Diary 3 (Friday 28th February):
It was the last day of the Multiply Conference today, so Hannah, James
and I went with the big guy (Pastor George) in to town to sort a dongle for our
laptop. Feels so strange to be looked at
all the time and the locals don’t hold back in calling out after you; not
usually offensive, but they need to say something even just to state you are
white man J We
stopped off at an MTN store and took a ticket to await our turn. Several numbers later, and even more minutes,
our host decided to go negotiate; we were done and dusted 5 minutes later and
on our way back to the car! Love this bartering lark; sack the number machine
lol. On then in to town cos James was in
need of a razor ….. very busy morning.
Back at the church dinner soon arrived; nshima (very filling), potato
salad, coleslaw, big chunks of beef, Kapanda (little fish with their eyes still
in – errr), and spring greens (Yum!).
The ladies who serve the meals always bring a bowl, towel and jug of
water which they pour out slowly to allow you to wash your hands before
eating. This is so good as there isn’t a
sink with running water here (this makes good hygiene very difficult when it
comes to toileting too whilst on these premises).
After lunch I had a little walk around the premises. School had just
clocked off (13:30) so I had a little chat with Agness, the school
principal. There were a number of
children waiting to be picked up and the little girl, who cried at the school
on our first visit, was being place in a pushchair (the only one I’ve seen
since leaving the UK!) I made a comment
to the ladies I was chatting with who implied these were a great invention. Made me laugh!! I told her how there is an
increase in young mums in the UK carrying their babies the way they do in
Africa; strapped to their bodies with a piece of material. They were very surprise J As we talked, a car pulled up and 4 children
jumped in to the front passenger seat, 3 on the back seat, and 4 tiny tots
climbed over in to the boot space! They were all under the age of 9 years –
Wow!
Later, Hannah and I met half a dozen girls outside, four of them from
the orphanage. They had been singing
songs for Hannah and now wanted us to teach them one. We made up a verse of ‘If I were a butterfly
...’ Not the greatest of singers, but they enjoyed it. They then wanted us to play games with them
so Suzen, with such ease and barefooted, scaled the side of the building on to
a flat roof in order to throw down a long piece of elastic they had found and
proceeded to show us some of the dancing, leaping games they play with it. They were like young gazelles the way they
lept around. We showed them some of the
games we used to play at school with a similar elastic. This was a great time and the first
opportunity we had had to get to know any of the children individually. The little girl from yesterday was there too,
Katherine. They then asked if we wanted
to go see a ‘maggot’. It didn’t sound
very inviting but we tried to look as interested as possible. We then followed them around to the front of
the church, insisting on carrying our bags, bottles and even pen and notepad –
even the children, however young or poor, won’t actually allow you to carry
anything. I thought it was because they
liked to be able to touch these new things, but it really is because this is
how they have learnt to serve; very humbling.
They indicated that we needed to go across the road, to the waste land
opposite. We weren’t too sure, so
checked with Pastor Gladys (Stephen’s wife) who said it was ok but to take care
and not be long. Across the road turned
out to be another world; behind the mound was a large playing field area, very
well warn and dusty, with battered goal posts at each end (football really is
the thing here). It was absolutely
packed with young men and boys of all ages.
We turned aside as the girls indicated that the maggot was very near ….
it turned out to be a very lovely white rabbit! Too our relief. By this time we had walked in to a small
complex of lots of little huts/shops selling anything from mobile top ups to popcorn. All eyes were intensely on us, and of course
the girls. I was beginning to feel a
little uncomfortable as there was a growing sense of expectation for us to buy
something, from the vendors and the girls, so we suggested it would be good to
head back now as we had been gone a while and were now out of sight of the
church. We made our way back, having to
shake off one or two young men wanting to know who we were and where we were
going.
Back at the church the conference was drawing to a close; the worship
and ministry time sounded awesome.
After, Bishop Stephen summoned us to a meeting with himself, Pastor
Nathan who would be standing in as co-ordinator in his absence, and Agness who
is in charge of the school. He briefed
us on what his expectations were for the week ahead as this would be the last
time we would see him. He asked if there
was anything we needed to know, and then gave us strict instructions not to
travel anywhere without the watchful eye of Pastor George with us and
definitely not after dark, and that anything we needed or any difficulties we
had, we were to contact Pastor Nathan who would sort it all out. Reassuring to feel in such good hands! It’s very difficult to describe how life is
here; it’s not that it’s a dangerous, unsafe place, or even that the people are
harsh or rude, but there are huge expectations of you being from the West and
people have no hesitation in making very direct requests of you (can’t easily
hide; kind of stand out in the crowd, though I think the tan is coming on now).
We all bundled in to the car again (all 7 of us) and trundled off across
town to find a barber to cut Len’s mop of hair.
We drove through the CBU (Copperbelt University) grounds, just to have a
look. Pastor George had to get us
through security first, who were a little suspicious so we decided we would
need to take a different route back home.
We found the barbers so Len nipped off with George while the rest of us
chilled round the car. Farayi bought
some roasted maze for us to munch on – very nice! Then it dawned on us that it was now dark and
we needed to spray on our defences.
Back home, we presented young Agape (Pastor George and Yvonne’s son)
with a football, a book of 100 bible stories, and a set of Narnia books. He was soooo happy as he doesn’t have any
books or games at home!
Another amazing meal we headed for bed.
Something very large and buzzy flew past my ear and landed as I was
getting ready for bed last night. I
brushed it quickly away but couldn’t see it anywhere. When I told Hannah about it, she saw it on the
bed and immediately lept across the bed, football pump in hand a bashed it (and
everything else en route) until it was no more.
Horrible looking thing; had teeth ‘n’ everything … well …. hmmm ….
didn’t stop us sleeping like logs though!
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