Monkeying Around

She wanted me to make earrings out of the seeds, but as I stared at the cut fruit I couldn’t imagine wearing those almond-shaped monkey fruit seeds. Anushka, an 8th grader at Banani, was now staring expectantly at the opened fruit. We had come to the kitchen of the senior dorms after a brief bird walk. I had been teaching Anushka the names of a few of the birds: Blue Waxbills and indigobirds, wagtails and whydahs. She had picked this fruit off the ground, trying to convince me that we should open it and see what’s inside. Her curiosity reminded me of me. Secretly, I wanted to know what was inside too.

I didn’t know how to make earrings anyways, much less have the tools for it. But as I held the two halves of rotten smelling fruit in my hand, it dawned on me that I could scrape out the fruit, leaving the hard shell like a bowl which could then be painted. I had been keeping my eye out for some sort of arts and crafts project to do with my dorm, and this was a place to start.

Let me tell you about monkey fruit. They are smooth and circular and green, and very hard to pick off trees. It takes them a long time to ripen and fall on the ground, and even then they can break or rot or are taken by the monkeys, who have long sharp teeth capable of breaking the thick woody shell which protects the fruit. Once the shell is opened, you will find fleshy yellow to brown fruit with an outer layer of meaty skin and almond-like seeds. You can’t open it with a kitchen knife. You could open it by smashing it on the ground, but that would break the shell, which was the only part I really wanted. So Anushka and I had taken the fruit to the workshop where a staff member ran the fruit through a table saw, cutting it neatly in half (fruit juice flying everywhere).

I took my idea to some of the other service youth and we decided to invent a contraption for picking more monkey fruit. Using a broken broomstick handle, we cut a notch around the top and secured a noose-shaped wire to it. Using our invention, we could loop the noose around the highest of monkey fruits and with a mighty tug, bring them down to the ground. After a morning of monkeying around, we returned with 19 fruits, which will become bowls and maracas/shakers for arts and crafts projects. I’ll let you know how they turn out….

Two of the youth with our monkey fruit picker

Naw-Ruz

“Praised be Thou, O my God, that Thou hast ordained Naw-Ruz as a festival unto those who have observed the fast for love of Thee and abstained from all that is abhorrent unto Thee. Grant, O my Lord, that the fire of Thy love and the heat produced by the fast enjoined by Thee may inflame them in Thy Cause, and make them to be occupied with Thy praise and with remembrance of Thee.”
Baha’u’llah, first paragraph from a prayer for Naw-Ruz

I am fast finding out that the youth year of service volunteers arrange most of the Holy Day programs at Banani. Once again with only a few days noticed we put together a program of readings and music for Naw-Ruz, a celebration of the Baha’i New Year at the end of the fast. We even arranged time for a rehearsal of the program to ensure things went smoothly. After the program, the school hosted a buffet of pork, beef, fish, rice, and potatoes,…and ice cream (a rare treat here). The students then danced the night away in celebration of the New Year…actually, they had to be in bed by 22.15.

The following Monday the girls were excused from class and prep (which is a free study period). The service youth walked down to the institute around 13.30 for feast and a community brai. You all probably know what a brai is but I didn’t…it’s a barbecue.

The Banani girls sing and dance as part of the Naw-Ruz program

Lofty is the Station of Man

“Lofty is the station of man, were he to hold fast to righteousness and truth and to remain firm and steadfast in the Cause. In the eyes of the All-Merciful a true man appeareth even as a firmament; its sun and moon are his sight and hearing, and his shining and resplendent character its stars. His is the loftiest station, and his influence educateth the world of being.”
Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah

This watercolor painting was inspired by the above quote (look close and you can see the words in the rays of the sun)

And also a poem (any criticism is welcome, on the painting or the poem)

Reconnect

I forget how wide the world is,
Confined to narrow pathways,
Trapped in buildings I see everyday
Brick fences with corners at
Ninety-degree angles

Inner frustration which sits,
Stagnant water,
Distilled of hope

Or like an orange rotting,
Molding all over my heart

Until I feel a warm breeze,
Remember it blowing across
African savannahs and woods
That lay beyond the fence

Watching clouds backlit by a
Tawny moon
And illuminated by lightning

Thunder, distant and gentle,
Like the murmuring of lions

Animated
Feel the excited electrons before the storm,
I sit to paint
Putting colors back into my life
As I remember the texture of skin,
The reflections in eyes,
Or the patterns made by a hundred feathers
On a bird’s raised wing.

I reconnect
Negativity disintegrates,
Falling to the past
See it spiraling down the sink
As I dump the water
Spoiled by watercolor pigments

Ayyam-i-Ha at Banani

“Baha’u’llah enjoined upon His followers to devote these days to feasting, rejoicing and charity. In a letter written on Shoghi Effendi’s behalf it is explained that ‘the intercalary days are specially set aside for hospitality, the giving of gifts, etc.” (from the Notes section of The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 180)

“The Baha’i year…consists of nineteen months of nineteen days each, with the addition of certain intercalary days (four in an ordinary year and five in a leap year) between the eighteenth and nineteenth months in order to adjust the calendar to the solar year. The Bab named the months after certain attributes of God. The Baha’i New Year, Naw-Ruz, is astronomically fixed, coinciding with the March equinox.” (from the Notes section of The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 227)

The above photo is of all the service youth and the dorm matron, Mrs. Mukendi


The evening of February 26 the service youth at Banani put the finishing touches to the devotional program and decorations for the Ayyam-i-Ha celebration to be held at the William Masetlha Institute. We blew up balloons and cut out quotes, decorating them with cut out flowers and colourful paper. Lollipops, chips, and chocolate were added to goody bags to be gifted to the children. Working in unity, we had delivered invitations and made a poster advertising the date.

Chisha, who works at the institute, began arranging plates of cookies and brownies. The youth took the plates to the Insitute Hall as people began arriving.

Then the power went out and we were left in darkness. There was only a moment of surprised silence before children broke out into chaos. A few clever individuals brought their torches and shared with others. Four candles were brought out and stuck to the tables and floors. The show must go on….we held our program in the dark, beginning with four prayers from children, and the prayer for the Intercalary Days with Native American flute played softly in the background. After a few readings on the topic of joy and happiness, a group of Baha’is from Kitwe sang three songs inspired by Baha’i quotes. And just as they finished their last song…the lights flipped on. Just in time for the social portion and brownies. Possibly the most joyful and uplifting Ayyam-i-Ha celebration I have ever attended or been a part of.

Boubous and Barbets: A Post for Birders

The top photo is of a section of road near the William Mmustle Institute. The second photo is a young vervet monkey atop the dorm roof.



This post is for the bird nuts who are curious just how many birds I’ve seen so far and what kind. I post the following list knowing some people who read the blog could care less. However, the birds with a star by their name are birds I highly recommend googling a photo of, they will make your mouth water :p

List of Birds (seen in Banani, Muzikili, Kabwe, Lusaka, and all places in between which I might have passed via bus)

Lizard Buzzard (Kaupifalco monogrammicus)
Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris)
African Green Pigeon (Treron calvus)
Meyer’s (Brown) Parrot (Poicephalus meyeri) *
Purple-crested Turaco (Lourie) (Tauraco porphyreolopha)
Schalow’s Turaco (Tauraco schalowi) *
Levaillant’s (African Striped) Cuckoo (Clamator levaillanti)
African Palm Swift (Cypsiurus parvus)
Little Swift (Apus affinis)
Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus glaucurus)
European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) *
Crowned Hornbill (Tockus alboterminatus)
African Grey Hornbill (Tockus nasutus)
Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird (Pogoniulus chrysoconus)
Black-collared Barbet (Lybius torquatus)
Crested Barbet (Trachyphonus vaillantii)
Golden-tailed Woodpecker (Campethera abingoni)
Barn Swallow (woohoo!) (Hirundo rustica)
Mosque Swallow (Cercropis senegalensis)
African Pied Wagtail (Motacilla aguimp)
Fork-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis)
Pied Crow (Corvus albus)
Arrow-marked Babbler (Turdoides jardineii)
Dark-capped (Black-eyed) Bulbul (Pycnonotus tricolor)
Yellow-bellied Greenbul (Clorocichla flaviventris)
White-browed (Heuglin’s) Robin-Chat (Cossypha heuglini)
African Paradise-flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis)
Chinspot Batis (Batis molitor)
Black-backed Puffback (Drypscopus cubla)
Tropical Boubou (Laniarius major)
Violet-backed (Plum-coloured, Amethyst) Starling (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster)
Scarlet-chested Sunbird (Chalcomitra senegalensis) *
Collared Sunbird (Hedydipna collaris) *
Variable (Yellow-bellied) Sunbird (Cinnyris venustus) *
White-bellied Sunbird (Cinnyris talatala) *
African Yellow White-eye (Zosterops senegalensis)
Northern Grey-headed Sparrow (Passer griseus)
Village (Black-headed) Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus)
Southern Red Bishop or Black-winged Bishop (or both? To be determined…)
Yellow Bishop (Cape/Yellow-rumped Widow) (Eucplectes capensis)
Yellow-mantled (Yellow-backed) Widowbird (Euplectes macrourus)
Green-winged Pytilia (Melba Finch) (Pytilia melba)
Orange-winged (Golden-backed) Pytilia (Pytilia afra)
Red-billed Firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala)
Bronze Mannikin (Spermestes cucullatus)
Blue Waxbill (Southern Cordonbleu) (Uraeginthus angolensis)
Village Indigobird (Steel-blue Widowfinch) (Vidua chalybeata)
Long-tailed Paradise-whydah (Vidua paradisaea)
Brimstone (Bully) Canary (Crithagra sulphurata)
Yellow-fronted Canary (Crithagra mozambica)

Kabwe

On one of our days off, three other youth and I chose to attend a teaching trip in Kabwe, north of Banani. We started off waiting on the side of a road for a minibus, the form of public transportation in Zambia (not unlike the Sheiruts in Israel). The other youth laughed when they remembered this would be my first minibus experience. I shrugged. How bad could it be?

It actually turned out to be quite comical. Here’s how it works: you wait for a bus and when one pulls over you haggle with the driver (if they offer an unfair price). 12,000 kwacha (or 12 pin) is a good price from Banani to Kabwe. Then, no matter how full the bus is, you get in. Even if people are spilling out of the bus when the doors open, don’t worry, there’s is still room for one more! We were packed into the bus like sardines. Sometimes people bring their produce to or from markets, and it’s not unusual to be riding alongside a wide –eyed chicken being held by its legs.

We arrived around noon and met some of the local Baha’is. Together we said prayers and, of course, sang lots of songs from the Zambian Baha’i Songbook. The group then split up and I went with three Bemba-speaking Baha’is. We visited two households, both of which spoke Bemba and very little English. It is interesting to be the minority. When I speak, I am used to people understanding me, and it was sometimes frustrating to get blank stares. For the most part, I sat quietly in a chair and watched the body language and facial expressions between the Kabwe Baha’is and the villagers. At one point one lady pointed to me and said something in Bemba. One of the Baha’is translated for me: “She says now it’s time to tell you everything we just said, because you look like you are all in questions.”

Walking through the residential areas, children would stare curiously or call out: “Muzungu! Muzungu!”*

I wish I could take Bemba lessons and learn to say a prayer or two…and maybe I will!

Here are a few words/phrases I have learned so far:

Eya mukwai: thank-you, often said after someone welcomes you into their home

Natotayla: thank-you, but used on a more personal level, such as when one is offered a gift

A-way: often used as an exclamation, like “no way!”

*Muzungu is a word for people with pale skin.

Hello From Zambia!

“There is nothing that brings success in the Faith like service. Service is the magnet which draws the divine confirmations.” Shoghi Effendi

So here I am in Zambia and after having been here a week, friends and family at home are starting to ask me a lot of questions. I’m still adjusting and don’t know fully what I’m doing yet; I don’t have answers to all the questions. I have, however, learned a great deal and been involved in a few exciting activities which I will share with you below.

What is Zambia like? Banani International School is situated between Kabwe and Lusaka along the Great North Road. It is surrounded by a habitat called miombo woodland. Right now is the rainy season and it rains almost every day. There is an abundance of wildlife, including vervet monkeys that run across the roof of the dorms. Zambia boasts around 700 species of birds. On the Banani campus are large green and blue birds, turacos, which sport red primaries in flight. They look like something out of Jurassic Park….

Ok, so that’s the atmosphere. Let’s talk about the people. Zambians are very friendly. It’s rude to walk by someone and not smile and say hello. Or you might say “mulishani” which is something like “how are you?” in Bemba (to which one might reply “bwino”, meaning “good” or something like it). When I first arrived at the school everybody was asking me so many questions about where I was coming from, what I studied in school, if I had siblings or a boyfriend or friends from school and if I had pictures I could show them. Oh, and they ask the boyfriend question about a million times.

Service at Banani includes a variety of duties. I am currently the dorm mother for 15 or so tenth grade girls. Duties include calling lights out and quiet time, overseeing cleaning of the dorm, general encouragement, and providing fun activities (or evening prayers). When the girls are in class, the youth also facilitate/participate in Ruhi Study Circles, animate junior youth groups, teach a class for children in the nearby residential area, or type Ruhi books that have been translated into Bemba.