This last Saturday night, I got in a real spray-over-the-head shower, turned on the water, and HOT water came pouring out with lots of pressure! I cried. And had a little praise and worship right then.
I loved this last month and the little village we got to stay in. It was beautiful. It was cultural. It was Africa!
When we arrived at our house roughly three weeks ago, the van stopped outside the gate, and I think we all just sat looking at our house with a little bit of amazement and more bewilderment and mostly WHAT?!
I don’t know why that was our first reaction to seeing the house, it just was. Maybe the fence is what did it. It was a pink house, had a green porch, a beautifully carved wooden door, and fences that were falling down. We were situated at a corner where two little streets met. This meant that the see-through fence gave the children lots of time to yell ‘mzungu, how are you?’ as they walked around the corner. It also meant that we could see the man with the fat cakes go past and we could run after him to buy our breakfast. We also got to see our neighbor walk past with a guitar on Christmas morning; we invited him and his friend in and we had ourselves a little worship session.
Inside, the main room had our fridge in it as well as a cute piece of linoleum on the floor that had seashells on it. Almost every afternoon and evening, we would sit on our ‘beach’ and talk and eat together – because you always have to go to the beach in Zambia!
Our sleeping room had four sets of bunk beds, a few shelves, two windows, and one fan. We got very good at angling the fan in just the right way so at least a toe or one hair of each person got a piece of the fan. We each had a mosquito net which created the illusion of having our own little private room.
The bathroom had a tub and we moved a chair into the room as well so our clean clothes could stay clean. There was another little room with a toilet. You could sit if you wanted, there just wasn’t a seat. The thing with the bathroom facilities was that there was no running water. The pipe along the street had been changed and they hadn’t gotten around to connecting our house again.
I loved taking bucket showers! And it was nice cool water! For the toilet, it was a bit trickier but we pretty much let it mellow if it was yellow, and flushed it down if it was brown.
You might be wondering why I’m describing our house to you.
- Well, I will remember this house and the good memories I made here for a long time.
- This is really how I pictured living while on the World Race and I was glad I could live in a true African village.
- I realized that water is more precious if I carry it from the neighbors rather than watch it run out of the tap.
- I learned again how ‘things’ don’t make you happy. The day we got running water (the day before we left) we were all so excited! But when it came time to take a shower that evening, I was secretly glad the water had turned off again because I just wanted the security of a bucket shower.
The village of Namatama and its people will always be special to my heart!
