Big Spider!

It was at the end of dinner time and about five or six girls were on the veranda talking (including myself). Our 'student leader' was opening a glass-bottled coca-cola, and it sprayed all over her and the table. We all were laughing over than when we heard people shreaking inside. "What is going on?" was the question repeated quite often, so we all went rushing over into the hallway that lead to the bedrooms, as did the people who were after-dinner-lounging in the big living room. A couple girls were at the end of the hall, where there is a door (with a few cracks in it) and they were jumping back and looking down.

"What is it?"

"It went under there, you can't really see it."

"It's a HUGE spider!"

"Ahhhh!!" The two girls in the hall jumped back as the spider peaked back out at them. The spider was altogether about the size of the palm (yes, PALM) of your hand. Our student leader wanted us to wait for our Professor to see if she could identify what kind of spider it was. By this time everyone was in the little hallway peaking over each other's shoulders and the top of heads to view the creepy crawler. The spider was huddled in the corner, and then scurried to the outer part of the door into another corner where it had no options but to sit and try to hide. There was a lot of laughter, shreaking, and "Oh my word!" 's as the spider tried to hide from all the noise. Our Zambian cook, who had been doing the dinner dishes, came to see what the ruckus was about. He was smiling at hearing our ruckus and looked down to see the little spider. He had a stick-like handle in his hand of some sort and poked at it, which produced more "Ewww!" and "Ahh!" 's and jumping back to avoid the spider. He lau

ghed, and said, "That is nothing," meaning that is nothing to worry about and was about to leave when one of the girls stated, "No, don't just laugh and leave! You have to do something about it!" But, he did leave, I think to get something to kill it with. By this time, as we all were still accumulated in the hall... like a clot in a blood vessel... the spider decided that he wanted to try and jump on our student leader to try and get away. The door was open, so he was making his move, jumping about and trying to get away. Some of the girls screached and backed away, but for some reason I decided that I should go in and try to end that little critter! So, I quickly took of my sandal that I was wearing, crouched down in one fluid motion and swapped that big spider, which stunned it, and then another time to kill it. I think the cook came back while I was busy trying to kill the spider, so he took another long stick-like handle and swept it outside the door. Let's just say that we were all glad that the spider was dead and wouldn't be on one of our pillows the following morning :).

We still don't know what it is. One of the girls thought it might have been a Wolf Spider. I don't know what kind of spider the picture shows, but that's what it kindof looked like (again, this one is off the internet, not from anyone here; where's the camera in the intense moment??). And, it does look like the spider could have been as big as the one in the picture. It did look like the wolf spider, except the end part of the spider (abdomen?) was more pointed at the top and less rounded. But, it had the same shape with the legs and the overall body structure.

I wander what we will have next.

Mbubo, Turkey! (Goodbye, Turkey!)

About everyone went to go see the turkey slaughter this morning. One of the Zambian staff members did the execution process. He used a broad-looking knife, got the turkey ready by tying up the feet and then scraping the knife blade against the rock. He also prepared a hole so that the blood could drain into. The head and throat were then sawed off while the guy stepped on the wings and legs so that the bird didn't flap around and spray us with his blood. The turkey was then hung upside down so all the blood would drain out. Then the Zambian showed us how to make a feather fan, braided the turkey's 'beard', and took pictures with some of the girls with the head of the turkey. Then, we poured the rest of the blood into little tin cups, toasted the drink, and gulped down that delicious, warm, metal-tasteing red liquid.

Not really! Actually, we didn't do anything with the blood, but we will be eating the turkey for Independence day, which is October 24th. But, the Zambian did make a joke about bending down and drinking the blood that was dribbling from the upside-down turkey's neck. Naturally, that joke got a lot of "Ewwwww!" responses from just about everyone, which made him laugh.

Out of courtesy to the people who are reading this blog and don't want to see the process, which we all took pictures of, the picture is only of the turkey alive.

On a non-fatal note: I went to Choma's library and museum today for our History field trip. It was really interesting to see in the museum what different kinds of information they had concerning the village life of the man and woman. The woman's main chores are to cook for her family and husband, housekeeping, childbearing, and making beers for special occasions or for men. The man's roles were hunting, fishing, providing food for the family, and other more important statuses, such as being the chief or a council member of the tribe. It was also interesting to note that a man's status in the tribe is determined by how many children, cows, wives, or land a man has. Apparently, their status isn't 'born-into', but earned by what they have or do. The library was another interesting place. Probably about 90% of the books were on the verge of their 10th year sitting on those shelves it seemed like, and the entire library had that 'old book' smell that some book readers love. There was a variety, but most of the books were educational and factual. I did find a book that talked about William Shakespeare's life story. Of course, the first chapter sentence was ' "What is in a name?" This was said by Juliet...' a very popular Shakespeare line. I personally like Hamlet better. I am not sure about the process of signing a book out, I am not sure that we could. But, I might go visit that library to read about Shakespeare sometime in the future.

Catch and Release

I was walking through the hallway of our guest house when I saw one of the girls look at me with an alert and surprised expression, and said, “There’s a big animal behind the door!” I looked behind the door (it was between the wall and the swung-open door). I was sooo excited and thought it was the cutest thing ever. It is called a Dassie Rat, or a Hyrax. I told the other girl who was there that I needed something to catch it with. She asked: “Do you want me to go get a pillow case?” “Yeah, a pillow case or sack or a sheet or something”, so she got me a sheet. And then, since it was behind the door, I used the door as a wall so it wouldn’t bolt off, and covered the little rodent with the sheet. I kindof did a scooping action around the squirrel/mouse-like rodent and enclosed the sheet around it. It struggled a little when I was trying to pick him up, but then he settled down (in fear) as I got the blanket more securely around him. So, I carried it outside with some girls that were wondering what all the ruckus was about. After walking to the dirt road a few steps from the Guest House, I dropped the sheet and Dassie dashed away across the compound. It’s fun to be from Montana where you see all sorts of wild animals every so often, so I think I am used to it. I did, however, think about the thickness of the sheet, just in case the little rodent was carrying a disease, so I didn’t get bit. But, it was the excitement of the morning. A little disclaimer: the picture does not belong to anyone here - I found it on the internet because I wanted people to see what little rodent I was talking about.

There is a turkey outside that was bought by one of the staff workers here. During and after the rodent episode, he was outside chilling on the cement pad right outside the parking area for the vehicles. He had is mouth open as if he were just about to attack something, and his wings were drooping to his sides in an alert position. And a few minutes ago he was making challenges to his reflection in the tainted windows just a few feet next to me. He's just walking around on the veranda as if he's lived here his entire life. I wonder when we're going to have him for supper...

Yesterday's Adventures

I went into SPAR for the first time yesterday – it’s a grocery store that has practically everything in it. I got some mousse-filled cookies. A girl in my group got some Orbit gum that tasted like cough drops. Yum! Haha. The mousse cookies are really good, though! I practiced some Tonga while passing people on the side of the road or the streets, "Muli buti ?" and they would answer "Ah, kabotu! Muli buti?" and be very pleased that we could say hello to them in Tonga. It seems, at first, that there is a barrier that keeps me from using the little phrases that I know in Tonga, but once I start using them the barrier is broken and it is easier for me to use them more often. I also got fabric to make a chetinge - a wrap-around cloth that has multiple purposes, but can be used to keep skirts clean.

What was more exciting during the hours of yesterday was that a small group of us went out to walk the rural road in the evening and got chased down by 8 or 10 little kids. It was fun. There was one little girl who kept on asking for things: "Where is my bag? Where is my shirt? Where is my money?" so, I assume that a 'Magua' has given her something before. It amazed me, though, that they could speak so well in English because a lot of the little kids I meet can't speak English - they only speak Tonga. One of the girls in my group asked, "Muli buti?" and she got a long explanation in Tonga that none of us could interpret. But, when it came to taking pictures, the kids began to pose in karate-like moves as if they had just watched a Jakie Chan movie. They were very enthusiastic about seeing us and followed us back about 3/4ths of the way to the compound. They then returned back to their villages since it was getting dusky outside. On Monday or Tuesday I get to actually go into the rural villages to pass out "Mealy meal". We are all excited to experience!

The Black Mamba

Scary story:

Yesterday we had a little bit of excitement - and danger! One of the girls in my group was going outside to participate in the 6:15 walk that some of the girls do. She was coming out the door, slipped on the rug, and landed in a sitting position. She did not notice the hanging threat that was about a foot away from her, but once she looked to her side, she noticed a brown/black snake that was resting. So, our group leader told her to go get one of the ladies who lives here to identify the snake, and it ended up being a baby black mamba. So, had the girl been bitten, she would have had 15 minutes to about 7 hours to live. That's pretty scary! And there were also about four or five other girls who had passed the snake on the same path when it was sleeping in that spot. Praise God that no one got bitten!

So, the lady who lives here came over and covered the mamba with a rug or piece of cloth and stomped on it to kill it. Yes, there were pictures taken, but I do not have them at the moment. I was not here for all this excitement, but I wish I could have been! It has amazed all of us how God protected the girl who fell, how he kept one of the most poisonous snakes in the world asleep while a small string of girls walked passed it, and how we all reacted to re-think our safety and be cautious but not nervous or paranoid over the issue!

I had class yesterday, WHIZ (World Hope International Zambia) meetings discussing the Reach4Life program. This program is about teaching those who are in highschool about abstinence and being faithful to the family and spouse. It is souly based on Christianity, and the book that they hand out to the group of highschool students they talk to has a series of situations being faced today and what the Biblical standpoint is on each situation. Such as: The Bible's perspective on Dating and Marriage, and abstinence. There are so many things that WHIZ is doing here in Zambia! A couple weeks from now, I will be able to work with an office in the WHIZ building just a few steps away from our Guest House. I know it will be an amazing experience.

Okay, I am going to try and download some more pictures since the internet is working so great right now:

Here are a couple pictures of some bugs that I took that were inside our bathroom. The black, longated beetle looking bugs lov

e to congregate in there, and we have found at least about 6 or seven since coming here. I found the praying mantis yesterday in one of the bathroom stalls.

The dog's name is Socks. She LOVES to be petted and always wants to play with someone. It's fun to watch the guards play with her every so often. She will run off on a sprint, then come about and ran back to him, duck under a bush or wall, and then run off again.

The other pictures of cows was taken when we were going to Choma from the airport. There were cows everywhere on the roadside!

Dust Tornado

Yesterday at lunch we experienced a crazy natural fluke. At first we didn't know what was going on when the doors to the kitchen slammed shut and then it go really windy just outside the porch area. But, one of the girls had gone outside to sit at the picnic table on the porch and she quickly turned around, saying "Oh! Don't come out here with your eyes open!" She had gotten dust in her eyes from the wind that had all the sudden picked up. But, it wasn't just wind. It was a huge dust tornado-like funnel that picked up the dirt on the road right next to the Guest House and was swirling it relentlessly. At first it was fun and amazing to watch, because it was bigger than the ones we get in the U.S., but as it made it's way to the other side of the compound, distruction was on its mind. Some of the WHI hired ground workers had been working on making a shaded area for the vehicles by propping boards up and nailing tin on top. They had the top covered with tin and nailed down yesterday. But, when the massive dust swirl came by, it tore right through the middle of the roof, taking a big chunk of sheet metal with it and flipping it over to land on the other side of the wall of the compound. The other girl and I were watching and saying, "Oh, no!" "I hope no one got hurt on the other side, because that could really hurt!" "That's horrible! They were working so hard!" as we looked at the swarm of workers that came to observe the damage. One man threw his had on the ground in frustration, understandably so, and other Zambians were trying to get the sheet metal without going on the other side of the compound wall. It will be fixed, I have no doubt, but it was a very intense moment at the time. A dust storm in Africa sure has a lot of power!

Today is classes, more meetings, and possibly another walk to the market. Or, I might use that time to study for my two nursing classes and journaling that I have to do as an assignment. I am going to be doing a lot of writing, which doesn't bother me much since I love to write and express myself through that, but I do have a fear of over-writing or burning out on it. Oh, well. We'll see what happens.