A loss of life

Early yesterday morning, the mother of one of the workers here at ZARI, passed away. The research community came together and I was able to participate (in a small way) with the mourning process and Zambian funeral rituals.

In the early afternoon a group of people from the research station walked to the families home and sat with them. The women sit inside the home and sing songs (this was a christian family so we sang Bemba hymns). The men sit outside and talk about things that men talk about(politics mostly).

In the evening around 8:00pm everyone gather back at the house (some people have been there all day with the family). There is more singing and some dancing. The women are inside again and the men are outside around a camp fire. I didn't know that it would be a vigil (everyone brought pillows and blankets to spend the night sleeping on the floor with the family). We stayed until about 11:00pm and then went to our home (only a few minutes walk away). The burial was today, but John has not been feeling well since about 4:30am (he has been throwing up). He is feeling OK now and resting. So we did not attend the burial. I am feeling sleepy from staying up until midnight and waking up at 4:30 (poor John does not do being sick well at all). I am checking on him every couple of hours and hoping to get into town today to talk to ZESCO. They visited again to shut off our power because they are not sending us bills. It is all rather annoying and complicated because we have the money and will pay the bill if they ever send us one! But, we'll see how things pan out... I am starting to think that we will end up leaving without having this ZESCO thing resolved and will just have to leave money with the research station for the next person who occupies the house.