Zambians can be pretty ridiculously funny. My bamaayo is wickedly strong. We’re talkin’ some serious guns … When I get a chance to post photos I’ll make sure there are some glamour shots for her. The men and women in the village are rock hard. Hard lives, hard work, fantastic physique. Thin hips, long frames … beautiful people to say the least. And the women… Wow. Girls and mothers giving birth in total silence … Not even a cry or scream … That’s a generalization but it holds true for a majority … It’s unbelievable.
There are little things that catch you off guard and totally inspire wonder and awe. It’s one hundred percent a respectful, tonal, auditory culture. From greetings, to commands, pluralizations, even verbs have respect built into their grammar and language structure. On the tonal note, how something is said is more important than what’s said. I witnessed a group of seven women – two young girls – have an entire conversation, almost forty minutes, all parties contributing, with maybe fifteen minutes of actual speaking, the rest was tonal noises and gestures. It was so clear I even understood most of it, or at least I hope I did. Ha ha. No way to check 🙂
I’ve been listening to my ipod, my bastion of American culture and memories of home. It must have something to do with being alone, here in Africa, as I am adjusting that makes my memories more like flashbacks, poignant … Real … and my emotional response is heightened to say the least. I find myself tearing up over memories that never caused external reaction before … Africa must be putting me in better touch with myself. There’s definitely plenty of time to spend figuring ‘me’ out. Ha ha. Well, I’d better get back to my host fam, I’m sure their concerned why I’ve been texting so long and not talking or paying attention to what’s happening here and now! Ciao! Ti amo.
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