May 4th

So I am going to take a moment to discuss the bathroom situation here in the village. There is a brick shelter with a straw roof and a tear drop shaped hole in the cement floor; the thickness of the floor is questionable. The hole appears to be 10-15 feet deep. I try not to jump for fear that the floor will cave in and I will be stuck in a big hole of shit; not that I have many reasons to be jumping in the bathroom, but you never know.  There are not many things that I am afraid of one of them is being stuck in a hole of pooh and the other is spiders; this bathroom has both threats. In the ceiling there is Vladimir, a mean looking baseball sized spider. Each time I enter the shelter I pull back the plastic doorway, peek my head in and locate Vladimir and keep my eye on him as a squat over the hole. If you have ever tried to pee into a hole as a woman then you know that there is a science behind the process. Through careful evaluation I have discovered that there is no sure fire way to hit the hole consistently and constantly. You must constantly shift and change your weight to compensate for the change in pressure and direction; then just when you think you have it down it all goes to hell and you end up peeing on your leg and soaking the floor. The real trouble starts when you have to do number 1 and number 2. I’ll save you the explicit details, but believe me it takes concentration and skill. This bathroom is also the residence of many many flies who like to hide in the hole and the erupt with surprising force from the hole as soon as you squat over it leaving you with the feeling of little flying torpedoes ambushing your butt. This just further complicates the whole bathroom situation.

As for what we did today, Ellen and I completed our morning chores and then walked around the village meeting a greeting people. We visited the residence of a blind lady and her husband. We help her shell the kernels of corn/maize off the cob by hand so that it could be further dried then pounded into meal. The process of shelling maize is not all that involved; however it is very time consuming. It is estimated that the women in Zambia spend more time shelling maize each year than any other task. That is hundreds of hours of labor.

For dinner Ellen and I made our African version of shepherd’s pie with lentils, corn, cabbage, and instant mashed potatoes. I never thought instant mashed potatoes could be so amazing!! We rationed our chocolate for dessert. Ellen allows us to have three squares of chocolate at night. I find myself thinking of those three pieces of chocolate all day. Living in the village is like back packing; everything tastes amazing!