A Story a Day...

Well, I've decided I need something to do to pass the time of waiting to hear about Samuel! Lately, I've been thinking a whole lot about the two years we spent in Zambia. I have so many stories to tell, and there's things I've forgotten that all of a sudden come back to mind! So...for any who may be interested and for my own enjoyment :) I'm going to post a story a day from our Zambian experiences!

I'll save you all the details of how we got to Zambia, but basically God turned our plan of taking a 6 month mission trip to South America to two years in Africa. We went there to work with youth and teach abstinence in the schools, tell Bible stories in compounds, and of course play LOTS of games... Our time there ended up a lot differently than when we started, but I'll get to that story later...On to today's story...

Hildah was one of my closest friends in Zambia. She would take me through the largest compound in our town (Mazabuka) which was called Ndeke (in-deh-kay) and we would visit people and basically everyone would stop to stare at the white girl. I can't even describe Ndeke to you...there were huge piles of trash/waste everywhere where pigs and children would both scavenge for food. Houses were tiny rooms with cement bags thrown across some wood for a roof. There are just no words. Anyway, people set up little booths outside their houses to sell goods. We passed one and Hildah insisted I try this item. She said that it was something that pregnant women eat to give them extra nutrition. I asked the name of it and she called it "dote." She yelled at the vendor and asked if the white lady could try some for free. It was really hard and had a rough consistency. I put a bit in my mouth and bit down. It was so hard I could barely break off a little piece. I began to chew and just felt sand all in my mouth..on my tongue...in my teeth. I spit it out and all the 14,000 Zambians (exaggeration) that had gathered to watch the white lady try this began to laugh. "Hildah!! What is this called again?!" "Dote."

From then on, I quickly began to learn Zambian English so that I would not make the same mistake again.

Dote = dirt

Happy waiting!