40/40 Safari (Journey)

Forty Days and Forty Nights Safari is geared to give new missionaries to Africa a jump start on culture and acclimation to their new country.  It is actually only 34 days as it was reduced this time, but it kept the 40/40 idea based off the Bible theme of 40 days and 40 nights.  Many people have asked us for details, or the long version, of the many things we did and learned while on this Safari (the word Safari means Journey), so this report is rather long.  If you aren’t inclined to read the detailed report, feel free to just scroll down and look at the pictures.  For those of you wanting the whole scoop, here goes!

When we first arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, we were impressed with how hot it was.  We would be spending 12 days staying at the Seminary in Lusaka and exploring life in the big city.  Lusaka is the capital city of Zambia and is rather crowded.  When we arrived at the Seminary we found we would be staying in a dorm-like situation.  We were assigned a room with two sets of bunk beds and we shared a bath down the hall with everyone else.  There was no air conditioning, just a fan in each room.  Our meals were prepared for us by a Zambian team and breakfast and lunch each day were African-style while dinner usually had something familiar to Americans.  The biggest challenge was eating something called “nchima” every day.  This is an African dish that is made with white ground up corn.  It is mixed with water and cooked until it is about a play dough consistency.  There are no other seasonings added to it.  This is eaten hot and little pieces are pinched off and played with in your hand until it forms a ball.  The ball is then flattened out and used as a scoop to pick up the meat or cooked cabbage or greens that are served with this.  We ate this every day for almost the whole time we were at 40/40. 

On the first day we were divided into teams of two Americans, and husbands and wives were not allowed to be together, and we were assigned a Zambian assistant who could speak English to go with us these 12 days on our assignments.  We spent the day preparing for our first outing.  We learned that greetings are BIG in Africa.  People are expected to greet each other on the street, stop and chat, and to not do this is being very snobbish.  We learned how to hand shake, greet from afar, curtsey a little like the women do, and generally meet people well.  Politeness and respect are also big issues.  Africa is basically a non-confrontational society and public displays of anger are really frowned upon.  Worth is determined by “community.”  Everything done is done with the idea of how it will be viewed by the community.  Women wear dresses or wraps that cover to below their knees even when sitting down. Pants are considered “disrespectful” to the community and not worn a lot in public, although we did notice that the younger generation is wearing them some but even then many of them will put a wrap around their waists when going out to the market or to public.  Many married women wore head scarves as this is a sign of respect for their husbands but this isn’t something mandatory. 

Armed with a little bit of information we went out on our first day into the compounds.  We walked a couple of kilometers out to the main road and took a van downtown.  In town we switched vans (there are no big buses in Lusaka) and rode out to the compound where our assistants lived.  On these vans, there were 4 or more people squeezed into each seat bench and it was close and not air conditioned – we rode with the windows down.  Each person paid the allotted amount to a “conductor” who rode by the door and yelled out the window at each stop to see if anyone else wanted to get on.  He also told the driver when to stop by thumping the top of the van when it was time to pull over. 

In the compounds, we walked a LOT.  The first day we were only to observe and greet people on the street.  We attracted a lot of attention as we were the only white people walking around town.  The fact that we were dressed in the African traditions was really appreciated but highly unusual for white folks.  We kept hearing the word “mzungu” as we went by and found that is the name for the white colonizers that came to African years ago and is now used for anyone white.  Children stared and a couple even cried in fear at our white faces.  We were clearly out of place!

The houses were made of mud or baked bricks and were one and two rooms in size.  The yards were dirt and swept clean with a few sparse trees and bushes outlining property lines.  Most houses did not have running water and people had to go and get water at a well in the neighborhood.  Most houses did not have electricity either.  The houses were close together and sometimes the bushes separated them from each other or the road but basically everyone could see what everyone else was doing.  Most work is done outside with several people from the houses surrounding joining in to work together.  The women were hand washing clothes, cooking, braiding hair, or tending to babies.  The clothes worn were torn and tattered and with so much dust and wind most things and people were dirty.  There were also flies everywhere, on everything, and everybody.   

Our fourth day out in the city we were to ask about medical help and health care.  Our question was to ask if someone in their family got sick, what they would do.  We found that not many people trusted the medical care they received.  For one, it is very expensive, for another, they were treated rudely.  Lastly, they didn’t feel like they got well when treated at the clinics.  When talking to a Christian, a lot of them only prayed for God to heal them as their only means of getting better.  Some others said they self-diagnosed and self-medicated based off of asking around in the community.  Still others sought out witch doctors, or traditional healers, as they are commonly called.  Getting sick and dying is very common and the death rate is very high because of the lack of medical treatment that is available or accessed by those who need it. 

One of our assistants for the group came to meet us on our first Thursday and went out on Friday.  Friday night he became very ill and was taken to the hospital.  The missionary staff offered to have him moved from the government hospital to a private one but the family was afraid of what consequences that would have for them in the future should they need to return to the government hospital (sense of community).  At the hospitals, doctors don’t work on the weekends.  This man was given an IV and put on hold until Monday.  He died on Sunday night.  This is a common scenario.

On what would have been our fifth day out, we attended this man’s funeral.  As it turned out there was another man in that same church that passed away the same weekend so it was a double funeral.  It was held at church and we arrived at 10:00.  The choir was already singing.  There were moments of life history and memories shared about each man and an evangelistic sermon was preached.  An offering was taken up to help the families then they had the viewing for people to pass by on the way out.  This was difficult for us Americans as the emotions, wailing, crying, fainting, and such were pretty elaborate and long.  After everyone filed out, the bodies were taken to the grave site.  People piled on the back of open bed trucks to ride to the grave yard.  At the gravesite, the caskets were lowered down into the graves and the young men present actually filled the graved in and piled the dirt high on top.  Then members of the families were called up one by one and placed flowers on the top of the grave.  All in all, we finished around 2:00 in the afternoon.  The grieving families are expected to offer a meal for close family and friends at their homes after the funeral and the money taken up during the service goes to help defray these costs and the cost of the plots, etc.  It was hot and there was no food or water offered during the funeral proceedings so we were pretty much wiped out when we returned to the Seminary later on.  We didn’t go to eat with the families as there were so many of us.

The next day we spent on campus in classes.  We learned a lot about birth and death traditions, other traditions and expectations, general information that most Africans take for granted, and witch craft.  There are many traditions and superstitions surrounding every stage of life and a lot that goes on behind the scenes in African life and culture.  To go against these things is to put yourself against the “community.”  Also, everyone believes there are witches and in witch craft.  Many people, even some Christians, use charms to keep them protected from evil spirits or to make their gardens grow well.  Others will have curses put on their enemies or people they want to outdo.  This is just a given in society and widely accepted as the norm.  The younger, more educated generation is moving away from this some but even they will always cater to the “what-ifs” and follow traditions just to be safe.  We had Africans tell us that they know witches who actually flew to other countries and came back in the same night, through witchcraft.  Many people have small scars on their foreheads where they have visited the traditional healers in search of cures for their illnesses and this is a treatment used.  Even highly educated Harvard Africans will put charms in their offices to ward off evil spirits and curses of others.  This is a major reality in this culture. Fear and suspicion is widespread and common.

In the afternoon we worked on “storying” and learning the Creation to Christ series of stories that explains Jesus’ death as atonement for sins.  We also worked on sharing our testimonies and trained our assistants in all of this as well. This is the day that Kathy ate caterpillars for lunch!  They were bought dried and cooked with tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and salt and were pretty tasty, although a little chewy. 

Our last day out in Lusaka, we were to share the gospel.  Kathy’s partner was sick, along with about 8 other missionaries by that time, so Kathy went alone with the assistant.  While out, Jeff and his team were able to share with one man who accepted Christ and encourage several other believers along the way.  Kathy had a house she was heading to when a women she had visited with earlier in the week asked her to “come and share the Word of God” with her.  Three women prayed to accept Christ at that house.  Upon arriving at the planned stop, she found that the lady she hoped to meet with wasn’t home but there were several older teens there – one being the lady’s granddaughter.  After sharing with them all, around 10 of them, seven prayed to accept Christ!

Saturday was spent with our IMB leadership and talks on those lines as well as a class on how to handle it when you are asked for money – and being asked for money is going to happen almost daily.  These were good practical classes that helped us out a lot.  Being the white person, everyone expects that we have the means to share and, culturally, they are giving us a compliment by asking for help!  This is VERY different.  It was good to hear from folks who have been here as to how they handle such situations and get some practical advice. 

On Sunday we were set to attend church with our assistants and then go to their houses for dinner.  Jeff joined Kathy at Kathy’s assistant’s church and house.  This was our first real African service experience and it was grand.  The church met in a school room and around 50 people squeezed in.  There was clapping, singing, dancing, preaching, and choirs singing.  It lasted a good 2 hours but it was fun – and very HOT.  After the service, folks visited outside for a while then we headed to the house for dinner.  Several of the church members came along with us.  The children weren’t allowed into the house and we never saw them eat.  The men, along with the guests, were ushered into the living room and served a meal of chicken, pasta, nchima, vegetables, and sodas.  The ladies, along with the babies, then came in and ate on a straw mat set on the floor over to the side of the living room after we finished.  The children were served separately and not included in the event.  After lunch we headed back to the Seminary and said goodbyes to our assistants.  We arranged some gifts for them and, to our surprise, they gave gifts to us as well.  Jeff received a beautiful embroidered African shirt and Kathy a beautiful African dress.  What a special gift!  Our time in Lusaka was special and we learned and experienced SO much!

On Monday we had a bus trip planned to get us to Peteoke.  By car this trip takes about 5 hours.  The buses were waiting and on time at 8:00 but instead of leaving the city they drove to the bus garage and stopped.  The drivers then got out and proceeded to tape over the registration numbers and change out license plates as they weren’t legal to leave the city!  This took an hour.  Finally, we were on our way.  On the trip we experienced one police stop, in which we are sure they had to pay a fine for not being licensed to leave the city, one bathroom break (find-a-bush kind), flat tires at two different times, and another stop to repair the flat tires as we were out of spares.  This 5 hour trip ended up taking almost 10 hours!  We pulled into our bush campsite after dark.  It was pouring down rain.  The lantern trimming and preparing class was not going to happen because of the dark, late arrival so no one had lights to get around with.  Tents and outhouses were shown around with flashlights and we moved in wet and exhausted.  Dinner was late and, as the rainy season basically started that afternoon, the scorpions were coming out of the ground in numbers.  It was miserable!  We looked at each other and thought, “We have 12 days of this?”  It seemed like it would be a long 12 days.

The next morning the sun was out and camp looked a lot better in the daylight.  There was a kitchen area set up with open fire pits, a wood burning oven, a gas refrigerator, and storage places.  We had a building set up to eat in with long tables down each side.  Tents were scattered throughout the big yard and there were three outhouse bathrooms.  Each had a women’s and men’s side and each side had a hole on one side and a hole with a plastic commode sitting on top of it on the other side.  We were encouraged to learn to use both as at our home stays there would probably not be a commode.  Water had to be drawn at a well and we each had two buckets to use.  Outdoor showers were set up with makeshift partitions and a bucket on a pulley with a water spout on the bottom of the bucket.  If you wanted a hot shower, you had to draw the water, build a fire, heat the water, then mix it and fill your bucket before you showered.  We just opted to take cold showers – and most days it was so hot that we didn’t miss the hot water. 

Kathy had her first village visit that day as she went, with a helper, to find a village woman to hire to hand wash our clothes.  Walking in that village was a special moment.  It looked just like all of the pictures you have seen of Africa – dirt swept clean yards, mud huts with thatched roofs scattered around, women and children milling about, and animals grazing through.  Kathy had one of those “I’m actually standing in a village in the middle of Africa!” moments. 

Teams were formed and Jeff and Kathy were together this time around and given a new male assistant.  The first day was spent getting to know each other and learning about what is going to happen in these last two sections of our time.  The first week would be spent in the district town of Peteoke.  This is like a county seat town.  The second week would be spent in the villages. 

Today a snake was killed in camp and a rat was killed in the kitchen storage area.  There were lots of critters around!  Tarantellas were found along with snails the size of a man’s hand.  We are definitely in Africa!

The first day in Peteoke groups were assigned to meet with city officers.  Six Americans and three assistants made up our team and we visited with the City Councilman.  Our official was very gracious and informative about how government works and his challenges and difficulties.  We were able to share the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den with him and how leadership making decisions affects people.  He really appreciated it and appreciated our prayer for him and his city.  After our visit we just walked around town to begin to observe.  The main road was paved but everything else was dirt.  We saw all of the government buildings and walked through an area of shops.  Off the main road were streets of houses called compounds.  Most houses didn’t have electricity or running water but it was available in several places if it was wanted.  Our assistant explained that it is very expensive and most people don’t opt to pay for it.  Markets and shops in homes were scattered all around and people were milling about.  It looked to be about the size of most county seat towns in Tennessee and all of the farmers were coming in to buy, shop, and sell.

Each day we rode to town on the back of an open bed truck – a common site for Africans.  What wasn’t common was for the truck to be full of white folks!  The majority of Africans walk everywhere they go.  We have learned that if we really want to identify with the people, then we need to travel like they do.  One lady we met on the street one day, an older lady, was riding her bicycle for a two day trip to get to a wedding by the border of Zambia.  She had one small bag of clothes on the back of her bike and she was peddling down the road! 

Bedtime was around 8:00 – 9:00 each night because the sun was down and there was no electricity.  Also, the mosquitoes were out in mass after dark.  The sun started coming up around 4:30 and we found ourselves waking up around 5:00.  This became the routine. 

Day Two was called for reason of rain so we spent the day at camp having classes in the cafeteria.  We learned about medical issues and health care.  The food is the same every day – nchima, meat, and cabbage.  We are loosing weight!  Between the diet and walking, we are slimming down well.

The next day we were able to get back to town.  We were to visit in the compounds and as we walked alongside the road we came upon some children digging in the dirt.  They had a hole dug and large termites with big white back ends were crawling out.  The kids were grabbing them and pinching their heads to kill them then putting them in a bowl.  They had hundreds of them, a whole big bowl full!  We learned that only once a year, when the rains start, these termites come out of the ground and they are caught like this, taken home and fried in a skillet and eaten.  This was a real treat to everyone!  Kathy actually tried one later in the week and they taste a little like bacon – if you can get past the eating bugs part.

Sleeping on the ground is beginning to take its toll – that and the heat, the diet, and the hard work.  African’s are a strong people and they work hard.  We Americans are having a hard time learning to live the same way.  Hopefully we will last! 

Saturday we headed off to town with the purpose of witnessing and sharing the gospel.  Our first stop was with some guys who were repairing bicycles.  One of these fellows was kin to our assistant and our assistant said that they were all polygamists and not Christians.  Polygamy is still very popular and widespread here in Africa.  Men will have multiple wives but women are expected to have only one husband.  Jeff shared his testimony and Kathy shared the gospel.  When we asked if anyone wanted to pray to accept Christ, one guy said he did.  When we told him to come over to the side so we could pray for him, another one got up to join him.  We were able to hook them up with our assistant and the Baptist church there in town.  We moved on down the road and went to a house to visit with an older man.  This man, we were told, committed adultery and was asked to leave the church.  We visited with him and prayed with him and encouraged him to remain faithful to the Lord.  On our way through the compound we found several ladies working together outside.  We asked to speak with them and they pulled up a straw mat and sat down.  After some conversation we found there were many different faiths represented, including Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Catholic and other Christian faiths.  Kathy shared the Creation to Christ stories with them and asked if anyone wanted to accept Christ but no one was ready to do that.  We did find out that one of the ladies had a loved one die in another city so she was mourning.  We prayed for her and the others then headed out. 

On Sunday the leaders wanted us to visit churches that weren’t Baptist, and even not Christian.  We ended up in a Roman Catholic Church.  It was full but we noticed that the people attending were really bored and not participating much at all.  The music was mostly done by the choir and people didn’t sing along, some of them chanted the responses at the appropriate times and everyone got up to take their offering to the front but some even slept and there was no clapping, dancing, or participation like in the Baptist Church.  This church was probably the highest attended in the city.  There were Muslim mosques, Spirit Worship churches, and just about every flavor of religion and faith around and the majority of the people in this town attend church somewhere.  It is almost like more of a social duty than an active, real faith.  Zambia boasts about being a “Christian” nation but it is said that the Christianity is three miles wide and two inches deep.  We were seeing evidence of that in the little time we were there. 

On Monday we started the day off with a medical class then had a free day.  We headed into town and found the only internet café – it had one computer and the internet was super SLOW.  It’s the things like this that are hard to adjust to – no good internet service, nothing cold to drink (most of the drinks are served at room temperature), and lack of the normal enjoyments and comforts we had become accustomed to.  We returned to camp where they had roasted a whole pig over the fire, had hamburgers as well, and potato salad.  What a treat!

Next we turned our sites to visiting the villages.  Our first assignment was to go to our assigned village and ask to speak to the headman.  The proper protocol was to go there and explain why you want to visit and what you will be doing there to gain permission and approval.  So we headed off to our village.  It was an hour’s walk away down a dirt path and it was HOT.  When we finally arrived it was what you would picture in your mind as the typical African village.  Mud huts with thatched roofs scattered here and there, dirt ground that had been swept clean, bath houses, toilet out houses, no electricity or running water, a well for everyone to draw water from, animals milling about like pigs, goats, chickens, and such.  Women and children were scattered about but there weren’t many people there as most people were out in the fields that morning plowing and planting.  We asked around and found the headman’s house but he wasn’t home as he was out in the field.  We set to visit with him the next day at 11:00.  On our way out we visited with a couple of people then walked the hour back to camp. 

On our second day to the village we met with the headman, only to find out it was a headwoman!  She is an older lady but she didn’t know her age.  Asking about her children, when she moved there, how old she was when she moved there, etc. we were able to estimate that she was 75 years old or so.  She told us she was Muslim but she didn’t dress differently or have any outward signs of such.  She was a child when the village was started by her Uncle and he passed the job of headman on to her after that.  Women in this position aren’t uncommon, we found out later on.  She has already picked a granddaughter to take over when she can no longer do the job.  She rules the village and has sub-headmen in the different areas that take care of each individual community.  There is a chief that is over all the villages in the area that she answers to.  We talked about leadership and government.  She also admitted to using charms and witchcraft in her gardens to get a good crop and said most everyone she knows does the same.  She said there were witches in her village as well.  There is a Baptist church in the village and she said that had been a positive influence.  We talked longer, explained who we were and what we wanted to do and she invited us to move freely in the village – she liked us!  Her daughter, a grown woman, was sick with TB and we prayed that she would feel better.  We later found out that most people with TB in Africa are also HIV positive.  We set to go back and visit with her on Friday, our last day in the village, and then left. 

Day three of Village visits was Thanksgiving Day!  It was hard to go out and about knowing all the States were celebrating while we weren’t but we went to the villages anyway.  Today’s topic was how punishment was handled in the village.  The first house we visited there were two ladies who stopped to talk with us.  We learned that punishment is handled here very similar to how it is handled in the States – no real surprises but that spanking was still the expected norm in families.  We both shared our testimonies of coming to Christ and asked if they had ever experienced anything like that.  They both said no.  We also found out that they both attend the Baptist church and sing in the choir!  We shared the gospel with them and both prayed to accept Christ.  One of the ladies said that this day was forever special because the “Word of God” came to them that day.  The Baptist church is being led by a deacon, a local man, with no training so the church is not very well grounded.  Once again, this seems to be common – church is more social in nature than spiritual.

We visited in a house with another two young girls.  Their parents had both died and they were living there alone.  Two other men walked up and joined us and we shared some Bible stories with them and prayed as well as talked about punishment.  We then started our hour walk home.  That night the Missionary Kids who were with us put on a Thanksgiving play and then we had Thanksgiving dinner of chicken, dressing, gravy, cooked pumpkin, cornbread, and pumpkin pie.  The only problem is that it didn’t get prepared until after dark so we had to eat it by flashlight and fight off the bugs, but it was good anyway. 

Our last day in the villages we went to see the headwoman again.  We had bought her a wrap that all the women wear and had it hemmed to take as a gift.  When we walked up to her house she was watching and waiting for us.  She took the wrap as a gift and told us this was the African tradition, that friends exchanged gifts, and she disappeared.  We heard the chickens squawking and she soon appeared with a live chicken and gave it to Kathy as a gift.  She also said that her daughter felt MUCH better after we prayed for her.  We explained that it wasn’t us but our God Who had the power and had done this. We shared the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den and talked about how the decisions that leaders make affect the people.  We were hoping she would open the door to more witnessing but she just graciously received our word and moved on.  We prayed for her, her daughter and the village and then we left. 

All night we listened to drums being beat in the villages nearby.  We learned that there are three reasons for drum beating:  girls’ initiation into maturity, boy’s initiation into maturity, and because of evil spirits – either calling them up or warding them off.  When the drums beat all night like that then it was the spirit kind and not the celebratory kind.  So the last night of bush camp we didn’t really sleep well.  To top it off, that day the well ran dry so no one got a good bath before leaving either!  At least there was plenty of drinking water boiled and filtered to finish up the time. 

Down to the grand finale – Home Stays!  Each unit of missionaries was assigned an African family to live with for four days and three nights.  We were assigned a family who lives in Peteoke town.  Pastor Phiri, his wife, and six children ages four months to 16 graciously accepted us into their home.  The Pastor knew enough English to get by so we were able to communicate a little.  They had only moved to the city from the village four months before our visit so they were really more of the village mentality than the city mentality.  Their brick house had three small rooms, a living room, a bedroom that all of the children shared together and slept on the floor (as well as where they stored all the sacks of dry corn they grew last year), and the bedroom where the mother and dad slept. The bricks were open on the inside as well.  They had a small double bed in the parents’ room that they gave for us to sleep in while the mom and dad and baby slept on the floor in the living room.  The house had no running water or electricity.  All of the cooking was done outside on a charcoal burner, as well as the dish washing, clothes washing and pretty much everything else.  The back yard was a garden with corn growing and in that there was a thatched room, with no roof, with black tar paper spread on the bottom used as a bathing room.  Water was heated over the charcoal burner and put in a wash basin and taken into the bath room.  You undress and start washing at the top and work your way down.  We were always called to bathe first but the water was used by more than one person along the way.  Most days we bathed in the morning but some days we bathed both morning and night.  Further out back there was a short building with a thatched roof that held the hole in the ground for the toilet.  It was a long drop with no toilet seat, just a hole, and the building was short so you had to squat to get in, use it, and get out.  There was no toilet paper either – we brought our own.  Since there was no electricity, there was also no refrigeration so things had to be cooked fresh and eaten right then.  We hand washed clothes, and hand washed dishes on the ground and at one time they were even using the dirt to scrub the dishes with.  When we washed clothes we hung them on the bushes to dry then they had an iron that would hold hot coals to use to press things afterward. 

The Pastor was a tailor and had his sewing machine sitting out on the front porch with several dresses and things hung around.  People stopped by all day to get him to mend things, sew things, and place orders.  The children did most of the work around the house and even the 16 year old had to drop out of school to help her mother when the baby was born.  The rest of the kids still attended school. 

Saturday, the day we arrived, we mostly visited and began to get to know each other.  Neighborhood kids came from all around and stood on the road to see the mzungu”s.”  We called them into the yard and told Bible stories.  We taught them to sing “God is so Good” in English and Portuguese and they taught us to sing it in their local language.  We were quite the item of excitement!  Neighbors came from all around to greet and meet us – it was quite the show! 

Supper was eaten after dark around the living room table by candlelight.  We had the nchima every day for both lunch and supper and usually a vegetable of some kind.  This night we had little minnow-like fish – whole – cooked and served.  A water pitcher and bowl was passed around for everyone to wash hands before eating and food was eaten with your hands.  Water was served in a glass after the meal and the children cleaned up everything.  We had a Bible study before heading to bed – at 8:00pm!  We brought our own linens and they made the bed up for us.  They left a candle lit beside the bed.  We made the trip out to the toilet then went to bed.  We didn’t see the room in the daylight so we used our flashlight to look around.  It was small and most of their clothes were in bags along the wall.  The wall brick and had white spots all over it that looked like little spider nests.  Needless to say, sleep was difficult that night.  Besides that, we listened to a creature, probably a mouse, over in the corner of our room going through our plastic bags. 

Sunday morning we were up early as we heard the family getting to work on chores and such about 4:30, when the sun came up.  One son was sent on a bicycle to get water in a large jug – twice.  Another son was out hoeing the garden, a daughter was sweeping up the yard and another was sweeping and mopping in the house, yet another was cooking corn for our breakfast while mom and dad were working on getting Sunday clothes ready and everyone through the bathing room.  We were going to church with the family.  They walk to church but had arranged for someone to come and pick us up and double us on bicycles.  We assured them we could manage the walk.  We walked 2 hours to get to the village church where this pastor preaches.  All 6 children went with us and everyone, except the baby, walked.  The baby was tied onto someone’s back the whole trip.  When we arrived at church, Sunday School was already in the process; soon after the service started.  The choir sang and danced.  The congregation sang some songs as well.  When the offering was taken, everyone came up to place their money in the plate and everyone danced.  We had learned in class that when someone in the States does something notable, they print it and publish it but in Africa when something notable happens, Africans sing it and dance it.  It was quite a lively service!  Kathy shared about who we are and introduced us and Jeff preached.  There were about 90 people there from three surrounding villages and 18 people responded to the invitation to salvation, rededication, and for special prayer.  After the service we visited with folks and someone from the church brought lunch in for us and the pastor and family.  We started the 2 hour walk home but were stopped by several church members along the way for a visit in their home.  They also gave us fruit, eggs, bread, and other things to take with us.  It was a good day.  That night we were invited to eat supper in another person’s home and just the pastor, Jeff, and Kathy went to do that; the rest of the family stayed home and ate outside under the stars.  Sleep was much better that night as we were TIRED. 

Monday morning led to the same schedule except that the three youngest kids, except the baby, headed off to school at 6:00.  They were back around 11:00 and the next to the oldest went to school at noon.  This day we visited with neighbors, walked to town, played games with the children, Kathy learned how to cook, and do household chores while Jeff followed the pastor around all day and we just had a really good day.  We had earned their respect when we walked to church with them as they didn’t think we were strong enough to do it!  Breakfast was cooked corn two mornings and then some bread and hot tea the other two mornings.  Other meals always consisted of nchima, green pumpkin leaves cooked or carrots, and some type of meat.  We had fish twice and she killed a chicken for us one day.  After supper that night we sat around the candlelit table and talked.  We received a high compliment that night as the pastor told us that he had learned from us that we are all the same, only the color of our skin was different. 

The little neighbor boy, Junior, who stayed with this family during the day while his mother worked really took a liking to Kathy and called her his “Mama Mzungu.”  The first day he fell asleep in her lap and every day after that he would find her when it was time to take a nap.  He was her shadow and hugged on her all day long.  He was sweet. 

Tuesday morning came and we had to leave.  We left our bed linens and towels as a gift to thank them for allowing us to stay with them.  This would cost a good deal at the store and they were really pleased with the gift.  It was tough saying goodbye and the family walked beside the bus until we pulled out of the parking lot.  It was another eventful trip to IBIS Gardens hotel:  one flat tire, no gas money, and more adventures along the way and we pulled into IBIS Gardens at 7:00pm that night instead of the middle of the afternoon as planned.  There was a buffet dinner awaiting us and we enjoyed a really nice room with a hot shower and a good bed.  We spent the next four days in language acquisition classes, debriefing times, exit interviews, and more orientation before we graduated from the 40 Days and 40 Nights Safari; but we graduated and we have the T-Shirt to prove it!