Moving on

Yesterday we had a very small swearing in and memorial service here at the Peace Corps office. It was a bitter sweat ceremony and Wyatt's presence was missed. He was sworn in as an honorary volunteer and his parents sent a letter that was read during his rememberance ceremony. They said in the letter that they got to talk to Wyatt for an hour the day before he died and received a 14 page letter from him the day after he died. He told them that he was happier than he had ever been in his life and he was very excited to start his service. I will be leaving Lusaka on Friday and being posted at my village on Sunday.

Swearing In and Memorial

Tomorrow we will have a very small swearing in ceremony and memorial service for Wyatt here in Lusaka at the Peace Corps headquarters. Wyatt will be traveling back to the states on Tuesday along with a representative from Peace Corps and a scrap book with pictures and letters from all of us. I should be leaving for my post on Wednesday, spending Thursday running errands in Kasama and then get taken to post on Friday or Saturday. This means that I can be reached at the Kasama house on Thanksgiving. It is probably best to call in the evening (mid-morning U.S.).

Obviously, this is not the way that any of us wanted to start our service as volunteers, but I know that Wyatt would want us to be out there doing good work. For me personally, I would like to dedicate my service to Wyatt's memory. I take comfort knowing that his spirit will be with me as I go out to my post. He will be missed by all of us. This is a picture of Wyatt with his homestay brothers.

Wyatt

On September 6, 2005 twenty four ready and eager Peace Corps Trainees convened in Philadelphia for our pre service orientation. Among the 24 were people from all walks of life including, hippies, prepies, frat boys, middle aged men, and everything in between. One trainee in particular stuck out to me immediately, because of his amazing fashion sense. I think the first time I saw Wyatt he was wearing a rainbow stripped, skin tight polo shirt, blue jeans, and blue shoes. Throughout our training Wyatt continued to amaze us with his fashion sense. This included a sparkly unicorn T-shirt (skin tight of course), and loafer socks that he would pull up to his knees and wear with tight shorts.

Beyond his obvious sense of style, Wyatt was also the self proclaimed "smartest person in the group." He prooved this by having one of the best harvests from his pond and was chosen to make a speech in Lunda on television at our swearing in ceremony. Wyatt was setting himself up to be a very successful Peace Corps volunteer who we all grew to know and love. On Thursday night before our swearing in ceremony Wyatt died tragically. We are in Lusaka now getting counseling and trying to make sense of the situation. I am not allowed to give any details in regards to his death, but I will keep you all updated as much as possible. I should be posted at the end of next week and I only hope that I will be half the volunteer that Wyatt would have been. May he rest in peace.

One more week!

I only have one more week of training and then I will out in the bush! I can't wait. Today I harvested the pond that I have been maintaining for the past nine weeks in training. My pond had the highest yield among the trainees. I harvested 18 kilograms of fish from my 150 meter square pond. This probably means nothing to all of you, so I will put it in other terms. One kilogram of fish from my pond fed me and my host stay family of six with plenty of fish left to spare. We were selling the fish at 10,000 kwacha per kilogram (about $2 per kilo). That means that a farmer would have made over $35 from my pond's harvest. The average farmer in Zambia probably makes about $500 to $700 per year. You can see how this harvest would have been a pretty lucrative day for him. Not to mention the nutritional value of the fish during the driest part of the year in Zambia when food is most scarce. I am a believer in fish farming. Who's with me?

We are scheduled to swear in as volunteers on Friday and the ceremony will be broadcasted live on the Zambia National Broadcasting Channel. Just in case any of you can pick it up on satellite. All I have to do between now and then is pass a fish species identification test, pass a technical exam, and have a 30 minute, taped conversation in Bemba. Not a problem as I see it.

It looks like I will be posted on Thanksgiving Day, which is nice of Peace Corps. It's ok though, because I think that me and some other volunteers are getting together a few weeks later to celebrate Thanksgiving in the village. That's all for now, but the next time I blog I should be a full fledged Peace Corps volunteer.

Sorry

I have very little time, so I must use it to apologize to my family for not being able to get to the phone this week for my phone time. The stupid hippy girl who has the phone two hours before me took off with the phone and nobody can find here. Maybe she is watching her leg hair grow or something. Anyway, now that I am finished venting. Everything is good here. Only two more weeks of training and then I get to move to the bush and eat rats for dinner. More later. PS: Here is my new address: Peace Corps Zambia PO Box 410374 Kasama, Zambia Attn: Devin Smyth/PCV Your best chance of getting a package to me is to open any new items (besides food), so I don't have to pay duty tax. Also, you can try writing "religious materials enclosed" on the box. Sometimes this detures people from opening and looting your package. Please only send stuff for me (not stuff to give away to the Zambians). Jealousy runs rampid here and if I give something to one person in my village I will hear about it from everyone else. Seeing as how I am trying to integrate into the community you can understand how this would not be a good situation. Thank you for your cooperation.