Deep In The Heart Of Chisamba Jungle, You Can Hear Banani Rumble! Who Haa! Who Haa!

I feel the need to tell people about the transportation here, which happens to include the absolute radiance of the people here.

Fact: The mini buses are always packed. By packed, I mean you are most likely not in an upright position and you are definitely tweaking some part of your body. Body parts may even go numb. No else can fit, unless you shove them under the seat (this has not happened).

Fact: Almost anything can be brought onto the bus. Huge bags of rice or grain, cement, live chickens, boxes of fruit. There is somehow always space for it.

Fact: You may wait five seconds to flag down a bus, or, on many occasions, an hour. There isn’t really a time system.

Fact: You will always meet interesting people on the buses.

Now, my love for these buses has not wavered. In fact, it has only increased.

Last week, the youth were heading to Kabwe for a teaching trip. As we were heading there, the bus stopped to pick up a woman and her two children. There wasn’t much room, so she was going to have both of them sit on her lap plus the three bags she was carrying. However, as she was getting in and situated, a man in front grabbed one of her bags and just held it on his lap. This is second nature here. No one thinks twice about it. If someone has too much, others will take it and hold it for them until they got off. I feel like if that happened in America, the person who took it to be helpful would just get beat or something. Shame.

Then, another wonderful thing happened. The conductor wouldn’t let her have her two kids on her lap cuz there just wasn’t room, so he took one of the girls and put her on his lap. What? My God, a woman would freak the EF out if a man took her child and put her on his lap.

Not here.

Then, a man got off and the little girl sat in his seat until other people got on and she would just sit on them. I think she sat on three different laps, and it wasn’t a big deal. Just people helping people. What a concept.

I love how this place is very much a family and everyone helps each other out. It’s incredible.

On this same trip, we were told by guards at Banani to pay 40 pin total to Kabwe. The conductor even said 10 pin each for the four of us. That is, until we got on the bus and started moving. I gave him a 50 and asked for 10 pin back, but then he raised it to 20 pin.

SAY WHAT?! Psh. He be a fool if he think we gonna pay that much.

He tried lowering it to 15. Please. We were sticking with 10 pin each and I wasn’t leaving without my change.

When we arrived at the Kabwe bus station, I asked the conductor for my change and he told me I owed him 10. So then I went to the driver and spoke with him. Long story short, after some marriage proposals and refusals, asking if they were ripping us off cuz we’re white, and some good ol’ bantering, I got my 10 pin back.

However, when we called the family we were staying with, they told us it actually is 15 pin from Banani to Kabwe. Oops. I felt like a terrible person, BUT the conductor did say 10 pin at first.

Well, now we know and it won’t happen again.

Also, it is 15 pin to Lusaka…and we have only paid twelve. I never would have guessed that WE were ripping THEM off. Bah!

So anyway, Kabwe was awesome and we went to a devotional the morning we arrived, volunteered to tutor Ruhi Book 2 that week, and then went to visit the parent’s of some of the junior youth. The families are wonderful, and we explained more about the junior youth program and how it provides moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social education and how its aim is to empower them. Some families only spoke Bemba, so Yvonne would translate for us. She introduced us to some of the kids in her JY group.

We also met a man named Gilbert who is one of Yvonne’s friends. We chatted with him for a bit and then some drunken guys came up to us and tried to talk, so Yvonne and Gilbert put us in a car and we headed home. It was rather amusing, and Gilbert seems soooo awesome! I think he is about 60 or 70 and he is quite the character.

The next morning, on Monday, we came back to Banani. Nura, Sharghi and I were going to go back to Kabwe on Wednesday to do a Book 2 intensive. SAWEEET!!!

We had three days to do Book 2…and we freaking did it! My dear sweet awesomeness, we finished it! It was loads of fun. The group was amazing and I really hope the intensive was effective. They all seem so willing to fill the needs of their community, so hopefully us tutors didn’t destroy their capacity. We learned so much from them and things that we thought were universal were, in fact, not. For example, naturally/easily introducing Baha’i concepts into conversations about poverty or literacy. Back home, I would say that that is easy and can definitely be done, but here it is almost taboo to talk about and can be extremely offensive. In this culture it isn’t easy or natural to bring up and people may expect you to help them financially. Not to say that it shouldn’t be brought up, but just that there are appropriate ways to go about it. You need to be sensitive to the norms of the culture. What may seem doable in one part of the world isn’t always doable in another part of the world.

Duh. But this helped solidify that idea.

Oh Ruhi. Job well done.

As well as doing Ruhi, we sat in on a PSA class. I think that stands for Preparation for Social Action. Anyway, it’s an educational system formed in small group tutorials that aims to provide spiritual and intellectual education to help people contribute to social transformation. The session we sat in on was about energy. Oh that brought back memories of Miller’s physics class. It was really interesting to listen and participate in. We didn’t get too far before we had to leave, but it was great to finally see that in action.

We also visited Gilbert and my earlier assumption of how great he seemed was proved correct. He shared so many stories and his thoughts and views on many issues. He talked a lot about education, religion, and poverty. He brought up really interesting points and we could not get a word in edge wise. For real. We just sat there with our glasses of juice and enjoyed the conversation. He was quite passionate about the importance of education and was saying that people think Zambia is a peaceful country when it really isn’t because people are fighting against poverty every day. How could a country be peaceful when people are starving and don’t have a place to sleep? Peace is not JUST the absence of war, but the absence of strife.

Mah! I just loved this man. He invited us to stay with him and his wife if we ever need to. He showed us around his house and showed us the “refrigerator domestic” and said he had a working toilet like “European.” Haha! He’s a gem.

OH OH!!! And the first trip to Kabwe we stayed with Muhammed and Isabelle who was very very pregnant. Almost to the point of not being pregnant anymore. So when we came the second time, we stayed with Chibwe and his family. While we were there, Isabelle had her baby and we went to go see him! He is sooooo cute! And they are great with him. They don’t speak to him in that baby language. They speak to him like he is an actual human life form with intelligence. I liked that.

AND! Chibwe’s wife can play the guitar and one night she started playing “We are One” from flippen LION KING 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh joy of joys! And they also have a really cute daughter. I love the families here!

Oh, right. Christmas was nice. We baked cookies all day and have eaten them all. Scrumptious! My first hot Christmas too! Ha! That was amusing. It never felt like Christmas, even with seeing all the X-mas decorations and hearing X-mas music. When we went to Shoprite, it was sooo insanely crowded! We had no idea why, and then Nura remembered it was X-mas eve. What? When did that happen?

This week we’ve just been relaxing, watching a lot of tv shows and movies on Krista’s laptop, meeting Colleen’s friends, hanging with the Moore’s, and saying goodbye to Madame Mwika. She was the French teacher, but she is going back to Congo. I’m going to miss her so much. She was such a sweet person.

Also, this place reminds me a lot of Badasht, a camp I go to in the summer. It’s a little creepy sometimes and I expect youth to start singing. It’s nice to feel like I’m at Badasht.  Sometimes it makes me miss all the people back home, except for the Head’s and Hal and Anne cuz they’re leaving (just kidding, I miss you guys) and all the singing, but I love it nonetheless.

Oh, and playing in the rain instead of swimming…such a good idea.

LYLT

Oh Holy Night Thank God There's Peace and Quiet...

I think I am subconsciously craving Christmas cuz I have had 2 kinda Christmasy titles.

Anyway...MY PARENTS ARE HERE!!!! Woot Woot!!! I was terrified they were going to have trouble getting to their hotel cuz they arrived at night and a driver in town was getting them...and I didn't want him to rip them off. I had been assured he wouldn't, but you never know. I was told they should pay no more than K150,000
My parents told me they had paid $100.

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!? That's K500,000. This is also known as a Rip Off. Bah! However, we figured it was ok, cuz it was late, raining like crazy, and an hour and so minutes out of town. Sooo, a $100 for there and back? Ok....ok.
Still a little much but at least they got here safely and the driver was nice. I am so happy they are here. I wish Jet could come, but Krista’s mom sent me a stuffed animal dog to represent Jet. That made me explode with joy!

We went to Livingston with some of the other youth. Mei and Shalom have left, and I miss them already and it's barely been a week. Thankfully Shalom lives here till she goes to school in January, but Mei. Ah, it's weird without her.

Anyway, Livingston. I forgot my rain coat, but by the grace of God it didn’t rain! We went to Victoria Falls and the water was low so we were able to walk across the river which was bascially just rocks. After the rainy season, that part is flooded and you definitely can't walk there. We had a guy guide us across it. I think he was an illegal tour guide, and you can't pay them, but he was quite helpful.
We got right on the ledge. Um....it's high. Colleen went in August and bungeed from the bridge, which is about the 3rd highest jump in the world. If I had jumped, I think it would have been more of a fall off the bridge cuz I went unconscious due to extreme fear.

We also went to this traditional dance at the Arts Cafe called "Dancing Around Zambia" and it covers 4 out of the 9 provinces. It was so good! One of the songs they did was a version of a song some of the girls at Banani sing so were excited about that.
This Cafe is sooooo freaking cool. They basically want to keep the culture alive and have workshops from 11 to 5 for only K50,000!! That's $10 for stone carving, wire sculpting, drum making, and other things. SOOOOOOOOO COOL!!! We didn'get to do it, but three youth stayed a day later than us and they did it. Jealous.

There's also a museum that explains the beginning of Zambia and the people in it. It was really interesting and explained the traditions and ways of life of the people. It seemed to really emphasize how technology has tried to kill its culture and takes many of the young people from the villages to the bigger cities, which is sad. I feel it's important to evolve and progress materially, but you also need to equally progress spiritually. A little mixture ain’t bad.

We went on a sunset cruise and saw crocodiles and a ton of hippo’s. Then the boat ran out of fuel and we were stranded for a bit, but the view was awesome so we didn’t really mind waiting for our rescue boat. We stopped at an island with another boat and had some snacks. We left after the first boat did, and we noticed someone standing on the shore. We went back and it was a guy from the first boat. Poor guy and had been deserted!! Well, we left him there and kept going.

Just kidding. We picked him up and took him back to the dock. He was really funny and said if he’d had to, he would have climbed a tree and just flailed around till someone saw him. He did look like a guy who would do that and enjoy it. Bahaha!

Three of the youth stayed at another hotel, but stayed with Colleen and me so we could all do the walking safari. Three squished on my bed and two on Colleens. It was cozy, but the bus rides to town have prepared us for that. We saw a ton of elephant dung! Pretty much made the experience. Haha! We didn’t see any elephants, but we did track down (uh, our guide tracked it. We aren’t quite that skilled yet) a rhinoceros, and saw warthogs with babies! So cute. There were a lot of impala and such. The giraffes were pretty awesome as well, but lighter than what I’m used to. The guide said there was a problem of inbreeding and that’s why they’re lighter and smaller. They’re bringing in some new ones in the next few years to help fix that.

Just to clarify, in this place there are no lions or leopards or predators which is why we can walk there.

The prettiest birds are here as well.

The last night, we went back to the Arts Café and they said we could watch the dancing again for free. SAWEET!!!
So we watched the dancing again and talked to some of the performers. They’re on Youtube and EVERYONE should watch them. They have had 4 companies tape them professionally, and each time they never get a video. Ridiculous. The owners, who are from Canada, want to take them there and see if they can get taped there…and not get ripped off. Psh. I want them in Oregon! And then North Carolina.

Before we left, we said goodbye to the hotel people who were simply amazing and so friendly, and to the dogs that I befriended who were adorable, and to our cab driver who was kind enough to pick us up and drop us off at our hotel which is 15 min. outside of town AND didn’t rip us off. He was a cute short man named Joe. Colleen and I called him Joe Fresh cuz of the store in Canada. He wanted Krista’s number though….no no Joe.

But he still visited the other youth at their hotel. Haha! So creepy and so funny.

Oh! When we were going to Shoprite, a man started talking to Colleen and I and after about 10 min. asked us if we went to Church. Colleen said we didn’t go to Church and we were Baha’is. He just kind of “ahhh’d” and told us to have a nice day and walked off. Bhahahahahaahahah! We gotta kick out of that! We now know the secret to getting rid of men!

Joe asked us the same thing when he dropped us off and I told him we have Feast every 19 days. He didn’t walk off, but he did give me a little fold out card thing talking about Jesus. It was a really cool card. Aw, Joe.

I loved Livingston. So much. I think I could live there. It’s just kind of expensive, but that’s ok. I’ll make friends with everyone and visit a lot and stay with them.

Well, before all this happened, I said goodbye to 160 girls. More like 140 since the seniors already left on that fateful day that gave me food poisoning. May I just say the symptoms between malaria and food poisoning are dangerously close? They took me to the hospital, the one I was told NOT to go into cuz I would get diseases, so I could get checked for malaria. Well, about 5 other girls came with me and we left around 10 pm and got back around 1 am. And I couldn’t get checked cuz they were out of testing supplies, so they told me and Krista, who was also sick, to come back in the morning. The doctor said they wanted to check as soon as possible cuz malaria is much more severe in foreigners because they don’t have the immune system for it. I really couldn’t imagine feeling worse, but I knew it wasn’t malaria because I absolutely REFUSE to get malaria. Roya, how did you survive?
So, it turned out to be food poisoning and I was fine in a week. But seriously, if malaria is worse than that…I think I’d just simply beg for death and jump off the Vic Falls bridge.

BUT! Back to the girls leaving, I introduced my parents to some of them and said my goodbyes. Ah, I am going to miss them. One of my girls is for sure not coming back next year, and she’s so sweet and I love her and I am going to miss her SO MUCH!

On Wednesday, Shadon and I did a little activity with them. We wrote a persons name on pieces of paper and got everyone in a circle and passed all the papers around till everyone had written something nice about everyone. We figured since they all hate each other, this would be good to end on, and you know what? Every comment we read (we collected them after so we could check for any mean comments) was nice except one that was really good till the end so we just crossed off the last part. But I was quite happy they did so well! One girl came up to me and said she had learned an important lesson. Even if a person nags and nags and nags, at least they are very determined. YES!!! Thank you for seeing the good in something bad.

On Thursday, we gave each girl her paper and we were going to give them lollipops and sour worms, but there had been a little incident on Sunday. Shadon and I had planned a scavenger hunt which would lead them to the big Common Room so we could watch a movie and eat food. I gave them lollipops then, and then Colleen came and I had to go to junior youth group. Nura and Shadon stayed to watch over them. When I came back, I only had 4 lollipops left and I knew I had had at least 15 when I left.

I was pissed.

One girl asked if she could have one and I said no cuz they’d been stolen. She said she knew a couple of the girls who had done it cuz they told her. I didn’t want this to be a blame game, but I went and talked to the girls anyway. One seemed to have no clue what I was talking about, another said she took one, and the last said she’d been given one and didn’t know it was mine. Bafreakinglogna. She said the girl who took one gave it to her, which really confused me cuz they are not friends and never talk to each other. I knew I wasn’t getting the whole story, so I said they wouldn’t get anything on Thursday and talked to them about stealing. Then, Shadon and I decided we wouldn’t give anyone anything cuz more than one had been taken and we told the girls they wouldn’t get anything unless people stepped up and took responsibility. No one did and no one got anything the last day, but the one girl who said she was given one talked to me a lot more after I talked to her on Monday. I think she wanted attention, which wouldn’t surprise me cuz I feel like a lot of the girls here are neglected. As in, their parents feed and clothe them, but that’s all. It’s really sad.

However, even with the bit o’ drama, I love my grade 8’s so much. They’re such good people. They just need to see that. They all have so much potential and I hope in grade 9 they really start believing that.

Ok. My junior youth group is AMAZING!!!!! There was an end of the year party for the children’s class and JY group’s last Friday. Our JY group prepared a song to sing and can you guess what song they chose? JUST GUESS!!!!!!!

SEASONS OF LOVE!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously!!! My JY’s know a song from RENT?!?!?!? You have got to be kidding me. If there was no other reason for me coming here except that, I would be happy. Humphrey and Shuton taught the group the song because they knew it best, and it was rough right up until the performance. They did really well. Ah! You just can’t believe how flippen stoked I was that they knew that song!!!!!!!!!!!

We also had a fundraiser a couple weeks ago. It was a cinema and we watched Alvin and the Chipmunks 2. It was a lot of fun and the only disappointing thing was that the parents didn’t come. Next time, we’ll get them there. Hands down.

Also, a few weeks ago, we had Awards Night. It rained so hard that you couldn’t really hear anyone who was talking. After, I went and stood outside and was pretty much drenched in 5 seconds. Then Mecrice came running up behind me and was screaming for me to run. So we ran…right into a flooded area of the ground and my feet got soaked but I was too busy laughing to care. Oh my gosh it was so much fun to run through the rain!! It was so loud and the thunder seriously sounds like bobs exploding and the lightening lights everything up! You could read a book! I think when I go home and am in a thunderstorm, I’ll just think someone dropped a book or something.

Ahhhh. Nothing like an African storm.

Short and Sweet

God, I love these people. Thank You for creating such magnificent beings.