a picnic.

Today Marjanne and I went for a picnic by the dam which is about 20 minutes’ drive from the College.  It is an earthen dam with a pretty blue lake next to it, and grasses blowing in the wind.  There is a narrow road which runs over the top of the dam, and we took this road a couple of months ago when David preached in one of the village churches beyond the dam.  At that time, since it was still the rainy season, the lake had overflowed across the road and we had to ford the waters in our truck. Thankfully it was not too deep and we were able to cross quickly without becoming stuck.

So today we decided to take the children and have a nice relaxing outing to the dam with some lunch. So we packed our baskets and brought our camp chairs and Marjanne drove us (in our vehicle – since I cannot drive, not having a Zambian license and not knowing how to drive a manual).  I brought a sun-umbrella hoping that we could sit under its shade, but sadly we couldn’t get it far enough into the ground and the wind was toppling it every time.  So, we gave up and just sat in the sun on a sandy spot next to the water’s edge, grateful that there were some clouds in the sky so that it was not blazing hot.

There can be parasites and other nasty things in the water, so even though the lake looked refreshing we did not go in.  Marjanne brought her sewing and enjoyed having something to do.  I spent the entire time alternating between chasing Elijah (who wanted to wander off) and consoling Ketzia, who hasn’t been feeling well because she is cutting teeth.  In between we ate our picnic lunch.  Marjanne brought leftover pizza from our outing yesterday as her treat, and I packed a bottle of Sprite and a bag of potato chips as a special treat to go with my sandwich!  

The thing about picnicking as a ‘mzungu’ (white person) is that you have to be prepared to be stared at and observed at length by every passer-by.  The first one to stop was a teenaged boy who recognized us from the time we went to the village church, and from Marjanne’s school visits.  He greeted us, and we had some chitchat.  Then he remained, observing us, for the next hour!  Eventually two other small girls, one with a very young baby on her back, timidly approached us as well.  We learned that the baby was less than 4 weeks old.  The small girl was babysitting this tiny infant while the mother worked in the fields.  The baby woke and cried from hunger, and the little girl shushed it back to sleep because the mother wasn’t back from the fields yet. By this time the boy who was observing us had collected a large rock to use as a seat, and arranged himself comfortably next to Elijah’s camp chair, playing with the two trucks I brought for Elijah’s amusement.  Meanwhile we were also getting attention from passers-by…

We stayed for about an hour and a half, and when we had eaten our lunch and the children were getting tired we packed up.  It must have seemed so funny to these staring villagers, these silly mzungu women who bring baskets of food and sit and look at the water!  As Marjanne was backing the truck up we got stuck in the sandy road and the tires were spinning. So I got out and with the help of the boy who was still observing us, we managed to push while Marjanne accelerated and with some significant effort we got the vehicle to move and were on our way. I gave him a biscuit package in thanks for his help.  It was nice to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine for a little while even though I didn’t get to “relax.”  :)