Highs and Lows

Hi all,

I'm sorry that I can't update more regularly (its hard to access the slow and bulky blogger out here) and I'm sorry but this isn't going to be a long post.

A lot has happen in the past three months. I went to Spain with LeeAnn and had a fantastic and wonderful week with her there. We went to Madrid for three nights and the southern Seviea for four. It was so good to see her and I'm already missing again. But life moves on and here I find myself back in Zambia.

Site has been quite nice. My village has been granted three new boreholes (clean water sites) in the past month! Its definitely a step up since, as it is right now, nearly 1600 people depend on one clean water source - and as you can imagine its very very crowded and over used. So much so that children (who commonly fetch the water) will collect water from polluted streams and ponds instead of waiting in the long lines. This is extremely dangerous. Many families do not have pit latrines and instead use the great outdoors as their toliet - resulting in human feces to be washed into the streams. These two conditions makes cholera and diarreaha an very very common threat. So you can see how the boreholes are a very very welcomed addition to our community.

I'm looking on a much lonelier service here in Zambia. Before I left for Spain, one of my very best friends, Aman, was sent home for medical reasons. And while it was disappointing, I tried to keep my head up, being grateful that I still had any friends at all here in the bush. Unfortunately, again, I recieved word that my other very close PCV friend Nick is also being sent home for medical reasons. I'm looking at returning to site in a sad light. Both were integral parts of my service and have helped me through the toughest of times and celebrated the best. I'm continuing to plug on - I know it'll get better, but here and now, its looking a little dismal and dark.

Sorry for the downer, but unfortunately life out here in the bush isn't all smiles and laughs. Hopefully next post I can be a bit more positive. Sending my love and best wishes to all!

--Ryan