From Kabyasha we travelled to a fairly big village called Luanza, founded in the late 1890’s by 23 year old Scottish missionary, Dan Crawford. From 2002 through to 2010 there was a lot of fighting in the area and over half the village was either killed or had to run away. Rebel soldiers finally agreed to leave in 2010 and the village is now returning to normal.
The village people in the countryside live in small homes made out of mud bricks. Many people make the bricks themselves and then build their own house. The roof is made from layers of long grass that are stacked thickly to keep the rain out. Only very wealthy people have corrugated iron on their roof. There is usually only one door for the house and many have no windows, so it is very dark inside. Many houses have only 1-2 rooms but some houses are bigger. Cooking is done outside in case the house catches fire! No houses have electricity, so if they can afford it they buy candles to help them see at night.
The village people in the countryside live in small homes made out of mud bricks. Many people make the bricks themselves and then build their own house. The roof is made from layers of long grass that are stacked thickly to keep the rain out. Only very wealthy people have corrugated iron on their roof. There is usually only one door for the house and many have no windows, so it is very dark inside. Many houses have only 1-2 rooms but some houses are bigger. Cooking is done outside in case the house catches fire! No houses have electricity, so if they can afford it they buy candles to help them see at night.
Each family is big to start with, though almost half the children who are born in the villages die before they are 5 years old. There are lots of diseases and not always enough food, especially if the parents get sick. Despite this sickness and poverty, the children seem very happy and friendly. Many children only have one pair of clothes each—two at most—and no shoes. They like to play soccer a lot and make soccer balls out of plastic bags rolled up tightly and held together with string. The children also make their own toys out of pieces of wood and branches, old bicycle parts, leaves and pretty much anything else they can scavenge. No children in the villages have toys from a shop unless maybe they are children of the chief.
What do children in the village eat? Most families eat twice a day—lunch time and tea time when the sun goes down. Some poorer families only eat once a day. The main thing people eat here is a floury mash made out of either manioc or maize. This floury mash is called fufu. It is sort of like a paste and is eaten with your fingers. It tastes like our mashed potatoes but without the salt and butter, and it is also quite gritty.
A lady in the manioc field with some manioc on her head
A field of maize
For vegetables most people eat boiled manioc leaves, some beans, or something like cabbage or lettuce. If they have chickens they sometimes eat them, and also eggs from the chickens. They also eat dried fish (which smell very badly!). On very special occasions they will eat goat meat. Most people will only eat meat once or twice a month. For sweet food there are bananas and sugar cane, and some villages have paw-paw.
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