Lost in Africa (hopefully episode 1of 1)

This week I had one of my most traumatic experiences in Zambia so far, other than being sick in April. I got lost in the wilderness while trying to get home from one of the schools in my zone. It was a spazzy day overall on my part because on the way to the school I fell off my bike AGAIN, scraping up the other side of my body just as the right side was starting to look normal. Before you start thinking, “Wow, Caitlin can’t ride a bike,” let me just say that riding on small paths that are filled with sand and rocks and ditches is not as easy as cruising along on pavement. It can be rough, especially because right now its so dry and the sand patches are terrible.
So on the way to the school, which I purposefully went to alone, to see if I could get there on my own, I did not get lost. Halfway, I found a student who was also going to the same school and showed me the rest of the way. However, I must not have been paying very good attention because on the way home, I got very turned around. I had gotten imput from several people on how to get home, but Zambians have a different idea of “directions” I think. From one point to another there are probably a thousand different bush paths to take and depending on where one’s grandma lives or whatever, the directions probably vary from person to person. There is also the language barrier. Since I can only understand the basics, if someone couldn’t speak English, it wasn’t much help. The part of this whole experience was that I left Chikuse school around 4 pm giving myself two hours to get home by dark. It only took an hour to get there, so I thought I would have plenty of time for error. Well, about 5:15 when I found out I was going the completely wrong direction, I began to get worried. Suppressing the rising fear in my stomach, and trying to tell myself this was an adventure, I turned around and asked again for some directions. A woman pointed me to this very small path and said this would take me where I was going. I did not feel good about this tiny path, but off I went. Twenty minutes later I had not seen a single human being, or grass hut never mind the village I was trying to get to. I began thinking I would be sleeping in the bush that night, luckily there would be a lot of moonlight and I still had about half a bottle of water left. I was officially scared since it was about half an hour before dark and because the path had forked a couple times I didn’t even know if I was on the right path anymore. Finally I passed a woman who confirmed I was on the right path and close to the village I was looking for. I went a bit further and found a family where I had them physically walk me to the road. This was a good idea because even though they told me “Its close, just through there” It was actually a 5 minute bike ride away and I wouldn’t have been able to have found it from those vague directions. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at my hut, although these last 20 were pretty much in the dark. It was a very scary experience but all the Zambians that I encountered were very nice and helpful. I knew that if worse came to worse, someone would give me some food and let me sleep on there floor. In fact they would probably think it was really exciting to have the strange white person stay with them. It was only when I didn’t see any villages that I was worried I was really in trouble. When I told my villagers I got lost, they insisted that from now on, I can’t go anywhere by myself. I’m pretty sure I won’t live this one down for the next two years.

Last Sunday, I went to a ceremony that takes place before a wedding and the purpose is to instruct the bride-to-be on how to take care of her husband. It consisted of about 20 women crammed into a small hut dancing around topless to drumming. One by one, every woman there, stood up, took off there shirt and showed their best dance moves. It was so crazy, you can’t imagine. There were two women playing drums and this is the only context I’ve seen women playing drums in. They were quite good. The rest of the details of this ceremony are not really suitable for the internet but if are truly interested from maybe an anthropological perspective, just ask me some other time. At the end the women made me dance and it was hilarious to see their reactions to my dancing.

Other than that, life in the village is pretty normal. This month there hasn’t been much going on in my schools because they are having various competitions, including sports, science fair, and drama and arts competitions. It is definitely cold season in Zambia. Right now I'm sitting wrapped in a blanket with fleece socks on. Its probably in the 60's outside but I don't know if I'm very good at guessing the temperature and I haven't seen a thermometer in Zambia. Biking at 6:30 in the morning can be especially chilly and I'm usually bundled with gloves. It really doesn't seem like temps in the 60's and 70's would be that bad and its actually really nice when the sun is out. However, taking a bath can be something I sort of dread. The wind is especially painful. It can be really windy here and that's what makes the cold really uncomfortable. Don't worry though, mom, I have plenty of warm clothes here.

Shout-outs for the awesome packages I received from Mamie, Lori and Kathryn and Cortney. They were packed full of wonderful things and needless to say, in the last week I have eaten more than my fair-share of candy. YAY. THANK YOU.