One finger cannot kill a louse…
I’m sitting in my front yard as I type this looking out over Lake Kariba. This morning it is overcast and breezy. The lake is white-capping and far out over the lake I can just make out the blue mountains of Zimbabwe. The lake is currently very high (about 15 feet from the fence in our front yard) and I can see two or three Tonga fishermen out on the lake today in their dugout canoes. Usually there are quite a few out on the water putting out nets and then splashing with sticks to run the fish towards their nets, but I’m guessing the weather has kept most of them in.
A large fish eagle soars overhead, riding the winds, looking for breakfast. I keep hoping to see one hit the water and come up with a huge tigerfish but no luck yet.
Since coming to Zambia 3 months ago this week is the first time we’ve been at our home in Sinazongwe by ourselves, just the five of us. Our “nganda” (Tonga for home) is really unique, I think of it as a 5-star hut. It is a 3 bedroom /2 bath thatch roof house with a separate little “kitchen hut” out in the yard. The kitchen hut is destined to become the “school hut” in a week or two when the teacher (Marci) gets all her homeschooling materials in, and the Superintendant (Me) gets it painted. (I know, that may sound more like the work of the janitor but sometimes us superintendants have to model servant-leadership.) Speaking of learning, Marci and I have just started on our Tonga. It’s slow going and I can see that it might become a little frustrating. For one, Zambians often get their “r” and “l” sounds mixed up. I think Dad was called “Lon Rangston” more than once while they were here visiting last week. This also reminds me that one day while visiting with a Tonga man he shared with me my first Tonga proverb. We were talking about being good neighbors and helping each other when he said “yes, you know, one finger cannot kill a louse.” My puzzled expression probably prompted him to explain it takes two fingers (working together) to kill it. Interesting.
So in the past three months we’ve stayed in a wide variety of places including: our supervisors house in Gwembe, The Baptist Guesthouse in Lusaka, a hotel in Siavonga, a canvas tent in Kawere, a really nice hotel called Ibis Gardens, and the kitchen hut of Henry and Daisy Chipanga in the village in Eastern Province. I can assure you it was the last one that was probably the most memorable. The Chipangas allowed us to stay with them in their “spare hut” for 3 nights as part of our 40-40 training. The first day we got to the Chipangas they were so excited that “mzungus” (Tonga for “whities”) would come and stay with them that they gave us a tour of their place. I know I’ve told some of you but what I remember most of this day was them showing us our hut, then showing us the chicken house right by our hut and Henry saying “well, actually that’s my old chicken house, I had to move them because a cobra kept coming in and killing them….” Not what I wanted to hear 30 minutes before bedtime. Luckily between Henry’s strong African accent and the Zambian’s mix up of “l” and “r” the kids didn’t pick up what he meant by “cobla”. Praise God we saw no “coblas” the three nights we were there. We did however meet the headwoman of their village, hoe up Kasava roots, helped the Chipangas store their maize, I got to practice with the local soccer team and we also ate three good Zambian meals a day (sidenote: we learned very quickly that when you’re staying in a village with no electricity, and a hole-in-the-ground outhouse 40 feet from your hut, and there’s been talk of “coblas”…. You learn not to drink much at all with your dinner.) The 40-40 experience has helped us learn to be very thankful for toilets, running water, ice and other things we take for granted everyday and to better identify with the Zambian people in their daily lives.
So after all that Mom and Dad flew in to Lusaka and we soon made the 5 hour drive south to our home in Sinazongwe. Our yard has lemon trees (fully loaded), mango trees, guava trees (the kids favorite one to climb in), fig trees (the ones the birds like the most and the one I’m currently sitting under) and papaya trees. The papaya, or pawpaw trees are also loaded with fruits and I’ll close with a great anecdotal story on one. A few days ago I was talking to a Tonga man Rueben, who just happens to be chief Sinazongwe’s grandson, when we decided to get down some ripe pawpaws out of a tree. He brought me a long bamboo pole and so I said “oh, I’ll knock it down and you catch it ok?”… “yes,” Rueben says.
Not feeling real confident about his yes I repeated our plan. “Yes,” Rueben says again. So I reach way up into this pawpaw tree, dislodged a large papaya, and then watched as it splattered on the ground at Rueben’s feet. He didn’t budge and is looking at me with a puzzled expression. I realized that we were talking but not really communicating. So pray that the Langston’s learn Tonga quickly.
I should’ve told him “come on man, haven’t you heard that one finger cannot kill a louse?”
PRAYER REQUESTS
· Praise for a house that is secure, has electricity (most of the time) and running water.
· Prayer for learning the language, CiTonga
· Prayer for Marci as she begins home-schooling three kids soon.
· Pray for the team from Wynne Baptist Church that will be here working in our area the last week of June.
· Prayer for a South African couple, David and Ann, that manage the property where we live. Pray that they will see the light that is Christ in us.
