Bush Walkabout

PSA: This post is super long. I love ya’ll, but my blogs are for me too and I want to remember all of every experience I have. Please feel free to skim. Or read the whole thing. Or read half and take a break to make a sandwhich. Or read all of it. You do you.

Again, sorry, the wifi is persnickety and won't let me upload pictures, but when I get random good wifi or when we go to Livingstone next week to leave I will upload pictures and videos and repost!

Saturday was super chill. We woke up late, had jungle oats oatmeal for breakfast, I blogged all morning/afternoon, talked to Lacy (shoutout), and the squad watched Burlesque. It was a nice restful morning.

After all that rest, it was time for some adventure.

Jeanie, Kelsey, Chloe, and I all packed up and started walking to the Haven to meet Bena Franco at 4:50pm to walk home with her. We booked it because we were running late, but made it with a minute to spare! We went straight to Haven 3, where Bena Franco works, and the kids. were. nuts. They were so happy to see us, as were the aunties; it was a different kind of atmosphere than our typical day and so fun to see the kids acting more like regular kiddos. So after being wiped out from carrying and playing with them for a while (got that cardio and lifting in), Bena Franco and the Four began our trek. We also walked with Bena Geto (get-to) and her 9-month-old daughter Jessica. As we walked, we chit-chatted and taught Bena Franco and Geto how to say our names, which was difficult and hilarious for all. I am “Marwry” and Chloe is “Kroee.” On our way on the road we also saw Miss Mona in her car and she stopped and asked, “Hey where are you girls going?” even though she knew we were with Bena Franco. We probably looked like we were running away. Our backpacks were packed embarrassingly full and the sight of four white girls alone trekking real fast on the main dirt road was probably a little odd haha

Walking down the road, Bena Franco suddenly jumped off road and said, “Shortcut!” and then we were trekking through the bush, single file.

Sunset

Bena Geto was behind me so I naturally kept turning around making faces at Jessica and laughing/giggling with her. Side bar, Bena Geto should be the face of Africa. So beautiful with Jessica and her shtangy. That’s the thing Jessica is strapped into. It’s just a two meter long piece of cloth tied around Bena Geto’s back.

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L

On our way we all talked about the most random things ranging from Bena Franco telling us about a time when she and Bena Geto saw five elephants on their walk to learning new Tongan words: “Mataco mapati” which naturally means “big booty.” Essential vocabulary here people. We also learned “goodnight” which is “monekaboti.”

Once we finally reached the compound about an hour later, we said our goodbyes to Bena Geto and were greeted by about 5,000,000 children. Okay more like 25 kids, but, SO MANY. Bena Franco said she had told them when we would be there and that they had been there, waiting for us, the “Mackuah” (ma-coo-ah), which means “white people.” Basically, we’re famous. Each kid I told my name to responded with, “Oh! Good name!” like I had done that myself (shoutout thanks to Mom and Pops and Family Ties). Not sure if it is literally a good name or if that’s just what is said when people cannot pronounce or understand your name, but either way, FUN-KNEE. As we reached the house, all the kids came inside with us. We started cooking immediately and helped Bena Franco by cutting cabbage as she started her tiny charcoal fire/charcoal chimney kind of thing.

Bena Franco's house

Charcoal chimney stove-top

She's terrifying...ly awesome

Meanwhile, 25 kids were in the tiny living room laughing and staring at us and Bena Franco told us that they wanted to dance for us. COMMENCE LITERAL TINY RAVE. These kids can DANCE. Like, dance dance. Like, eight-year-olds twerking and moving their hips in ways my hips will never even dream of. We of course joined in the rave and danced a little less impressively, but my goodness so fun.  

After the rave, we tried to help Bena Franco, but mostly ended up watching her cook supper. We had nshima (“shima” – mashed potatoes kind of, made from cornmeal), pan fried/cooked whole chicken (watched her cut raw chicken into pieces), relish (tomatoes, onion, water, and some kind of powder kind of seasoning), and cabbage with tomatoes. SO GOOD. That nshima sticks with ya though, lemme tell ya. It stuck with me all weekend. We also ate with our hands, which is so much fun and should happen at all meals in America for the rest of all of our lives.

After supper, Bena Franco gave us the grand tour of the toilet, outside and a squatty potty/outhouse. We had a quick impromptu potty sesh because Bena Franco told us we could not go outside by ourselves in the middle of the night, we would have to use the pee bucket in the room if we needed to go, which none of us really wanted to do.

Sleeping arrangements + a twin air mattress = cuddle buddies

Jeannie ended up using it the second night. I’ll never look at a Folgers coffee tin the same ever again.

While we were waiting for everyone to go, Bena Franco showed us the dreaded bath. It was a little stand up hut thing with no ceiling. She said we’d bath in the morning and she’d make us hot water. All so terrified hahahahaha Then, after some really, really, really strange tv shows, we hit the hay at about 21:00, which is 9:00pm.

*          *          *

We were awoken promptly at 6:30am to the sound of Bena Franco telling us we would bath two by two. The nightmare was not a dream and had just become a reality. Kelsey and Jeanie went first; Chloe and I bid them that the odds be ever in their favor knowing we mostly likely would never see them again. We were pleasantly surprised when they came out of Bath, alive and well and clean! Then it was Chloe and I’s turn. MIND YOU IT IS FREEZING OUTSIDE, we are in winter after all. We followed Bena Franco in, she introduced us to Bowl of Hot Water and his friend Soap Bar and then just stood there. Chloe and I communicated silently. “IS SHE STAYING IN HERE?” “I DON’T KNOW. WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” But, then Bena Franco left and Chloe and I agreed, “Sponge bath was happening.” We got half undressed and just washed our legs, stomachs, and arms and called it a bath. The whole time we were laughing, talking about how silly and young we felt being expected to bath but also really feeling like little kids, dropping the soap bar in the dirt, and taking in the experience. About fifteen minutes later we emerged, also coming out of Bath alive and well and clean and surprisingly refreshed. We needed shirts saying WE SURVIVED BATH OF 2016. It was a big day for us all.

After that adventure, we went back inside and had breakfast, also eaten with the hands. Harold, Bena Franco’s husband and our cook at the mission, made us something between coffee cake and banana bread. SO DELICIOUS (if you haven’t gotten it yet, this weekend/this trip was one of lots and lots and lots of carbs). 

We all sat around for an hour after breakfast, journaling and chitchatting, waiting for 9:00am to roll around so we could walk to church. As we walked to church through the village, we said “Mabokaboti (hi)” to everyone we saw and had people, mostly kids, stare at us and whisper “Makuwha…” which means “white people.” So funny and endearing. Church was… interesting. First off it lasted three hours. Bit longer than what we were used to, but awesome experience. All the women sat on the left side and all the men sat on the right side. There was a schedule on the wall which they followed, but did not stick so much to the timing of it all (we ran a bit late). 

There were at least 100 people there. The teacher taught class on Hell and that is all I can tell you about that because I did not understand anything else about the sermon as it was predominately in Tongan. After class, all the men got up and prayed outside while the women prayed inside and then service started. Service was very interesting. It was supposed to be a “Be who God created you to be” kind of sermon, but seemed a little heavily pointed at women and also did not make sense. Here’s some great quotes: “If God made you into a hippo image, we would not have asked you about it.” “If your name is Charity, you will always be charity, you’ll never be a Hilary Clinton.” “Women can turn their husbands into a monster by being difficult.”

After service we had communion and the congregation sang again, which was beautiful. At the end of church was announcements, which lucky us, we were visitors and were announced, BY NAME, and asked to stand and wave at the whole congregation hahahahaha the only four white people in the whole church. It was awesome. Luckily, no singing asked of us though, phew haha

Once service ended, the men headed out of the church first, followed by the women. And we shook every. Single. Peron’s. hand. We followed in a big line, shaking each man’s hand until we came to the end of the line and then we joined the end and shook the hands of the people still walking down the line. One big giant never ending circle. If I didn’t have “Mabokaboti” down before then, I sure did afterwards. We shook hands with well over 100 people, using the African handshake (shake, bro shake, shake). So great. Bena Franco said they do that every Sunday. What a community, like wow.

For lunch we had eggs+sauce, vegetables, and you guessed it, nshima. As we were cooking the eggs with the sauce, something we had not done before, we asked Bena Franco excitedly if they called it scrambled eggs as well or something different, to which she responded so calmly, “…no…we just call it ‘some eggs’” hahahahaha So anticlimactic and perfect all that the same time. We ate with our hands again and it was equally fantastic. It’s so fun, I was encouraged to play with my food and roll it up into a ball (that’s how one eats nshima). We also sit on the floor which was fun as well, much more less formal and makes meal time feel more like a community thing. Basically everything we did as children is still awesome and fun and should be implemented into our every day lives in America. Africa does life better. 

After lunch, Bena Franco FINALLY let us do something to help and we did the dishes. Never been that excited to wash dishes before.

Chloe going at it

the team that works together stays together

caught off guard

doin' work

We met Bena Franco’s next door neighbor, Eunice, who become our self-pronounced Tongan teacher. While Jeanie played with the kids and Kelsey explored the house and took picture of and with the kiddos.

Chloe and I were good students and tried to learn as much Tongan as we could with Eunice saying every five seconds, “You know this? This is ______.” She repeated words over and over again as we butchered the pronunciation, each lesson ending with her writing the word in the dirt so we could see it. Eventually Chloe and I’s brains were overloaded with laughing and learning and we told Eunice, “Well we at least know one word well! Mataco!” (which means butt lol). Eunice died laughing and nodded, saying “You know kolo?” And Chloe shook her head, asking what it was. Without missing a beat, Eunice reached over and grabbed Chloe’s chest and said “Kolo! (breast)” Chloe and I both laughed so hard (I almost peed myself, Chloe was taken aback and surprised and also almost peeing from laughter). Kelsey then meandered over and I told Eunice she needed to teach her the new word. So Eunice asked Kelsey, “You know ‘kolo’? It means breast. Do you have kolo?” as she poked Kelsey. Kelsey, jokingly said, “Yes!! Do I need to show you?!” as she laughed and pushed Eunice’s hands away. Then Eunice, still laughing, used it in a sentence, “Have you seen my kolo?” like she was asking where her keys were, but she whipped out her boob, laughing like a madwoman, saying “Kolo!” We all just about fell over, peed, and died at the same time.

Teacher Eunice

Here, the culture is so funny. In America, the majority of the woman’s body is I think a sexual thing for most people, but here, boobs and butts are predominately just boobs and butts, just part of the body and part of taking care of children. I could be wrong, but I actually think that legs are the thing that are seen as attractive because we always have to wear skirts in the community and loose fitting pants at home so our leg curves do not show. Anyway, it was so fun to laugh and joke about just funny woman things like boobs, butts, marriage, and how well (or not well) we were at doing household tasks like cooking and washing dishes. After our hilarious encounter with kolo, the lesson continued with more random Tongan words and with Eunice bringing visual aids from her home so we could understand better, like “chima” which is stool.

Me demonstrating sitting on a stool, "chima"

Teacher Eunice and her students

After Lessons with Eunice, Bena Franco took us to market (market Michelle, not “the market” J) to see where she buys things. She also bought us chips to munch on while we walked around. The market place had small shopping stalls for produce, butcher shops, phone charging stations, hair salons, and a host of other random shops. Then we went home and started making supper and danced with the kids some more/got shown up by the kids again.

As we were cooking, I joked around (duh) and asked Bena Franco and Eunice if we were allowed to get married now since we had learned all the things (household duties) just like her daughters. She said yes, but that Chloe could not because she did not know how to cut tomatoes properly. What’s funny is that Chloe gets married in America in August (on my bday!). We danced with the kids as we waited for all the food to finish cooking and proudly represented Texas (yes Lacy, I said that I represented Texas. Just this once J) as we showed them how we two-step and how we swing dance. Kelsey even showed everyone how we pretzel in swing dancing and I waltzed by myself (thanks Czar) showing them that dance as well. So much fun and goofiness.

The culture of Africa is a lot of sitting around and spending time with people. I loved this because that’s what my family does when we are all together. There’s always a card game or talking or food or a movie we all talk through or a combination of all of those things.

While we were resting, we noticed a little boy’s knee was bleeding super bad and deep, so Chloe and I took him outside and washed him off with soap and water, then alcohol pads, then made a makeshift bandage out of gauze and Band-Aids. There was a lot of dirt and rocks to clean out so I did that with some cotton balls as well. Eunice was there, standing over me, declaring “This one shall be a nurse.” Not quite, but oh well hahaha Then we all played with the 12,000,000 (23) kids outside, playing some game that was a combination of dodge ball and monkey in the middle. So confusing learning a new game just by playing and not by hearing the rules hahaha We also played a dancing game similar to little sally walker. My dancing skills had not changed.

Soon it was time for supper and as we cooked we listened to the classics: Reba, Dolly, Shania. We listed to so many American artists that whole weekend like Drake and Owl City in addition to the above. So random. The food that we cook is so good, but nshima is so filling and sticks extremely well. Large portions are already a thing here, plus the fact that we are visitors means we got even more food than we knew what to do with. After supper we watched, wait for it…Tom and Jerry! Who knew! Oh memories. Harold led a small devotional after supper and we took a group family picture. After that we hit the hay and had our slumber party/cuddle-fest again as we had to start walking the next morning at 6:00am to get to the Havens on time for Bena Franco to get to work.

Family pic :)

The next morning, we were awoken promptly at 5:56am by the very bright room light and to the sound of Bena Franco’s voice saying, “Okaaay. You prepare now.” So, up we got and prepared in a haze. We gave Bena Franco a shatangy as a thank you and then it was time to walk! We walked for about an hour, watching the sun rise and walking in silence as we all tried to wake up and stay warm. Here in Zambia, it is winter in the AM and PM, but the afternoon is S-U-M-M-E-R and so hot.

Bena Franco is my hero. Doing just one of her normal days was exhausting. This woman is so strong, loves her job and her family, and does not complain about having to walk an hour to work each way, and being away from her own five kids. Her kids range from fifteen to about three. Samuel, Franco, Lagel, Lativa, and Lackee. So cute. Getting to live and do life as she and her family do each and every day was so eye opening, humbling, and such an honor. This will be an experience that I will never forget. It has taught me so many things, for sure to be thankful for the things that I have, but also opened my eyes to how even the things that I have, that I do not consider to be very valuable, are things that can easily distract me from the real reason we are even here in the world. Great wake up call and call to action to be more thankful and to be more aware.

Once we reached the Haven, we told Bena Franco we’d see her in and hour and made the 30 minute trek to the mission by ourselves to eat non-nshima breakfast, clean up, and get therapy materials for the day.

We nearly died... 

Just kidding it was super fun and we'd do it again :) 

Never before has a shower been so heavenly before.

End scene. Again, sorry, the wifi is persnickety and won't let me upload pictures, but when I get random good wifi or when we go to Livingstone next week to leave I will upload pictures and videos and repost! 

That’s all for now! Love and miss you all!

Mallory, or in Afrikkan, “Mallory”