Hello everyone,

I hope that everyone is doing well. Thanks to all of you for the support that you are showing towards the construction project that we are working on here in Muchinda. Remember if you have any questions please contact the Buckland household and ask for Bj or Chris. My sister Stephanie will be receiving your phone calls. She will be house secretary. She was in Italy "studying" for six months so she will be spending the summer recovering from all that school work. Phone number (952) 476-4606

 

I am heading back today, and we are starting to make bricks as soon as I return. The total number of bricks that we need is somewhere around 60,000. Needless to say we will be occupied for sometime. Other than that we have all the sand and stones needed for mixing the cement and laying the foundation ready to go. So we will be working on getting those bricks together this next month.

As I am on my way out to the village, one of my friends is posting this as she heads home to Mkushi. (Mkushi has internet and Serenje is left with out the World Wide Web) I was down in MK last week but coincidently the internet was down for the day I was there. My Apologies.

Again I apologize for how short this blog is, but I promise on 29 June I will post an enormous blog. That is when I am heading down to pick my brother in Lusaka. By the way the marathon/bbq/Frisbee tournament/ formal dance is still scheduled for the 3rd and 4^{th July. My training got a little derailed with the whole malaria thing, but I am back at it.}

I am leaving now, but as a consolation I am posting my book list. Some books are double counted but I have read them twice so it is not an error. On the subject of books there has been massive open forum discussions concerning the fate of Harry Potter in his final year at Hogwarts here in Serenje amongst the volunteers. I hope everyone is ready.

Thanks again, and I will see you all soon. Dan.

Dan Buckland’s Peace Corps Service Book List 06’-08’

Listed as read in chronological order by title

Author’s name not included

Last Updated 20/5/20

 

                    The Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers

The Return of the King

The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Me talk pretty one day

On the Road

Naked

Michelangelo & the Pope

Imperial Nation

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Catch 22

High Fidelity

Food for the Dead

Botany of Desire

The Hobbit

Fight Club

Guns Germs and Steel

Running with Scissors

Into the Wild

Ancient Myths

The Monkey Wrench Gang

Cod

The Simirilian

Garden of Eden

The Mythology of Lost

Jurassic Park

Timeline

Wicked

Man with a Golden Gun

Why we are at War

A Walk in the Woods

John Adams

Popular Music

Justine

Balthazar

Mount Olive

Clea

Be Cool

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Blindness

Dante Club

Dune

Queen of the Dammed

Perfect Storm

Gates of Eden

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul

Atlantis Found

Moby Dick

American Psycho

Everything is Illuminated

Still life with a Woodpecker

Another Roadside Attraction

Dress your Family in Corduroy

Doctor Zhizago

Hunt for Red October

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoniex

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Travels in a Thin Country

Life of Pi

Taltos

Cold Mountain

The River

The Odyssey

The Alienist

The Angel of Darkness

The Conte of Monte Cristo

A Soldier of the Great War

The Sun also Rises

Mozart’s Last Year

How the Irish Saved Civilization

The Martian Chronicles

Einstein’s Dreams

Lost

Mirror Mirror

Green Hills of Africa

The Alchemist

Salt

Collapse

Heart Breaking Work of a Staggering Genius

Alice in Wonderland

The Magician’s Nephew

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Horse and his Boy

Prince Caspian

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair

The Last Battle

Another Country

1984

The Bhagavad-Gita

The 3^{rd Chimpanzee}

In Cold Blood

Simirillian

The Hobbit

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers

The Return of the King

Aztec Gold

The Power of One

k-19 Widow Maker

The Vampire Lestat

Call of the Wild

White Fang

Band of Brothers

Million Dollar Baby

Tom Sawyer

The Portrait of Dorian Gray

Peter Pan

The Source

Jonathon Strange and Dr. Norrel

The Diaries of Adam and Eve

Scribbling the Cat

Wizard of Oz

Enders Game

The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight

The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

The Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy

Life, The Universe & Everything

The Prestige

Last King of Scotland

Children of Men

Harry Potter and the Scorcers Stone

Perfume

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

 

 

 

Hello there!

 

This is Mom (Chris) writing.  B.J. and I have returned from our trip to Africa and we would like to share some of our experience with you.  First and foremost we loved spending time with Dan and geetting a few hugs in as well!  He is obviously thin. Malnutrition is a problem for Zambia, so naturally it has affected Dan as well.  That said, he is still in great shape and continues to run and "workout" the best he can.  The country of Zambia has a great deal of British influences.  There is a formality to it in the way you address people, hold meetings etc.  He has adapted that behavior.  Dan is still Dan though. I mean this in absolutely a good way.  He loves structure and planning.  We could see that in the grant for the school block he is working on and the 4th of July 3 day celebration he is planning at the province house. In short he is hard working and playful.....

The first half of our trip was vacation.  We met in Lusaka, which is the capital.  We did a lot of talking.  We then took a bus ride to Livingston.  We stayed at a backpackers place called JollyBoys.  They had worked with Dan and set up a few day trips for us.  One day we went to Victoria Falls, the world's largest waterfall.  Please check out the pictures!  The next day we went into Botzwana for a 2 day photography safarai in Chobe National Park.  Of course you need to check out those pictures as well.  The safari was one half day by water and one and half day by landrover.  There were animals everyway and yes birds for the bird watchers.  #1 question.....how can these animals move so quietly???  We could be looking to the right and glance to our left and there is an elephant looking at us.  We saw snakes and small birds up to elephants and giraffes as tall as the tree tops.  I know I commented that the animals can move quietly, but just so you know when you try to sleep......you hear every sound!  I especially liked to see fresh animal droppings right outside our tent.  Well anyway, we hopped on the bus and went back into Lusaka for showers, rest and food.  I would like to advertise that the Holiday Inn in Lusaka has the best breakfast buffet ever.  Good thing it was all you could eat!  We then rented a car and set off for Serenje along the Great North Road.  All across Zambia there are people walking and biking everywhere. There really aren't very many cars.  So the deal is you hope that you don't have any car problems or you go to plan B and there really isn't a plan B.  It was a 5 hour drive to Serenje. Once there, we met some of Dan's fellow Peace Corps volunteers.  They are pretty incredible people.  There are 178 volunteers in all of Zambia. They really work quite independently in an effort to work on sustainable change for the citizens of Zambia.  The volunteers that we met are working on variations of 3 types of projects. Community education, Health (Aids/HIV) and fresh water fishing.  It is pretty admirable to hear about their work and how they can accomplish things with such little resources.  We drive down a trail of various conditions to Dan's site. We slept in a tent next to the roosters, goats etc for 3 nights.  Besides a few rocks that we slept on and one Cobra at the site it wasn't too bad.  The days are spent on shelter, food (fire) and water.  We ate Rice, Rice and Rice.  Dan is a farmer. Watch out Jimmy Carter.  He started to harvest his ground nuts, which look just like peanuts to me.  Oh good, protein!  He has a host family that lives in the hut next door.  Great family. They happen to be zonal leaders.  The mother is a community aids volunteer. Meaning she talks to citizens about their health, treatment and so on.  On our trip we had "the day". What I mean to say is that it was a day we will never forget.  We walked with Dan and his host Mom, Mary to the village of Kabundi.  B.J. took many "snaps" of people along the way.  The Zambians are very friendly and we would only do this with their permission.  They would then run behind B.J. to look at themselves in his digital camera.  We eventually arrived at the clinic. That day was the 5 and under day when Moms would take their children in for vaccinations and weighing. (see pictures).  They patiently waited in line where 2 people were helping them. They let us inside the clinic and we could see they really do not have any supplies. There were a few bottles of medication for Tubuculosis, rehydration etc, but it was sparce.  From there we went to the primary school for grades 1-7.  80% of the kids go to primary school.  The Ministry of Education is working on more kids going and then actually passing their exams.  Dan's grant is to build a zonal school building that will have 3 rooms. One is a resource room for teachers and an 8th grade and a 9th grade room.  Currently kids have to go up to 60km to middle school,so most don't go.  The Ministry of Education has limited funds so the schools are not available to all kids.  The citizens of this zone have all agreed to help out in the building of this school.  13 tribal leaders signed an agreement that each household will contribute 2 wheelbarrels full of crushed rock and 4 wheelbarrels full of sand to the site.  This is a very big deal since they all walk or bike and of cource they do not have wheelbarrels.  Please see Dan's picture of the piles of rock and sand so far.  I don't think I will ever forget the piles of rock and sand or what they represent as to effort and really the lives of the people there. 

That was our last day at his site.  After 3 days the host families kids started to warm up to us.  We took lots of pictures and orders for shoes etc!  We packed up and went back through Serenje and into Lusaka.  Once in Lusaka, Dan took us to the Peace Corps headquarters.  That was the day that his grant was officially posted on the Peace Corps website.  Please check it out.  Dan and I then went to a Rotary meeting.  I am a member of the Minnetonka/Excelsior Rotary.  They were very cordial to us both.  They had members that serve on the U.N. and the WHO.  I am hoping to get one to visit Minnetonka!   We all split up the last day.  Dan headed back to his site, I headed off the Minnesota and B.J. headed off the South Africa for the hunting trip of his life.  His trip is a whole other story.  We are all safe and sound back home.  Stephanie has returned home from a semester abroad in Italy and Will is preparing to visit Dan over the 4th of July.  Apparently Dan has asked him to be the music D.J. for the province house festivities! 

Thanks to all of you for reading to the end of this crazy long blog.  There is so much in our heads and hearts that it is tough putting it down in words. 

Take care,

B.J. and Chris

 

 

 For general information on Zambia: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/za.html