Saturday, May 19
Today is our first day trip to Kalomo. It is a very small village but the markets are good for buying "chitenge" (said sh-tang-ee). That is a type of fabric that is worn around the waist as a skirt for women, made into headbands, purses, quilts, wallets, aprons and many other things. I did not buy any of this in the village but I did convert my money to "kwacha", the Zambian currency. The ratio is 5,000 kwacha=$1...lots of math to do when buying things. They like small bills too, which the bank does not readily give.
When we returned to the mission, I spent time with my housemates out on the roadside playing with some of the school kids. We played their versions of "Down by the Banks", "Little Sally Walker", "Duck, Duck, Goose" and "Father (Mother) May I". Hilarious! We had a few minutes before lunch to buy things from Mrs. Mona. She makes things out of chitenge. I bought a headband, apron, bag, and a wallet for only 155 kwacha (you do the math). After lunch we began organizing our materials and began working on the slow internet.
Little to no water is still a problem, but we can make do. There is clean water to drink and brush your teeth with, but not much to shower or flush the toilet. It is getting fixed tomorrow.
I am enjoying everything so far!
After writing the first part of this blog, I sat down with my housemates and one of our local night guards named Webster, to learn some Tongan. We learned words for hello, goodnight, thank you, what is your name, how old are you, I'm fine, perfect, beautiful, and my name is...all very long words with many syllables. I love learning new languages!! Webster is a great teacher and a new friend as well.
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