January 9, 2011
This morning was beautiful. It was warm and sunny. We had fresh fruit and the best tasting orange juice I've ever had! I walked around to see the beautiful flowers and trees and sat on the steps of the veranda and watched the clouds float quickly by and the rain come and go as it often does here.
We then went to church and sang a song in front of the congregation. After was a time of fellowship and tea. Part of Zimbabwe's history, or most of it actually, involves the British who colonized the country in the late 1800s, about 1890 (I think). So, everyone has a sort of African/British accent. It's beautiful! We met alot of new people today! We met guy named Jeff, a new doctor who is here for about 6 weeks to work in the Karanda hospital. Joy and Desire and their boy Shawn are from the church we visited. Joy helped me learn a bit of Shona (the tribal language in eastern Zimbabwe). I also met a women (whose name I have actually already forgotten!) who told me about a Christian counseling center she works at. She encouraged me to ask about it and go to visit it.
After church, we went to the Everswick's home (another missionary couple helping us while we are in Zimbabwe--but only Doug is here in Zimbabwe) for the Braii. A Braii is just like a cook-out here in the US. Lots of people, lots of food. At the Braii we met even more people like: the Everswick's daughter Rachelle (who the first group go to know for the week they were there before us), Phil and Karen and their daughter Isabelle who moved to Zimbabwe in October from Mozambique, Theresa and her daughter Rumbi (sp?). While we were there we learned about the history of Zimbabwe from Mr. Everswick, culture from Desire and alittle more culture from Jonathon.
I couple things I learned today:
~ idea of modesty--VERY strict
~ PDA-- mostly non-existent
~ children are the same in how they play and the joy they portray no matter where I go!
~ we take water SO for granted (we have to boil and filter water nightly)
~ missionaries work SO hard
~ staple food-- Sadsa which is made from a type of corn mel called millimeal (sp?). It's real thick and sticky and usually eaten with fingers and eaten with creamed corn, stew, veggies or meat. I had some today at the Braii and it was yummy! But very filling (it's supposed to expand in your stomach)
~ they have supermarkets here! We went to one today--they had ostrich meat and gammon (whatever that is) and lots of things like liver. They have ice cream and pizza and soda and all sorts of things we are used to, but they usually taste a bit different and have much less variety available.
~ eggs have white yolks here because the chickens do not only eat grain, but they eat grass too.
Phil and Karen
Our Group in front of Emerald Hill Community Church
Food at the Braii-- the white stuff that looks like mashed potatoes is Sadsa
R to L: Jeff, Jonathan, Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment