Updates

This will be brief and will hardly even count as a blog post, but I wanted to leave a brief update.  Training is about 1/2 complete now and things are going really well.  I'm still enjoying Zambia a lot and it is hard to believe I have been here for 7 weeks or so.

The weight loss competition is going really well.  Britain is still winning although I have now lost about 16 pounds, so I am catching up a bit.

We are doing an NCAA March Madness bracket tournament here... I was in first place.  That is until Michigan State lost.  Now I'm just hoping to save some face and not get last place.

Also, I wanted to say that if anyone sent me a postcard or letter I would love it.  You know in those movies about soldiers and other people overseas that wait very anxiously for letters and mail to arrive?  That's how it is here.  Any incoming mail is like Christmas.  So please, send something.  Then I can brag to all the other trainees that I got mail and they didn't.  I have not changed.

Jordan Blekking
US Peace Corps/Zambia 
PO Box 50707 
Lusaka, Zambia

The Peace Corps and My Health

So the Peace Corps is very good at some things, and I'm sure they're very bad at others.  One thing they're GREAT at is giving shots and making people like me take a whole lot of pills.  In the three weeks or so that I have been in country I have been given at least eight shots for all sorts of diseases and viruses.  One of the shots I received the other day was for tetra-somethingorother.  Or maybe it was tera-gonnakill youquickifyougetthisfromsomerandommosquito.  All I know is that it had a crazy long name and seemed really painful.  I desperately want to avoid getting it, so I let them jab away at me.

I am usually fine with shots, but we get so many of them here I have begun to get super nervous. 
Notice my grimace of pain.

Here I am in a country where every Thursday I get a bunch of shots and a whole handful of pills that I either need to take once a week, or take immediately after a really odd disease flares up and I am suddenly overcome by a rapidly advancing illness.  My hat is off to the Peace Corps Medical staff because they deal with wimpy volunteers and trainees like myself on a regular basis and never cease to stop answering our silly questions, which we base on unfounded fears. 

At the end of the day, I probably feel healthier than I have in years and I really don't worry too much about what kind of illnesses I may possibly develop, because the Peace Corps' Medical Staff will have my back.  They do a pretty darn good job with a lot of really nasty sicknesses.  About the only thing I am really afraid of here in Zambia is a bout of Mr. D. (diahrrea) as they call it.  That one could knock me out for a few days easily, and unfortunately there is no shot or pill for that.  So bring on the tera-gonnamakeyoublindfast and the mono-bloodinfectionwithnocureonceyougetbitten.  I think I'm ready... I at least have enough puncture marks in my left shoulder to prove I have had the vaccinations.

Biggest Loser: Zambia

The Biggest Loser: Zambia, started today.  We have six contestants all vying for a cash prize of $120.  They are: Craig Andrews-Jones - 145 lbs, Me - 235 lbs, Stephen "Tex" Loewen - 196 lbs, Britain Ogle - 225 lbs, Drew Canger - 200 lbs, and our only woman contestant Megan.  The odds on favorite so far is Britain who, in the past 3 weeks, has already lost over 15 lbs.  But it isn't the person that loses it the fastest, it is the person who loses the largest percentage over the time span of the competition... two years.



From Left to Right: Craig, Megan, Drew, Tex, Britain, Myself

 Unlike television's Biggest Loser, this competition will not employ / showcase personal trainers.  In fact, any professional help is completely out of the question and against competition rules.  However, sicknesses are allowed, starvation, worms, and other more natural means are all fair game.  But these seem painful and gross, so I probably won't go that route.  Should the competitor leave the Peace Corps early for some reason - illness, they hate the Peace Corps, they crave fatty foods too much to bare - then they will forfeit the competition, of course.  In the end, the game is for fun, but the money would be great too!  $120 is a sizable amount, but when put into Zambian currency (the Kwacha) it becomes VERY SIZABLE - 600,000.  To give an example of what that is like take into consideration that a Pepsi in the States costs about $1.25.  Here in Zambia that same Pepsi will cost about $0.55.  Kwacha is amazing (if you're American).

There are stories about Peace Corps Volunteers losing up to 45 lbs in their first year of service.  New foods, no preservatives, an occasional bout of dysentery and the pounds just fly off.  So wish us all luck as we endeavor on shedding incredible amounts of weight over the next few months, and the next couple years.