Our Traditional African Dinner

Monday night the half of the team that goes to PS Baptist on Sundays were invited for a traditional African dinner at the pastor's house. The whole church family was there to help prepare our meal and fellowship with us. We all crammed into an itty bitty house with hardly any room, but a whole lot of welcome. They had no electricity and the sun goes down around 5:30-6 here, so we ate a candle lit dinner, and kept each other warm in the tight space. The menu was:

• Fried chicken (not exactly like ours, but still good!)
• Butter nut squash (my favorite!)
• coleslaw
• rice with a potato, beef stew to go on top
• cooked cabbage and carrots
• a spinach and peanut butter dish
• okra (they cook it very very very slimy)
• boiled chicken legs
• sadza of course (this is their staple. It's a very fine meal that they cook like instant mashed potatoes, a good bit stiffer though.  It's tasteless, but filling. They usually eat it with something like stew or veggies.)
• macimbi worms (no, not actually worms... caterpillars!)

Most of the meal was very good, even better than we expected. Some of it was... well, I tried everything, and I'm glad I did. But I wouldn't mind if I wasn't offered a select dish or two again. A few of my team members practiced the missionary's prayer, "Lord, if I get this down, please keep it down!", but it was a very good experience. While we were there they also taught us some more Indebelle. We learned how to say "my name is'" "I'm from'" "I stay in'" and "What's up." They also gave us all African names. In African the names are given based on the meanings of them, not how they sound. Sometimes it's a name given for the hardship the family had during the pregnancy, sometimes for what the child means to them. Regardless, every name has a meaning so it was fun to watch them figure out a fitting name for each of us. Tanner was givien Ngqabutho. It's a name for the first born son and is a sign of respect and honor. It has a click in it and I can't even try to pronounce it. But he was more than ecstatic with his click and practiced it for two hours untill he had it down pat. He's the only one of us who has even sightly learned how to click. Ashely was given Nobukhasi (no-boo-koe-see) which means, "Mother of royalty." Taylor got Sibusisiwe (see-boo-sissy-way) which they also call Boosy for short. It means "We are blessed." Amanda was given Slethemba (see-le-tim-ba) or Timba for short, which means, "We have hope." I was given Nokuthula (no-goo-too-la) which means "Mother of peace." Overall the night was wonderfull, and filled with a lot of fun and laughter!