A Sports-Filled Day, Zambian Style

                Today was a really fun day.  We went to church at Bethel and experienced a church service like no other before.  The service was a mix of WELS and African traditions. We used the liturgy and sang familiar hymns, but there were some parts that were distinctly African.  First, there were three different choirs.  The first choir had about ten women in it, most of them the wives that we teach.  They were awesome – again, I was struck by how powerful their voices are.  They sound like there should be three times as many of them.  They sang all African songs while dancing around the church.  The second choir was the youth choir – only five people sang, and Rachel and I were way in the back, but we could hear them very clearly.  They sang a couple songs in English that were familiar to us and a third one in Chewa.  The last choir was made up of men and women.  The director had the most amazing voice I have ever heard.  They sang three or four songs, all in Chewa (I think…it could have been another dialect) and one of them was “I Love to Tell the Story.”  They also danced and moved around, and to show their appreciation, some of the women from the first choir let out this yelp, like, “Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!”  All the choirs did this throughout their songs – I think it’s like shouting “Amen!”  During the last song with the third choir, some of our ladies we teach jumped up and danced with them, adding their own vocalizations. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen and such a fun display of their joy and faith.  The singing between the three choirs took about a half an hour, and then Pastor Mutentame preached.  He is one of the best speakers I have ever heard.  He’s funny, intelligent, and very easy to listen to.  The whole thing was longer than what I’m used to in America – two and a half hours – but it didn’t feel like it at all because it was really all so interesting. 

                On our walk back home, we had our little flock of kids follow us back.  They wanted to help us – they fought over who could carry my water bottle (Ndamiwe won) and some boys insisted on carrying our chairs for us.  When we got to our house, they congregated under the tents and hung out with us for a while.  These kids are so adorable and I just love them.

                We ate lunch and laid out on the sun for a while until Ndamiwe and Elias stopped by for a while.  This led to us walking around and seeing what the rest of the kids were up to.  Soon, a game of soccer started, and Paul asked us if we’d like to play.  This was my first barefoot football experience, complete with a ball made up of rolled up plastic bags.  My team lost – Given was too nice and passed to me too much.  These kids are pretty awesome at soccer – I’d love to see them at recess with all the DSA kids.  When the game was over, Paul asked if we would play kickball.  The rest of the boys started jumping around and chanting, “Kickball!  Kickball!” so of course we couldn’t resist.  I got all the kickball stuff out, appointed captains, and began.  After ten minutes, our sun disappeared and the rain started.  Within a minute, we were completely drenched.  The kids clearly had no intention of stopping the game, so we just kept playing.  It was like playing underneath a showerhead with the water turned on full blast.  I was up to my ankles in muddy water and we were all slipping and sliding all over the place.  It was really fun – by far the most fun game of kickball I’ve ever played.  We couldn’t last for too long though – the rain did not let up and we were all shivering, so we called the game after about an hour.

                Dr. and Mrs. Wendland had us over for dinner tonight.  We had a wonderful meal with interesting conversation – they are quite possibly the two most brilliant people I’ve ever met.  Afterwards, Margie invited us to stay and watch TV, which was very enjoyable for us.  We watched “What Not to Wear” (guilty pleasure) and some National Geographic.  On the way back home, I thought I kicked up some mud into my flip-flop, but I just ignored it for the last thirty seconds of our walk. I went to clean off my flip-flop when we got inside and was met with a disturbing surprise – it was a frog.  A small frog actually jumped onto my flip-flop right before I came down with my heel (again and again and again and again…). To my horror, it was very flat and had red liquid squishing from its mouth.  I acted like a girl for a few seconds and then took the shoe outside to take pictures and scrape the poor creature off of it.   And then, to my incredible surprise, the frog, who had been seriously flat just a few minutes before, jumped away into the grass!  That was my crazy experience for the night. 

                I think today was my favorite day so far.  It was just so out of the ordinary – the church service, playing soccer with a handmade ball, and running around in a rainstorm trying to play kickball.   Tomorrow should be another good, busy day – crocodile farm!