May 17th
Location: a mud hut in the bush
My time in Zambia has been eye opening and enlightening. But last night was a true eye opener, I feared that if I were to close my eyes I would be attacked by creature in my happy place. You see we are living in a village in rural Africa, no electricity no running water, but it has been ok the past 12 days at bush camp in the tents but here in the village it has brought a new meaning to life in Africa. We sleep in a mud hut with a thatched roof and the Reformed Church of Zambia has had a 36 hour party, no joke all through the night and they are less than 500 meters away. So the 1st night that was all we worried along with the roach infested squatty potty I refused to use. But last night we had much more to be concerned about The IMB has given all of a mosquito net to sleep under with a mattress on the floor of these mud huts. So as the time approached for us to go to bed the party began at the church –at least the drunk lady did not come back last night and they didn’t have to beat her away again- So the three of us single ladies went off to bed, but one of them put some ear plugs in so they didn’t have to hear the church and took some sleeping pills cause she didn’t sleep last night cause of all the craziness. So out of jester I joked and said watch now that she took those pills roaches will start crawling up her net, now we hadn’t seen any in our hut the night before, but shortly after I said that roaches began to come out of the wood works. And most of you know how much I hate roaches so it was a sleepless night for me. So I would randomly wake up in a panic in the middle of the night and shine the light in our hut and see roaches crawling on my net and on the walls so I would spray some bug spray around the perimeter of my bed, so I had a coating of it on my lungs. So along with the roaches you had the crazy church party, the snorting pigs outside, the crowing rooster, the pack of wild dogs chasing each other and howling. So needless to say I was having a culture shock moment….I didn’t think I could do this one more night. So I would coax myself to sleep only to wake in a panic but this time the roaches started to die down cause of all the bug spray but then I heard something new….some scurring…yup you guessed it the rats came at 3am. That was the longest night ever and I had never been so excited to see the sun rise my entire life.
The day did end up getting better though. We went to church and sung in the choir, there was this older lady who held my hand and made sure I was instep with everyone, she was so precious. Then we had an amazing story time that night, probably one of the best. Some guys were hanging out with the other three ladies at another hut and arranged with our hosts for us to join together that night. And they had taught the girls a story and they told it in pieces then he finished it up..the name of the story was “the fake witch doctor”. Then they would give us some African riddles and who ever guessed the answer got a chinyanja (the language they speak in Zambia) name. My chinyanja name is Taonga meaning we appreciate. So even thought the day started out real rough it ended up being amazing. God is Good. Plus I got to join with our group again and tell them a great captivating story, no one else experienced anything like that…go figure!
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