Hi everyone! Happy holidays! I’ve had a huge surplus of free time these days, and have been stewing in boredom.
I decided to try something new today and made a pizza from scratch on my brazier. From start to finish, it took me about two hours, and was a lovely distraction.
First, I caramelized onions for this pizza.
After I finished those and set them aside, I made my cheese! Ricotta is fairly easy to make in the village; you just let milk come to a boil, add in a small splash of lemon juice or vinegar to cuddle it, strain it over a cheesecloth and bowl, and squeeze out the excess moisture.
I had never made pizza dough from scratch before (even though I used to work at a pizza shop!), and my attempt was alright. Once I made it, I put it into a pan and layered up the toppings: alfredo for the base, ricotta, caramelized onions and garlic.
Up until now, I hadn’t attempted baking anything in the village, but I had an idea of how to set up a brazier oven. Essentially, you start it as usual, take out some of the hot coals, set down an upside-down pot, set your baking pan on top of that (as baking directly on the coals would have been too extreme of heat), and then setting on top of the baking pan another upside-down pan, and putting hot coals on top of that, so it can bake from the top and the bottom.
My pizza baked for about 30 minutes, and for a first attempt, I was very pleased! The crust was crispy on the bottom and nice and chewy, and so flavorful!
This was a lovely, delicious way to spend my time this afternoon, and cooking is always cathartic and relaxing. Making this pizza may have dirtied almost all of my dishes, but it was absolutely worth it to have an indulgent, time-consuming lunch.
Cooking has been a really nice escape for me in the village, and it’s fun to figure out how to adapt recipes to limited ingredients or brazier cooking. Some of my personal favorite meals have been: gnocchi with garlic alfredo, breakfast hashes, and curries!
Garlic alfredo gnocchi from scratch Masala veg/hash with garlic and herb flatbread
I’ve also made mango jam, and plan on attempting mango wine soon! Have a recipe you think I’d like to attempt in the village? Let me know in the comments below. Happy eating 🙂
Community entry is tough, I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve told you from the start that I’m determined to share with you the whole experience, not just the happy parts of it. I’m bored out of my mind, since I’m not meant to be starting any programs right now. I’m living alone for the first time in my life, which is its own challenge. The language and cultural barrier is significant and isolating. And I feel that I’m not accomplishing anything significant, which is particularly hard because America deeply ingrains in us that our value is rooted in productivity, which is an incredibly difficult idea to un-learn.
That’s not to say that I hate being here, in fact it’s the opposite! Though this is the hardest thing I’ve done in my life, there are many bright spots to my days, such as my amazing host family (check out my last blog post to learn more about them), videochatting with my family and boyfriend at home, seeking solace in American treats brought from home and sent in care packages (though I have very little willpower in this regard!!), and settling into meaningful routines in my day.
One of my biggest comforts and favorite ways to pass the time has been reading. Anyone who knows me knows that I have loved to read since I was little, but similar to many bibliophiles as they grow up, I lost touch with reading to take care of responsibilities, studying, and other pastimes. Ever since coming to Zambia, I’ve had much more free time (one might argue too much free time {trust me, it’s possible}), and free mental space, and I have deeply enjoyed falling in love with reading all over again.
It feels like such a gift to be able to sit down and enter another world for a while, to let my imagination run free in the lives of the characters, and to relax into a quiet escape. Since arriving, I’ve also decided to make an effort to read books written by marginalized and minority authors, which is also enriching my experience. I am really enjoying reading books written from a perspective outside of my own. So if you have any suggestions, please let me know! (Better yet, send me your suggestions and a kindle gift card to get the book-my parents will thank you 😉)
I feel so grateful that I can sit down and read often more than once per day. Reading has become a deeply meaningful part of each day for me. Additionally, when I feel daunted by being social in my community (which is frequent, considering the not-insignificant language barrier), I can sit out on my porch reading and be “visible” while still being in my own world. My days are often bracketed with this escape-I read each morning while I eat my breakfast and savor my coffee, and before I go to bed.
I hope that telling you how meaningful it has been to bring reading back into my daily life, you feel inspired to bring it into yours! My goal is to read at least 100 books while serving in the Peace Corps, and you can check out my reading list here if you’re in need of a recommendation!
Here’s literally just a bunch of photos for you to peruse!
Myself and my fellow Tonga CHEPpers at our Swearing-In CeremonyAfter swearing in, our new provincial leader took us to Victoria Falls! Both of those rock faces should be gushing water, but Zambia is in a bad drought. The cruiser that took all my things to my new site!My family is hard at work in the fields these days. This field is just to the left of my house!One of my proudest dishes so far: soya and veg masala with homemade garlic and herb flatbreads!Recently spent Thanksgiving in the provincial capital for a province wide meeting!! The food was so good, but we all got food poisoning afterwards I gave a speech! In Tonga!!Photos of the inside to come after plastering and painting!
Hi everybody! Yes, I know, it’s been forever since I posted but it’s my blog and I’ll post when I want to!
I have lots to catch you up on, so I’ll just give you the headlines: since I last posted, I visited (and fell in love with) my new site, finished my vigorous Pre-Service Training, left Chongwe, swore in as an official Peace Corps Zambia volunteer and gave a speech in my local language while I was at it, and moved to my amazing village!
I arrived in Demu, Southern Province in mid-November, and until February, my role here is to learn from the community, meet lots of new people, and learn how to live on my own in the rural setting. This 3-month period is referred to as Community Entry. Having CE before beginning any programs is amazing because it allows me to understand the needs, wants, and readiness of my community, and approach programming with wisdom, hard-working counterparts, and a willingness from the community.
Community Entry is a highly non-structured time. While there are certain things I am meant to do, such as conducting participatory learning analyses, meet my local traditional leadership, and build a relationship with my clinic staff, I am left to get to know Demu as I see fit. Each day is wildly different from the previous, but I am still finding ways to build routine, such as drinking a cup of coffee and reading in the morning and eating dinner with my incredible host family most nights. On any given day, I might: walk to the clinic to chat with my clinic staff or make a poster, work in the fields with my family, walk around and get slightly lost and ask a new friend for help (Two of the first phrases I learned in Tonga were “please help me” and “where do I live?”), attend community meetings and the meetings of NGOs in the area, visit different churches, and more!
During PST, the visiting Volunteers of the Week all told us to aim to do One Thing per day during CE. “Pshh, One Thing per day?! Come on, that sounds like NOTHING” I thought to myself. That advice is REAL. Going out to to one thing per day feels like a real accomplishment. And by One Thing, I can mean just helping my bamaama cook dinner. Sometimes I don’t even do my One Thing. And I get hard on myself. But I have to remember that even though I didn’t do my One Thing, I still cooked over coals that day, or had a great conversation with a family member, or did my laundry by hand, or just did what I could, and give myself some grace. Community Entry, though it looks a lot like me sitting around and not doing much, is challenging. Every day, I stumble through citonga, remembering (or often forgetting) people’s names, cultural faux pas, differences in understanding (of time, of my charades to get the point across, of a word I’ve definitely leaned but can’t remember), and over bush paths. Even if I haven’t done my One Thing, I go to bed dog-tired at the end of the day.
And my host family is there for me through it all. Without them, I would simply not be functioning here. They help me start my brazier every single time (often, there’s already hot one by my door in the mornings!), fetch my water for me (they do not allow me to do it!!), feed me the yummiest food, provide me with guidance and good company, and support me however I need it. My biggest ally here is my Bamaama. Not only is she incredibly compassionate, and making cook, and an inspiring matriarch to the family, but she is also deeply involved in the local health efforts AND speaks English fluently. I lean on her for everything. She invites me to meetings, takes me to the places I should know and introduces me to the people I should meet, and is just incredibly understanding and has a great sense of humor about all of my integration challenges! My Bataata is the headman, which opens many doors for me. His voice holds weight—what he says, goes, what he plans, happens. He is so kind and always makes sure to greet me in the morning, even if it means coming home from the fields to do it. I have many younger sisters and brothers that work so hard in school and at home. My sisters are the ones that keep me functioning here. I feel simply so grateful to have this incredible host family on my side and just outside my door. I couldn’t do this without them!
The biggest lessons I have learned so far in CE are to extend myself some grace, try to do that One Thing per day, always cover my food, a greeting goes a long way, and that going to bed early is a beautiful thing.
This post is getting a little long, but I promise to try a bit harder to post more often; I know I have many loved ones who want to know how I am doing, and I thank you all for that! I will post pictures of my new place once I have the walls plastered and painted, so hopefully in about one month. Tulobonana lino-lino (see you soon)!
Reilly in Zambia 