The people of Zambia

THE PEOPLE OF ZAMBIA

 
This is the Lusaka District at an activity in our back yard.  We went to Kalimba Farms (the croc farm) with them and we were not able to have croc burgers while there.  So we bought some ready-to-cook ones and brought them home. We then invited the district over for a BBQ or braii, as they call it.
Sister and Elder Groesbeck, Elder Knobloch, Elder Gova, Elder Salmon, Sister Kinikini, Sister Marriott, Sister Donkoh, Sister Salmon, and Sister Owusu-Afriyie. We have a pretty large, nice yard so it was fun to have them over.  And the timing was perfect, it started to rain just as we were finishing up!


Sister Fides Zimba and her father, sister and brother were baptized in November of last year.  Fides is one of our wonderful nursery teachers.  The kids love her.  She wants to serve a mission and so we are filling out her mission papers.  She isn't 19 yet, but is starting to save money for passport and other things she will need to go.

Fides and her mom, who is not a member yet, wanted to teach me how to cook Zambian style.  So they fired up the charcoal and I fried the chicken (fortunately they killed it and got it ready to cook) and then they coached me on making Nshima.  I'm not really good at it.  I would think after mixing bread by hand all these years my arms would be strong.  But they are not strong enough for a full pot of nshima.  Those women really know the technique and the nshima was great.

  
This is Joseph Zimba.  We had a little lego kit for a motorcycle and he put it together and was pretty excited bout it.  On the right is Philip Mwanamoyo who is cleaning fish for dinner.

Brother Moses has been the mechanic and body man for repairs on mission vehicles.  Below is his shop. I told him he needs a roof over it so it's not so hot working on the cars.  He said he was fine.  Africans don't seem to be bothered by the heat as much as us muzungus.  On the right is the back door of his house where he wants to build a deck.  You can see where he has started the foundation for it.  He is quite a character.  He is very fast at fixing the vehicles and is very reasonably priced.   Unfortunately, because of numerous accidents, we have had to use his service very frequently.
 
The White's started a little business of selling rice and potatoes at a small shop in Emmsdale.  It is very close to Batiste's house so we walked over to her shop to see how things were going.  Sister White is the Primary President and is pregnant with their 4th child due in December.  She said the business is doing well and they are making money.
 
LaNice's birthday cakes--one made by Sister Kupu and the other bought by Alan.  They were both good.  The Assistants, Elder Ssengooba and Elder Salyards, bought her a watermelon.  It was very interesting that, in the market (not in the stores), the vendor will cut a piece of the watermelon so the buyer can see how red it is.  Wish they would do that in the stores because we have bought some pretty bad watermelon.  This one was very good.
  

Ngoni Warriors

Sis Zulu's husband invited us to watched some members of his Ngoni warrior tribe perform their traditional dances and songs  in a near by shop parking lot. Before it got started, Alan got his picture taken with three warriors and Mr. Zulu.

The shop keeper offered to get us chairs; we chose to sit on the steps. We found the people were kind and willing to explain their history. This is quite a contrast to the feared fierce warriors of their past. The dancers all bowed their head in silent prayer before they began the dance to tell their history. Most of the men wore heavy boots with many bells attached.  They danced to the rhythm the bells made as they stomped their feet and danced.   The younger children who were learning the dance did not wear the bell boots. 



In the early 1800's they were driven out of South Africa by the Zulu warriors after years of  fighting. As they traveled north, they plundered villages along the way. While crossing the Zambezi River, crocodiles got some of them. A solar eclipse also occurred which they took as a sign that the Gods were unhappy with them for their plundering. They settle in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. 



 The British conquered them. They use knock berries (a stick with a ball on the end) and a short sword as weapons in close hand-to-hand combat as it shows more courage than throwing a spear. 

  
   

The warriors show their bravery by wearing strips of hides from leopards, lions, cheetahs, hyenas and other wild animals they have killed

                                          It was a very interesting cultural experience.

Mission Life

We went with the Bishop, his wife and Sister Zulu to visit a sick sister, Sister Juliet Kalale, at UTH (University Teaching Hospital).  I told Alan if I got sick to let me die before bringing me to this place.  I guess they are helping people get well, but it was pretty disheartening to see all the ill staying in the conditions they were.  I guess, for them, it's better than nothing.  But for me, I'm not so sure.

One day after church these members caught a ride home with another member who had a small truck and was willing to take them.  They had to push-start the truck before leaving.  They were pretty happy to not have to walk home in the hot sun.

  
These are two of our sweet Nursery kids--Hope and Purity.  They absolutely love Alan as he is the one who is in there with them the most.  They are very happy and do very well when Fides, or someone who speaks Bemba, is there with them.  It's a little hard when it's just Alan, but they can tell he really loves and cares about them.

We have been in the Primary since we arrived and have had a generally great experience with the kids..Almost every Sunday as we unload from the truck, there are children who come running to help us carry in all our bags.   Today it was Tabeta and Deborah Musanga. They are usually there early as their father, Kennedy, is a very faithful greeter and is always there before most everyone else  The bags are usually pretty heavy and almost as big as the girls, but they are always waiting and cheerfully asking to help  .
On the right is Fides and the nursery.  They sure love her and she is so good with them.  She is teaching them how to be reverent in church and how to share and love each other.
p.I don't know what the Primary will do when she goes on her mission.  She is just starting to fill out her papers, so we have her for a few more months anyway.

 
"Living Water Skit" for the missionary fireside.  Alan was offering living water to missionaries who came to receive it. One had a colander where the water just went right through and he was always asking for more but not retaining any that was given him.  One just sort of wandered around with his glass half full as if he was wondering what he was even doing there,  One had a tiny cup and was very happy to get just a little bit.  One had a large pitcher and was continually asking for more and retaining what he had received.  This was compared to what people will take away from the fireside. Some will wonder why they even came, others will take away a little bit, some will hear and then forget what they heard and a few will take what they learn and continue to ask for more.


I gave a talk at the fireside about finding joy in the gospel and "are we having fun yet?"  It was a good fireside/

Us with Elder Ssengooba and Elder Brewerton.  On the right is Elder Brewerton shredding his Mission Support Card just before leaving for home.  When he served as the finance secretary before we got here, this was his favorite thing to do for the other missionaries.  He was excited when it came time to shred his own.
 
The mission purchase a new 12-passenger van.  Elder Salmon was instrumental in getting the deal done and getting the vehicle licensed.  Jackson, our guard at the Mission Office, was one of the first to sit in it.  He was excited about that.
 
They were hungry (no surprise there) so we took them to KFC for chicken.  They were pretty happy.  Elder Chawaguta, Sis. G., Sister Brown, Sister Asemnyinah.
 
We picked up these missionaries from the Copperbelt so they could go to Immigration for their visas. They were excited to learn that they were some of the first ones to ride in the new van and wanted a  picture with it. Sis. G., Elder Chawaguta, Elder Nemakonde, Sister Asemnyinah and Sister Brown.

This is Peter.  He is the groundskeeper at the Mission Office and he does a nice job of maintaining the lawns and plants around the building. They are finishing up some work on the pool. With this hot weather it looks inviting, we may try it it out.


The member who we went to visit at the hospital died and we attended her funeral.  I played the piano for the music and the missionaries helped sing with the choir.  This trailer was pulled behind a van and is where the body was placed.

The cemetery was sort of a dry and desolate place, but was pretty well organized.  Many of the graves were just mounds with no markers, but were the newest ones, I think and so were waiting to receive their markers.

This is the burial place of the sister who died, Juliet Kalale. She was 56 years old and they are not sure what she died of.  The casket was lowered into the ground and then people shoveled dirt in to fill the hole while we watched.  Then people come and put flowers in the dirt.  First comes the immediate family, then extended family, then friends and lastly church members. There was much wailing prior to the church serve for the viewing.  Most of those in attendance were not members of the church.  There is so much comfort that comes in know God's plan of salvation for his people.  She was an endowed member of the church and had a son, Joseph, who is going to school at BYU-I, who flew in for the funeral.  Interesting fact:  he and his family were taught and baptized by a missionary from Mapleton named Joshua Wilson.

Eureka and Lilayi

We have a man from the Philippines who moved into our ward and works as an advertising producer of commercials.  His name is Rene Quero. He's very good.  Anyway, his family is not here and his kids keep asking him if he has seen any animals and his answer is always "no", so one afternoon we went out to Eureka so he could see zebra, giraffe and antelope.  We had a hard time finding the giraffe, but we finally did find them hiding in the back of the park.
 


Then we went to the Baby Elephant Orphanage at Lilayi.  It's always fun to watch the babies.  This time there was a new baby who had just arrived the week before.  He had been attacked by a crocodile while crossing the river after his mother was poached and killed.  The crock got his tail, but not the rest of him.  He was pretty sick and they were not sure until just the last few days if he was going to survive.  It made us think of the Spiritual Crocodiles that Elder Packer talked about.  We can't afford to let those spiritual crocs even get close to us because of the damage they can do, which may be spiritually fatal if we don't get help we need to repent.  It turned into a great lesson!

Birthday Parties in Zambia

The Zimba family is quite amazing.  The father, two daughters and one son were baptized last year.  They are always so happy to have the missionaries come and they ALWAYS feed us.  So, this day was Sister Zimba and Dickson's birthdays and we decided to feed them.  I made banana cake and spaghetti (Sister Zimba's request) and we went out to their house for dinner.  They still fixed us food even when we told them we would bring it.  They braied (BBQ) chicken and made salad.  It was a fun evening.

 
We were giving a lesson on how our testimony is like a balloon, the more we put into it the more it will grow.  Then it sort of got out of hand and everyone blew up and tied their balloons and we had a balloon war.  Below is Sis. G. Sister Zimba, Dickson, Elder Komakech, Joseph Zimba, Elder Brewerton and Elder Maele

This is the whole Zimba family.  Front row:  Joseph and Dickson.  Back row:  Fides (our wonderful Primary Nursery teacher--the kids absolutely LOVE her), Brother Dick Zimba, Sister Zimba and Precious.  About half the family is active.  The others come sometimes.  

Here we all are.  It was a fun night and afterwards, Fides told me that her mother said she didn't think "those people" loved her so much!  It's fun to help them celebrate their birthdays here.  Many people don't even know when their birthday really is so they make one up like 10-10 or 5-5 and then the year.  It makes it easier for them to remember.  And then they don't really celebrate birthdays here much, so it's fun to make a day special for the birthday persons.

Pohamba is one of our Primary children who Alan baptized earlier in the year.  He is a little handicapped and is small for his age.  His mother is also handicapped so they don't make it to church often because they can't really walk that far and they often don't have money for transport.  We made him a cake for his birthday and took it out to them the day before his birthday as we had another appointment on the actual day.  So we lit the candles and he blew them out and then they saved the cake so they could invite his friends over on his actual birthday and have cake to share with them.  Like I say, they don't celebrate these days here much so this cake was the highlight of his birthday party.  We took him a soccer ball and he was delighted.  (So were the neighborhood kids who play with it as much as he does!)

Here are celebrating Bishop Chifunda's birthday with his family.  We took out Hungry Lion chicken and I made a banana cake.  He doesn't like chocolate and Africans don't eat nearly as many sweets as we do. So he requested the banana cake. He is such a wonderful man and has a gracious wife and wonderful family.  His son, Davis, is learning to play the piano and is doing very well.

Well, so much for the birthdays in September and October.  It's always fun to spend time with the members, especially when one can be honored on their birthday!