Dinner Appointment

     The Shona, or African culture is very service-oriented, especially if you are a woman. You cook, you clean, you care for the young and you do everything your husband tells you to do. Now this mama, she is old in age and has her three grandchildren. Their parents are either gone because of death or they have gone to South Africa to work.
     Her name is Gogo(grandma) Makoni. and she lives about a 4 hr walk from our meeting house. Her home, like many of the homes here, is a small 14 ft by 16 ft room. Her bed, made from old crates, boxes, and many blankets piled on for padding took up half of her living space. and the buckets of water stored for the week and the other belongings took up more of the space, leaving a spot of walking space about 5ft by 6ft.
     She doesn't use magetze(electricity) because of the cost. she cooks with paraffin(propane) and the room was thick with the smell of the used gas. As the 4 of us came in we scrunched together and sat down Indian-style on the ground and she wiped off the nicest plates that she had and gave them to us (now when you give something here, you don't just hand it over [like we do in America]. You kneel down and with both hands respectfully as you put the gift forward and wait for them to receive it).  She got down on her age-worn knees and gave us each a plate and then proceeded to wash our hands (now... over here, you don't have a sink to wash your hands. The woman of the house comes to each person and with a pitcher of water and bowl to catch the water. They pour the water over your hands and wait for you to say thank you before they stop.). As she was kneeling, she held the bowl under each of our hands and poured (as she rinsed our hands, I couldn't stop myself from thinking of how the Savior is there to serve us and rinse our unclean hands. This is the same ritual in everyone's house where we eat). Each time she had to retrieve something else for us she would get up and again kneel down. and don't even think of offering to assist. that would be ungrateful and rude.
     She again knelt down with the pots of food. She served us all that she had and as we ate, she waited outside with her children offering whatever amount of space that she could for 4 full-grown men.
     As we left her home that night she called each of us her children and with a smile on her face and almost a tear in her eye she thanked us for blessing her family with our presence and for sharing with the people of Zimbabwe what she thought of as the most wonderful thing in her life which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.