Football, Church, Nyanja and Bucket Baths...
Last weekend was eventful here in Lusaka… I started it off on Saturday morning by going in to work at 8am. I was there to help Mwelwa, a young Zambian woman who volunteers at NZP+ and who needed assistance drafting a funding proposal for the Lusaka District Chapter. No part of me wanted to spend Saturday morning at work, but when I am surrounded by such dedicated volunteers working so long and hard to fight a disease that they have, it’s hard to say no. So I said yes, and I was dreading the thought of getting up so early on a Saturday. But, as on most days, I was awake by 6:30am - thanks to the early-rising sun and the early-rising Zambians that are out and about and making noise by 6:00am - so it really wasn’t all that bad.
On Saturday afternoon I went to a football (soccer) game. It was the final of the ‘BP Top 8’: Green Buffalos vs. Kabwe Warriors. I went with Samuel, a boy who works at a vegetable stand across the road from our apartment that Mel and I started frequenting a couple of weeks ago. We have come to know the whole family quite well, including Samuel, his seven brothers and sisters and his parents, all of whom are absolutely lovely. The soccer itself was quite good, as was the people-watching. That evening I went to see a great concert of Burundi drummers at a local bar. Sunday morning Mel and I had arranged to go to church with Samuel at 8:00am. At 6:30am my phone rang and after a few seconds of sleepy confusion I realised it was Samuel calling to say that we should meet him later, at 9:30am. For someone who gets up at 5:00am every day I’m sure it never occurred to him that 6:30am might not be what a Canadian would consider a reasonable hour to phone someone! When we showed up at 9:30am Samuel came out wearing his Sunday best: a shirt with a tie that didn’t even reach his belly button – short ties are all the rage here in Lusaka. He greeted us and then, noticing our empty hands, immediately asked: “Where are your Bibles?” Samuel carries his with him everywhere (it even came to the soccer match!) so it was probably hard to comprehend that we didn’t even own one. He thought he had extras in the house, but his sister Paulina and his father had taken them, so we headed off empty handed. When we arrived at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, which is located in a school room, the Ashley Makes a Fool of Herself Show began: First, I went to sit down next to Samuel, not noticing that the room was divided into a women’s side and a men’s side. He politely suggested I might want to sit on the other side, so Mel and I found a seat at the very front next to two other women. Then the lady beside me leaned over to say that they were reading from John 15:8-12 – I don’t know where she thought we were hiding our Bibles but when she finally realised we didn’t have any she looked quite surprised, to say the least. Someone quickly lent us theirs and I proceeded to open it, from the front, and start looking for John… Having little experience reading the Bible I had no idea where John was to be found, which was obvious to my neighbour who eventually pointed me to the right page. After that I let Mel be in charge of finding the readings. Not that there were many – most of the service was singing, which suited me just fine and helped to soothe my embarrassment. There were only 53 people in attendance, and the choir itself had just six members, but it sounded heavenly. Having an unheavenly voice myself, I was not inclined to join in, but our neighbour kindly offered her hymn book to us, asking "Do you sing in Nyanja?" – at first I thought “yeah right!” but fortunately Nyanja is written phonetically, so we were able to sing along from time to time when hymn books were used. Fortunately my voice was suitably drowned out by the natural talent of everyone else in the room. They sang one song in English for our benefit, and the kids bible study group sang a little song and recited what they had learned about prayer: “When de we pray? Always!” – tres adorable. The one sermon, which was tres Zambian in that it was long, slow and meandered all over the place, repeating the same message 4 or 5 times, was also in English as well as Nyanja, so all in all we did quite well. I thought the embarrassing moments might be over when ‘Announcements’ came, which required all visitors to stand up and be greeted by the congregation with special clapping. At the end of the service visitors were also the first to go outside and stand by the door to shake hands with everyone as they exited the church. Everyone was so kind and happy to meet us that I realized that what I thought had been an entirely embarrassing experience didn’t seem so to them. People here are much less judgmental than I unfortunately seem to be used to. We were told they expected to see us regularly, and I think we will be quite happy to oblige.
On Tuesday, six of us started Nyanja lessons, which we will have for four hours a week for the next 3 months. So far we have learned:
Dzina langa ndine Ashley – My name is Ashley.
Ndili ndi zaka 25 – I am 25 years old
Nichokela ku Canada – I am from Canada.
We also learned the days of the week, and how numbers work (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5+1, 5+2…10, 10+1…2x10, 2x10+1….). Each number is quite a mouthful. Six, for example, is "tasanu ndi kimodzi" – which explains why everyone just uses English numbers!
Work is hectic, and a bit overwhelming at times, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Drew, Mel and I have managed to convince both ZARAN and TALC to let us facilitate a Strategic Planning session with them in early December, in the hopes that we can clarify just what exactly each organization will be doing in 2006. I am also going to be working with some other VSO Fundraisers to hold a workshop on proposal writing and financial management in about 10 days. And I am trying to figure out when I can start traveling out to visit NZP+ Support Groups in other areas of the country to continue developing a project plan to build Fundraising Capacity. In between, Xavi (who is now in Mozambique) and I are trying to figure out our Christmas plans, which, with all of Africa at our doorstep, isn’t easy!
Life is not always adventure and excitement though: last Friday night I stayed home to take advantage of the fact that we had running water and happily spent the evening having a relaxing bucket bath…
On Saturday afternoon I went to a football (soccer) game. It was the final of the ‘BP Top 8’: Green Buffalos vs. Kabwe Warriors. I went with Samuel, a boy who works at a vegetable stand across the road from our apartment that Mel and I started frequenting a couple of weeks ago. We have come to know the whole family quite well, including Samuel, his seven brothers and sisters and his parents, all of whom are absolutely lovely. The soccer itself was quite good, as was the people-watching. That evening I went to see a great concert of Burundi drummers at a local bar. Sunday morning Mel and I had arranged to go to church with Samuel at 8:00am. At 6:30am my phone rang and after a few seconds of sleepy confusion I realised it was Samuel calling to say that we should meet him later, at 9:30am. For someone who gets up at 5:00am every day I’m sure it never occurred to him that 6:30am might not be what a Canadian would consider a reasonable hour to phone someone! When we showed up at 9:30am Samuel came out wearing his Sunday best: a shirt with a tie that didn’t even reach his belly button – short ties are all the rage here in Lusaka. He greeted us and then, noticing our empty hands, immediately asked: “Where are your Bibles?” Samuel carries his with him everywhere (it even came to the soccer match!) so it was probably hard to comprehend that we didn’t even own one. He thought he had extras in the house, but his sister Paulina and his father had taken them, so we headed off empty handed. When we arrived at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, which is located in a school room, the Ashley Makes a Fool of Herself Show began: First, I went to sit down next to Samuel, not noticing that the room was divided into a women’s side and a men’s side. He politely suggested I might want to sit on the other side, so Mel and I found a seat at the very front next to two other women. Then the lady beside me leaned over to say that they were reading from John 15:8-12 – I don’t know where she thought we were hiding our Bibles but when she finally realised we didn’t have any she looked quite surprised, to say the least. Someone quickly lent us theirs and I proceeded to open it, from the front, and start looking for John… Having little experience reading the Bible I had no idea where John was to be found, which was obvious to my neighbour who eventually pointed me to the right page. After that I let Mel be in charge of finding the readings. Not that there were many – most of the service was singing, which suited me just fine and helped to soothe my embarrassment. There were only 53 people in attendance, and the choir itself had just six members, but it sounded heavenly. Having an unheavenly voice myself, I was not inclined to join in, but our neighbour kindly offered her hymn book to us, asking "Do you sing in Nyanja?" – at first I thought “yeah right!” but fortunately Nyanja is written phonetically, so we were able to sing along from time to time when hymn books were used. Fortunately my voice was suitably drowned out by the natural talent of everyone else in the room. They sang one song in English for our benefit, and the kids bible study group sang a little song and recited what they had learned about prayer: “When de we pray? Always!” – tres adorable. The one sermon, which was tres Zambian in that it was long, slow and meandered all over the place, repeating the same message 4 or 5 times, was also in English as well as Nyanja, so all in all we did quite well. I thought the embarrassing moments might be over when ‘Announcements’ came, which required all visitors to stand up and be greeted by the congregation with special clapping. At the end of the service visitors were also the first to go outside and stand by the door to shake hands with everyone as they exited the church. Everyone was so kind and happy to meet us that I realized that what I thought had been an entirely embarrassing experience didn’t seem so to them. People here are much less judgmental than I unfortunately seem to be used to. We were told they expected to see us regularly, and I think we will be quite happy to oblige.
On Tuesday, six of us started Nyanja lessons, which we will have for four hours a week for the next 3 months. So far we have learned:
Dzina langa ndine Ashley – My name is Ashley.
Ndili ndi zaka 25 – I am 25 years old
Nichokela ku Canada – I am from Canada.
We also learned the days of the week, and how numbers work (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5+1, 5+2…10, 10+1…2x10, 2x10+1….). Each number is quite a mouthful. Six, for example, is "tasanu ndi kimodzi" – which explains why everyone just uses English numbers!
Work is hectic, and a bit overwhelming at times, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Drew, Mel and I have managed to convince both ZARAN and TALC to let us facilitate a Strategic Planning session with them in early December, in the hopes that we can clarify just what exactly each organization will be doing in 2006. I am also going to be working with some other VSO Fundraisers to hold a workshop on proposal writing and financial management in about 10 days. And I am trying to figure out when I can start traveling out to visit NZP+ Support Groups in other areas of the country to continue developing a project plan to build Fundraising Capacity. In between, Xavi (who is now in Mozambique) and I are trying to figure out our Christmas plans, which, with all of Africa at our doorstep, isn’t easy!
Life is not always adventure and excitement though: last Friday night I stayed home to take advantage of the fact that we had running water and happily spent the evening having a relaxing bucket bath…
posted by ash at 10:38 AM
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