Lusaka near the bus rank.
Jena and I may have been roughing it in the bush, but we still found a way to do pedicures one night.
Jena and I outside of the hut we stayed in for the home stay.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
more pics from 40-40
Lusaka near the bus rank.
Jena and I may have been roughing it in the bush, but we still found a way to do pedicures one night.
Jena and I outside of the hut we stayed in for the home stay.
40-40 pics
Me and JoJo with our Zambian helper for Lusaka, Christine.
Left:Daisy, then me visiting a home for a DFA.
Me holding what, at the time, we believed to be a (dead) black mamba.
Vinnie bathing.
My 40-40 Experience
Well, 40-40 definitely was an experience. I went into it with a positive attitude. I was ready to be reunited with some friends from training in Richmond and I thought that it would be a fun experience. Now, looking back over the past month there are both good and bad memories. If I had the opportunity to do it over again I probably would not. It’s one of those things that you do only once.
For those of you who do not know what 40-40 is, let me explain. It gets its name because it used to be 40 days and 40 nights. It has since been shortened to 30 days and 30 nights. It is basically a mandatory month long orientation/training on African culture for all new missionaries in the CESA (Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa) Region. We spent 2 weeks in Lusaka, 10 days camping in the bush, 3 days at a home stay, and four days debriefing at a guest house near Lusaka. There were about 30 people that went through the program this time. Some would work with logistics, some would be out in the boondocks, some older, some younger, some married with children, some single. It was definitely more challenging for those who were older and those who had children. Now on to my adventure…
I liked Lusaka alright. We stayed at a seminary just outside of town. Some days we had lectures about different areas of African culture and different traditional beliefs. The main thing when did there was each day we had a different Daily Field Assignment (DFA). We were put in pairs and then given a Zambian helper/translator who would go out with us. We would take the public transportation of mini busses to different parts of Lusaka. The first day our assignment was just to observe. The next day we were supposed to have conversations to get to know more information about people. Some days we were supposed to ask about different forms of health care and diseases in the area. Other days we would share our testimonies and the Creation to Christ story.
I was paired up with JoJo and my Zambian helper was Christine. JoJo and her husband are going to be serving in Tanzania among college students. Christine took us to the township of Matero everyday. I got kind of tired of going to the same place every day, but it was a very large township so we were able to explore different parts of it. So, we did the DFAs in the mornings, went back to the seminary for lunch, then debriefed with the other groups. Some days other groups would come back with amazing stories about miraculous healings, dreams the Zambians have had, and, most excitingly, about people accepting Christ. JoJo and I talked about this and realized we had something in common: we never have those stories. We both said that we always attract either real strong Christians who are leaders in their church or we attract crazy people. Still, I celebrate that there were many won to faith in Christ Jesus.
Another thing I enjoyed about Lusaka was the ice cream. Also, if I did not like what was for dinner I could always eat cookies that we had for tea time. This may very well be the reason I was somehow able to gain weight during 40-40. Weigh more after camping in the bush? Weird, I know.
We took a 6 hour bus ride to Petauke, which is a small town out in the middle of the bush of Zambia. My favorite sign soon became “Ice Cold Coca Cola Sold Here.” It was HOT! We stayed in tents about 20minutes outside of town. They were nice tents. They also had set up a kitchen area. All toilets were like outhouses. Some of them had seats, but others were just a hole in the floor. To shower I would take my bucket to the well, pump water, carry my bucket to the shower area, pour the water from my bucket into the bucket in the shower, pull the rope on that went through a pulley and attached to the bucket, tie off the rope, and then turn the shower nozzle that was on the bottom of the bucket whenever I wanted water to come out. It was actually kind of neat. I could have used a kettle to heat up water over the fire for my showers, but since it was hot I preferred the cooler water.
For breakfasts we would usually have cereal, some kind of egg, some kind of meat, and bread. Lunches were most always local food. This nearly every day included nshima (white stuff that has no taste and has a consistency similar to mashed potatoes), chicken or beef, and cabbage in some form. Sometimes we had rice instead of nshima. This made me and many of the others happy! The Zambians love nshima though. I like it ok, just not everyday. It’s funny because every Zambian I asked “what is your favorite food?” Their answers were all “nshima.” I guess that’s a good thing because they eat it for almost every meal; I sure hope that they like it. It’s cheap and filling. Anyways, at dinner we usually had an attempt at more American type food. I loved it when it was someone’s birthday, because then we had dessert!
In Petauke we did the same type thing we did in Lusaka. We had DFAs and then would debrief in the afternoons. This time I was paired with Jena (she works in an AIDS clinic in Uganda and she is one of my dear close friends) and our Zambian helper was Daisy. One day when our DFA was about health and medicine my group and a few other groups visited traditional healers (aka witch doctors). It wasn’t how many of you are probably picturing it. There were no monkey heads on the walls or anything like that. The guy we visited was located in town in a normal looking building. He was dress in Western clothes and greeted us outside and welcomed us in. He prided himself on being the most famous traditional healer in the area. He had a big sheet on the wall that said something like “Zambian Traditional Healers Association” and it listed all the diseases on it. Most diseases were related to sex, but HIV, Polio, and Malaria were also listed. He even offers a love potion, but he said that he will not sell it to people who are going to use it for adultery. He says that he is a Christian and that he and his family go to church. At the same time he gives out charms to heal people. When I asked what makes a charm made of wood different from an ordinary piece of wood he said that he grinds up root from a certain tree and puts it in the charm. He kind of dodged my question. Actually, he avoided all our questions that had anything to do with anything spiritual. I remember seeing a container labeled amoxicillin too. This is a very clear example of syncretism in African religion. Also, he taped our whole conversation which I think is very weird. The people say that the witch doctors are much more expensive than the clinics, yet many people still go to them. One reason I think is because they can’t always pay money to the clinics, but the witch doctor will take payment by chickens or other goods.
I like camping if it’s for 2 or 3 days, but 10 days got really old. I was tired and frustrated by about day 5 of camping. One day I was so frustrated that I threw my bucket across the shower area. But a few days later we moved out of our tent and into a hut for the 3 days and 3 nights of home stay. Jena and I were paired up again. Some people stayed in the town and some stayed in the villages. We stayed in a village. We had a mud hut with a thatched roof all to ourselves. It was very cute actually. I could tell how much work they had put into fixing it up for us and I am still very appreciative of that. We were with a family (family includes the extended family on the father’s side) that had only two men, a few women, and lots of children. Jena and I both grew closest to the wife, Esna. She is only 23 and she has been married for about 6 years and has two children. She does so much for her family. I have so so much respect for her. I realize that this is an outsiders view, but the African women seems to work so much more than the African man. The man works in the fields, but his workload depends on the season. The woman cooks, cleans, does laundry, fetches water, takes care of the kids, etc everyday. Plus she also helps out in the fields. And she is shown little respect from her husband. I’m not one of those girls who is big on women’s rights either. Their children were Elizabeth and Vincent. Vinnie, as they called him, was also nicknamed “Mr. Trouble” because he was always getting into something like a typical 2 year old. Eliz was funny too. She loved to dance. There was also a 13 year old girl named Memory. I love her! She would go everywhere with us. The last two nights she even slept in our hut with us. Some things we did at the home stay include shelling groundnuts, fetching water, learning how to cook over fire, laundry, making home made peanut butter, hanging out and talking, and eating. They fed us plenty of food. Lots of nshima of course. The husband kept pressuring us to eat more, but nshima is so filling I couldn’t eat all the food they had served. I ate a lot of mangos too. They were so good.
We put rat poison out the first night. That first night was so hot! Jena and I shared a twin bed. There was a tarp hung on the ceiling so that dirt from the thatched roof wouldn’t fall down. The first night we laid there sweaty and terrified because of the heat and because we could hear a mouse crawling around on the tarp. I’m normally not scared of mice, but I don’t want them around me when I’m sleeping. We had a mosquito net hung and we tucked it under the mattress so that nothing could get in. I just didn’t want the dead mouse to fall and land on the net and hang over my face. It didn’t though. We did hear it die after it ate the poison. Lying in bed the first night Jena said “I wish we had a window.” I looked over at her and said “If you had one wish, that’s what you would wish for? A window?” We both laughed. We laughed a lot; we pretty much had to laugh. So, I experienced new things at the home stay. Some were not fun, but they are reality for the every day life of a rural African. I left the home stay with new friends and a better understanding of what everyday life is like for the rural African people. I know I’ve already said this, but it needs to be said again: I have so much respect for them.
After the home stay we had a 7 hour bus ride to a guest house an hour on the opposite side of Lusaka. We were kind of pampered there. There was a nice pool and we had our own rooms with air conditioning and tv. I was most excited about the indoor plumbing. We did debriefing there and had classes on the PILOT method of language learning. Our last full day there was Thanksgiving Day. It actually reminded me of Thanksgiving when I was a kid. It was hot, which I’m used to having warm Thanksgivings. We ate on the patio near the pool, which was like eating at the kids’ table outside on the back porch by the pool at my grandparents’ house. We didn’t have turkey, but we did have mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, banana pudding with real vanilla wafers, pumpkin pie-ish dessert, chicken, roast, green beans, and rolls. I was pleased. The next day I flew back to Joburg.
So, that is my 40-40 experience. There are many other stories I can tell, but there are too many to write. I can’t say that I liked 40-40, but it’s not like I flat out hated it either. It was just ok. I feel like it is more for those going into church planting and that it is about a week longer than it needs to be. I did learn while I was there. Also, there were 30-something professions of faith in Jesus while we were there. They seem to be legit too. How can you put a price tag on that?
For those of you who do not know what 40-40 is, let me explain. It gets its name because it used to be 40 days and 40 nights. It has since been shortened to 30 days and 30 nights. It is basically a mandatory month long orientation/training on African culture for all new missionaries in the CESA (Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa) Region. We spent 2 weeks in Lusaka, 10 days camping in the bush, 3 days at a home stay, and four days debriefing at a guest house near Lusaka. There were about 30 people that went through the program this time. Some would work with logistics, some would be out in the boondocks, some older, some younger, some married with children, some single. It was definitely more challenging for those who were older and those who had children. Now on to my adventure…
I liked Lusaka alright. We stayed at a seminary just outside of town. Some days we had lectures about different areas of African culture and different traditional beliefs. The main thing when did there was each day we had a different Daily Field Assignment (DFA). We were put in pairs and then given a Zambian helper/translator who would go out with us. We would take the public transportation of mini busses to different parts of Lusaka. The first day our assignment was just to observe. The next day we were supposed to have conversations to get to know more information about people. Some days we were supposed to ask about different forms of health care and diseases in the area. Other days we would share our testimonies and the Creation to Christ story.
I was paired up with JoJo and my Zambian helper was Christine. JoJo and her husband are going to be serving in Tanzania among college students. Christine took us to the township of Matero everyday. I got kind of tired of going to the same place every day, but it was a very large township so we were able to explore different parts of it. So, we did the DFAs in the mornings, went back to the seminary for lunch, then debriefed with the other groups. Some days other groups would come back with amazing stories about miraculous healings, dreams the Zambians have had, and, most excitingly, about people accepting Christ. JoJo and I talked about this and realized we had something in common: we never have those stories. We both said that we always attract either real strong Christians who are leaders in their church or we attract crazy people. Still, I celebrate that there were many won to faith in Christ Jesus.
Another thing I enjoyed about Lusaka was the ice cream. Also, if I did not like what was for dinner I could always eat cookies that we had for tea time. This may very well be the reason I was somehow able to gain weight during 40-40. Weigh more after camping in the bush? Weird, I know.
We took a 6 hour bus ride to Petauke, which is a small town out in the middle of the bush of Zambia. My favorite sign soon became “Ice Cold Coca Cola Sold Here.” It was HOT! We stayed in tents about 20minutes outside of town. They were nice tents. They also had set up a kitchen area. All toilets were like outhouses. Some of them had seats, but others were just a hole in the floor. To shower I would take my bucket to the well, pump water, carry my bucket to the shower area, pour the water from my bucket into the bucket in the shower, pull the rope on that went through a pulley and attached to the bucket, tie off the rope, and then turn the shower nozzle that was on the bottom of the bucket whenever I wanted water to come out. It was actually kind of neat. I could have used a kettle to heat up water over the fire for my showers, but since it was hot I preferred the cooler water.
For breakfasts we would usually have cereal, some kind of egg, some kind of meat, and bread. Lunches were most always local food. This nearly every day included nshima (white stuff that has no taste and has a consistency similar to mashed potatoes), chicken or beef, and cabbage in some form. Sometimes we had rice instead of nshima. This made me and many of the others happy! The Zambians love nshima though. I like it ok, just not everyday. It’s funny because every Zambian I asked “what is your favorite food?” Their answers were all “nshima.” I guess that’s a good thing because they eat it for almost every meal; I sure hope that they like it. It’s cheap and filling. Anyways, at dinner we usually had an attempt at more American type food. I loved it when it was someone’s birthday, because then we had dessert!
In Petauke we did the same type thing we did in Lusaka. We had DFAs and then would debrief in the afternoons. This time I was paired with Jena (she works in an AIDS clinic in Uganda and she is one of my dear close friends) and our Zambian helper was Daisy. One day when our DFA was about health and medicine my group and a few other groups visited traditional healers (aka witch doctors). It wasn’t how many of you are probably picturing it. There were no monkey heads on the walls or anything like that. The guy we visited was located in town in a normal looking building. He was dress in Western clothes and greeted us outside and welcomed us in. He prided himself on being the most famous traditional healer in the area. He had a big sheet on the wall that said something like “Zambian Traditional Healers Association” and it listed all the diseases on it. Most diseases were related to sex, but HIV, Polio, and Malaria were also listed. He even offers a love potion, but he said that he will not sell it to people who are going to use it for adultery. He says that he is a Christian and that he and his family go to church. At the same time he gives out charms to heal people. When I asked what makes a charm made of wood different from an ordinary piece of wood he said that he grinds up root from a certain tree and puts it in the charm. He kind of dodged my question. Actually, he avoided all our questions that had anything to do with anything spiritual. I remember seeing a container labeled amoxicillin too. This is a very clear example of syncretism in African religion. Also, he taped our whole conversation which I think is very weird. The people say that the witch doctors are much more expensive than the clinics, yet many people still go to them. One reason I think is because they can’t always pay money to the clinics, but the witch doctor will take payment by chickens or other goods.
I like camping if it’s for 2 or 3 days, but 10 days got really old. I was tired and frustrated by about day 5 of camping. One day I was so frustrated that I threw my bucket across the shower area. But a few days later we moved out of our tent and into a hut for the 3 days and 3 nights of home stay. Jena and I were paired up again. Some people stayed in the town and some stayed in the villages. We stayed in a village. We had a mud hut with a thatched roof all to ourselves. It was very cute actually. I could tell how much work they had put into fixing it up for us and I am still very appreciative of that. We were with a family (family includes the extended family on the father’s side) that had only two men, a few women, and lots of children. Jena and I both grew closest to the wife, Esna. She is only 23 and she has been married for about 6 years and has two children. She does so much for her family. I have so so much respect for her. I realize that this is an outsiders view, but the African women seems to work so much more than the African man. The man works in the fields, but his workload depends on the season. The woman cooks, cleans, does laundry, fetches water, takes care of the kids, etc everyday. Plus she also helps out in the fields. And she is shown little respect from her husband. I’m not one of those girls who is big on women’s rights either. Their children were Elizabeth and Vincent. Vinnie, as they called him, was also nicknamed “Mr. Trouble” because he was always getting into something like a typical 2 year old. Eliz was funny too. She loved to dance. There was also a 13 year old girl named Memory. I love her! She would go everywhere with us. The last two nights she even slept in our hut with us. Some things we did at the home stay include shelling groundnuts, fetching water, learning how to cook over fire, laundry, making home made peanut butter, hanging out and talking, and eating. They fed us plenty of food. Lots of nshima of course. The husband kept pressuring us to eat more, but nshima is so filling I couldn’t eat all the food they had served. I ate a lot of mangos too. They were so good.
We put rat poison out the first night. That first night was so hot! Jena and I shared a twin bed. There was a tarp hung on the ceiling so that dirt from the thatched roof wouldn’t fall down. The first night we laid there sweaty and terrified because of the heat and because we could hear a mouse crawling around on the tarp. I’m normally not scared of mice, but I don’t want them around me when I’m sleeping. We had a mosquito net hung and we tucked it under the mattress so that nothing could get in. I just didn’t want the dead mouse to fall and land on the net and hang over my face. It didn’t though. We did hear it die after it ate the poison. Lying in bed the first night Jena said “I wish we had a window.” I looked over at her and said “If you had one wish, that’s what you would wish for? A window?” We both laughed. We laughed a lot; we pretty much had to laugh. So, I experienced new things at the home stay. Some were not fun, but they are reality for the every day life of a rural African. I left the home stay with new friends and a better understanding of what everyday life is like for the rural African people. I know I’ve already said this, but it needs to be said again: I have so much respect for them.
After the home stay we had a 7 hour bus ride to a guest house an hour on the opposite side of Lusaka. We were kind of pampered there. There was a nice pool and we had our own rooms with air conditioning and tv. I was most excited about the indoor plumbing. We did debriefing there and had classes on the PILOT method of language learning. Our last full day there was Thanksgiving Day. It actually reminded me of Thanksgiving when I was a kid. It was hot, which I’m used to having warm Thanksgivings. We ate on the patio near the pool, which was like eating at the kids’ table outside on the back porch by the pool at my grandparents’ house. We didn’t have turkey, but we did have mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, banana pudding with real vanilla wafers, pumpkin pie-ish dessert, chicken, roast, green beans, and rolls. I was pleased. The next day I flew back to Joburg.
So, that is my 40-40 experience. There are many other stories I can tell, but there are too many to write. I can’t say that I liked 40-40, but it’s not like I flat out hated it either. It was just ok. I feel like it is more for those going into church planting and that it is about a week longer than it needs to be. I did learn while I was there. Also, there were 30-something professions of faith in Jesus while we were there. They seem to be legit too. How can you put a price tag on that?
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