Things I’ve Learned at 40/40

• Fitted sheets are a luxury.
• “Nshima” is the Chinyanja word for “intestinal cork.”
• Even if you stop drinking water at 7 pm, you’ll still have to pee in the middle of the night.
• NEVER look down the pit latrine.
• I am capable of much more than I thought, as long as I don’t try to do it in my own strength.
• It’s possible to cook excellent meals over wood fires.
• There is no reason for anyone to chop wood at 4:30 in the morning.
• It gets really cold in Africa.
• A 45-minute walk to the village to talk to people is definitely worth it.
• A good shower uses 5 gallons of water.
• It takes 58 hand pumps at the well to draw 5 gallons of water.
• By the time you walk back to your tent from your shower, your feet will be dirty again.
• A 70-year old woman with arthritis can shell an ear of maize in ¼ the time it takes me.
• The things I am most afraid of are never really as bad as I expect.
• Headlamps are a brilliant invention.
• MKs aren’t afraid to eat meat cooked on a shovel.
• A bouncy ball provides hours of entertainment.
• There’s no better sound than a bunch of African kids singing at the top of their lungs.
• An old woman can stand up in church and start singing with the choir- and no one will bat an eye.
• Whatever you chase out of the latrine at night is definitely more scared of you.
• At night, you can see the Southern Cross, the Pointer Stars, satellites, shooting stars galore, and the Milky Way… and you understand what God meant about Abraham’s children outnumbering the stars.
• It really is easier to carry things on your head.
• Rural Africans are some of the kindest people on the planet.
• It’s possible to make peanut butter by hand… assuming your muscles don’t give out.
• African women do things American women would never dream of doing.
• If you take Ambien and use earplugs, you won’t know- or care- that roaches are climbing all over your mosquito net.
• I will never take a shower or a flush toilet for granted again.