I Felt Like a Floppy Noodle
One afternoon, I was asked to share a mission story and so I shared my grandma's story about a village in Alaska, while standing in the shade of the mango trees. I was telling them about the time, the Alaskan village caught a whale and were distributing the meat through out the village. I asked the church, “Who has seen a picture of a whale?” Astonishingly to me, only the SMs, dentists and a few of the other members of our party (that were more traveled) had seen one. I had to describe it as a very big fish, bigger than an elephant. Then I asked, “How many of you have seen pictures of an elephant?” A few more hands, but not a lot. My mind was blown! Most of the Africans I was talking to, had never even seen an elephant?! The rest of my story felt pointless. How would they understand this story from the opposite side of the world? I finished my story and they said that they loved it. I felt conflicted and it really challenged me, my world view compared to theirs is so very different. Having access to a good education and all the resources, like the internet, makes a huge difference. Later, I showed some of my friends pictures of whales and explained to them that unlike sharks, they don’t eat people and that they eat one of the tiniest animals in the ocean. They were so fascinated. It opened my eyes to all the resources we have access to in the United States. I did not expect Africans to not know what a whale was.
While on Crusade, I didn’t really have an assigned job. I wasn’t medical and I couldn’t speak the language, many times I just felt really useless. I wasn’t, but understanding that took a lot of retrospect. There were some days that I was able to help out the clinic by checking people in, other days I was able to help work on the church site, and at first I would go out with the locals to visit villagers in their houses. Visiting houses, was very uncomfortable for me. I could not understand the what was being said and I felt almost like I was there as the attraction Because I didn't have a specific job, I felt so unproductive. I spent so much time doing what I thought was nothing, while in reality I was actually playing a super vital role. I was taking care of my fellow SMs.
I shared my tent with two others, Sarah and Elizabeth. They are both nursing students and helped out in the clinic, seemingly working all day, and sometimes late at night after the evening programs. There is something about Africa that just makes you feel like a floppy noodle after doing anything, our guess was that it was the sun. My roommates would come back from work exhausted, emotionally and physically. However, I had time during the day to clean out our tent from the sand blown in the night before, or slice up the watermelon that we had bought in town to share, or make lemonade....only to discover that the “lemons” we had bought, were in fact yellow oranges (that was a little disappointing.) But still, in my “spare time” I had time to make others feel like humans again.
There were two Mondays that I got to go into town and pick up things we needed/wanted. After the first week, we brought back PB and J. We ate a lot of PB and J… we also purchased filtered water in town that saved us a lot of extra work and kept us healthy. Even with my feelings of helplessness and uselessness, looking back, I realized how important my role was.
During this trip I learned a lot about how Zambians make their food. I helped make nshima, impwa, gluten, soya pieces, cabbage, samp and more. I cut so many tomatoes and onions, which were the main ingredients for the sauce in pretty much every dish. I liked most of it, but there were definitely some things I couldn’t handle. I could not eat the porridge or samp, the rest was good! We also had a lotttt of rice, at least 4+ times a week. I always looked forward to the rice. Food was an "interesting" experience, to say the least. It has definitely made me appreciate my stove, cutting boards and counters, and my fridge.
The evening programs were very organized. Each night we started at 18:30 with Children’s Corner, which I was assigned to be in charge of. I organized nightly story tellers and led the song service. I felt like I was right back at Camp Herritage, singing songs with a bunch of super excited kids. Their favorite song was Making Melodies and let me tell you, after singing that song at least once a day and sometimes many times more, I am a little sick of it. I have to say, that nothing crosses the borders of communication more than sticking your tongue out, waving your arms and legs like crazy and praising God. That feeling is one I hope sticks with me forever! After the Children's Corner came the health talk, then the movie in Bimba (the local’s language) and then the sermon preached by Elder Fortune. There were some nights that were full of people and others practically no one. At the end of 3 weeks, 30 people got baptized, a church was built and hundreds of people were served.
I have never experienced something so draining, motivating and fulfilling all at once. This was such an unforgettable experience and I can track God’s footprints through it all.
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