Action in Africa

Whats up y’all

Back again with another tale of freaky little creatures and don’t worry we are all safe and sound.  Denise, Shaun and Brady almost wet their pants but hey, not everyone is cut out for creepy crawlies.  While standing on ladders and scaffoldings putting up the ceiling in one of the house we were confronted with a 2 inch hornet sitting on the ledge staring us down with its hundreds of eyes.  First man down was Shaun, next Denise high tailed it and then it was Brady!  Let me tell you about Brady! The guy weighs about 210 with arms the size of goodyear industrial sized tires.  But man can that boy move in moments of distress.  He jumped off of the middle of our homemade ladder, dipped and dogged his way around and under the scaffold and out the door.  Man hes got game!  We went back in the room and we saw the small dragon up on the roof building a nest.  I removed it in the most humane way possible at the time and we contiued to work until we realized that the bugger had friends.  Needless to say we were inundated with several visits by some angry relatives.  When we got home Brady had to go out back and do something.  When we went outside in the morning we saw his boxers hanging on the clothes line.  I will try and post some pics, of the hornet that is.

We visited the craft market in Kitwe today and what a show Andy put on over there.  Andy reminded me of Paris Hilton at a Louis Vatton warehouse sale! Buy, buy, buy was the only thing going through his head.  He was buying everything in site.  He almost bought a chicken before someone stopped him.  Rochelle (House Mother) had to tag along with him so he didn’t get suckered by a vendor.  The man is a saint he managed to buy enough items to feed an entire village for 2 months.  I have to thank Rochelle and Roslynn for helping us barter at the market.  Roslynn has been great to us since we arrived.  She prepares our lunches and dinners while we are at the job site.  God bless her. 

Speaking of meals, last night was a treat.  It was Africa day and we had fried catepillars for appetizers and dessert.  I had a few and have to admit it wasn’t bad.  They tasted like fish (sprat to be exact) but add a little chutney and scotch bonnet pepper and its game on.  Not everyone shared my delights though.  Christine (a.k.a. Cynthia) was not feeling the vibe at all.  Judging by her facial expressions and her wanton for water I don’t think it was her idea of steak and potatoes.  Next on the menu were little fish of which I can’t recall the name.  Problem with the fish is that everyone sees them on trays fried and for sale in the markets, at the sides of the road and pretty well at every corner stand.  Problem is they are always in the open air and usually covered in flies.  Quite the site if I say so myself.  Even though ours were cooked at home it still left a bad taste in many of the team members mouths!  The kids however were in seventh heaven!  When they saw the bowls of catepillars and fish come there way there faces lit up like the forth of July.  They polished it off and it was every child for themselves.  The only thing they could say was (Mwango said this by the way) “I’ve had better, these were burned!”  The rest of the meal was great unfortunately I am having a mental block so I can’t tell you the names of what we had.  My bamba is horrible!  Anyhow we had greens, a turned cornmeal type of potato thing and currid chicken.  It was like being back in Jamrock!  It just goes to show that brothas and sistahs all over the world love their greens.

The highlight of the day had to be on our drive home from Grace Academy.  I brought some soccer balls with me thanks to the Young’s, Barb and the Richmond Hill Soccer Club and have distributed them to the kids at Buseko Home, Baluba School (bush school) and to a special group of kids that I see everyday playing soccer with a ball made of old rags in a small field beside the road.  I don’t know if they all go to school but I see them in the morning and then in the evening on my way home.  This was another one of those life experiences that I will never forget.  Laxon our driver, foreman and gentleman extrordinaire warned me that the kids may end up fighting over the ball when I give it to them and it could get ugly.  I was prepared to see a brawl but hoped it wouldn’t come to that.  Anyhow we pulled over and when I jumped out from the back of the truck, I called the kids over to the truck.  They all ran over more excited to see the white folk in the back of the truck then me (of course).  I pulled out the ball and told them the ball was for them.  To them the sight of this ball was golden.  It far overshadowed any look of joy that I have ever seen.  It was incredible.  I tossed them the ball and the kids cheered and yelled overwelmed with the fact that they had a real ball to play with.  These kids were not have nots, they were the have nothings.  But for this one moment in time they were the have everythings.  They were the Donald Trumps of Ndola.  They ran away kicking and chasing the ball.  All I could do was watch in amazement.  I gave another little boy a pump for the ball and he quickly took it and ran away.  The other kids ran him down and I thought he was going to get a royal a$$ whooping.  But he didn’t, instead what appeared to be the oldest girl in the group took the pump from him and scolded him.  The oldest (biggest boy) grabbed the ball and brought all of the kids back to the where I was standing by the truck.  When they came back the kids said “Thank you”.  They could have run away and played but instead they came back to thank this stranger for a ball.  It was great feeling that touched me and made me feel like a hero.  Not even scoring the winning goal in the championship game could feel the way I felt at that moment in time.  Even though it was something so small it felt like the world to me.  Everyone in that truck felt something special when those kids came back.  Before we left we took some pictures and I showed them how to use the pump.  There was no language barrier here.

Peace!

Action Out-spoken!

P.S. More pictures of today on the way.  Stay tuned!