My house and I have had the privilege of spending a couple weekends in Makumba village outside of Livingstone. Our host once told us that it’s the “real Africa” experience. I have to agree. It’s very simple and hard working lifestyle. Very different from America, I have had to adjust a couple of my ideas on what normal life looks like.
- It’s ok to go to the bathroom in a 8 inch square hole in the ground. I would recommend not going in the middle of the day because the bugs (ahem,bees) seem to be most active then. If you do decide that it’s too gross, be very careful about peeing on the backside of the building. Zambians are not very loud and can appear out of nowhere….your running half dressed into the bathroom may cause your peeing buddy to start laughing and pee their shitange.
- Free time isn’t deserved or “earned” here. The women in the village don’t have weekends free to plan coffee dates with friends or have parties. My friend and I discovered that social times occur at the water pump. The village shares one pump so around 4pm a lot of the women go there to get water for dinner and it is a great place for conversation. There may even be two white girls trying to handwash clothes which can by very entertaining since they are very ineffective. The conveniences I take for granted don’t really exist here. A food staple here, nshema, is made of ground maize. Instead of buying ground corn they literally grind it by hand for every meal. Also, I haven’t seen a dishwasher since I left home, or carpet, or a vacuum for that matter.
- Community. The kids run around in gangs here. They are always together and the older kids take care of the younger ones. All in all, I love it but it is a bit shocking to see 3 year olds carry 5 week old babies on their back.
- My team and I visited with a family in nearby house/hut a couple weeks ago. We dropped in unannounced and immediately Steve, the dad of the family, dropped what he was doing to grab seats and sit with us for a bit. We were able to pray for him, his wife, Ivy, and their 3 week old daughter before we continued on to a new hut. On the way back to our campsite a boy ran out from their house with boiled maize for each of us. People are very giving of what they have here and we have been blessed so much by them.
I have an immense amount of respect for these people. Life looks different here than it does in America and it’s great to be able to learn about new ways of doing things.
On another note, there are only 25 days until I fly home. It’s crazy how fast the time is going by!
