Zambia Day 8

Today was our final ministry day. 😦
We went back to Capalingwa for a couple of hours (we got there late). My group went to 3 huts. At the second, we had our first and only real transformation. There was a man and two women, and as we talked to them, we discovered that though they went to church, they didn’t know God as Father. So we explained what it meant to have a relationship with Him, and they all prayed to accept Him as Lord. The man especially was very enthusiastic and happy about it. After finishing hut to hut, we went back to the center of Capalingwa where we spent time and prepared a meal with the people. Other than a yummy type of fruit (known as monkey brains) and the Hungry Lion, this was our only experience with Zambian food, and it was all good. Maize (corn) is a staple food in the villages, which they use to make something called nshima. They take the dried kernels off the cob (which we got to help them do a little yesterday), and grind them into a meal. They then boil it with water until it thickens into a consistency similar to dough, so it is very filling. It is eaten by forming it into small patties with your hands (I learned the hard way that you’re supposed to do it with only one hand…if you roll it using both, they laugh at you) and dipping it into relishes. The ones we had were stewed tomatoes and onions, a creamy one made with rape leaves and ground nuts (similar in taste and consistency to a spinach dip), and something like a stew with potatoes and carrots. They also made Zambian fried chicken. Everything was delicious.
After dinner, we had our night meeting, which I’ll admit was not as awesome as it wanted it to be or thought it could be, as there wasn’t many people there. Those that we invited didn’t come, only those who lived at the hammermill, which is where we had it. And again, those who came were Christians. Most trips that do night meetings bribe people to come by offering a free meal and a game of soccer, which gets non-Christians and a lot of people in general to come from far distances, but we didn’t do that. But it was still a pretty good time. We did a few songs, and I went into the middle to dance during one, and then three of our girls spoke. Then we had to say goodbye to the villagers. 😦 One man asked us not to forget them.