THE TWELVE- Chapter 3, episode 6

                 The morning began for Zed and Maul joining the mourning of the dead. In the house where thy lodged in three children had just died out of meningitis, the parents of the children with some other neighbors mourned for them. Maul and Zed and their assistants sat for the mourning for a while then they went back into the house they had rented from the parents of the deceased.

“What a welcome we’ve had.” Maul said as they all sat down.

“The people barely understand English,”

“One major need, we have to find an interpreter.” Zed said.

“They equally believe in so many false gods,” Kevin said.

“Yeah,” Zed agreed. “The African man believes in the rituals of their fore fathers. Not all though, but in places like this where civilization is like a loaf of bread we can’t expect much.”

“Everything about this place scares me,” Marshal said.

“You will get use to and when you do, it will just be like New Jersey to you.” Maul encouraged them even though she was also scared.

While in Zimbabwe, Larry and Shania got a place to stay in one of the villages where they had street children and orphans. It was a fairly nice place built with planks but could accommodate them and their assistants for six months. They found the people friendly though their English was not fluent and they lacked education.  That morning as they tried to get themselves acquainted to the situation two black children walked in with food tied with leaves in a basket.

“We cook this food for eating,” one of them said.

“Okay,” Larry smiled at them. “Thank you,”

“Thank you very much,” Shania and the other children smiled at them.

“Anything more you need, we be outside.” The other said, dropped the basket and they left.

“I’ll give it a taste,” One of the children said reaching out for the basket.

“Let’s pray first,” Shania said. “Lord, bless the food as we eat. In Jesus name amen,”

“Amen,”

He brought out one of the leaves and opened it and the sight of it they felt like puking.

“Are you sure you want to taste that?” Larry asked.

One of the boys, Paco went straight to the spoon, picked it up and took a taste of it.

“How is it?” Larry asked twisting his face.

“Pounded starchy rice, bitter herbs and a slice of…… snake I think.”

“Urgh……..” they fought with the vomit that was rising up their throats.

“Disgusting,” Paco dropped the food.

“I spent a lot of time eating trash,” Larry said. “But I never ate anything this gross,”

“What do we do now?” Ruby one of the girls asked. “We can’t just give back the food like that,”

“Maybe we should just eat it or we might never get use to,” Miguel suggested.

“What did you say?” Paco looked him. “Maybe you don’t know how horrible this thing taste; it’s a mixture of organic acid.”

“Paco don’t say that, this might be their meal they served us”. Soledad said. “Don’t insult it because you don’t like it.”

“I’m sorry,” Paco said.

“Why don’t we just go out and take a walk,” Soledad said. She was eighteen. “Maybe we might find a place to eat something we are use to eating.”

“Nice idea,” Larry said. “About the food, I will take care of what to tell the children about us not being able to eat it.” He looked at the food again and imagined himself eating it then he shook as if he woke up from a bad dream. They allowed the food there and left.

In Liberia Ben and Lindsay had a very nice place to stay as compared to the others just like the crew in Kenya. They lived amongst other people who respected them for their color and their personality. After breakfast, they confessed to one another that they loved the food. Ben and Lindsay were a match of perfectionist, they were very observant and took majority of the things happening around them very seriously.

“Annabel,” Lindsay called out to one of the assistants. “What are your observations so far?”

“Knowing that Liberia is the smallest and poorest place in Africa,” She replied. “I realize they lack education and it’s difficult for them to understand English and that will be a major problem for us.”

“Annabel, Daniel, Barbra and Marc,” Lindsay said. “I will like you guys to be very watchful, we are going to grab any little opportunity we have so as to make friends with the street children here. It is a good thing they don’t know who we are as the twelve and so we can be as normal as possible.”

“Yah,” Ben said. “Keep reading all the books we brought, we have to study the place very well so we are not fooled or exploited by anybody.  Even if they don’t know who we are, they at least know we are some rich kids who came to have a good time here so they will try to exploit us if we play dump.”

“Thanks Ben,” Daniel said. “For the heads up,”

“Lindsay, did you try calling again?” Ben asked.

“It is not working and it’s frustrating me, I wonder how they are.”

“We will just keep trying till we get to them. Let’s go out for a little stroll, see if we can make some friends.” As Ben said, they all stood up and went for the walk.