After being in Zambia for only a few days I am quickly learning what it is like to be a woman in Africa. Men are always served first and receive plates; women eat whatever is leftover out of the serving bowl. Women do all of the cleaning and cooking and are expected to cook all day, every day. If you cannot cook in Africa, do not expect to get married. In Africa if a man wants to marry a woman he brings the family a chicken and pays a dowry. He now “owns” his wife and is free to do whatever he pleases with her. When the women are pregnant their husbands are not allowed to sleep with them according to their cultural rules. So they are free to go find another wife to sleep with. The men also may pay a dowry for the children making him “own” them as well. However if the man decides he doesn’t want to pay the dowry he can leave and have no responsibility for the children. The fathers give the children no attention until the age of nine. If the husband does show affection or helps out with the chores it is believed that the wife bewitched him.
Today I realized just how blessed I am to be a woman from America. Today we went around the Mtenguleni village doing community service for the elderly while evangelizing. We split into three groups. I was with the village Pastor John, Will and Caroline. Caroline and I were responsible for all of the chores while Will and Pastor John sat down and talked to the people. I washed shoes, which was a very humbling experience and Caroline swept. At the next hut Caroline and I walked to and from the well filling buckets of water while Will talked to an elder lady who revealed he was the very first white man to ever talk to her. On the way back to the clinic we were staying at we purchased rape (Chinese cabbage) and mangos. Caroline and I had to carry them while we followed the men. Life for women are very different here than in America, I am thankful to be an American woman.
