painting today, when i heard men shouting. from my lofty view in the air (did i mention i'm afraid of heights?) i saw two men who looked like they were beating something... or someone!
i tried to listen closely and with every blow came a yell. (what in the world?!) i looked around trying to find someone who might be witnessing the same thing i was, hoping i was only imagining what could possibly be a human getting beat to death just on the other side of the fence.
"justin! do you know what's going on?! are they attacking someone?"
justin (our trusty builder + the reason i was facing my fears on the rafters with brush in hand) listened for a minute then said, "i think they yelled 'snake'?"
hmm...
straining to see more...
"madam!!!! madam!!!!"
who me?
"yes?"
"snake!!!!"
"let me see!"
to which they disappeared behind the grasses and then lifted up this beauty:
so i've been wanting to spend a day on the lifesong farm for a while now. why? well, cause it sounds fun! right? i mean who wouldn't enjoy a day on the farm filled with manual labor under the hot african sun with fellow workers singing songs about Jesus? not me that's for sure.
if you don't know what the lifesong farm is here's a video made last year that will tell you all about it:
anyway, yesterday i officially marked this item off my bucket list and in the process made a major discovery! not only is working on the farm fun, it's down right educational to boot! who'd of guessed?
so with that i would like to present:
lessons on the farm
an ode to hoeing rows in zambia
1. it's way more fun to work barefoot
i started the day off in my tennis shoes and fatigue quickly set in.
but once i flung off those tiresome lace-ups and felt the cool earth (the stuff under scaldingly hot earth) between my toes my energy level shot to new heights. it's true.
2. killing a snake is a lot more rewarding if you are able to find it after youhoe it to death
yeah. i think i killed my first snake. another bucket list item checked off thank you very much. but my mind would rest much more easily if i could have found the little guy. (eek!)
3. zambian's are either really good at telling you what you want to hear or i really am stronger than i look
as much as i'd like to believe it's the latter, when one of the biggest women on the farm holds up and flexes her 5-meter-radius-all-muscle biceps while saying, "leslie, you are too strong!" to my 28-cm-diameter-no-muscle-bicep self (i measured) i have a hard time not going with the former. sad.
4. singing both the male and female part of a song still doesn't sound good, but sure does lift the spirits of your fellow workers
one of my favorite parts of the day... listening to one of the workers jump back and forth to the different parts of a song while everyone else hoed and swayed to the serenade.
5. "good worker" in bemba is mwabomba bwino
and apparently (according to my new friend, sylvie, and a bunch of other unbelievably hardworking zambian women) this is exactly what i am. who knew? (mom, stop laughing)
6. if you shout "imbwa!" to a bunch of sleeping ladies they will wake up in a hurry
a little joke at lunch involved one of the ladies yelling dog in bemba (we happened to be working on a farm with some uber mean dogs living on it) and an entire row of about 10 napping women jumped up ready for an attack. it was pretty funny.
7. wearing chitange for an entire day is really kind of hot
this:
is all us workin' women sporting our chitange (the fun printed fabric we get to wrap around ourselves when we want to go zambian)
8. if you tie the chitange all the way around your waste it won't constantly fall off
a helpful tip when you're trying to work in the darn thing.
9. hoeing at an angle, while completely awkward at first, quickly becomes a more effective way to make rows
yep. didn't know that one did ya?
10. stretch all you want, but after hoeing for 5+ hours in one day you will still feel like you got hit by a freight train the next morning*
*slight exaggeration
all in all it was a great experience that i hope to repeat. especially considering i still have so much to learn!
