Last week in Zambia....

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Dear All,

This shall be the last blog of Africa as on Saturday I venture to a whole new continent and whole new section of my journey. Although my time spent in Kabwe has been thoroughly enjoyable and have seen some wonderful work and met some inspiring people I am now ready to move on and see what India has in store. My Zambia experience has been somewhat different to my experience two years ago. This time (although last time was great as a first time in this fascinating continent) I definitely threw myself into the life of Zambians, I got to know their culture, have understood their worries, fears, struggles and ambitions in life far more than what I did before. I feel incrediby lucky and priviliged to have come here and the people have been extremely hospitable and friendly which is what anyone could hope for in a trip of this nature.

Last Sunday was something definitely worth noting. Out here Religion is something that almost dominates peoples lives. You almost cannot meet someone without being questioned of your faith and being a predominantly christian nation we decided to go to church. We arrived at half past eight in the morning to be greated with Mavis (one of the teachers at the childrens centre) and seated towards the front of the stage. On stage stood a choir of around 20 men and women accompanied by a keyboard and drum set. The sound they were producing was quite incredible, their voices were ringing in harmonies and the main preacher sang freely over the top creating a booming sound of happy people. This is rather different to the boring, monotoned hyms we sing in church at home. Already when we arrived people were up dancing and clapping along and this went on for around half an hour so we were happy to join in. After the singing and dancing the choir returned to their seats and everything descended into silence as we waited for the preist to begin his sermon. I already had an expectation of what it would be like. I thought that perhaps he would start to preach in a calm and concerted manner and gradually build up into a creschendo of belowing enthusiasm as he spoke the word of God. But oh no. As soon as he opened his mouth he began frantically shouting different verses, his vains practically popping from his neck, waving his arms in the air and clutching at his head dramatically. This was warmly welcomed by the audience who began to shout out at regular intervals ‘amen!,’’ “hallelujah!” and “praise the lord!” Around an hour and a half later when I thought that the preist might just pass out if he carried on anylonger something even stranger began to happen. People were being beckoned to come forward if they wanted to be saved by God. I’d say around 90% of people began to gather round the front as the preist approached them one by one, placed both his hands on their temples and started shouting, then mumbling and murmering and then continuing to shout (and probably spit a little) into their faces. After he would finish the recipient would pass out into the surrouning crowd, sometimes shaking and get placed onto the floor untill they could muster the strength to return to their seats. I was absolutely petrified I would be summoned to the front and have to undergo this strange ritual but luckily I wasn’t forced. When the excitement finally died down we sang a few more songs, danced and shook hands with a lot of people and just as we were about to leave a voice echoed over the microphone that any new comers to the church should stand up and be greeted. Alice turned and discreetly whispered in my ear, “I think that’s us.” The horror took over my body again as I thought we would have to say a few words into the crowd of revved up people or come and greet god or something of that nature. Luckily they just wanted to welcome us and everybody introduced themselves which was nice and we were invited back into the office after the service had finished. We were then preached to for a further ten minutes in the office but were then free to go as we chose. When we left the church I had the strangest feeling, probably because the service was so intense and so new and I had never seen anything like it before. I have had some time to contemplate my experience and as weird as it all was to me at the time I have come to the conclusion of ‘hey, why not?’ When we were in the church the people were so happy and together and were really enjoying themselves which made me think that its not so strange here that people are so dependant on their religion. So many people have literally nothing but in those few hours on a sunday morning they feel alive and welcomed and free. A lot of what he was preaching I thought resembled what a lot of people are taught in the western world, or particularly myself to always believe in yourself and if you really want something you can get it but just with the reference to God so its almost like a large scale councilling session. Although saying all of this I still wasn’t saved by God or experienced a spiritual awakening or anything but just felt content of the fact that these people believe so wholeheartedly in God and that’s ok because if they didn’t believe, what else would they have?

On Monday we travelled to Lusaka to collect our Visas and go to the cinema. We saw a film called Australia which was good but mainly it was just nice to do something regular, something I would do at home for a change before coming back to life in Kabwe for a while. The rest of the week I have just been doing the usual stuff. I have visited some of the projects to say my final goodbyes and today I went to attend outreach but the bus was full so didn’t end up going.

Time is going by so quickly at is seem so strange to think I have been out here for a 3 and a half months already…. I will miss Kabwe and the people including Siobhan, everyone at the hospice, childrens centre and Sables.

Speak to you in India!!


Love Meg xxx

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