¿Cómo Se Dice?

This morning I went on some home visits with Whiteson.  After the weekly volunteer meeting, he goes to the homes of each of the children who are mentioned in the meeting.  To get to our destination, I got to ride on a minibus for the first time!  These are like a taxi and subway rolled into one.  They’re like a subway in that a bunch of people are crammed into a small space.  Riding the minibus is very cheap public transportation (at least to us—around 40 cents for a ride), and it can be quite a ride.  We took the minibus to a nearby compound to go to a school to get a child a transfer/enrolled, then to go to some homes.  Then we took a minibus back to Chifubu to go on some more visits and back to Isubilo.  When I got there, Kristi, Alison, and some of the kids were putting together puzzles to see how many pieces were missing.  K Rig you’d be proud—I put together a Star Wars puzzle (HOW does this keeping coming up??).

Something I’ll never get used to is having people (especially children) shout “mzungu!!!” every time I walk by.   Most of the people here rarely see white people, so when they do, they call out to you. It’s both funny and a little unnerving to hear a conversation in Bemba and not understand any of it, then hear mzungu thrown in the middle.

Kristi and I came home around lunchtime today to rest because it’s been a long week, and we’re still recovering from traveling…another minibus ride!  We stopped on the way home to buy some tomatoes from a lady on the street at the Kansenshi Shops, then had a nice walk home—the weather is lovely here!

This afternoon, I read and just hung around the house.  I was reading Proverbs 19 and was struck by verse 2:  “Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.”  There are many things in life that I say that I want and think that I want that I really know nothing about.  I tend to reach for them without researching or learning more about them.  And that second part…oh is that me! I am a planner.  Even now, I’m thinking far too often about what will happen when I get back home. Where will I live? What will I do? Whoa, Liz…slow your roll….if I continue to hurry through each moment, I will miss what the Lord has planned for me—and I definitely don’t want to do that!

Just as I got up to take a shower and cook dinner, the power went out (which happens rather frequently here).  Taking a shower by candlelight is quite relaxing!  Now we’re just waiting on the power to come back on (no telling how long it will be) so that we can cook dinner.

Something rather funny that I’ve been noticing is the way my little brain tends to work.  Clearly, I do not know much Bemba at all. So when I try to communicate, I rack my brain to try to figure out what to say.  The sad thing is, the only language I know any of besides English is Spanish.  It’s funny that, because I’m trying to speak in a new language, some of my Spanish is all coming back to me.  My brain knows English won’t work, so it’s next best option is Spanish.  I guess on the plus side, I’m remembering more Spanish?  Here’s to hoping I don’t actually ask someone, “¿Cómo se dice ____?”