June 17

kolenu mwani a tata,
That means hello how are you in lunda.

We have 4 hours of language every day which means by the end of nine weeks I will be a virtual pro, however, right now I am not a pro and my conversations with my mama right now are not much more than "this is very good" - chiwahi nankashi or thank you - nasakilili but I am starting to get it a little better. It doesn't help that she doesn't speak a lick of english so there are some long - long silences between talking.. there is lots of staring and pointing. My room is an 8X10 prison cell with two inch slits for windows and a foam bed. Above my bed it reads "god knows your life" which is interesting to see when I'm trying to sleep. I have cockroaches and mice around so that makes things quite interesting to say the least. I had a rat literally scare the shit out of me when I was squatting in the latrine yesterday morning. The food leaves something to be desired, nshima with potatoes and rape and usually a mystery meat of sorts. There is no electricity so it is lights out for me at 8 pm. I hitched into kitwe this afternoon which was quite the adventure (20 km away) since they have us isolated at our training boot camp there are no phones or internet.

I have also been thinking about getting a cell phone here. I could buy one for 85 bucks and send text messages to people for basically free... 12 cents or something. Calls are a bit more expensive but all incoming calls are free and in the NW province there is very good service everywhere so Iwas going to consider doing it.

I am learning lots about fish farming and got my bike today. Not exactly top end but it will get me from point a to point z. There are some fun volunteers and I am having a pretty good time. It would be nice if I had a little more time for just relaxing though. I get up at 6 and its non stop action until 8 p.m. We have decided they are keeping us busy so we dont realize we are missing home. I've had time to drink a couple beers and found out where to go fishing today.

Damn those Heat. I don't have time to check out the scores or know anything about the outside world. Oh and if you send packages make sure they say Jesus cares or something churchy on them so they don't get messed with. I guess thats the trick.