Homestay with the Lungu Family

After we left bush camp, we got to spend 3 nights with a Zambian family, this was by far our most challenging time.  Our host family was wonderful and extremely hospitable.  It was really humbling to us how they served us and gave so much, I can honestly say I have never given sacrificially but now I understand what that looks like.

We were dropped off with all of our stuff on Friday morning and moved into our room in the family's home.  Here is the home...

It is basically 3 rooms (2 bedrooms & a living area).  The Lungu family graciously gave us one of the bedrooms, which we later found out they usually store maize there, more about that in a moment.  This is the room where we stayed...

We had 3 twin mattresses side by side.  This covered the entire floor.  We then hung mosquito nets from the ceiling to cover the mattresses.  The room has 2 windows with a wooden door that is closed at night. There is no electricity in the home so it was extremely dark during the night.  The walls and floor are concrete and the ceiling is corrugated metal.

Our first night, we were supposed to create our "happy place" by tucking our mosquito nets securely under our mattress.  We only used 2 nets the first night because Tim was going to sleep with the big kids and this would give them more room.  Nathan and I slept under the other net.  We thought we were all set but soon learned that we did not have a very "happy" place.  Nathan would not go to sleep and cried off and on all through the night.

About 11 p.m. Tim started turning on his headlamp every 15-20 minutes, which really started to frustrate me!  I asked why he was doing that and he told me that I probably did not want to know.  A short time later, the mosquito net over Tim, Nicholas and Katie fell from the ceiling...I think we all screamed!  It took a bit of time but Tim got the net back up and so we all started to settle down again.

I am not sure what time it was but at some point after the mosquito net fell,  I felt something drop/jump on my head and I shrieked!  I have no idea what it was.  Tim said that was why he was turning on his light so much because something had been crawling on his head.  The next morning, Mr. Lungu said it was probably field mice (I have serious rodent phobia!!!!!), since he usually stored the maize in that room.  All through the night, every night I heard animals/critters of some sort in the house.  Needless to say, I did not sleep much and I think Tim and I were in fetal positions hiding under blankets trying to find our "happy place"!

The next day, we got our room set up better and Nathan slept through the night, we still had critters visiting us but the Lord reminded me why I am in the big city of Nairobi and not in a rural village.

The people of African are so tough and they work so hard to survive each day.  The Lungu family walks everywhere and own 1 bicycle.  We walked 20 minutes to get to the church.  The town is probably about a 2 hour walk.

Here is the cooking area/ kitchen...

This is basically a mud hut with a grass roof and the fire is kept burning all day.  All meals are cooked over the open fire, Jerita sits/squats in that position for hours with the heat, smoke and sparks of the fire blowing in her face.  She is an excellent cook and we enjoyed all of our meals.  Here is where the dishes are washed...

And they are dried on a rack made of sticks, which you can see the shadow of in the picture.  On Saturday, we had an honor meal, they killed one of their hens for us.  This was very hard for me to accept because they only had 4 hens.  They used to have more but a bush cat killed most of them.  They had many chicks and I asked how long before they could eat the chicks, they told me about 7 months.  I struggled to take this food since that meant they would not have meat for many months...talk about sacrifice!  Here I have so much but they are giving to me when they have so little.

Overall the food was fairly nutritious, they get their protein from beans and groundnuts (peanuts), vegetables include corn, greens, potatoes & cabbage and fruits are bananas, pumpkins and watermelon.  The only question I still have is how they get dairy because this family did not have a cow or goats for milk.

All of their clothes are handwashed, which I tried and apparently did not get right because Jerita would only let me rinse the clothes.  She even re-rinsed some of the clothes, which apparently I did not do right.  She did not understand what a washing machine is and how I would not know how to wash clothes properly.  

We bathed outside in a grass enclosure...

Jerita would warm water on the fire for us and put it in a baby bathtub.  We then would give ourselves a bucket bath.

It was difficult to sit around and watch Jerita work so hard.  The women in Africa work from sunrise to bedtime.  Adding a family of 5 to her already difficult day was a huge burden.  We used a lot more water than they do for their family and it was hard to watch her work so hard for us.  She only let me carry a few buckets of water during our 3 day visit.

I came away from our visit with a great appreciation for the strength and resilience of those who live in the villages.  There were times when I would have loved to give her something to make her life easier but the Lord reminded me that she is used to the work and does not know any different.  I do not think I was created equal to Jerita, I am very weak!   

The Lord blessed us greatly with this experience and He taught me much about myself and Africa.  Here is the Lungu family...

We are so very thankful that they were willing to allow Muzungus (foreigners) to stay with them for a few days.  Please pray for this family, they have a heart for evangelism and want to reach the villages with the gospel.  Please pray that they will not be persecuted for hosting us, many think they are paid to have us stay with them and that is not true.