Well, it as been quite some time since I have updated this...and that's only because I haven't been able to connect to it...there have been many "Please please please! Just 15 minutes! That's all I'm asking!!!"
"Fine. Before I punch the computer...I'm walking away."
But, now I am able to update. However, since A TON has happened, I may forget things and have to come back and write another blog. So I apologize for the scatter-brained stories and how everything will basically be out of order.
By the way...I fell a week behind in journaling and it took FOREVER to catch up. And catch up sucks. Major.
Anywho, back to the point of this blog.
Well.....a few weeks ago I decided to do a little activity with my girls that might be familiar to you peeps....it's from the Freedom Writers movie. You know, the line game?
Well, I did that with my girls cuz there is so much blatant meanness among them and I wanted to make them see that. Seriously, if I didn't actually believe world peace would happen...I would blame the destruction of the world entirely on the female species.
Anyway, this wonderful woman who was visiting the school for a few days (interviewing for a job) helped me out with questions I should ask. I love this woman and I really want her to be a teacher here next year. So badly.
The questions started off pretty light...like step forward if you go to Banani or if your favorite color is purple (everyone's favorite color is purple here for some reason...not to diss the color, I love it...but it's everyone's favorite), favorite sport is volleyball...etc. I wanted to ask questions that I knew the majority would step forward for, cuz I wanted them to see they have things in common with everybody and would feel more comfortable with the tougher questions.
These questions were asking about bullying and background and personal things...not too personal though that they wouldn't participate. I was so worried they would just goof off, but they actually took it seriously and I think they got a lot out of it. I wanted to do it right before they went to bed so they could think about it. Some people cried, which isn't surprising cuz a lot of them stepped forward to things that shouldn't have happened to them. But...being mean is kinda the thing here I have noticed.
And I am having none of that!!!!
But some people took the opportunity to apologize to people they had hurt. I was so happy that it worked! The new youth that joined us, Shadon, is the other dorm mom for grade 8, so I have backup!! Yay! She and I want to start doing unity/bonding activitites with them. It's definitely a work in progress, but I am so sick of them treating wach other like crap. They are really sweet girls one on one...but they are a freaking pack of wolves when they get together. And the grade 12's pick on them a lot and they just take it. They say they have the right to since they have been here longer.
Right, and Hitler is allowed to kill millions of Jews because he's better than them.....
Alright, well. We just got back from mid-term break and the youth went to Lusaka. We stayed with Martha, a member of the school board. All six of us in one house. Psh. Baha'is basically sleep dog-pile style, so that wasn't a problem. BUT! I did get waaaay more bug bites there than I did at Banani. Ugh. So annoying.
We saw a Bollywood movie, Anjaana Anjaani. It was good. But, I think all Bollywood movies are good cuz they are hysterical when they shouldn't be....and they mixed English in with Hindi. It was confusing..but they had subtitles so all was well.
Then, Colleen had to go to the Tanzania Embassy...so one morning we got on a mini-bus (which I have to say are one of my favorite things here) and told them we wanted to go to Longacre...wells......40 minutes later, after we had a nice tour of Chelston and Avondale...we came to the end of the line....
After everyone got off the bus, and we were the only ones left, the conductor was standing by Colleen's window and she said we had wanted to go to Longacres...he just looked at her and grunted. hahahah! Then we told the driver and we had a nice laugh over our stupidity/misunderstanding...and they took us back to town. We decided to just go back home and go with Martha at 7 in the morning the next day.
That night we went to Arcades to get some food and necessities...and by the time we left it was dark. So we got on my favorite vehicle, the mini-bus, and went home.
But not quite. As we walked down the road, we were confused about where to turn to go to Martha's cuz nothing looked familiar. Then Mei asked a woman where Makishi Road is, and she pointed over yonder basically. She told us we were on the way to the COMPOUND!! Now wouldn't that be something! 6 white girl's going to the compound..safe? Sure.....
well, it was quite apparent to us that we had gotten off at the wrong stop, which is why we were so confused about where to turn to go to Martha's. So we started to walk back and then a taxi came and took us home. It was quite the spontaneous adventures day.
We also went to the Sunday market and Colleen and I got each other copper bracelets from the same man who gave the other youth earrings and didn't like Alaska. He said he missed us...I'm sure he meant he missed ripping us off when we came to buy things...ha! Kidding. It's easy to bargain with him since we're friends. We got the bracelets for 5 dollars. 5 DOLLARS!!!!! That is good. He originally said 50 pin, but we got it down to 25 pin. Shalom, our native youth Zambian, said it should have been 15 pin...but...that seems like we'd be ripping him off.
OH! And I also asked him if he thought 50 pin was a fair price and if he was being truthful when he said yes. Colleen said, "Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues!!!!!!!" She says this a lot. And then he asked about the Baha'i Faith again and how he is Muslim...and then I said if he was lying to us, Muhammed would be upset with him and God would deal with him. WWMD!?!?!? Haha! All in good fun of course. He just laughed and told us to take the bracelets for 25 pin. He's a funny man, that one. AFter that, we watched a soccer game. Much more exciting live...and with good teams.
Then, on Wednesday we went to town...to the city market. All I wanted were shoes and chitenge's...but instead we got bombarded with men asking us our names, calling us over to their shops to buy stuff, asking where we are from.....blah blah blah. It was very amusing...but after a while it got a little annoying. I couldn't concentrate on shopping and getting what I needed. However, whether that's because they were annoying or attractive...I don't know. Haha! Just kidding. I figured out that if you smile at them and they come up and talk to you...then they are probably obnoxious...but if you smile at them and they smile back, wave, and keep walking....he's a keeper. Too bad you can't really keep 'em cuz they leave....
BUT! There was this one guy at a chitenge stand who I smiled at and he started talking to me and wasn't bloody annoying. So there is hope for the world.
There was one guy who was selling bags...and then when he saw us he walked with for an hour and a half!! Just talking and asking us questions. He completely forgot about his bag business and just followed us. Then Colleen said he had two options
1) Take a nap. You seem a little intoxicated and I think you should sleep it off
2) Go sell your bags...that's your job
And then Mei added a third.
We call the cops....the popo.
Bahahah! He left...for a bit. Then came back. Some guy wanted to shake my hand and I was just so annoyed and stood there...then the bag guy grabbed his hand and said no. I was thankful for him then. I guess he was like a terrier. A really annoying guard dog. Haha! He was nice...but sooooo talkative!
The youth here have started doing Ruhi book 6...and I am the tutor...pretty sure I suck...but HEY! It's all a learning experience. (wait, Colleen says I don't suck....I think she lies. Colleen...Truthfulness is the foundation!) Anyway, that has been fun and on Friday's we sometimes do Ruhi with the Baha'i girls here. I am doing book 7 with Lua...and I LOVE IT SOOOO MUCH!!!! The other youth aren't "official" tutors, but they are definitely capable of tutoring books 1 and 2. It's a lot of fun...at least to me. Lua and I did about 3 pages of B7....and I just fell in love with it. But, Lua is such a wise girl and makes it so interesting. Mah! Love her.
Let's see....last Friday. Shalom got her hair done in Liteta and I fell in love with the woman doing her hair, Sylvia. I told Shalom, and Shalom told her...so I felt kinda like a creep...but she was happy and told Shalom to give me her number! Woot! New friend! I really want to visit her.
Also, Colleen and I wanted to go swimming at night. We got ready and went to the pull. Krista had said she'd unlocked it, but when we got there...it had been locked. And then red and attacked Colleen and we ran to a table and she took off everything but her bathing suit (was that appropriate to write in a blog?) and she had abandoned her shoe and towel. Well, we weren't going to let a swarm of red ants keep us from swimming...so I ran to get her new shoes and ran into a girl who was looking for Shalom. She wanted to swim with us so I told her to wait by admin. Then we went to Ms. Davis to get the pool keys, but she wasn't there. We went to Mr. Moore's..but his lights were off. So we went to the guards, but they didn't have it either. So we tried Mr. Tembo...lo and behold!!!!
He didn't have them either, and he said Ms. Davis was in Lusaka for a meeting and wouldn't be back till late. So then we walked back and as we passed the guard he said Mr. Tembo radio'd him and said to go to Mr. Moore. So we tried Mr. Moore's again and actually knocked...but nothing. What to do?
Some thought this was a sign that we shouldn't go swimming. I said God was testing us to see how badly we wanted to swim.
Now, most people would give up and just go home...but not us youth! We had one more option.
When all else fails....scale the fence.
Yes. Scale the fence.
In the brick wall surrounding the pool, there is a circular window thing with iron rods attaching it to the wall. These we used as foothols as we hoisted ourselves up and swung over the fence. We had made it.
FREEDOM!!!! We sma around for about 40 minutes. The water was chilly, but it was still nice to be in it. We crawled around on our knees which was a lot of fun. When we got out, we scaled the fence again and took warm showers. Oh the bliss of nightime adventures!
On Saturday, we swam with the junior youth and children. As we hunted them down to tell them, we ran into Humphrey, the amazing drummer! This was the day I decided to ruin my life and throw away any dignity and respect I had...
We were talking to him and some other JY's about our Bemba names and then Humphrey asked if we knew his...um, yeah! Humphrey!
But he has two others we didn't know about. Fun Guy and Twist Rappa.
At this, I laughed and said I was probably a better rapper than him, so Shadon suggested we have a rap off.
What. Why did THAT girl have to come? Ha!
When we went swimming I asked Humphrey to rap a little for me so I knew what I was up against. Well. My worst fears were confirmed. He was going to destroy me. And he had just written it the day before and it was so good! SO GOOD! GUH! What was I thinking?!?!
Psh. Please. I ain't scurred. I'm only pretending to be so that I completley blow his mind away with my rap!
Right?
The girls are back. I hate checking bags. It's hot and sweaty and takes forever. They can't have gum, food, money...etc. However, it would be so easy for them to just go back to their parents and get stuff from them after they have been checked. Man. This system needs some serious improvement.
Today I did laundry. I actually like handwashing, minus the cuts and bleeding. But I didn't get any this time! I'm toughening up!
I had so much to do because of the break and I was a quarter of the way through it when Mercy, one of the maids, asked me to sit with her and eat and have tea. I was so excited to do that cuz I have really wanted to get to know her...but I was nervous. Ha! We talked for a while and then she helped me finish my laundry. I thought that was so sweet of her. And she is friends with Sylvia!!!!!!
Some of my favorite people are the maids. They are so much fun to talk with and they always call me Chikondi. I just love them so much! Especially Brenda and Mercy. They are the ones who I have seen the most. Oh, and I love the chef, Peter a.k.a. Peta the Playa a.k.a. PtP.
OK. So I am positive I left out many important details, but this is all I can remember for now. I'm sure I will be blogging soon about something I wanted to talk about...like one of my girls who didn't want to go to the bathroom alone at night cuz she saw a bogart in her room...hm. That's funny. Colleen was just talking to her that day about Harry Potter and bogarts. Coincidence? Definitely not.
Now, here is a song I really want to share with everyone. I made it up a few weeks ago. Here it is:
I'm in love with a drummer
Who happens to be a child
Boy I must be turning into a pedophile
Colleen's part:
Small boy?
And that pretty much sums up my time here.
