Day 2 and my Tonga name

     Everyone I have met so far has been exceedingly nice in welcoming me to Zambia. I have apparently already earned a Tonga name. I was given my last name, which is my Clan name. A Clan is a part of a Tribe, the Tonga Tribe in this case. Each clan is represented by the spirit of an animal. My clan is the Mudenda clan. So my last name is Mudenda, this name was given to me by Ba-Thomas (Dr. Thomas), and Ba-Eland. The Mudenda tribe is represented by the Elephant, which is a strong and wise animal . . . that also has considerable mass. I'm pretty sure I know which reason prompted the selection of my name, but I'll keep that to myself :). My first name is Siantele, which was given to me by Ba-Mweene. The Siantele is an animal that is similar to a Mongoose or Meerkat. It is brave and quick and is hard to catch because it can pop in and out of holes. This may have been because I speak quickly, but  you rarely get a straight answer when you ask why your name was given. So I am Siantele Mudenda.

     There is a Pastor's retreat at the Sikalongo Bible Institute this week so over 120 Pastors from all over Zambia are here having meetings and spending time together. I mention this because several of them have come to visit Dr. Thomas. In Zambian culture greeting is very important, so I had the opportunity to sit and talk with each of the people who came to see Dr. Thomas.
 
     The respectful way to greet someone is to call them by their family name (last name), with the prefix Ba. So I would be Ba-Lettley. The older women you would call Bina-by thier oldest child's first name with the prefix "Bina" so Bina-Doris, for example, Is called by the name of her oldest child Doris. She is a woman who lives in a village near Sikalongo and helps to take care of the buildings there. Staying in the house for the week during the retreat are Pastor Mweene and Pastor Hansumo, I call them Ba-Mweene and Ba-Hunsumo. I also met Ba-Simunene, Ba- Soko, Ba-Sikalima, Ba-Nseemani, Ba-Mulenga, Ba-Mungo, and Ba-Eland, who will be driving us around to the different places we will be during our trip. I also met a young man named Innocent, we can call the younger generation by their first names, who is 19 years old and has been doing work to help those around Sikalongo, in about a 15-20 mile radius, with disabilities. The disabled population here, more so than in the U.S., is a severely underserved populations with about 10 specialty schools in the entire country serving a population of over 15 million people. This young man is basically doing a needs assessment on his own and, with the help of a family in the U.S. that has visited Zambia before and has experience working with the disabled population, is helping to support two young girls that have special needs and helped them gain admission to one of the few specialized schools that Zambia has! He has a huge heart of gold! I also met Progress, who is a young lady in high school that is trying to finish school and work toward a nursing career!

     I will be getting up to go to morning devotions to meet all of the Pastors tomorrow at 7am. I will also be taken on a tour of the Sikalongo Missions Station which includes a primary school, the Sikalongo Bible Institute, and a clinic, by Innocent. I will take pictures then and post them. The last two days have been mostly travel, getting computer equipment organized, meeting tons of people, and just settling in. We have prepared our own food so far, and by we, I mean me, and by food I mean peanut butter and jam sandwiches, cereal, coffee, fruit, and boiled eggs, which I had to text my sister to ask how long to boil them and still didn't boil them long enough. I made them soft not thinking about salmenella because the eggs are not pasturized. So I put them back on to boil. The power was out at the start of the day and has been on ever since. That was one of the big concerns regarding how productive I would be able to be with setting up the equipment. That will not be until Tuesday and it will be in a different part of the country, so we will see what happens.

      Lastly, all of the equipment made it through. We packed computers, monitors, a bunch of cables, routers and switches, or "switchers," as Ba-Thomas calls them, into regular old suitcases with no locks and checked them, crossing our fingers that they would make it through all the way, especially through the notoriously sticky fingered South African airport. The Thomas's strategy of packing them in 1970's era looking suitcases that they got from thrift stores and packing clothing to protect them worked!! There is this rooster outside the house that likes to make lots of noise in the middle of the night along with the dogs that apparently have a fighting ring right outside my window that they only use after midnight. I told myself that if the rooster continues to make noise I WILL eat him before I leave.

-Dee in Zambia