It's SATURDAY!!

Everyone enjoyed sleeping in this morning -- recovering from the excitement of Sunny's birthday dinner last night.  We have some pretty uproarious photos of that gala event.  The noise makers, party napkins, princess crowns, and presents made it great fun.  The coconut chocolate mouse with candles was a great success also. Now everyone has taken off on the the bus with Gabe, Merci, and and Melinda practicing singing the Zambian national anthem (with descants!). We will be picnicking with the students we have been teaching this week and with the Dutch college student volunteers who will be taking over the next round of instruction. With a little bit of leisure this morning I collected these thoughts--

On the safari trip we saw that all along the roads the majority of Zambians live in small villages, of ten to twelve thatched roof huts and a similar common space structure.  In many cases they must carry their own water in large yellow jugs.  They may grow their own maize, but have to carry it to the mill and back or import it in its ground form of meallie meal, which is a diet staple.  Items are carried from or to the village by bicycle or on women’s heads.  Fields are farmed entirely by hand, with rakes and hoes. Cooking is done over a charcoal fire (charcoal toted in as above).  Washing is done by hand. Everyone appears to be living hand-to-mouth, yet...

Ironically, the women of the villages are going about their cooking, carrying, hoeing, and sweeping, wearing sarong type garments of brilliant print fabrics I would give my eye teeth for. 

Ironically many villages have banana fields that they farm, bearing fruit so large and flavorful it is like nothing I have ever tasted and would give the worldto have in my back yard.

Ironically, we have just returned from a safari where we almost wore out our cameras catching pictures of beautiful wild animals in their native habitat, yet we met at the bar last night a young woman on a different type of safari, so proud to have killed her first impala and hoping to shoot a kudu today.

Ironically, the 7^th graders at Birdland School universally get the highest marks on the all-important national exams that qualify them for high school.  In fact they have done so well for so many years that the ministry of education is considering changing the standards for private schools, because they are outshining public school students so much.