Hello from the Northern Zambia

(originally written 10/16/2012 by a Harding student)

We’re still in Northern Zambia for a few more days and we finally have Internet connection. Our trip here has been awesome so far, but I wanted to post about something from home in Namwianga last week. So this is from last week.

This is a unique year for George Benson in that a second student passed away last week. They’ve never had two students die in one semester. (I mentioned briefly that a boy in second year died about a month ago). I didn’t know Rachel, but I saw in chapel and at choir how much the students were affected by her death. Clifford, one of the students in third year, prayed in chapel the day after she died. I don’t remember everything he said, but it was so touching. I cried just listening to the sweet, honest prayer. He said,

God, our hearts hurt. You answered our prayer, but this is not the answer we asked for. Open our eyes to understand. She was not yet yet stable. She did not yet have a family and yet you took her anyway.

So we were really saddened by that. Also, we took a trip to Choma the other day. It’s about double the size of Kalomo and about 70 km away. Since its significantly bigger than Kalomo, it’s not as much of a novelty to see makuas (white people). Unlike in our hometown, no one followed us around or hassled us everywhere we went.

My two favorite things about our outing were #1 the citenges and jerseys were so cheap! Usually, people jack up prices because of our skin color. But each time I asked “maalinzi eci?” (how much is this?) I was told just 10,000 Kwacha ($2). So that was exciting. And #2… people got so excited each time we spoke Tonga. I’m not saying my vocabulary spans past 25 or so words (well, my useful vocabulary anyway. Yes, I know words like zebra, elephant, buffalo, and giraffe… but none of those are likely to help me in the market), but everyone loved when we’d greet them and ask about their days. I loved seeing the face of one elderly woman light up to reveal her toothless smile when I bent down lower than her, shook her hand and asked “Mwabukabuti” then smiled and said “Twaluma meningi, umbubo!” (thank you very much, bye!). As we’d walk, we heard people exclaiming “Makua…. Citonga!” we were glad to defy a small part of the stereotype white people have.

Jeremy said he got similar reactions as he carried mealie meal (cornmeal made from white corn that is needed for making nsima and porridge) over his shoulder through town.