Day 8: The fun has a"braai"ved

Africa has been a land of connections for me. I decided to bring a hammock with me on the trip to be able to sleep outdoors if I wanted too. After finding a nice pair of trees and some struggles with the straps, my hammock was set up under the Zambian sky. Even though I was halfway around the world, I felt a deep connection to my home state of Idaho in the peacefulness of the surroundings and the starry night sky above. The fact that the big dipper was upside down was a little uncomfortable at first, but eventually I was able to become familiar with the some of the same stars but just in different orientations. I had one of the best nights of sleep thus far as I let the crickets lull me to sleep.

One of or activities for the morning was going through the all boys secondary school here at Chikuni for a tour. We went into one classroom where the boys were learning computer science and I was quickly pointed out by our group to talk to the boys about computer science since that was my major at Gonzaga. They knew quite a “bit” about computer science and were eager to ask questions about things like cache memory and HTML. Even though we came from different countries, families, and upbringings, we all spoke the common language of computers. Being able to connect with them on this level was very helpful for me to relate my time at Gonzaga to my time at the mission.


We concluded the evening with a Braai, which is an African BBQ where you cook raw meat on a grill by yourself. As we stood in community cooking, I could not help but think of the times that I had grilled with my dad or with my friends at the summer camp that I used to work at. Although all of these experiences reminded me of my life back home, I never once felt homesick. I was happy during these times because they made me feel included in the Zambian way of life which turned out to be more similar to my home than I could have expected. It’s starting to feel like Zambia can be less of a cultural shock and more of a cultural connection the more time that I spend here.

 -Jimmy Sherman '17

Comments

  1. CaryWatts3May 24, 2017 at 9:58 AM

    Wow Jimmy, your message here is really powerful. Your theme of cultural connection is so inspiring and I think this would be a refreshing view for a lot of people in this our country to take on. You took something that you remember from home (the Big Dipper) which was literally flipped upside down in this culture, and instead used it as a point of relation and familiarity. With your take we can move away from separation and towards admiration.

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