O Sifuni Mungu

You going to Zambia?
It cambia great place.
See a fambia elephants all together.
I know Spambia great sandwich meat.
And Bambia cartoon deer.
But that dambia pest when he sting me.
(Sigh.) You stand by me, I'll stambia.

Adam Smit (circa 1:58 p.m., Oct. 28, 2006)

That's right. It is once again time for me to resume saving the world and getting a great tan whilst doing so. While I'll miss feeling sorry for myself, I'm sure that she and I will meet again soon, in a mud hut somewhere. (For those of you that don't speak Weirdo, I finally got my new invitation for Peace Corps, to serve in Zambia. It's in Africa.)

Zambia is a Christian nation (50%-75%) that is home to a vast array of wildlife including elephants and cheetahs as well as Victoria Falls, the tallest waterfall on earth. Over 70% live in poverty and 10% are infected with the AIDS virus. About 12 million people call this Texas-sized country home, but they don't call each other "Bubba" as this is considered repulsive and insulting. Bubba was a character on the 1994 Robert Zemeckis film Forrest Gump. He was born with big gums. Gum gets stuck in hair. Hair is soft. Ohhh, so soft.

My job in Zambia will be to gather, support, and train mentors to listen to a radio program that teaches life skills and then turn around and teach the life skills to their fellow villagers. And I'll probably be doing secondary projects concerned with AIDS education. I will be leaving January 21 and, unless something goes wrong, returning April-ish of 2009.

***

Well, that's how that goes. Midterm elections coming up. Vote early, vote often, and don't vote Republican unless you absolutely have to (not that Democrats are much (if any) better, but when Godzilla's destroying the city, sometimes King Kong is the only solution . . . ahh, democracy).