I slept a wonderful eight or nine hours last night. When I woke up, I went straight to my computer to find out the results of the WLC-Dominican game. Congratulations to the WLC women’s basketball team for making it to Nationals! I’m hoping my Internet is fast enough for me to watch the game on Friday.
Rachel – after killing a very large spider that was found inside her mosquito net – and I did a Jillian Michael’s workout and then got ready for church. I had a very familiar breakfast – oatmeal, peanut butter, an apple, and coffee. The peanut butter is kind of like the Adam’s natural peanut butter I have at home, except even thicker (Melanie, you would love it!). We then went to the church in town. We have two choices for churches – the one we went to today or the one on the seminary. We’ll probably switch back and forth. The church service was, ironically, the most traditional church service I’ve been to in a while. We used the hymnals, the liturgy, and sang about five hymns with all the verses. They normally use a computer program to play their hymns for them, but it was broken, so they asked if anybody played piano. I ended up playing piano for the service, which was a nice familiar feeling for me. I’m doing better understanding everyone. Zambians learn British English, so even a fluent speaker is a little difficult to understand because of the accent. Before the church service, one of the members started teasing Rachel and I. His accent was very thick, but we think we got the gist of it. He predicted where each of us would get married (Barbados for me) and then told me all the countries I should go because the men there appreciate tall women. I wish I remembered what he said – I might have to check those places out on my way back home (haha).
After the service, we went to the women’s Bible study. Most of the American WELS families attend this church, so there were four of the American wives there and about six other Zambian women. The devotion was interesting and the women were very friendly and welcoming.
The weather isn’t as warm and humid as I expected, thankfully. I was expecting it to feel like Florida in August (a.k.a – super humid and extremely hot). Yesterday it was nice and breezy, and I’m guessing it was around seventy degrees. This morning was very sunny and warm, but it cooled off in the afternoon a little. Because of the elevation (4,000 feet) the humidity isn’t too bad. Last night I actually got a little chilly on our walk back home.
Rachel and I went for a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon. We got caught in a couple rainstorms. During the first one, we ducked under a tree to wait it out. While we were there, quite a few cars stopped to offer rides. All the cars had men in them and they were all very charming. One guy handed us a card with his number on it. While this would be creepy and/or annoying in America, this is funny and not really out of the ordinary. Zambians are very friendly and greet everyone, but being blonde, American women gets us more attention than the general public.
The second storm we got caught in, we waited in this little roadside shack where a woman was selling vegetables. The shack was far too small for me to stand up in it, so I parked myself on a cinder block and waited it out. We thought we were in the clear and headed back to campus, but when we were all but two hundred meters away from our house the skies opened and we got completely drenched, even though we sprinted back.
A little later, we went to the American International School with Dee, the Burners (Pastor Burner teaches at the seminary and Mrs. Burner is a tutor at American School), and Nathan. We swam laps at the pool and got to see a little bit of the grounds, like the obstacle course, the (dirt) track, and the basketball courts. It’s apparently an excellent school, comparable or even better than American schools.
When we got back, Rachel and I finally unpacked our stuff and cleaned up a little. We chatted with Dee, Dave, and Anne, and then ate some dinner. Just simple stuff – sandwiches, yogurt, fruit.
Here’s some random commentary about the culture here. Dee told us that in all her years living here, she’s never seen one Zambian fight with another. They’re very patient, calm, and laid-back. When we stood in line to get minutes for our phones, no one seemed impatient or in a hurry. In America, there would have been grumbling and complaining, but no one seemed to care. In general, most Zambians seem to like Americans. This is different to me because when I was in Ukraine, I felt some very anti-American feelings.
Tomorrow, we’re being introduced to the wives. Other than that, it’s kind of up in the air. We’ll see what happens with our schedule - this laid-back mentality everybody has means we’re not planning anything out super early in advance, which is just fine by me. Overall, a successful, comfortable second day in Zambia.
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