Hi, all..found an internet cafe in Mansa that calets me in....

Just a quick note that I can have this internet cafe that did not cut me off like I had tried to post for last 5, 6 weeks.....but did not have the memory stick with me to post any pix and notes for you all.....



Just to tell all that I am doing fine for the first 2 weeks in my village - Yasakwa, Luapula, Zambia.....20 Km from Mansa the capital for Luapula. It has being like in a fish bowl with all eyes on you, day and night, 24/7 no matter you do something or nothing.....but they meat well, and curious.....



Next week I will bike in again one day as my day off to up date all pix and notes.....promise......Hope you all doing well.........till next time......Cheng 10/12/2010

My host family

The host family, Mom - Lobena, 49, Dad - Enock, 65, daughter - Stella, 14, is big help at house work, does not like to go to school???

Lobena's brother was visiting and had dinner with us. Children were eat in the kitchen till I asked to have them eat with us togather.

When we got back from the site visit, we had group presentation of our site experiences, we also got our own mountain bike - it is lighter weight than my bike in Winthrop...see the road we bike everyday...very much like Third Creek Road in Winthrop only more car traffic.

We were all got placed into hosting families close to the training center at Chungwe, 40Km out skirt of Lusaka, in order to practice the language while learning it. My host family speaks English too well, so my Bemba language is very behind....You all have a wonderful week ahead.......Cheng Aug 16, 2010

Pix from the second day at the site

Oop.....the first pic we cooked the fish from the harvest for dinner should have been with the last group of pix....

The rest of pix from the wild African walk....the second and the third was that the tree was debarked for the bee hieve.......the "me" was prepared for the long walk under the sun and with mosquitoes (in long sleeve, long pants and a big hat), but did not count walking in the 7-8 feet tall dry grassland, got some blades cut on face and neck...

Today I just know that villagers burn the grass in circle so large and small animals will die in it as their meat sourse.....I thought it was to keep animals out.....out to their tummy.....they need MORE meat sourse for sure......THE FISH PONDS.

Only if we were more equiped that walk would had been even more and better stories to tell.....See our dinner after the walk, none bothered to sit up proper......Cheng

Pix for site visit - 6 at a time

First 6 pictures from fish pond harvest....now I know how this works, but for this one you have to read from the last one up to line up with my posted story...the pix from the second day at site will be up soon.....Cheng

Pictures from the fish ponds harvests did not want to be posted......

Pictures from the fish ponds harvests did not want to be posted.....till next time.....Good night, Cheng Aug. 16, 2010

The rest of the site visit

The Fish Farmers had lots of helps from all sorts of government and non-government orgnizations as sign shown, as you see Peace Corps was not on it, because I just learned that we "the aquaculture extention volunteers" are to be there to connect the tools and materials they could have or already had with the "how to" knowledges and skills. I like this humble posititon already.

The pictures were taken on the first day at the Adam's three fish pond harvesting. The larger fishes were for the market and the smaller ones were for the families I would think. The children went after the harvest and still pick out some fishes from the mud and BBQing and sharing to us too. After the harvest was done Adam took us to see the fish pond water benefited the vegetabel farms.

The second day, Adam was to take us for a couple of hours walk to a water fall that he like to go for a deep sometimes, for there were more things he can show us, like the burnt grass land to keep large animals out, the tree barks been cut for bee heaves - that kills the tree in the short time, the insects, the river...than came with tales of all sorts - true or not, hard to tell.....but all were so much fun.....only if we were in the hiking boots and tons of water and food.....four hours later - or more we got back to Adam's home and all were ash black or dirty brown and hungrey, but all agreed that it was a TRUE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE to these new comers' eyes.

The Third day was to travel back to ISTT - In Service Training Trust, Adam and another site hostess - Renaee were coming out for a conferences or trainings so already full vehicle squeezed in another two people. They were all people's people so we had a joyful 14 hours ride back to out skirt Lusaka.