First outing to the bush...

Hello dearest family and friends,

I have gotten to another computer on my way to see what life is like in the bush. After cramming 8 people in the back of a land rover for a 14 hour ride we made it to a stopping point at the local peace corp chapter house. Today we set off again in the land rover to delve further into the bush to see what life consists of for a peace corps volunteer....should be exciting, or at least enlightening! After a few days of that, we return "down country" to begin our training and host family stay!

I've heard my province is one of the most remote, but has a very good peace corps social network (including monthly bike-camping excursions) and the volunteers from the other provinces speak highly of it.

In case you did not hear, my cell phone has email access which will be the cheapest way to stay in touch with me! It is connected to this email account, so pop me a message and I will respond!

That's all for now,
Love
Michelle
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For those of you who would like to write, send packages, or keep in touch with Michelle her contact information is listed below:

Michelle Christensen, PCV
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 50707
Lusaka
Zambia

chelle.christensen@gmail.com

First e-mail from Michelle....

This came today...

Greetings everyone!

After being delayed for 24hrs in Johannesburg airport, I've finally arrived in Zambia! I am loving this country, the people, and the culture and am super excited to begin this journey! There is a group of 60 of us and the people are all very diverse and interesting people. Monday we head out to the bush to see what life is going to be like for the next 2 years! I am very excited and have learned that I will be living in the northwest province.

I love and miss you all! I will be getting a cellphone tonight and let you know the contact information.

I have not stopped smiling since we landed in Africa, as this is a truly amazing place and I am filled with nothing but joy and happiness- wish you all could experience this place also!

Michelle

Offically on the otherside of the world...

I talked to Michelle this afternoon. After 4 attempts and 20 minutes later we finally got a good connection! She has arrived safely in Johannesburg with plans to stay there for at least a night because they (58 of them) missed their connecting flight to Zambia. They had to get immunizations in Atlanta yesterday and just hardly made their flight to South Africa. They arrived in South Africa this morning (their time) and its basically a mess :) The airline that they flew over on won't fly them to Zambia because they were supposed to take another airline and the other airline won't fly them to Zambia now because they missed their flight...so hopefully the Johannesburg airport is comfortable! It sounded like this will be good bonding time for everyone :)There are 4 flights to Zambia tomorrow so she'll probably make it there tomorrow. She is really excited about the adventure that lies in front of her!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Greetings!
This blog has been started for Michelle while she is away in Zambia with the Peace Corps for the next two years. The idea is to keep family and friends updated with her adventures and help people learn about a new place and culture through her experiences. For those of you who don't know me, I am Jennifer, Michelle's sister. I am going to be publishing the letters, pictures, and other updates that she sends me. It takes 3-6 weeks for letters and packages to arrive so everything that is posted will be about a month behind but in the mean time I am going to post things about Zambia so people can gain knowledge about where she is going to be living for awhile :)

The first update:
Michelle is leaving today, July 21th, from Atlanta to fly to Johannesburg, South Africa. Is will arrive on the 22th and the fly to Lusaka, Zambia, which is the capital city. She'll be in Lusaka for awhile during training and such. She has yet to find out where she is going will officially land but will know soon. She left with a backpack full of clothes, a backpack full of books, a bag of camping gear, and her banjo. If she hasn't let you know her address already send me an email and I can get it to you!

So, thanks for following her on this...she's super excited for what is to come in the next two years and is thankful for everyone's support! If you have any feedback on the blog let me know- this is the first time I have done this. Peace and Blessings.