Party Zim Style

One of the greatest things about volunteering and staying at Antelope Park for such a long period of time is the fact that you get to know the local staff on a personal level. Take Virginia for example. Several members of her family work at the park and her parents live just outside of the entrance gate. Virginia works in laundry. She actually makes doing laundry fun. A few of us at the park were invited to her parent’s house for a traditional Zimbabwe celebration. The day before the party, Sheila, a member of the cook staff gave us Shauna and Ndebele lessons. These are the two languages spoken in Zim. The lessons were too much fun! She would have us sing the vowels in both languages. The shy ones in the group were mortified. Me, I proudly belted out the unfamiliar sounds. Hans from Iceland was my conversation partner and he would have to sing with me. We had the rest of the group crying with laughter. Can you imagine it? A Baltimore-Hon accent, paired with an Icelandtic accent, singing African vowels? Could have been a Saturday Night Live skit. When we arrived to the celebration I could get by with the basic greeting and sing my vowels and that was pretty much it. When our truck pulled into the entrance we were greeted by over twenty children, all part of the family. They were smiling and waving so hard I thought their little arms would fall off. This is one BIG family. You see, Virginia’s dad has two wives. Or, as Virginia explains, she has two moms, a birth mom and her “other mom”. In Zimbabwe it is legal to have more than one wife. She also has a dozen, or more brothers and sisters. Add their children to this gathering and we had ourselves quite a party. And party it was… no time was wasted. The boys grabbed the men in the group to show them how to play the drums, while Virginia’s mom, birth mom, began to sing and dance to a traditional welcome song. Before you knew it, we were all being pulled in and taught the steps. Homemade beer was being pasted around… I forgot the name, maybe because it was SO strong. Then, we were taught how to make sudsa, a staple in a Zimbabwe meal. It’s finely ground maze that doesn’t have much of a flavor, but is usually served with some type of sauce. Before serving the meal, the women are instructed to wash the men’s hands. I thought the men from AP would eat this up but they actually looked uncomfortable when I brought over the pale of water. It is also the women’s responsibility to serve the men their dinner... on bent knee. I think I need more of the home brew. Then I was told the women needed to go and collect firewood. What?! I wanted to protest...rally the Zim women to stand up for their rights but all I could do is sing my vowels. So off I went to help collect firewood.