May 2nd

Today we hitched back to Nyansonso from Solwezi. The hitch was very uneventful. I got to ride on a tire tractor for 2.5 hours. The children from Nyansonso ran to the truck as we were being dropped off to grab all of our bags and lug them back to Ellen's hut. A very small five year old was carrying my very large Osprey backpack; she was struggling under the weight of it, but shooed away anyone wanting to help. All I could see from my vantage point was my pack and two feet shuffling forward. She hulled my pack the 100 meters to the door of Ellen's hut with happy determination. Ellen and I swiftly got unpacked then went outside to play with the children. We played football with a ball made from a condom, plastic, and yarn. It worked surprisingly well, that is until the condom popped and they had to unravel the yarn and plastic to replace the broken condom. I fear that the majority of condoms used in this village are for footballs and not for safe sex.

While we were gone this weekend for the cost of ten dollars two village men build Ellen and I a mud brick bathing shelter. We no longer have to bath in view of all her villagers! We are high class now!!

The big excitement for the children came when I brought out the nail polish. I think I painted more fingernails bubble gum pink in 30 minutes than I have in my entire life. The majority of which were boys. It was rather funny to see flashes of bright pink on all of the children’s fingernails as they played. The paint did not last long on most children. One little two year old boy named Jeravy (he's my boyfriend) promptly stuck his fingers in his mouth and began chewing off the paint. He had little specks of pink paint all over his mouth and stuck in the river of snot coming from his nose.

Ellen and my excitement for the day came when the children brought us to see kabwas pichache or puppies!!! There were two litters of puppies in the village! They were adorable and quite noisy for their small size. The children found it hilarious that we were talking to and playing with the puppies. Dogs are viewed more as pests than anything else in the village. They are typically malnourished, covered with flees, and what I think are ticks or at least the African version of ticks and kicked/ beaten frequently. Ellen and I both cringe whenever we hear the sad yelp of the dog being kicked. But I suppose the people here do not have the luxury of having "pets".