"Martha" Arrives & Darbi Gets Some Culture! :)

The following is my email back to our families from today - I thought it might make an interesting blog post! :) Hey ya'll! It is 7:30pm and we are sitting here in the dark - lately power is out 2 hours every Monday and Friday nights. We could get used to that if they would keep it on a schedule! Today was an unusual day!! We left at 8am for Choma with Debbie & Nick. We first stopped at a huge dairy farm about 40 minutes from here. They are white farmers who produce 2,000 liters of milk each day! The milk company, Parmalat, sends a milk truck every day for their milk! Anyway, they are so nice and had agreed to sell a cow to us. They have TONS of land and it is absolutely GORGEOUS - probably the prettiest place I"ve seen in Zambia!! So we dropped off one puppy and Debbie & Nick to figure out the cow details and we headed to Choma with plans to arrive back for lunch. Choma was normal, except at Spar! It is the 5th anniversary of Spar in Choma, so they were doing all these promotions, so as we checked out with 3 huge baskets, they stop us and ask us to copy our receipts and pop two balloons to win prizes.. So we each win a tshirt and have to take pictures with our shirts with the whole Spar staff - it was chaos!! So anyway we arrive back at the farm for our meal. She told us it would be a cold lunch. Mike's father came to Zambia from England in the 20's, and Jill's grandfather was a farmer here, so they are both truly Zambian. Anyway, so we first sit down in the veranda for pre-dinner drinks. (Water and juice, though they offered gin & tonic!) Then they said once we were all settled with drinks, we went in for the meal. The table was formally set and I was so nervous!! I was definitely very aware of my table manners! (Blu never once used his napkin!) We had cold meatloaf, salad, boiled potatoes, beetroot, and homemade bread. It was so good! There were two bowls on the table, and I asked what one was. Jill looked at me funny and said "mayonnaise..." I looked at my plate and couldn't figure out what mayonnaise could be for, so I look in the other bowl and she says "That's green tomato chutney." Aha, I think! Something for my salad! So I put in on my salad and Mike looks a little funny at my plate. I start eating and finally Mike says "Do you eat chutney??" We said "No..." And he said "Oh..well we usually put it on our meat." LOL Oops!! I was so embarrassed, but honestly it tasted good on both! :) As we finished our meal, she brought out dessert. It was an apple and tomato crumble with fresh cream from their cows on top! It was good! We were all feeling very full when she said "Ok now it's time for cheese and crackers!" She brought out a big tray of salty crackers with homemade cream cheese and a cheddar type of cheese. It was here that Debbie used the wrong knife for the cheese and it was her turn to be embarrassed! The meal was over at that point, but we were told we needed to go back to the veranda for tea and coffee! So we head out there and have some delicious fancy tea (chamomille and lavender for me!) with more fresh cream! Then they bring out the chocolate!! :) The meal began at 12:45 and we finished at 3pm :) I could get used to lunches like that!! After that, Blu & Debbie finished the discussions of the cow, and arranged for transport of "Martha" to New Day. She is a gorgeous cow and should have her calf around September 17. And after that we will have milk and make butter, cheese, etc!! It was truly a GREAT day of new cultural experiences and excitement for New Day to become more self-sufficient! This family was so friendly and invited us to come back with the kids to tour the farm! We ended the night with supper at the Wilcoxes because we got back so late, and now the kids are asleep so we will head back over there for games! Love you all tons! Darbi :)