Well this is a little embarrassing. I promised last week that I would publish a new one of these every Sunday, yet here we are on Monday. Not off to a great start, I know, but my Sunday was crazy. Hell this whole week was wild:
Monday: the country director of Peace Corps Zambia stopped by my home, basically unannounced. He’s doing a tour of some volunteers’ sites and I was his first stop. It was uneventful. Not much happened, though he did give me a can of Pringles and a sleeve of Oreos. I almost teared up from gratitude.
Tuesday: my grant to build a medical-waste incinerator was approved by Peace Corps, so I went to Kabwe, the capital of the central province, to buy some of the building materials. It was a normal outing until I turned the corner and heard a loud bam and saw a bright flash, like a huge firecracker had gone off. I thought someone’s tailgate had blown, but when the smoke wafted towards me, I started to cough and cry like mad. I asked the counterpart what the hell that was. She said it was teargas. “Why in God’s name is someone using teargas in Kabwe?” I asked. She explained that the street vendors were protesting because the local government had barred them from selling. The protests turned violent, so the police launched tear gas to break it up. I have to say: one never anticipates being tear-gassed, especially at 11am on a Tuesday when you’re on a business trip. We kept going and saw more evidence of the protests—broken glass, bonfires in the street—and also inhaled a little more teargas. Thankfully, we avoided the “hot” areas, and found most of the materials we were looking for.
Wednesday: Is a mystery…
Thursday: after three intense days in the field, I needed a break. I spent most of Thursday reading papers for my research project about suicide in cancer patients. I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but I work for a doctor at UCSF who does a lot of work on oncology, public health, and meta-research. Not gonna lie, this is a dream come true for me and I love the work I’m doing, even if my particular topic right now is a bit of a downer.
Friday: this was my day of tying up loose ends. I reworked the budget for my grant, cleared it with my counterpart, bought more cement, documented the medication shortage in my pharmacy, photographed some of our crumbling infrastructure, went on my run, and presented the final draft for my research group. A very scattered day.
Saturday: I woke up and watched anime. I’m sure I did other things that day too, but it was mostly anime.
Sunday: woke up around 6:00 am, biked 10 miles, then I sat through a 5 hour long catholic mass under the blazing sun. Afterwards, I met the bishop of central province for the second time. I have no explanation for this. Sometimes, random things like this just happen to Peace Corps volunteers. And trust me, among my friends, I am the tame shut-in with boring stories.
Because last week was so crazy, I decided that the best thing I could do today was relax and do close to nothing. All I have on my check list is “read, meditate, write Substack, run.” It’s past 2:00 pm and I’m just finishing this post, so we’ll see if I can finish anything else today.
Ghost trapped in a clear bucket and having no idea what to do or how to escape
"...can of Pringles and a sleeve of Oreos" My mouth started watering right away. What a combo, sweet and salty. Ah, the PCV life....