40/40 Day 12- Sunday Lunch

After today’s 3 hour church service ended, our group went next door to Pastor Ebby’s house for lunch.  Ebby is the 40/40 cultural guru, and has been a huge asset to our understanding the African culture and worldview; he is also a leader in the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia, and the pastor of Matero Baptist Church, where Christine, Jane, and Bridget worship.  We were looking forward to sharing a meal with these women with whom we have worked so closely for the past week.

When we entered Ebby’s house, we were invited to sit in the living room while the ladies finished preparing the meal.  This home was pretty typical, in that a very small room was full of the most and largest furniture that could possibly fit in it.  We sat on two huge overstuffed easy chairs and two matching loveseats.  In the middle was a large glass coffee table, with almost enough room to walk around it.  As soon as we were seated, the ladies offered us ice cold bottles of water, a huge treat after sweating through the service.  Just before it was time to eat, Christine came around the room with a basin and a pitcher, to allow us all to wash our hands before we ate.

The meal was classically African and absolutely amazing.  We had some incredible fried chicken (of course, I found out how they made it… planning to try it soon!), white beans, rice with a tomato sauce, sautéed cabbage, and, of course, nshima (a.k.a. posho, a.k.a. ugali).

Posho, as it’s called in Uganda, is finely ground corn meal, somewhere in between corn flour and grits.  It’s cooked and beaten and stirred in water until it becomes a solid mass about the consistency of play dough.  It has absolutely no flavor, but is eaten as a kind of utensil when eating beans, cabbage, greens, or just about any other food. 

We ate our feast, complete with soft drinks, from our laps in the living room.  What a joy and a blessing just to share a glimpse of how these precious people live.  Even though the prospect of bushcamp and homestay is overwhelming, unknown, and miles away from my comfort zone, I’m looking forward to spending more time with nationals and beginning to really understand who they are and how they live.