Zachariah Lapiassi, Age 21 |
He is one of our closest friends at site and one of the very
best people we have ever met. He speaks
English fluently, as well as Portuguese and Chi-Chewa. He attends church every Saturday and is
perfectly, impeccably, honest and good.
I wrote about him, before, last January, when he first told
me about his life and his many, compounding difficulties. At the time, he was doing data entry for a
small construction business. He was
earning very little money and struggling with illness from the water in the
city. He was “suffering” from the “fierce
heat of the sun” and “feeble” from “non-viscous excrement.” He was wholly miserable, and there was little
that we could do to help.
In June, Zachariah lost his job. Caught between his Portuguese bosses and his
Mozambican co-workers, he felt as if he had no choice but to take the most
honorable route and resign from his position.
He moved back to his family farm in the village of Tchessa (5 kilometers
outside of Zobue) and started selling gasoline on the highway.
“Help me, Lisa,” he said.
“I beseech you. Can you help me
advance my life?”
I wanted to, but I couldn’t.
I didn’t have any connections in town and I didn’t have any ideas. There was nothing I could do.
Then Dan and I received a text from a missionary family on
the outskirts of Tete City.
“We’ve been reading your blog,” the message read, “and we
were wondering if your friend Zachariah would be interested in working for our
church. We are looking for an
interpreter.”
I jumped straight up in the air and clapped my hands.
“Yes, yes!” I said to Dan.
“Tell them yes!”
And so the second saga of Zach’s adventure began. On Tuesday morning, he packed two pairs of
slacks and took a chapa to Moatize. By Wednesday afternoon, he had already started
working. He is now officially a
translator for the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite. If all goes well, he will transfer to the
next missionary, and then the next, and the next. We can only pray.
It is the best possible job in the world for Zachariah, and
an opportunity that he truly deserves. I
can’t think of anyone who speaks English better than he does, or anybody who is
more devoted to their church. I believe
that he will be successful, and I am so, so, so proud of him. His whole
life is just beginning.
In honor of Zachariah and his big, exciting success, I want
to publish an essay that he wrote for me on the topic of Mozambique. This essay, more than anything I could
possibly write myself, really illustrates the depth of his language skills and
earnest nature of his character. He
wrote this essay after I prompted him to find more information on this history
of Mozambique. Everything in this
composition—the pictures, the vocabulary lists, the funny, old-fashioned
language—is his and his alone.
Read, enjoy, and learn!
This is our friend, Zachariah.
________________________________________________________________
The History of Mozambique
Life in the Olden Days
I am cajoled by your
supplication, Lisa, that you want to know about how people lived in the past—
Zachariah Lupia Lapiassi
Before the emerge of maize seed and other seeds we see now,
people were not tilling ground at all but, instead, were nourishing the
following foods: chitedize, calongonda,
yams, mpama, bamboo ears, and wild fruit.
Because there was no maize, tender/fresh
bamboo was smashed to flour for xima preparation.
When corn emerged there were no mortars or maize mills. People would soak the maize in water for it
to turn soft and then they would take it to the grinding place and rub it with
a grind stone into powder. Then xima
was made in clay pots. Indeed, it was a dreadful age.
There was no fire in the past but man’s brain gradually
began to be witful. People discovered
that tenderly dried pieces of bamboo were a source of fire. The bamboo would be cut to pieces about the
size of a bamboo node and another would be cut and made thinner with a pike at
one end. The stout piece was bored in
the middle to place the spike in there and therefore a man would rub the thinner
one against the whole of the stout one.
The friction would render the crumbs to be glowing with heat and then
the glowing crumbs would trigger fire to burn.
Underneath the stout bamboo there were some tiny nyanda pieces placed to
kindle easily.
There was no metal after the introduction of corn. Therefore persons used branches of trees to till
the soil for the corn.
There were no clothes here!
People used to wear nyanda to cover their nudity. They were not able to find enough nyanda to cover
the whole body so they would use the nyanda as a loin-cloth. This is an appalling story. They were unable to
assuage the plight.
Soap was not found at all but people used bwazi and chipuzi
to cleanse the stubborn stains in their clothes and nyanda. First was nyanda because cloth came later.
Houses were not as we behold now. There were only molded houses not topped with
grass as we see but they were oval-like on top. Then after molding in that manner the houses
were burned in and out to make it hardened as a pot for curry so that the rain
drops would pound the top of the houses with vehemence with no harm.
But with the introduction of metal people began to make
arrows and the spirit of killing became common.
The matter was to scramble for women because men would try to marry many
women. Every man was supposed to walk
with a spear to fend off himself unless he dies and then the killer would take
the deceased’s wife as his wife. Your
enemy would come at night with a spear and get on top of your house thereby
trying to bore the top of your house even trying to urinate in the hole in
order to break through the house top-soil layer so that he can impale you and
take your wife. There was no unison but
violence then.
People were becoming able to make gun-powder using the salt-like
substances formed on dried rock puddles and in caves. They would take the salt-like matter and mix it
with the well-roasted dry part of the bark of chatowa with some water
added. This is even used nowadays with
people but it’s not publicly done.
Salt for the curry was not available but people used a
certain plant that grows in water as salt.
They would dry it and then burn it to ashes and the ashes were put on a bamboo
plate with some water so that the bamboo vessel would leak salt-like juices for
the preparation of curry (as shown in the following illustration). The name of the plant is mwerere.
There is a need of translation for these words to you:
Bwazi: Bark (a shrub whose
root-barks and stem-barks produce bubbles as soap)
Chipuzi: Wild
cucumber
Mwerere: A plant
found in rivers in which the ashes produce salty juice
Mpama: Creepers (like
yams, eaten in times of scarcity)
Matowa: A tree fruit
(like chewing gum but more sticky)
Chatowa: A tree that
exudes white glue used in catching birds
Nyanda: A loin-cloth,
cloth made from bark of a tree, mainly a fibrous one
I, Zachariah, am completely humble because with your
request, Lisa, I have learned deep things which I did not know at all in
life. Please confine this in your mind
and tell your siblings and parents about the past life here in Tete more
specifically Zobue. Now I close out with
my assignment.
Good Lucky!
--Zachariah Lupia Lapiassi
_______________________________________________________________________________
So here's to Zachariah. Here's to his new job, his future prospects, and his funny, funny English. Of equal importance, here's to all of the Peace Corps Volunteers who sat with him, talked to him, and nurtured his love of learning. I believe that the Peace Corps can make a difference, and I believe that Zachariah is living proof of the positive effects of grass-roots development.
Thank you Chelsea, Katie, Angelina, Janet, Luke, and "Mr. Jordan". He talks about you all the time! Your time in Africa was meaningful and you are still important to the people who "knew you when."
So here's to Zachariah. Here's to his new job, his future prospects, and his funny, funny English. Of equal importance, here's to all of the Peace Corps Volunteers who sat with him, talked to him, and nurtured his love of learning. I believe that the Peace Corps can make a difference, and I believe that Zachariah is living proof of the positive effects of grass-roots development.
Thank you Chelsea, Katie, Angelina, Janet, Luke, and "Mr. Jordan". He talks about you all the time! Your time in Africa was meaningful and you are still important to the people who "knew you when."
YAY!! What awesome new! I think the church will have gain an amazing assistant and friend -- wishing him all the best as he starts a new adventure!
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