The long weekend continued into Monday. I was able to sleep in, do some last minute laundry, and work on packing some of my clothes. In Zambia I was washing my clothes in my tub and hanging them out to dry, so that took some time. Monday afternoon we had gone into Pick n Pay to do some grocery shopping. I took my change from the cashier and was fiddling around in my wallet as I said 'I thank you' in Bemba. The woman who had bagged my groceries stopped what she was doing and asked where I was from. She was shocked because I was "an American who knows how to say 'thank you' in Bemba!" I was a little confused, because they are ex-pats all over Kitwe. When I brought it up to Byron, he said that most of the ex-pats just don't care. They don't bother to learn even basic Bemba, so the locals get that much more excited when they meet people who are making an effort! That afternoon we were invited to a braai with some ex-pats. There were several people there. One was a white Zambian who had lived in Australia and the UK and had just moved back to Zambia four days prior. There was an American from New Mexico, a few guys from England and that is all the specifics I remember. They were pretty nice people, and very welcoming to us, but they didn't understand how we could be living in Zambia and willingly volunteer without pay. The American ex-pat was trying to get me to apply to work with his company in the DRC! There was also an underlying separatism. The host wouldn't let us help clean up after the braai. He said he has people to do that: 'people' being black Zambians that he pays to clean his house. It's frustrating to see first hand how racism still persists in society.
That Tuesday is was back to work as usual at the SC. It was the beginning of the week and the month, so our bookkeeper had to prepare our bank withdrawal form for the week and the CBO coordinators were coming to collect their Three Essential Services money for the month. There were a few other administration tasks that we had to take care of and then it was time for MY COMMUNITY STAY!!!
For my community stay, I spent an evening in Mwaiseni. On the car ride there, I was struck by how different my community stays were. For our community stay in orientation we were in pairs and debriefed on exactly what to expect and were told information about our families and given time to ask questions, etc etc etc. In the car I realized that I hadn't asked any questions about the house or family I would be staying with. I realized I would be staying by myself, which I knew but I hadn't really considered. I wasn't sure if anyone would speak English or how fluent they would be. I didn't know where I would be sleeping, or what the set up would be like. I would be the only muzungu in the village, which I have to admit was kind of cool. It was an awesome experience! I stayed at Emily's house, but she was out of town so one of the teachers, named Renee, came to stay with me. The toilet we used was at the Emily's parent's house and it was literally a hole in the ground. While we were at the parent's house, I met her parents and the choir that practices at their house. They had amazing voices! Since I greeted them in Bemba, they said I could sing with them... but not a chance, my Bemba leaves a lot to be desired! I did clap and dance while they sang and it was just awesome. We went back to the house and talked about our cultures while the care workers prepared dinner: Emily made sure I didn't do any work! She called multiple times to check up on me and make sure I was okay. She was so sweet!
That night I took a chance and slept without a mosquito net, but no worries - so far, so good! And I have my malaria test kit and a round of doxycycline just in case! Mosquitoes I was expecting; I was not exactly expecting the rats! I saw my first rats in Africa, but they weren't as bad as I thought, at least compared to stories I've heard. Even without a net, I really didn't get bitten. [I had a lot more mosquito bites in South Africa, but the risk of malaria is also less so we are also a lot less vigilant in South Africa...] In the morning we woke up early and got straight to work, dusting, cleaning and sweeping the house. After breakfast, I was playing with two of the boys who lived in the house and one of their friends. I had brought along some pencils, colored paper, and three multi-colored tennis balls. The balls were red and blue, green and purple, and yellow and orange, so between them all we had the main colors in the rainbow. I was teaching them how to say and spell the colors in English. Before I knew it Renee said that she was teaching a lesson to the older students and leaving the younger ones with me! I taught a dozen students for about an hour and a half before the SC staff arrived in Mwaiseni. It was difficult because I have such limited Bemba and the students barely knew any English, but it was an amazing experience!
While we were in Mwaiseni we also got to go on a home visit to see these sweet boys and their gogo:
I had been elected to lead small group that morning, and since I was going to be in community, the SC decided to bring small group to me. I wasn't sure how it would turn out. It always makes me feel apprehensive knowing I'll be leading a discussion regardless, not to mention when you add extra people - and an extra language. I think it turned out pretty well though. Hopefully everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. Here is everyone crammed into Emily's house after small group:
After that we went back to the SC. Alisha and Michael were both around for business and we needed to have a meeting to address the 'wall' in each of our CBOs. And that's all she wrote. After that I said my good byes to Michael and Alisha, and went back to my room to pack up all my stuff. Naturally, not being very big on sleep, I stayed up organizing all of my favorite pictures from my last two months into a slideshow!
If you missed my blog post on my last day in Zambia and my adventures on the way back to South Africa, you can find it here.
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