Jesus, etc.

So I am standing on the street just before dusk, the sun is still sitting pretty; I am looking for a specific cab driver, the only cab driver that goes to where I am headed. I am trying to get into Kabalaka, a small village outside Chalinbana, in Chongwe district (I will get back to why in a bit). A man smelling of stale jilly-jilly sashes, a 4in x 2.5in plastic pouch holding 75ml or almost two ounces of 45% poor cane alcohol. These are given witty names to match their cost of 750 Kwatcha, or about 15 cents per “packet”, like “Double Punch!”, “Officers”, and one of my favorites “Rambo”.
My new friend, tries charming me first by telling me that I am a Mazungu (Ma /zoon/ gue), or a white person, he was really observant. He went on to quickly start revealing to me that I was responsible for killing Jesus Christ. Over and over he kept telling me this, until finally I kindly stated that this was impossible since I was born for the first time, to my knowledge, in 1986. This didn’t satisfy his needs, so then started explaining that all white people are responsible for killing Jesus. This is because there is evidence that the Roman’s were, in fact white, where as it is obvious that Jesus was dark skinned, therefore black. This was a totally new experience for me, never in my life had I experienced a person yelling at me, “You killed Jesus!” over and over while a group of on lookers just laughed. Yes, I had head more then a few times that “Jesus had died for me and my sins”, but never have I been heckled about being the one that killed him! So I guess I am trying to say, is white people bad news, there is another thing our ancestors have done that you have to feel guilty about. My Jewish loves: you are off the hook, at least in Africa, we, yes we, gotcho back!
I guess this blog is called “Jesus, etc.” for a few reasons: I love Wilco. I love this song. I had a recent Jesus story; and this is going to be a random entry that moves all over the place. It has also allowed me to once again think about that “Higher Being” “God” a few times over the past month.

Elishabe was the little girl that I wrote about a little over a year ago; I also posted a naked picture of this little cutie somewhere below! Last Friday morning (17 July) I found out that she died. She had fallen into the family’s water hole. This is not a well, its just a meter wide hole in the ground, about 2 meters deep that is being fed by a natural underground spring or brook. This is so sad for me; this was the baby that I had fallen in love with, whilst falling in love with Zambia, the first baby I had carried on my back with a chitange, the first baby that really peed on me, she helped me become excepted into my home stay family.
In other words. I have been here a year now, and I haven’t lost anyone that I was close to in Zambia, I have been lucky. But this experience has given me a different perspective on things and life. The Mulolo family, is a responsible, loving, and generous family, the fact that Shabe (shay ba) drowned is not the family’s fault it was a total fluke. I went down to visit the family after I heard, and I was never embraced so warmly. Yes, I did bring gifts with me, but the way in which we remembered little Shabe, and supported each other was wonderful and has enriched my experience here no matter how hard it was.