i was talking with sharon, our "zambian mom"' who helps around the house/office, last week, and she was telling me how she was going to an all night prayer service at her church friday night. she explained how one friday a month people from her congregation meet on friday evening and stay up praying and worshiping all night long til 6am saturday.
a lot of the zambian staff here like to listen to either the bible being recited or christian music and sing along during work. for a couple week period i was working on organizing a bunch of receipts, and i was in the finance office with our bookkeeper, whitcah. his music preference was the bible. in a monotone voice. for hours on end. in an office that is like a sauna. looking at thousands of receipts. for two weeks. i almost went crazy.
i recently took a holiday to livingstone, zambia, where victoria falls is. both the bus there and the bus back, we were on 6am buses. and on both buses, we got preached to for the first 30 minutes of the ride by a preacher. normally i wouldn't mind, but at 6am all i was wanting to do was go back to sleep. both the preachers had their bible out in hand, pacing up and down the aisle of the bus, passing out pamphlets, and preaching the good word. not much escape on a bus (smart on their part), so i listened.
this past saturday we hosted another event for work. this was a vct challenge (voluntary counseling and testing where there is free hiv testing on site for people in the local community). mike spiak (another intern aka spike) and i were put on the very important duty of watching all the food and drinks to make sure they didn't get stolen. seems a bit ridiculous, but it is actually a legit job because otherwise everything would get stolen. throughout the day, kids constantly come up to the window of the room and ask for drinks or food. i always feel bad saying no when i have a whole room of drinks and food, but it's for all the testing partners, staff, etc. only. a lot of kids also just stuck around talking with us. one kid in particular, chipo, kept coming back to talk with us throughout the day. he's a little 10 year old boy with his torn shirt and bare feet, but so smart. he was asking us questions about obama, how america and zambia were different, and then moved onto the religious talk.
spike had left the room at this point, so i left by my lonesome to answer the religious questions. he started asking me if i believed in god, what i thought would happen to me after i died, if i had ever preached the word of god to anyone, and then the why's and why not's that followed each question. i kinda felt like i was being judged a bit by my answers because there was a group of probably 10 kids gathered around listening to the conversation we were having.
our conversation got cut short because i had to go help with some stuff going on with the event. as i was walking out to the main part of the event, bonyolo, a famous actor in zambia, was on the mic doing a performance with the kids all gathered around him. as i was still walking up to the event, i hear bonyolo on the mic say a few words in nyanga then say "mzungu!" i immediately knew i was being called out when all the kids turned and looked at me. surprise, surprise. i knew i should have stayed in my little food cave so i wouldn't get called out. bonyolo calls me into the middle of the circle and says all the kids want to see us dance. so of course, i have to attempt to dance and get laughed at by the hundreds of little kids gathered around. it's always a real confidence booster haha.
once i was threw with the dancing embarrassment, i sat down at the dj area to watch the rest of the performance. i was looking around at the kids in the crowd and made eye contact with chipo. he motioned for me to come over to him, so i went to see what he wanted. "can we finish our conversation?" he asked. "about religion?" i asked back. i hadn't realized it was an ongoing conversation he was wanting to continue, but he said yes. so we walked over to a quiet area, sat down, and he just started paraphrasing the bible to me. he started with creation, moved onto noah, cain and able, and so on. he was able to recite the stories with extreme detail and quote verses upon verses as he narrated the stories. i was immediately captivated by his passion and just listened without saying anything. eventually, others began to gather around to listen to him. at one point, it must have been 30 kids gathered around listening to this little 10 year old boy talk about the bible, and he was completely unphased. he continued looking me in the eye the entire time and never broke his story telling. he spoke non stop for about 30 minutes gaining everyone's attention who walked by. after 30 minutes, he stopped talking, said, "alright, that's all i wanted to talk to you about," got up, and walked away. i was still kinda in a daze from what had just happened, but i thanked him, shook his hand, and told him i was very impressed before he wandered off.
the whole experience was so crazy and inspiring to me. i'm not a particularly devout christian, but the passion he had, his ability to speak so confidently in front of a large group, his knowledge of the bible, and the strengths of his beliefs really amazed me.
love this story. :)
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