Come into my hut....

We spent Easter weekend in Lake Kariba. A woman picked us up from our resort to take us to her church. We walked for awhile until we reached her village. They all lived in grass huts, very close together. We weaved through the huts and people looked up astonished to see Myzungas (white people) walking through their village. There were many people cooking over fires outside. The children started following us. By the time we reached the church, there were around 30 children behind us. Quite a parade! The church was a slightly larger hut. The huts have very low doorways, so even I had to duck. The roof is thatched with mud, but there were many holes and bits of grass would fall on us as creatures scurried around. We sat on wooden benches and it soon became packed. There are many holes in the walls, and there were children crowding around them to look in on us. They would stick their hands through to try and touch us. When they did touch my hand, they would squeal and pull their hand out. Many people, especially children in the villages in Zambia, have never seen a caucasian person!!

The church service was amazing. It was a pentacostal church. We had two different sermons. And every sermon is given in Tonga and English. So church takes a long time! The pastor preached about Mark 5, when Jesus took just a few loaves of bread and fish to feed thousands of people. He talked about how even in a poor rural area with few resources, God can do great things. It really touched me because that was during a time I was so discouraged with everything that was going on in the pediatric ward. The worship songs were all in Tonga and the people would really dance. The pastor sat next to me and would tell me what the songs were about. The video clip of the women singing has a worship song that is "when you bless the children, bless me as well".

Afterwards, they had us get up in front and they introduced us. There was mainly couples in the group. When they got to me, they looked around after I introduced myself for my "husband". And so I told them no, no, its just me. So they announced in Tonga that I was single, which caused a great cheer from the church. Haha!! Then everyone danced, shaking those hips, and paraded out of the church to shake hands.

Oh yay, we saw wild zebras including a baby on the way back! :)