Training Halftime

We are halfway through training. Time is moving quickly as we study our languages and get training in the technical aspects as well. Im learning Tonga and I will be going somewhere in the Southern Province. We just had our site interviews yesterday and we will get our post assignment on Thursday!
And then on Friday we will go visit our sites for 2 weeks to see what we think of it. Village/town life is cool so far but im excited to get back to the bush.
The family that i live with go by the name Sikangila. 7 of their 12 children live with us, i have my hut on the compound. they cook my food and boil water for my bath twice a day. When I get tired of trying to speak Tonga I pull out my guitar (banjo here) and the old man loves to tap his foot to the beat.
My close friends are Trent and Carroll-Anne. Or Tent and Annie and Blitelia as we have now been called by the Zambians. We bike to our training together and they love my "Never Surrender" motto. I wear the PUNISHER t-shirt when I bike and yesterday it totally mocked me as I fell for the first time. Just scrapes and bruises, no worries even though it was intense.
We had a gardening session and I was in charge of the machete. Me and Mindy had to gather dry material for the compost pile and I found and awesome tree with dry leavces. So |I went to hacking away on the branches and then me and Mindy started itching. ooops, so the leaves that were raining down all had tiny spikes on them that stuck to our skin and clothes. my bad!
besides those mishaps Im enjoying the food and clothing and the entire Zambian culture. BTW, if you are in class and need to use the bathroom, you just say "sorry, i must go wash my feet."
Trent taught our langugage teacher the phrase WTF! so that has become a good joke. There is a rumor we get to go to a store with electricity this week and Im hoping to get some cheese! Ive had 11 shots so far and learned about all the ways we can die but it sounds like the PC takes our safety seriously so no worries.
I hope everyone is doing greawt in the States. Yay for Zach starting college. And thanks to Amy and Maetzin for your letters. your replies on our their way.
God bless and Peace OUT!

First Week

This past week they sent us out in small groups to visit a volunteer and see what life as a PCV is really like. To welcome us the community wanted to feed us a guinea fowl. Which was cool...except they gave us the job of hunting and killing it. The five of us grabbed small rocks and ran after the bird (like a chicken) and it flew into a tree. So we threw all the rocks but it took Ba Jolie and his slingshot to shoot it out of the tree. Trent grabbed the fallen bird, stepped on its wing and went to work slicing off its neck. I thought I was more hard-core but it was tough to watch. Then, me and Mindy had to dip it in boiling water and pull out all the feathers...which takes a long time. But it was all worth it! Guinea Fowl is good stuff.
We also got to meet the chief but we had to walk 8k one way. I brought stupid shoes and I have cuts and blisters but its all cool. I got to meet a real African Chief. He has 5 wives and 25 kids. yikes!
We move in with our families tomorrow. They will take care of us throughout training which is until Sept. 28. Hope things are going well in America!