Sunday morning and we got up early to go to mass followed by a trip to the women’s centre (have you ever heard a more exciting plan for a day). The church was a short walk away and when we got there you could feel the stare of a million eyes on you. There was a band in the church, they were like a bad cover band with a drum machine which they didn’t seem entirely sure how to use. As soon as the alter girls and priest appeared at the back of the church the band started up as did the choir, it was an amazing sound exactly what you’d expect from an African choir. The alter girls then did an amazing dance up the isle as did the priest (the dancing priest) it was like being at a festival. The sound was unbelievable and for the first 20 minutes or so there was one song alter another with the girls all dancing on the alter and people dancing in the pews. Then the prayers started and suddenly with were just at mass, oh hell. It was a boring as, well mass It just seemed to drag on and the prayers were all in Lozi so we couldn’t tell what he was saying, everyone laughed during his sermon but we hadn’t a clue what it was about. This section lasted for about an hour (ironically I kept thinking to myself “for god’s sake will you just get on with it”). Finally everyone started getting up to bring the gifts to the alter this was accompanied by more singing and dancing. The gifts were unusual to say the least there was potatoes, eggs and most inexplicably washing powder (one hell of shite gift in anyone’s book, imagine that wrapped under a Christmas tree). An age or so later it was time for communion the other 3 went up to receive it but I stayed with the Americans (my views on the Catholic Church and religion in general and probably fairly well known to anyone who knows me but for those who don’t, religion has caused more wars than any other single thing and The Catholic Church supports the spread of AIDS, doesn’t consider child abuse a crime and hoards money and then tells others to donate money. Its only good aspect is people like Sr. Mollie who would probably do the brilliant work they do anyhow). As well what’s with all the kneeling, standing and sitting thing at mass I felt like a jack in the box up and down and up and down. One weird thing that happened at mass was during what we presumed were community announcements the announcer said something in Lozi and everyone turned and looked at us and told us to stand up, we stood up along with the Dutch and Americans and everyone clapped we have no idea why exactly. Also the pictures showing the stations of the cross showed pictures of a black Jesus it looked so weird ( thought we was a Makua). After mass we walked back to the guesthouse to change outta the long pants we were wearing for mass, it was way too hot to wear them any longer. We then headed into town to find a restaurant hoping to find a better place than last week, one that preferably had more the one choice of food. On the road in we seen a nice place called “Devine Kitchen” and they had menu’s on the outdoor table’s (good start) we went up to the door and the waitress stared at us like last week so we asked could we sit at the outside table and asked for a second menu which she gave us and then stood watching us decide (a bit weird). The menu was unreal T-bone steak and chips only a fiver (this meal is gonna be unreal). Áine decided on the chicken and ordered it to which the waitress just shook her head and said “we don’t have it, we only have beef” (not a good sign but no disaster, I want the beef anyway). Then I asked if they had the T-bone steak, guess what they didn’t (OK now this is getting worrying). Finally Dan asked for the beef stew (she said they had beef so that should be fine) to which she responded “no, no we don’t have this” (WTF what do ye have, anything?) so I decided to ask her what they had and she took the menu and started going through it she paused on the beef and started thinking to herself (you just told Dan you had none you idiot) and then shook her head and said “no we don’t have “ (what the hell they have nothing then why the hell did they let us read through the whole menu and choose meals if they had nothing are they stupid, did they think we were here for the fun of it why are they even open today if they have no food, what a shit restaurant, can I still call it a restaurant if it has no food?). It was weird what sort of a restaurant has no food and why did she let us sit down and not mention that they had no food when we asked for a menu. It was really weird at the point I just said we better try somewhere else to which she just said “OK” (Ok no it’s not OK you just wasted 20 min of my life on a pointless menu reading you tool). We went across the road where we got the one meal they seem to have around here chicken and chips. Dan however asked to get Nshima instead of chips. Nshima is the staple food here (bit like spuds at home) it’s made from ground up maize. After waiting an age for the food it finally arrived and was quite nice. They had clearly given us a whole chicken divided between 4 and I got a damn leg with hardly any meat on it (what’s with all the Victoria Beckham wanna be chickens around here). I had a taste of Dan’s Nshima, well taste is the wrong word cause its tasteless and pure white and so dry. I think Dan summed it up when he said “its like eating a plate of sand, just so utterly tasteless”. So once dinner was over we headed for the women’s centre which was a the other end of town we were just given the directions and told to keep going until we found it. We walked, and walked and walked until we eventually found it down this small path in the middle of nowhere (we all thought what the hell are we doing walking through rural Zambia without knowing where we’re going). The women’s centre makes and sells weaved baskets and handmade cloths and handbags. Some of the things they were making were unbelievable. There was two small rooms with women at work in each and shelve with the stuff they had made all around. We could have spent all night there choosing what to buy (Áine nearly did asking 3 guys for fashion advice). However money and suitcase size restricted our choices. We made our choices and headed home for a stale bread supper (mmmmmm). In the evening we watched “Get Him to the Greek” before Dan turned Áine’s room in Chernobyl for bugs by spraying half a can of bug spray into a drawer to kill some small cockroach type creatures. So that was our day tomorrow we get our exam results (fingers crossed). Goodnight.
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