really difficult. Probably the best class that they really thrived on was when I had them make the paper airplane that could go the farthest. They made one that went quite a bit farther then the quick one I did and even gave good reasons why they tried that design.
I think this time (and what feels like the umpteenth time) I have attempted to organize the Chadiza organizations together for the purpose of internet it will actually work. I'm meeting with the high schools this afternoon and have had several meetings with members of three organizations all of which were very interested (the high schools had already set up a committee to address the issue before I had even returned from Lusaka). Now we just need to have one or two meetings with all the organizations together and get the company we are going through to come and do a technical assessment of the terrain. Then it's just a mater of getting the equipment.
I've also been slowly trying to make some lye that will actually be a basic enough pH to make soap out of fat. I have also been making a fuel efficient stove that burns not only small sticks, maize cobs and other small woody things but also the smoke (like what a roaring fire that has flames shooting out of the chimney does).
Yesterday, after the rain had almost let up I spent an how beginning o prepare my dimba for planting. My garden will (come mbuzi or high water) be bwino kwambili this year!

Before the date and time of 2009 10 02 16:12...

I forgot to mention this in my last post, maybe I was too annoyed or something but I now have a baby named after me. Born a couple weeks ago, Aaron from Dovu is really cute and really likes to sleep (much more then even I, I don't think he even woke up when I held him for some photo's).
This week I met again with Zingalume Basic and set up the date for the first class (Monday). I also worked on my water wheel and need to get some mealy meal sacks for the actual "paddle" parts.
Today I got some more honey, a covered plastic basket to keep food in so it doesn't get eaten by koswe (mice) but still gets aeration and some mealy meal sacks for the aforementioned use. I did not however communicate with the outside world because the MTN network was down... I hope the outside world is OK!

Today stared out a horrible day, Hot, Bread, Zingalume

Today stared out a horrible day. In the morning my alarm didn't go off so I woke up ≈80 minutes later then I had intended. As my 12v battery has not been holding a charge I needed to lug it to the BOMA along with my heavy backpack so what would have been slow going was slower going. I also decided to wear the pair of pants I had that the front pockets don't snap down. About a third of the way there I realized a pill bottle containing my malaria medication had fallen out. Then about halfway there I realized my 8gb flash drive and two rechargeable batteries had fallen out. ARG! I hope someone picks them up.
This weekend I didn't do that much because it was too hot (≈35-37°C). Even though it's the rainy season it still seams humid as well although not as much as in Connecticut. Monday I baked some bread, first started out using my solar stove oven but it didn't get quite hot enough to start the baking process. I finished it off using a new oven idea that is basically a pot big enough to cover my brazier. This worked well. I also went to Zingalume basic school and met with the teacher who is in charge of clubs to discuss trying to integrate the syllabus I worked on last month into the remainder of this term.

The Future Never Happened....

So here's the plan / I have uploaded 1452 new ZamPic's

2009-09-17
So here's the plan: the cycle gets done tomorrow, I ride the heck out of it this weekend - I can't bring it back the next because all of the staff are on a retreat somewhere, then on Monday, assuming that nothing has broken on the cycle, I'll bring the think back to Chipata, then Chadiza. And this epic thing is done. It is going to be sweet to ride (I think, I hope).
Now that is the daytime news, the evening news is that I have uploaded 1452 new ZamPic's (Pictures mu Zambia) onto my website. Check them out at: The Other Realm .

... and then the monitor of my laptop died…

2009-09-15
So when I got back to PCZHQ I got probably about an hour, hour and a half before the network stopped working again... and then the monitor of my laptop died…electronics don’t like me… and I’m begging to not like them…

(2009-09-09, roughly 21:27 hours) - Well, I think I'll go to bed

2009-09-10
Frustrating day, still have a lot to do on the cycle, working on bike cart design and some online stuff.

2009-09-11
Well, I won't be going back this weekend, hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Right as I am typing this I have a pot full of oats in front of me – this is isn't that important, I just thought you might want to know. Hopefully this weekend I will have time to put up my pictures. All for then...

I want to get out of Lusaka!

2009-09-07
I want to get out of Lusaka! At the same time I want to get my water wheel (and of course my cycle) done before I go back. But I need to deal with red (plus green, blue black and yellow) tape. Unfortunately none of it is duct.

2009-09-06
Finished solar stove – only problem is I don’t have a black pot. Still makes the water very hot though.

2009-09-05
Worked on making a solar stove most of the afternoon, right now trying to get my camera to connect to a PCHQ computer because the wireless router needs to be reset. I think the problem with the connection is with the USB port on the camera… which sucks because that means that capturing is basically impossible…

(or is it the Danish market?!)

2009-08-29
Working on finishing up my Inoviropreneurship syllabus
Also went to the Dutch market (or is it the Danish market?!) and bought some really good Indian food... I didn't see any Dutch food but then other then the chocolate, is there any traditional Dutch food?

Think I'll start put quotes at the end of my blog:
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.
- Fran Lebowitz
Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address.
- Lane Olinghouse

Today was a fair..ly successful day

2009-07-30
Today was a fair..ly successful day. After stopping at the design shop, I went to the Lusaka AG fair. The fairgrounds remind me a lot of the Big-E, only imagine what the Big-E would be like if it replaced the rides and game stands with more AG related things. In about 4-5 hours I found out more about renewable energy and remote internet then I have the entire time I have been researching the subjects. I met with this technology school based in the Copperbelt that had designed a bicycle that could run on solar power alone. The really useful part was when I asked where they had gotten the engine from and they said that it was from a windshield wiper. When I go back to Chipata (tomorrow actually, although I will be back here in a week or so) I will look into getting one of those little things and using it to do the reverse of what the school exhibiting was doing, make a generator out of it. Then I tracked down a digital system engineering company that it was rumored they were making low RPM generators. Although, from the previous stop I had found a almost certainly cheaper alterative to a new specialty device, I thought it wouldn't hurt to talk to someone there. The company did not stock such a machine and was about to exit the building when I thought about asking him about ham radio. As it turns out, he is a licensed operator in S.A. Unfortunately he didn't know how to get a license here, but when I stopped at ZNBC, they really liked the idea of an amateur radio program in local schools and got my contact information about getting a program under way in Chadiza. Finally, I was on my way out of the grounds when I stopped at the Zambia Meteorology Department. I overhead someone saying the word "internet" and my ears picked up. Apparently there is a device that is being distributed throughout Zambia and elsewhere in Sub Saharan Africa that is in essence a Short Wave Wi-Fi that is used for its own intranet. When I got back I Google'ed WorldSpace, the name on the top of the units they were using to connect. Initially I didn't find anything until I found their not-for-profit arm. Essentially they are doing what I have been attempting to do for some time, bring low cost internet to remote villages. Check them out at: http://www.firstvoiceint.org . Alright, still have a lot to do before I get a brief rest and head out on the long trek back to Chipata.

CAD Waterwheel, WiFi, & cycle

Yesterday I spent the morning and first part of the after 1200 hours doing more research in long range wireless radio, then I switched to design and spent the rest of the night doing a CAD drawing of a water wheel pump and printing steps for making a stirling engine. Today I will hopefully be going to DisaCare to work on my cycle and to show them the work I was doing the previous day.

An update of ordinary magnitude

2009-07-02~2009-07-25
Week one(ish) of July (week of Forth of July, Unity Day, Hero's Day) I was in Chipata spending some time relaxing after almost a month in the village as well as finding out how to make soap.
Week two (with a bit added on in the beginning and the end to bring the total up to day 18 of the seventh month of the ninth year of this millennium) I was back in the village doing two soap workshops. Probably my most rewarding workshop was working with the teacher in charge of the JETS club in finally getting the Solar Oven project under way. I also had several good conversations with the head teach, who I get along well with, resulting in asking whether he wanted me to work with the other teachers in doing some programming in the area of Inoviropreneurship (innovation, the environment and entrepreneurship). He liked the idea and when I asked him how much he wanted me to do he said that I should write a daily class for ten of the thirteen weeks in a semester. So I've been pacing myself in writing the fifty lessen plans.
On the eighteenth day I took a dreaded taxi to the city known as Chipata and spent a while working on beginning the structure of the syllabus. I also made pancakes for the first time since I've been here (and a long time before that) and also made some soya burgers that were really good, I just wished my stomach had been feeling better.
Then on the 21st, I headed down to Lusaka to finally get a cycle of sort. Of coarse the shop had not been notified when I would be coming and they were not all geared up to go. Hopefully they will be on Monday. I've been spending a lot of time getting hooked on Amateur/Ham radio. I think it would be awesome if I could get myself and a few local Chadizians' licensed. Then we could communicate throughout the world. The summer CHIP/RAP (CHIP=community health improvement project, a combination of the old HAP/CAHP) intake of '09 came late Thursday night and were at the PCHQ on Friday. They seem like a pretty good group. Alright, back to haming, pondering whether I should spend some time writing lessen plans and working on a CAD drawing of a portable waterwheel for irrigation I'm designing.

Minto Wonder Wheel

2009-06-24~2009-07-01

The 7 or 8 days (depending on how you look at it) have been almost as productive as the week before, it would have been as or even more productive as the weeks before this last week except that my back and left leg were complaining that I had been bending over and favoring my right side too much and so I didn't do any more double digging or composting (although I was approached as to whether someone wanted them to help clear the field of weeds [for a fee of k20,000 for the large side, k15,000 for the small side of course] and they did what would have taken me probably a couple of weeks in a couple of days so I have plenty to compost when I return to the village). I did however make another go at banachar which I got many other villagers interested in and I think it was a success. That is of course contingent on the charballs that the villagers made sure were perfectly spherical burn better then the last ones I made but I think they will. Yesterday I successfully got a taxi to Chipata on the first try and they were only around 40 minutes late!

Tuesday was somewhat of a relax veg out day and I stated up too late watching movies (an ok movie about a Egyptian born engineer married to an American who gets kidnapped by the CIA and tortured because of a terrorist act he did not commit and Fight Club from beginning to end without being interrupted by the pesky parental party). Today I found an ingenious idea for a means of generating power using a small temperature variant. Basically the way it works is you have a bunch of tanks containing a fluid that easily converts into a gas arranged in a circle in such a way as to look like a big watermill (the circle turns). The opposing tanks are joined by a pipe and there is a source of heat in the bottom and something cooler on the top. When the liquid in the bottom is heated and turns to a gas, it rises up to the tube on the top. The tank on the top is cooler however and so the gas converts back to a liquid causing the tank on the top to spin downward towards the bottom and the tank on the top to spin upwards. Although the whole thing does not spin that fast, if you have a large enough circular structure, the torque is enough to give off a descent amount of energy. I am definitely going to build one, the only problem is finding a liquid that changes to a gas easily but is not supper flammable or toxic or both and not really rare. Most of the fluids I have found in that people are using are at least one of the above mentioned heal risks. I would use mercury I think if I was in the states and designing it for a large scale production but to put such a toxin in a place that A. there are almost as many iwe's (children) as there are udzudzu (mosquitoes) this time of year B. most people have an innate need to take things apart and tinker with things C. there is a remarkable lack of mercury in Dovu village and lastly D. that probably most villagers have never seen mercury or have any idea what it is. Therefore I am in search of a fluid that meets the required specifications and is not dangerous or rare in Zambia. This challenge aside, I think the project has great potential to power villages all across Zambia for next to nothing in parts.

All for now, I'm still wondering why this inventive idea is not more widely known and utilized.

Peas, Compost, Solar Cooker, BanaChar, Hoe the day away PLUS... some other stuff

This last week, in all has been a slightly productive week. I planted some more peas, spinach and broccoli, made a Solar Cooker and was going to try it out on Saturday to cook beans but the day was cloudy. I also started a compost pile using the plentiful supply of cattle manure and made a test run of some "banachar" using mashed banana peels, charcoal dust and a little bit of sand. The test bio-charcoal should be ready in a few more days as they are not dry yet. Yesterday I spent aprox. 7 hours working on hoeing my big garden of weeds to get it ready for planting when either I get an irrigation system set up or the rains come. It will be a big process as I only got a small fraction of the field clear, the soil when dry is very hard clay and there is crab grass throughout most of it. Today I am in da BOMA using the internet and hopefully meeting with my forestry counterpart to talk about setting up two projects. One is collection of plastic bottles for use in drip irrigation and the other is clearing fields using biochar instead of open air burning that is very harmful to the environment and people's health.

Finally made it back to site a day late because my taxi didn't go to Chadiza the day I was intending it to leave. I feel like I have been trapped in my village for the past week because I don't have a bicycle and my ankle has still been hurting me. I did a thorough cleaning of the "kitchen/living room" part of my hut and finished building my table. It looks really nice and is really solid; the only thing is it is really tall. I also did my first attempt at a solar stove but because I didn't have the proper glue I had to use duct tape and couldn't get it to be flat enough to reflect the rays all in the direction of the pot. I also began making a bed using the "double digging" method that I we had learned before. I planted a few peas and will plant some spinach and broccoli probably tomorrow. Wednesday I will hopefully make it to the Zingalume basic school where I am trying to work with the JETS program on the umbrella solar cooker as well as some other projects.

The second part of my journal entry of the past three weeks; I wanted to get it posted in case the power goes out like it did for most of yesterday

4^th week of May...

Sunday I felt better. The taxi came a little after 8:00 and we said good bye to my Zam-Fam and flew as fast as a small sedan loaded with luggage and people can go over bumpy dirt roads back to Chipata. The day was rather uneventful because it was Sunday and just about everything was closed but we bought food at Shopright and I loaded things onto my new mp3 player my family had brought.

Monday we took the bus that does usually leave on time and got to Lusaka about 1500. There we took a taxi to the same guest house we had stayed in the last time we were there and after buying some cloths detergent headed to the Mahak Indian restaurant where they have a really good meal that has free refills.

Tuesday we toured several organizations that make adaptive equipment. We went to APTERS (Appropriate Paper Technology) where they make chairs not that different in concept from the ones my father makes as well as office supplies like the pen holders my family bought. We also went to DisoCare, the wheelchair and general design company that is building my cycle. I came expecting the cycle to be well under way but they were still waiting for payment which was frustrating. The last stop we went on was the Ubuntu office which looked like an office. We bought a shirt made by the wife of the person who was bringing us to all the places who does clothing fabrication and after seeing the house he lives in went to a craft market run by orphans to get some things to bring back as gifts. Then we quickly headed back to the Peace Corps HQ to deal with the cycle issue. We also were going to meet with my APCD but he had gone to northwestern on site prep. Having dinner at Black Night, the really good bread & pizza restaurant, we found a good bus company to Livingston that leaves when it is scheduled to, flagged a taxi and got ready for the next leg of our travels.

We woke up really early again, packed and then waited for the taxi to show up. We were shooting to leave at 5:00 but apparently he had overslept and so shoed up at around 5:40ish. We still were able to get a ticket and this time the bus left almost exactly when it said it would. I really wish this company had a route to Chipata. We got into Livingston at about 13:30 and walked to Faulty Towers lodge where we dropped our luggage and had a lazy rest of the day.

Thursday morning we had breakfast at the guest house and got ready to go see the falls. The falls are very impressive and the climate directly adjacent to them is kind of like a mini rainforest. Like a rainforest, it is very, very wet – it made me think we were in the middle of the rainy season again. My right foot was really rolling over and I decided I needed new boots – and the fact that the ones I was wearing were waterproof did little to prevent my feet from squeezing out water when I walked by the end of the walk. We went back and had a late lunch and walked to a Chinese restaurant for dinner where we met another PCV and her friend visiting from the States.

Friday we had a hurried breakfast and my Dad and I headed out to go on a microlight flight while my Mom and sister were headed to a horse back ride. Although expensive, the flight was wonderful. It definitely reinvigorated my desire to take up flying when I get back to the states... and have the money and time. We got back around 10:00 and waited for the other family faction to arrive. Their excursion was equally enjoyable. We went to the Livingston Shopright and bought a few things for lunch and breakfast Saturday morning, then headed back. For dinner we tried the pizza place there. It wasn't as good as the one at Black Night but was still not bad.

Saturday we got up somewhat early, ate a quick breakfast and headed to the bus stop. When I got there I realized I didn't have my water bottle. Against my families concerns I ran back, found it, and took a taxi back to the terminal with 10 minuets to spare. Unfortunately, because I was wearing my water shoes that had less support, I strained my inner ankle in the run back. We made about as good time as in coming to the city and got back to Lusaka at about 1500. First we dropped our stuff at the guest house, and then we went to the PCZHQ to download the photos from my sister's computer. We forgot my Dad's which sucked but at least we got my sisters pictures from her semi professional camera. We then took a taxi that was supposed to be headed to the same Mahak Indian Restaurant that we went to last time we were in Lusaka, however none of us could remember how to get there. We finally got directions, but they were for the other Mahak eatery in Kabulonga that didn't have the same all-you-can-eat dish.

Sunday we regretfully said good buy early because I needed to go to Manda Hill to get shoes and they needed to head to the bus stop. We walked to the end of the road together, and then we headed our separate ways. I think it was a good trip in all. I was successful in finding shoes that fit, although the pair I bought were some of the only ones in the store big enough. Zambians must have small feet. After getting some things from Shopright I took a taxi back to the PCZHQ and started trying to get windows working again on my laptop. I was actually successful in finding the solution to my problem and finally, after 4 months, had it working again. I got to bed really late though and only got about 4 hours of sleep.

Monday I had a few more things to do on my laptop, I needed to check in on the progress of the cycle which of course no one knew what the status of it was, and I tried to get a new mosquito net but apparently they only have the exact number of ones that there are volunteers and they are shipped from Washington so they were not available. I finally got everything packed and got to the bus around 1500. Fortunately, or unfortunately it took an hour before it finally left but I didn't get there until after midnight meaning another 4 hours night sleep. To make maters worse, I got sick on the bus and just barely made it to the window to through up a couple times. Luckily I was feeling a bit better by the time I got to the house.

Tuesday we had our provincial meeting which was somewhat standard and then in the afternoon there were some workshops for project ideas. By the end of the day I was incredibly tired and I got to sleep before 2100. There was no power or water for most of Tuesday which was sindibwino because I wanted to begin writing this blog.

Wednesday the power came back on and I began writing this epic blog and scanning my laptop for viruses but didn't do much else because my ankle still hurt.

Thursday, today, I am hopefully going back to my site finally for a good long stay.

The fist part of my journal entry of the past three weeks; I wanted to get it posted in case the power goes out like it did for most of yesterday

Well this month has been, as far as actual village work is concerned, not much of a month. However it seems like it was one of the longer months I've been in service because I've probably traveled (lets see, Chadiza to Lusaka twice round trip and Lusaka to Livingston once round trip) well over 3,000-4,000 km this month, sleep in nine places and generally been continuing my whirlwind. Things should get back to normal this month at least then probably in July I will hopefully be going to vacation in Malawi and (/ maybe or) hopefully getting my cycle.

The Following is a Semi-Dramatic Textual Documentation of the Events That Have Taken Place in the Last Three Weeks:

2^nd week of May...

Three and a half weeks ago, after the mid term conference was over I then began designing my cycle. Working with a local design company called Disocare we came up with a design that should work, but there are a lot of if's that still need to be worked out. I found a source for irrigation tubing that is much cheaper then anything in Chipata. Therefore the only thing left to do is write the grant to buy it and get the villagers more involved – the later being the biggest challenge. I also did more research into how to make soap and typed up steps to milking goats as well as downloading a bunch more podcasts. Then the tension built as I waited for my family to arrive the next day.

3^rd week of May...

Sunday the 17^th of May marked the exciting day my family was to arrive. I left before 8:00 by an expensive taxi and got there much faster then I was expecting. I fortunately had brought a Times magazine that I read until around 10:00, then I went to the gait and waited for the plain to arrive. And waited. And waited. The flight monitor showed that the plain would be delayed 40 minuets and it took well over that time for the passengers to start coming out. But none of them were my family. While I was waiting, someone approached and said that he was a founder of the organization called Ubuntu that my family had found through a friend of a friend. Ubuntu does education and advocacy for the disabled in Zambia and my family was very interested in finding more out about the challenges here as opposed to in the States. Finally, after virtually everyone had left, we spotted them.

They apparently had been the last ones off the plane. We piled into a vehicle stuffed with luggage and headed for the guest house. Unfortunately, that vehicle did not make it there on account of a flat tire so we, minus the Ubuntu guest house, finished the transport in a taxi. Everyone was very tired so we had a quick dinner of things we bought at the local Spar and went to bed.

Waking up incredibly early the next morning, we headed to the bus terminal and boarded one of the many busses headed to Chipata. Unfortunately the bus we chose was almost empty. Finally, after waiting around 6 hours the bus finally was full enough to leave. Yeah, that day was not the best part of the trip, but at least my family got to see the anti-exquisiteness of transport in Zambia. Finally arriving at the Chipata guest house we very quickly went to bed, quite possibly even more tired then the night before.

Tuesday we finally were going to get to our destination. We left later then we had wanted to as usual, after having repacked, banked, and food shopped we got a taxi and headed out on a very bumpy road. Getting in just before dusk, we were very glad to not need to travel for two days. Sitting and looking out at the wildlife that it was amazing the amount of given that virtually everywhere else in Zambia the only mammals are farm animals and mice we finally got to relax. While we were sitting a woman who works at the camp greeted us and when we engaged in discussion she seemed to tell us about how she grew up in Zimbabwe on a farm but as a teenager had to leave because of the redistribution of land by force that was going on. She fled to New Zealand where she went to college and gave up her initial plans of taking over the farm from her father. Not comfortable with the more urban life she was leading she came here and is working as a teacher in the morning and training to become a park ranger at night. Well that was an interesting enough story but then she began talking about her future plans to kayak the entire length of the Congo River, a feat not done before. To just kayak down the rapids there is a daunting task in of its self, but to do so in the Congo Rainforest with all the natural dangers of such a climate plus the fact that many stretches are in the middle of a guerilla war is almost ludicrous. She can probably talk her way out of a fight with a lion though as she wove her fascinating tale effortlessly.

We still needed to wake up very early the next day because our wildlife tour began at 6:00 and breakfast was at 5:30. We ate quickly and headed out on our mini exploration. Although it was kind of the standard Sub-Saharan wildlife you see in nature shows on TV, it was good to see them in real life and to learn a little bit more about them. We took a lot of pictures and I shot some footage, both of which I hope to post on my website the next time I'm in Lusaka. After the morning escapade we ate lunch and relaxed some more until about 1600. Then we headed out on our night trip to see more of the pray that ate the animals we had seen in the morning. We saw some lions, a jaguar, and caught a glimpse of a wild dog, which is supposed to be very rare as well as many more animals. Of the two trips, I would definitely say the daytime one was better because we could see all the wildlife instead of needing to stare out at the ever moving spotlight. We had a good three course dinner and stared out at the night sky for a little while, then went to bed fairly satisfied we had had a good day.

Thursday marked a lull in activities and we had a lazy day reading magazines and chatting. I was somewhat frustrated as my feet had slipped out from under me when drying off from a shower the day before my family arrived. My tailbone and left buttock really hurt when I walked more then a few meters so I wasn't able to go exploring the limited "safe" part of the part, so the day was mainly a day of rest because tomorrow would be another long taxi ride to my village in Chadiza.

When Friday rolled around, we hurriedly gathered our luggage, ate a quick breakfast and then the taxi came at 8:30. After the three hour bumpy ride to Chipata, we got some more food, ate some of it for lunch and then took another taxi to Dovu. We were welcomed by everyone and we chatted fairly easily, surprisingly enough, the headwomen and her son and law knowing much more English then I thought.

Saturday morning the first thing we did was go to see my chief, although whether he was expecting us or not. This was actually the first time I had been to the Zingalume palace, although I had met the chief before when he had stopped by my place. We gave him k50,000 and some homemade goat soap as gifts and heard afterwards that he really liked the soap and wanted to learn how it was made. The meeting was fairly quick and more of just a formality, and afterwards we got a tour of Zingalume village of whom the head women is the sister of the Dovu headwomen. After getting oranges picked from the trees in front of her house, we headed back to our village. Then my Dovu and U.S. family set about making peanut butter. Everyone was in a good mood and all chipped in shelling a huge bowl of ground nuts. After the shelling was done, we ate a lunch of Zumba, a local leaf that is dried and cooked with ground ground nuts, some baking soda and a few tomatoes. Because the first time I had eaten it I had said I really liked it, they now often bring me some when they make it, however I'm actually not that thrilled about it, and it is definitely my dad's favorite dish. During the course of our return back to Dove from our morning trip I started to have a bad headache. I thought it was because I was thirsty and I drank a lot of water but it wouldn't go away. I really wanted to climb a hill that I had climbed almost a year ago and had an amazing view so we headed out despite my pain. Most of the hill would require climbing equipment to even attempt the ascent but there is one side that is climbable although still difficult because it is covered with loose pebbles and grainy sand. I somehow made it up, my head pounding and my stomach not doing the best. After some hopefully good photos and a brief rest we headed back down. By the time we finally got back, (or actually well before) all I wanted to do was lie down, which sucked because the rest of my "families" were enjoying watching the young ones dance and sing. My headache finally subsisted and I think lying down was just what I needed. After a dinner that lacked much flavor we went to bed.

I'm now a double digging convert and have found a purpose for 2L plastic bottles

Well, last week we had our mid-term conference. The first two days were a permaculture workshop that was surprisingly useful. I'm now a double digging convert and have found a purpose for 2L plastic bottles (water root drip irrigation). We also had our medical sessions and a few LIFE related workshops. Now, up until my family comes I am working on getting a recumbent trike that works. Then, in almost exactly a week MY FAMILY FROM THE STATES ARE COMING! I'm excited and egger to show them around.
I think one thing I will spend my time here doing is write simple, clear guides on to how to make soap and maybe goat milking. Then I will try to get the language instructor or someone else who knows good chichewa and English to translate the steps into the local language. That way when I finally get back to site I can set up workshops on those subjects and give the steps as handouts.

The Weekly Whirlwind

The last two weeks or so have been a whirlwind. This time a week ago I was in Lusaka although it seems like a month ago. I got some x-rays of my neck because that was where the discomfort had been and there was nothing out of order. However I stayed in Lusaka until Thursday because PC was finally going to work on my cycle to make one which was ridable. Last Friday I went back to site for the weekend and set up a jury rigged “irrigation” system that basically consisted of 25' of hose connected to the 200L barrel I bought a while back. The kids were eager to help and filled up the tank several times and watered what was in the range of the hose.
On Monday I went back to Chipata to investigate possible bicycle engineers in the area to work with on the creation of a ridable cycle, however this was in vain. Although there is probably the biggest bicycle plant in Zambia here, they didn't want to deviate from the standard cycle ridden by practically every Zambian. Another engineer was more interested, however he didn't really have the resources to work on the complexities of designing a three-wheeled cycle using local materials. All this means that it is back to the same designers in Lusaka in May. Monday afternoon I went to the Msekera Conservation Farming Center because I found out that they have low cost irrigation systems for farmers in the area as well as training in their use. They were going to come to my site on Friday the 24th, however since then they have said that their schedule is too tight and it will have to be sometime in May. The one thing I was able to get is a rhizome of bamboo to plant in my Village as the closest place to find bamboo in Chadiza that I or my villagers know of is in Mozambique.
I tried to go back to site Wednesday the 22nd but the taxi didn't come until after 1700 and I didn't really want to get to bed at 2300 hours so I didn't take it and will go today hopefully around noon.
Although I would have liked to set up an irrigation system this week (next 7 days), I've set one of my goals for before I go to Lusaka for the midterm conference is to get a working brick oven. I made one a while back but I have yet to try it out. I also got an innovative way of making a solar oven that uses an umbrella turned upside down. I also plan on making that in the next week. All for now.

This week, this horrible week

Had a rather scary bike accident Monday where I blanked out briefly. I first couldn’t remember what I had been doing that day, and had gaps in my memory in other times. That had mostly gone away that night and was completely gone the next day. My neck hurt though and I just felt kind of off that next day. I got a ride with the Eastern Province General Service Officer and spend the night in Chipata, then headed to Lusaka the next day. To make this week even more horrible, my wallet with all my bank card, my ID cards and a million kwacha (just about a months pay) in it. PC reimbursed me for the money but it was the irreplaceable things like my college id and such really sucks to loose. Hopefully someone will find it.

THE CHISWE’s INVADE!

2009-03-23~2009-04-06

Well, one of the reasons I haven't posted so far is because the charger for my laptop, along with a bunch of other electronics was left in the taxi I took back to my site. Supposedly it got dropped off at the provincial house; however I haven’t been able to get to Chipata since then. Hopefully I will be able to go sometime this week. Another reason I need to head there is because I am trying to build an irrigation system for my demo plot before the dry season starts in earnest. I got a 200L barrel and about 16-17m of house however I still need to either get a lot more hose and try to design a pump, or get about 300m of strong rope and a bunch of pails. If I had more time, I would try to apply for a PC grant; however by the time one would be approved, my vegetables would have dried up and blown away.

Yesterday… THE CHISWE’s INVADED! I was walking behind my hut when I saw, as I have seen several times before, a line of ants moving in a narrow steam. In passing I hoped that they didn’t come into my hut but it wasn’t until I was surrounded by them that I realized that there hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of them. And that they were red ants. And that they were angry. I quickly made my escape, but not before they had begun occupying my entire body. After having taken off my cloths, picked the little buggers off me, and given my cloths a hardy shaking, I headed back out to face my foes. In the short time I had been in my hut they had almost entirely encircled the house and were demolishing virtually everything living. A villager had some meali-meal she was spreading out in a line to try to prevent their advancement but I realized more drastic measures were required so I was glad I had bought some ant spray, at the time to try to prevent termites (to little success). This eventually did the trick. Realizing that they were facing a mighty adversary, they eventually retreated. Just as fast as the countless tiny fiends had come, so they vanished, leaving not a living one in site. I wish I had a picture of the reddish black ground to show of the hero pyrethrum isotopes really are.

This last week I have been in Chipata in a HIV/AIDS training session

This last week I have been in Chipata in a HIV/AIDS training session with local counterparts. It is interesting to here the Zambians speak openly about sex and the differences between men’s and women’s sexual relationships and their perceptions. The training ended on Thursday and I have been busy trying to install a Linux build on some flash drives which I finally achieved but now the problem is that I still can’t access the internet on my cell phone because it requires an .exe (windows) program so I have been trying to find a windows emulator, so far unsuccessfully. Short one I know.