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I know it seems weird that I am actually writing a blog a few days early instead of a few days late but so many good things have already happened this week, I didn’t want to overload you at the end of the week.

This past weekend, one of my projects was to paint the new shower wall. Remember Anna destroyed my bathroom? I really assumed this was going to be a 12-15 hour endeavor and then we could go back to using our shower like normal. All I had to do was paint a piece of particle board. I had only purchased 1 liter of paint but I figured as long as I could paint the parts that could possibly get wet in the shower, I would be fine. The first problem was that the paint I purchased was actually water with white food coloring in it. I am not convinced that was paint at all. It was literally like trying to paint with water. And yes, I stirred it. The second problem was that I totally underestimated the sponge-like nature of particle board. My water paint disappeared into the depths of the particle board like I hadn’t even touched it.  After two coats of white colored water, I sent Chipo for another bucket of paint. There just happened to be another bucket of paint in the guest house. Lucky us. When Chipo returned with the bucket, I opened it to find paint that had grown skin. It took me a few jabs to even get the stir stick (that would be a branch off a tree) through the plastic skin.  Awesome. My choices are white water or paint that has skin. I had to opt for the skin paint because I was making zero progress with white water.  Five coats of paint and two days later, we could use our shower again.

Before I tell you the next story, I need to teach you a Tonga word – bbunkwayi (boon-kwhy – ee – that’s the best phonetic spelling I can offer you). Bbunkwayi is a word that comes from the sound a dog makes when you beat him, at least a Zambian dog.  To call someone a bbunkwayi would be like saying you are as poor as a dog – you have absolutely nothing in life or that nothing good ever comes out of you, you’re worthless.  If you have a little more than a dog, you can be upgraded to a kwayi.

Sunday night brought us a wonderful thunderstorm complete with heavy rains.  Since neither Chipo nor I had showered for over a day, I thought it would be a great idea to take a shower outside. Part of our catwalk/balcony (I have no idea what to call the landing outside our apartment) isn’t covered with iron sheets so the water runs right off onto the balcony.  I was sweaty from painting the shower, I needed to wash my hair because school was the next day and Chipo also needed a good scrubbing. We packed up our soap, washcloths, and headed outside in the rain for our bbunkwayi shower. I was washing the paint off my legs and Chipo had her face covered in soap when God caught off the water supply during the middle of our shower.  Chipo stumbled around like a blind lady until I helped her with the washcloth. It was a good time but I think I will save bbunkwayi showers as a last resort.

Tuesday was also quite the enjoyable day. Monday night brought more heavy rains in the night and some light showers in the morning. I decided to wait until the afternoon to go up to school because I knew there would be very little students show up for the morning session. It was a great time to hang out with Chipo since I feel like I hardly spend time with her during the week anymore since she is not attending school.  Chipo and I decided to bond over washing our clothes together. I told Chipo I wanted to wash clothes and I think that was as good to her as watching a movie. Apparently I’m fairly entertaining when I pretend to be Zambian. I had Chipo give me yet another lesson on washing. She didn’t like how I washed and I am incapable of washing how they wash. We had a competition. We each had to wash one my dirty white socks. Win or lose, Chipo had to wash one of my socks to participate so I immediately felt like a winner. I scrubbed and scrubbed. I always play to win. The outcome looked like a commercial for bleach. You know how they always hold up two articles of clothing where one looks blinding white and the other not so much? My sock was the not so much one. Chipo obviously cheated and used bleach while I wasn’t looking.

The afternoon brought even more excitement. I did two things that I didn’t think I would ever do. One, I ate ants.  The rain that morning that had brought the edible flying ants to the school. All of the kids know that Misheck loves the ants so they brought him all they could collect. I told him of my jealousy and desire to try one. I got my wish. I was delivered fried ants sprinkled with salt. Once they were in front of me, I was pretty hesitant. First, they don’t really look like normal ants. Not that normal ants look edible. They are rather large for an ant with a normal looking head. The thorax looks like a bright yellow sac. I’m sure you can imagine a slight hesitation to stick an ant with what appears to be an infected butt into your mouth.  After eating one, I really couldn’t get enough of them. I couldn’t stop eating them. They were delicious. I was pretty bummed I didn’t have my camera to take a picture of that delicacy. Hopefully the ants will make their way to the farm soon enough so I can have them for dinner.

The second accomplishment of the afternoon was walking completely through a pair of Teva sandals. I can stick my finger clear through the heel of the sandal. I will be bringing those home as a trophy. I have never owned a pair of flip-flops long enough to ever walk through them.

The night time brought us a ridiculous amount of flying ants (not the edible kind, the annoying biting kind) and some kind of crazy millipede that likes to sting you. Zesco went out when we were in the middle of cooking lesson by Winefredah on how to make fritas (fried dough). We had at least finished cooking dinner.  We decided to go to Winefredah’s house, cook on the open fire, and eat our dinner. It was nearly impossible to keep the ants of our dinner and out of the fritas. After we were finished cooking and battling all the ants for our food, Winefredah wanted to roast a cob of maize in the fire. Chipo in her very dramatic fashion starts exclaiming, “Oh my God in heaven!” She apparently had missed eating maize off the cob. We had been eating sweet corn recently but I guess nothing is better to her than roasted field corn.

Onto Chipo’s corner:

She has been extra funny for these few days but I’m not so sure these stories will be funny if you weren’t there but I’ll give it a try anyway.

Chipo wanted to play tic-tac-toe with me. She doesn’t like to use Xs and Os because they are too boring. She prefers to write her entire name in the box or make up some intricate symbol that takes 4 minutes to draw. I don’t kill her dream. She interrupted our intense game to ask me if I had a favorite finger because she definitely had a favorite finger. Her favorite finger was her ring finger on her left hand. She told me it was the most beautiful of all her fingers.  I asked her if it was her favorite because she wanted to get married. Maybe.  Our next game of tic-tac-toe, Chipo used I do to mark her boxes. I asked her if she used I do because we just talked about marriage. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, “No, I do believe in fairies. Peter Pan?”  What was I thinking?

 

Chipo was complaining when she was washing her clothes about how the armpits of her shirts didn’t smell very nice. I asked her if she had ever worn deodorant. I had heard them talk about deodorant in the 7^th grade class and how it was a luxury item in the world of hygiene. You wore it if you could afford it. Chipo said she had never worn deodorant and she didn’t remember ever learning about it.  I told her that I would introduce her.  I got out an extra deodorant from the vacuum sealed package from my dad. I explained rather thoroughly when you should put on deodorant, where you put it, etc.  Later that night when I came back from school, she says to me, “Do you put the deodorant on your skin or on your shirt?” On your skin Chipo, definitely not on your shirt and definitely not on your lips (you’re welcome Tiff*ny). She then very enthusiastically smells her armpit, and says, “I want to introduce my whole family.”

The next blog should be up on Monday or Tuesday. Chipo’s 13^th birthday is on Monday and her party is on Sunday.  I’m sure something blog-able will happen there. Have a great rest of the week!

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