Life in the Village

Last Thursday afternoon, we headed to the village to learn about how they work and what their daily life looks like.  It was about a 45 minute drive and most of it was on a narrow, bumpy dirt road.  Our bus was bouncing all over the place...slightly terrifying.  

We got to the village and it just looked so picturesque and African-like.  We were greeted by so many friendly Zambians who were all super excited to meet us!  They had chairs, benches and logs all set up for us to sit down together.  They were very hospitable!

We first got a tour of the whole village.  These are the chicken coops!

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This is the cow pasture

And these are all the cows!  

This is a mortar and pestle looking thing that they use to crush nuts and roasted corn kernels

 

And there were lots of dogs!  I was happy about this.

They were cute but kinda skittish!

This is the wheel they use to grind up corn.  The corn meal is then used to make nshima...which is a staple food for Zambians! (it is pretty much tasteless...and sits like a brick in your stomach for hours)

Notice the solar panels on the top of this house!

Of course there was a lot of playing with children that went on!  We brought a frisbee and they loved it!

After our tour, we walked about a half a mile to their gardens.

These are two of the men in the village.  It is very common for people of the same sex to hold hands here!

Beautiful gardens!  There was corn, cabbage, and so much more but I really can't remember right now!

This is how they water the gardens each day.  They have a small man-made pond and have this pump type device that you stand on to pump water through the hose!  It was pretty cool.  Kind of like a step-machine at the gym....only way more functional!

This is the other end of the hose.  It is very dry here so they have to water the gardens several times a day. 

I took a turn at pumping.  It wasn't too difficult but would be a very monotonous task!

This tree was absolutely beautiful!

This was a sweet little 2 month old baby.

 

We later walked about a 1/4 mile to the water pump to collect water.

This cutie held my hand the entire way!

We all took a turn pumping water and filling our buckets!

This is how they carry EVERYTHING here.  I will never understand how they keep it balanced!

We all took turns carrying the water on our heads but could only do it while holding on tightly!

It doesn't look that difficult but holy crap...these women must have very strong necks because it was heavy!

I have so much respect for these women and children who walk to that well about 5 times a day to collect water for their whole village.  This water is used for cooking, drinking, washing, and bathing.  Amazing.

This is our bus driver, Lavmo.  He is the one brave enough to drive on those crazy roads with our huge bus!

 

This little girl was extremely sweet and also very ticklish!

 Our group with a bunch of the people from the village!

It was such a wonderful day!  Definitely one of my favorite things we have done so far.  It is amazing how much they trust in God and rely on Him to provide for their needs.  They are amazing people!