Facts about Katibunga and the
monastery that resides within this small village.
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| They would place 'bunga' between the trees. |
Bemba is a specific dialect that is spoken in this area.
Swahili is a very popular language in central-eastern Africa, but most do not
know it here. In Tanzania, where I will be in January, they speak Swahili.
There are 73 different languages throughout Zambia.
English is recognized as a national language here, but not
many people know it very well. The one’s that do usually only speak the basics.
The Katibunga monastery was started in 1989 and is connected
with the Hanga Abbey in Tanzania. To be considered an Abbey the monastery must
have an Abbot. Abbot comes from the word “Abba” which means father/Christ-like.
The Abbot is the head monk and leader of the monastery. So, there is usually an
abbot, a prior, and a sub-prior. Katibunga is just considered a monastery
because it has a prior, but no abbot. The prior in Katibunga reports back to
the Abbot in Hanga.
There are around 30 monks here in the
monastery. Many are brothers and only a few (maybe 3) are fathers. In a
monastery, both brothers and fathers are monks, however a father is an ordained
priest and can preside over mass, marriages, and other main things where a
brother cannot.
Two Italian women will be arriving in August to stay for one
month and help with the medical clinic.
The villagers in Katibunga live in huts made of tree and
dirt, cook over an open fire, and collect water from the nearby stream.
The monastery is extremely
self-sufficient. Being that it is out in the bush they must grow their own
food, collect and use their own water, and produce their own electricity. They
have many cows, pigs, chickens, roosters, goats, and a donkey. There is also a
fish pond where they are able to fish. They eat some of their livestock as well
as sell some. Furthermore, they grow maize, onions, tomatoes, mangos, peppers,
oranges, and bananas. They create electricity by using a hydro pump. There is a
clean spring where they collect water to drink and another river that is used
in the hydro pump to create electricity. A very green and impressive way to
live.
We eat three meals a day with nothing in between. For breakfast,
we have bread with jam or margarine and sometimes some eggs. Lunch and dinner
usually consist of ugali (maize meal), beans, some kind of meat (fish, beef,
chicken, or pork), and sometimes a vegetable. The fish served is a complete
fish scales, eyes, and all. We peal apart the fish and pull back the scales to
reach the meat. For beverages, we drink water and cow’s milk (which must be
mixed with butter because it tastes like butter milk). There is chilled water,
but most of the time its hot water and always hot milk. I don’t mind, though,
and in fact prefer the hot beverages because then I know it has been cleaned a
bit more.
Benedictine monks have certain things they do at meals. Here
in Zambia they say a prayer at breakfast, have a monk read a passage from a
book for about 20 minutes at lunch (which is wonderful. Very peaceful), and
sing a song before eating at dinner. The Saint John’s Abbey in Minnesota eats
breakfast in complete silence (who wants to talk in the mornings anyways?) and
reads a passage from a book at dinner. To signal the end of the reading for the
day the prior rings a bell and from there everyone is able to talk.
The water from the faucets is unclean and cannot be consumed.
So it is used for flushing toilets (the monastery has toilets, but the village
and school use pit latrines – outhouses), washing hands, and bathing.
It is currently winter here (June-September), but for a
Minnesotan it feels great. The average temperature is 75 degrees. The summer
months are coming, though, and I am sure it will get very hot. Along with
summer comes rainy season. It rains a lot during October, November, and
December. However, I am a big fan of mangos and they are harvested during the
rainy season so I am looking forward to that.
There is no air conditioning. It will be interesting to see
how the summer months go!
The monastery runs a primary and secondary school, a medical
clinic, a carpentry shop, a store, and oversees the farming. They hire a lot of
the locals to help with teaching, farming, and running the carpentry shop. The
store is very small and holds only a few main items (cooking oil, a few snacks,
maize, and the occasional beer).
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| Notice the 24-hour clock |
They use the 24-hour clock here so rather than 1 o’clock
it’s read as 13 hours.
Everything is much more relaxed here. A quote that describes
African time well is “Africa has the time and America has the clock.” In
America everything is done by the clock and at a certain time. In Africa,
things are much slower. Many people relax during the day while getting a few
certain things done. If something doesn’t take place today it’s okay because we
can do it tomorrow. In America this kind of behavior and mindset wouldn’t fly
because we are so adamant in getting things done and progressing to the next
step.
It seems to me as if the people here are content with just
living in the present where as Americans are always concerned about the future.
However, in addition to that thought, I believe some who have never been able
to leave the village are also unaware of the outside world and the progress
that has been made elsewhere. So there are positives and negatives to both
sides.
A small update of what Zack and I have
been up to:
The past couple of days Zack and I have just been getting
the lay of the land and seeing what there is to do. As for work, we hope to
help with multiple things. We are unsure of what we will be doing yet, but we
are thinking it would be nice to help with the medical clinic some days while
farming and/or teaching a class the other few. Zack was a physics major so he
could help with a math class and I could help with either an English or science
class. Farming and assisting with the clinic seems like a rewarding and fun
time as well. Teaching can be difficult considering we don't speak their
language and they don't speak ours (think of it as being in a chemistry class taught
by a professor that only speaks German. Exactly.) So, it's not that I don't
enjoy teaching, it just can be difficult and slow at times. However, this is
Africa and they do need teachers so we are finding out that it may be good to
teach at least one class.
Another part of being in the BVC is attending prayer with
the monks at least once a day. Zack and I have agreed on attending midday
prayer which is right before lunch. We will also attend holy mass on Sunday.
