Home, Nyanja, and Flying Ants

A Zambian Delicacy...

Mwaka bwanji (Good Morning!) Mackenzie here. I decided that we needed a new blog so I am going to write it. Here it goes. Right now all of our family is really missing home on a lot of different fronts. First is the fact that we have not seen most of you for over a year now. Secondly is just the sense of home. Saturday runs to Brugers, bike riding around lake Harriet, you know, those types of things. I sometimes feel like I am just about to burst because I miss Minnesota so much, but other times, like now where I am sitting in the living room, listing to birds and looking out on a beautiful yard and thinking “why leave?” I have the tendency on hard days to blame whatever happened on where I am. Especially living somewhere like Zambia where there is a lot of tough stuff. It is human nature to want something and then you get it and then want something else. Now that we know that we are moving back this coming summer I am really striving towards living life to the fullest while I live in Africa.

Next is Nyanja, which pretty much means a lot of different things. Our housekeeper, Dorothy, is trying to teach our family Nyanja which is a pretty hard job. Trust me. With home schooling every morning my mom has a quote a scripture and a math problem on the board for us to write/read/solve before breakfast. Just a few days ago she started writing a Nyanja phrase on the board for us to use sometime within the day. Nyanja is the local language and every Zambian will know it. Since we have been doing this I feel closeness with Dorothy, George and Derek. It gives me an understanding of what they go through everyday to talk to the Dykstra family in English. Their culture is amazing and it is cool to learn bits and pieces of it through their native tongue. Speaking of their culture they also do some crazy things.

Today I witnessed one of them, eating flying ants. (see photo above) So the process starts out by these huge ants/termites with wings drop from the sky at night. Then this morning I woke up to our guard, Derek on his hands and knees picking these dead insects of the ground. I went out and asked what he was doing and he replied that he was ‘putting them into a bucket, boiling them, frying them, setting them in the sun to dry, then boiling them again, adding salt and eating them.’ Interesting. Well that is all I can say today and I can’t wait to hear from you guys!

Zikimo Kwambiri (Thank You very much) for reading this…

Miss you,

Kenzie