Yesterday I saw everyone from my house over the course of the day. It was almost like normal. But not really. Reading through my journal, I'm going to put up what I wrote on our first full day in Zambia.

"Bedtime - 30 Dec 2009
"I just thought I'd make a brief entry about today. We continue to impress people with our handful of Bemba words, including Ba Charles when we met with him at Hope Ministries offices today. We had a late start this morning, but we eventually all arrived, were given lessons in Bemba & Zambian culture from Ba Charles, (Ubuntu***<-love this!), and had a PB&J lunch. We all went to the Naitonal Bank of Zambia branch in Ndola to exchange our money. It took so long. My $200 in spending money became a very fat 919,000 kwacha. I can not wait to spend it! We also went to the internet café and I was able to update my blog, quickly & briefly . Perhaps next time I should write it out ahead of time. Supper was at Ba Charles' tonight, and we got to hear their story, eat nshima, and learn a new way to eat delicious mango! :) I love it here. That'll do for now - it's bedtime, my mosquito net is pre-arranged (& I did a better job, & it's calling my name)."

Looking back on that first day, I remember being impressed by how simple everything was. Outdoors was beautiful, mornings were slow, food was good, people were friendly, Bemba was fun. There was no complicatedness, no outright busyness, no stress. Perhaps the most stressful thing was attempting to make a rapid blog entry, which apparently didn't even make it up there. Had I known, I don't think I would have been concerned - the blog seemed to be a very trivial thing once I was there. The need to update was just a side-note that was easily ignored and replaced with children, grilled corn, and good conversations.

A note about our experiences in the bank: Americans are REALLY loud. We had just learned about respectful vocal volume in Zambian culture, and it is not loud, let me tell you. So when we had fifteen people in line to change money with only two teller windows open in an echoey bank lobby - you can guess what was disregarded from our lessons. And I don't think that it's because we were being outrightly disrespectful of the lessons we had just learned, it's just really hard for Americans to be quiet, especially when you've already reached the point of utter loudness.

One thing I really loved in our ZamCulture lessons was the concept of ubuntu. Ubuntu is a word that means person, and the cultural concept is that the human being is the most important. When you get a visitor, they are the most important, and you drop whatever you're doing to focus on them and interact with them. In short, the emphasis in Zambian culture is placed on people, not material things. So when someone is talking and a television show is on, you turn down the volume on the tele instead of telling the chatterbox to pipe down. And this is not just an ideal, this is how it is. I experienced this my entire time in Zambia, among the older and younger generations. It was perhaps the best lesson I could learn from this trip, and I've tried to take it home with me. Little things, like dropping in on my friends just to chat for a little bit - without having to "plan time" for them. You plan time for homework and classes, not people, and certainly not your friends. This isn't to say that I'm condemning the making of plans, just the idea that hanging out can't happen without plans being made.

One last thing I want to mention, from my notes during our first ZamCulture lesson, is just a little quote from Ba Charles that I can post now that I'm back safe.

"In case there's a situation: don't die quietly."

This is perhaps the most hilarious bit of advice I have ever received. Serious. But hilarious, you must admit. Maybe you had to have been there. :)

Until next time!

~Jaclynn



"Most of you will return at some point because this is your home." - Ba Charles