So, I have to kill some time before the government authorities will let me meet Luyanda. Today Mom and I visited the Cultural Village. Very fun and somewhat goofy. My mom & I really enjoyed the singing and dancing performance. The tour was interactive whether you felt like interacting or not. Our guide, Albert, would assign the guests various roles such as village chief or first wife and encourage us to act them out. There was one couple from Italy who were rather reserved and didn’t want to pretend. They’d say, no no no, no thank you, and back away. That didn’t stop our guide. He would just continue on with his story, and assign the role to another person. The funny part was, 10 minutes later, he’d tell the Italians that they were some other family members and the whole, no, not us, no thank you, begging off would begin again.

I’m still not catching everything that is said to me the first time I hear it. Sometimes I have to ask people to repeat themselves. Sometimes I don’t realize I’ve misheard. Today, a boy walked by Albert and they exchanged a few words. Albert then teased me in the same way he must tease other women every single day. He said, “that boy over there thinks you are very attractive and would like to offer 7 cows for you!”

I called to the boy, “Only seven? I’m worth at least 8!”

Later on, during the tour, Albert told us all that a bride cost 17 cows. He said this several times and it dawned on me that I had misunderstood that boy’s offer. I had heard Albert say seven cows when actually he had said seventeen! Here I was trying to be cute, when instead, I had responded to the boy’s offer by lowering the price!