Integration Into A Community

Integrating into a community isn't all that easy to do.  Especially as an American into an African village.   As you can imagine, a lot is different: the language, cultural norms, gender roles, community structure and so on.  It's not done overnight or even in one month.

Peace Corps has myself and other volunteers fill out quarterly reports about the work that we're doing, stories of successful and failed projects, and how we're doing at our site in general.  There's always one question on there about how integrated we feel.  Usually I enter that I feel "integrated."  Not "fully integrated" or "somewhat integrated" or even "not integrated."  Just "integrated."

Community integration is difficult to obtain, but getting it makes a world of difference.

However my answer has now changed.  That happened in January when after a very successful nutrition program in my village the headman's wife, Mrs. Fubisha (she's also my favorite women in the village), told all those in attendance that to her I was her first born.  Meaning that she considered me to be not only her child, but also her eldest child - an honor in Zambian culture. 

I've always shied away from saying anyone here was a family member of mine, not because I don't like them, but out of respect to my incredible family in the United States.  But, her comment meant the world to me, and if anyone here, in this country, would be considered a mother to me it would no doubt be her.  

The amazing Mrs. Fubisha.  If it isn't obvious, she's the one sitting down, looking unimpressed, with a child strapped to her back.  She's an amazing, amazing woman.

At the end of March when I fill out my next quarterly report and mark "fully integrated," it will be because I'm not an outsider in this community anymore.  I'm the first born of an amazing Zambian woman.