2006.10.08: October 8, 2006: Headlines: COS - Zambia: Daytona Beach News-Journal: Danielle Lubrano's mud hut in Zambia didn't become a home until its roof went up in flames
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2006.10.08: October 8, 2006: Headlines: COS - Zambia: Daytona Beach News-Journal: Danielle Lubrano's mud hut in Zambia didn't become a home until its roof went up in flames
Danielle Lubrano's mud hut in Zambia didn't become a home until its roof went up in flames
Lubrano described the moment as life-changing because of the events that followed days after the blaze. She was fortunate enough to still have her furniture, luggage and food because a woman she called her "ami" (mother) and a few other neighbors threw them out the door as the house caught fire. The next day, groups of men with poles began the task themselves, while the women's group hired a vehicle with their own money and scoured the village for dried grass. They even bought a goat and cooked food for the workers. The women sang and prayed for her. One woman grabbed her hand and put in it 5,000-kwacha node, about $1.50 in U.S. currency. "It's not much but for these people it's a lot. I was so overwhelmed by emotion, never in all my life had I seen such generosity and sincerity. For the first time ever I began to cry tears of joy," Lubrano said.
Danielle Lubrano's mud hut in Zambia didn't become a home until its roof went up in flames
Volunteers will always have a piece of the Peace Corps
By NICOLE SERVICE
Staff Writer
[Excerpt]
A village looks after a volunteer
Danielle Lubrano's mud hut didn't become a home until its roof went up in flames.
Nor did the people in her village become her family until that December day in 2004. The 27-year-old Peace Corps volunteer was only five months into her two-year stay in Zambia, when she decided to comfort herself by making an American treat -- popcorn. She was acclimating herself to feeling "like an alien that just landed from Mars" and needed a little reminder of home.
But the pot caught fire, and in a desperate attempt to put it out, she threw water on the fire. It shot upward and the grass roof burst into flames.
"I remember feeling devastated, confused, and really disappointed in myself, like I had let the community down," she said.
Lubrano described the moment as life-changing because of the events that followed days after the blaze.
She was fortunate enough to still have her furniture, luggage and food because a woman she called her "ami" (mother) and a few other neighbors threw them out the door as the house caught fire.
Knowing how impossible it would be to find dry grass during the rainy season, Lubrano offered to pay for rebuilding the roof, but the chairman of her Peace Corps committee refused.
The next day, groups of men with poles began the task themselves, while the women's group hired a vehicle with their own money and scoured the village for dried grass. They even bought a goat and cooked food for the workers. The women sang and prayed for her. One woman grabbed her hand and put in it 5,000-kwacha node, about $1.50 in U.S. currency.
"It's not much but for these people it's a lot. I was so overwhelmed by emotion, never in all my life had I seen such generosity and sincerity. For the first time ever I began to cry tears of joy," Lubrano said.
"I was truly touched. From that day on I began to think of these people from a foreign culture as my friends and family."
She believes she learned more than what she was able to give as a Peace Corps volunteer. She joined the Corps in May 2004, as part of a project called L.I.F.E -- Linking Income, Food and Environment -- that works hand in hand with the Zambian Wildlife Authority to educate people about environmental and wildlife conservation.
Her love of great apes pulled her to Africa but Zambia only had several species of monkeys. One such monkey was a yellow baboon named Mphaz, a pet Lubrano rehabilitated to the wild.
"It's like suddenly you are stripped naked, and everything you know doesn't apply here. You have to learn again . . . to live life a different way . . . there have been countless life-changing experiences," she said.
"I would never regret a single day of my Peace Corps service. It was only then that I feel I truly began to live."
When this story was posted in November 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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Story Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal
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