Saturday's Events Continued

so after we left Mburiashi Student Centre we visited Senye's family. they live quite close to flora. senye's sister, aelieka (uh-ay-lee-ay-ka), is learning english at secondary school, so it was fun to speak some english with her. Her beautiful smile lights up a room. i have a photo of her and i together which makes me smile! anyway, senye's family also decided to bless me with a chicken, along with some wonderful oranges. (as a side note, the oranges here never get orange - they remain green but taste so much better than any oranges i've ever eaten in america!) the oranges are fresh from their trees; they are very sweet and juicy. senye's mom presented me with the chicken, a rooster.

after about 20 minutes we said good-bye and started driving toward's asante's house. the path between senye's house and asante's house is quite narrow and not very well traveled. by now the sun had come out and the road wasn't nearly as bad as the other road leading to mburiashi. i was seated in the front near the door, and of course i had my window open because it's hot here. so as we drove the village kids would catch a glimpse of me, and start shouting with glee 'MZUNGU!!!!!'. i still can't help but wave at the precious, little children who are so excited to see a white person. it just makes me happy!

we arrived at asante's house about 3 to be greeted by martha, asante's wife, who had prepared a wonderful meal for us. we shared ughali, meat sauce, kale and bananas.

again i'm going into way too many details!

because senye was supposed to have the monster back at the base by 2 (it was after 3.30 when he left asante's and it's a 45 minute drive) senye, his wife, and abraham left shortly after we finished eating. about 4 asante and i walked to his church for a youth group meeting, which consisted of me leading a few students in discussion. i asked the 5 students to tell me what type of clothes they would want if they could have any clothes in the world. one of the girls wanted a demin skirt. several of the girls wanted tailored suits. the young man in the group said that he wanted to have a green, tailored suit. that's dreaming big. we talked about many different things, and i invited them to ask me questions. their questions were simple, but very heart-felt. some asked about what types of crops we raise. some asked about my family - why it's so small.

when the meeting was over asante and i left. but the youth all stayed to cleaned the church. they are not asked to do it, but have been entrusted with that task. it's an honor for them to be able to clean it. no one supervises them, and they do an incredible job preparing the facility for sunday's worship service. there's a lesson to be learned in that.

asante and i walked to the soccer field where his team was playing. he didn't play, but wanted to go and support his team. it was my first time to experience a real soccer game. the game is pretty cool when you're standing next to the field goal. the entire perimeter of the field was filled with on-lookers. the crowd was pretty large. guess that's just what the people do on saturday afternoons. the game was really intense, with some great hits. it was crazy to see people's reaction to me being there - the white lady. one guy was saying to asante, 'you should get that mzungu to sponsor our team!'. i couldn't help but laugh when asante translated that to me.

after the game we walked back to asante's house. it was time to prepare dinner. guess what we had? fresh chicken! and i had the privelege of cutting the head off my chicken, gift from Flora. asifiwe, asante's sister, and martha helped me to accomplish this task. then they prepared the meal. i have some great photos of the food being prepared. there's nothing like creating a full meal over an open fire. when the fire gets low, you pick up an axe and chop some of the firewood into smaller peices. martha is a beast at using the axe! she has my full respect for that skill! preparation took about 2 hours. (in the states it would've taken maybe 30 minutes) we had spaghetti, chicken, vegetables and bananas. the chicken that flora gave to me supplied food for 8 people. as i was eating that wonderful chicken, i couldn't help but be humbled. flora, whom i sponsor, had given me a chicken. we don't even get chicken at the base where i live - it's a special treat for me to get chicken. and she graciously gave it to me as a way of saying, 'thanks'. that's so incredibly special to me.

i will have to write about what happened on sunday later. it's time for class now.