A Visit to the Chief

We are new at this, so excuse us if we stumble through our first blog posting. Hopefully, you have read our profile, so we won't go into who we are and what we do in Zambia. Instead, we will let you jump into our lives with a story of what has happened most recently in our adventures in Zambia.

Last week we went to survey a new area where we are planning to begin new work. Having lived in Zambia for 10 years now, we know that it is wise to visit the chief of the area where you wish to work. This is nothing new to us, but we still tremble with the thought of making cultural mistakes.

The night before heading to this new area, one of our church members in our home village told us he was "somehow" related to the chief. He told us it would be best if we would call ahead and make an appointment. He then gave us a contact number, and told us that it belonged to David. Wes made the call, and David agree that we should meet the chief at 2:00.

The following day, we made our way to the new area mid morning, in order to have time to look around. At 2:00 promptly, we arrived at the chief's palace. Amazingly, he was ready to see us. You must understand, in Zambia, time is not an issue. We had a good meeting, sharing with him our plans. He welcomed us to his area and wrote a letter stating that we could travel and work freely throughout his area.

Time passed, and we were ready to go. The chief told us to call if we needed anything, handing us a piece of paper with several names. He called Wes to his desk and showed him the names, pointing out that the first name was his. To Wes' surprise, the chief was none other than "David." Embarrassed for having called the chief by his first name, Wes humbly apologized. The chief just smiled and said, "It's alright, my name is not Chief, it is David, and I like my first name." Although we both felt relieved, we once again knew that we had made a cultural mistake. But, being foreigners who didn't know any better, we were excused.