Dinner, Part 2

So we are living at the Namwianga Mission, which not only consists of the Children’s Haven but also of the George Benson College and Secondary School. So we are surrounded with so many teenagers and college students and they are all so sweet and friendly. And one more reason I love Zambia: everyone speaks English! So we are able to have some very meaningful conversations.

Tonight we were invited to a meet and greet from 6-8 after dinner. We, the westerns, got their promptly at 6. Okay, who are we kidding. I got there at 6:11. But the Zambians arrived around 7:00 so I was technically way early. And boy did they arrive with more food than you can imagine... A full feast including the largest bucket of rice I have ever laid my eyes upon (in the red bucket below), and chicken, beef,and some rocking sauce that was poured atop the rice. And coleslaw. Zambians are all over coleslaw. Have I mentioned that we had already eaten dinner? Luckily dinner was grilled cheese sandwiches, which I can't eat, so I had only had a snack...

They topped it off with roughly 4 large sheet cakes. Plus a specially decorated cake, as you can see below. Zambians LOVE to label their cakes. So they will decorate a cake beautifully, and then they will write on top “white sheet cake” or “apple cake” or “chocolate cake” or whatever it is. Sometimes they write “yellow cake for special group.” They are very literal, these Zambians. Tonight, the Superintendent of the schools got up and said some LOVELY words about our program. He talked about how Speech Pathology is the most needed profession in Zambia, and how he longs to be Zambian’s first SLP. He thanked Dr. Weaver and Dr. Tullous for teaching the profession to the college students. And then he presented us with this cake. It is labeled, as you can see, “nice cake as a token of their appreciation because we were nice to come and help them." They even presented it to one of our team members, complete with hand shakes.

Our group with the Superintendent, Mr. Perry