You can take the gypsies out of the suffering program but you can never take the suffering program out of the gypsies…
We need to explain the term ‘suffering program”. While in Niger a Canadian missionary friend heard what our budget was and that we would not be able to afford air-con in the 45 degree Niamey heat and thus referred to our team as the suffering program.(This term needs to be said in a thick Canadian accent).Traveling on a shoestring budget in Africa has taught us to be VERY resourceful. You know like taking enough sachets of tomato sauce at a restaurant to use at the next meal, or when you are lucky enough to find a toilet with toilet paper, to stock up for those who don’t have. So when we couldn’t finish our side-serving of bread with our spaghetti we simply deposited it in our handbag for breakfast the next morning.
So we had our leftover bread at 7 am (or 1 o’clock Ethiopian time?).Even more confusing than the squiggly Ethiopian alphabet are their time references. Where noon is called 6 o’clock and 4 o’clock is eleven. This has been problematic when organizing transport (not knowing weather the bud leaves at 11 pm, 4am or 11am).African power outages are also problematic especially when you have a Skype date. Every internet café we tried just shrugged their shoulders and replied: “No lights…” .Luckily we found one with a generator and could connect with loved ones back home.
Princess Kakalethu, with her usual spontaneous flair had the everyone at the internet café looking at one another, clutching their stomachs with laughter as she shouted into the headphones “HALLO, DIS EK JA!” waving excitedly to her Holiday Club kids in Jbay. It was one of those rare moments where age, culture, language or nationality didn’t matter. I sat in admiration thinking she has the ability to connect people with each other even when she isn’t trying.
By now the weather had cleared up and we headed to the magnificent Lake Tana for a boat cruise to the island monasteries .We were told that the 900 year old stone buildings were plastered together with a mixture of wheat flour and eggs. This strange “fact” left the gypsies perplexed, pondering the massive amount of chickens needed to produce all those eggs.
It is not easy traveling through Africa as a woman we once again realized when one of the island greeted us with a sign bearing the following message:
“Dear male foreign visitors for the time being the church is closed, but we do have very big and impressive museum, so you have to see and take pictur ”.So we sat under the tree (not being male enough) waiting for our boat to take us to the source of the Nile.
Our Lake Tana excursion ended with a late afternoon Fanta on the boardwalk, as we sat philosophizing about beauty of African time (be it Ethiopian or South-African ).This is a year without deadlines or days heavy laden with stress. This is our time to breath easily. To do life the African way.
Suffering program we salute you. To live simply is to simply live.
To be continued…