It has been a busy week. I am here in Charundura for just 5 more days so much of my time has been spent finishing up projects and saying goodbye.
On Monday, I met with my English class for the last time. They entertained me with a play and then did a very humorous impersonation of me. Afterwards, I was invited to walk home with one of my students, Agnes who doesn’t live too far from the hospital. We ended up going down the road where I had ridden the bike a few times. Turns out I knew some of her kids already. . . they were the ones that were playing in the shade of the scarecrow and popped out when rode by. At Agnes’ home were her mother, two sisters in law, 9 children (the 3 girls, Linda, Juliet, and Faith are Agnes’), twin baby goats, 3 kittens and a slew of chickens. As I approached the house, I could hear the younger kids whispering ‘marongu’ (word for white person) and laughing, seeming to be very surprised and excited by my presence. They were all smiles as I shook each kids hand and exchanged stares. We chased the goats around for a while and played football (soccer) with a home made ball of sand and netting. And, of course they loved seeing their images on the LCD screen of my camera.
Yesterday, we went to my friend Florence’s home area in Siyahokwe. It is about a 45 minute drive on dirt road or a three hour walk from the hospital. On the way there, we had to cross a bridge where just 100 yards off the road there were some young boys bathing. When we paused over the bridge to take a photo they just laughed and waved.
Once in Siyahokwe, we met her family: her mother and father, two sisters, two brothers, her aunt and uncle (her father’s eldest brother), and several nieces and nephews and cousins plus chickens, goats and pigs. We had a snack of ground nuts (peanuts) roasted over a fire pit inside the ‘imba’ (traditional home) and then some watermelon.
As I explained in an earlier blog entry, the traditional home or ‘imba’ is a one roomed, round structure with a thatched roof. The floor used to be made of pressed cow dung but is now usually concrete. The walls used to be a combination of timber and mud but are now also usually made of concrete. Normally, there are several huts arranged together. One is used for cooking and has a fire pit in the middle. The others might be sleeping quarters . . .one for the parents, another for the boys and another for the girls. Then, there are also smaller structures used for storing grain or to house pigs.