Nzulezo, A Water Village

*Thursday, February 10, 2011
On Tuesday we visited Nzulezo, a water village built on stilts. It was a two hour bus ride to get to the place where we boarded canoes for at least an hour of paddling and poling through a manmade canal to a lake where the village is situated. Ancestors of the village believe that the villagers were led to this secure place by a snail. The canoe ride took us through areas of marsh and open pools fringed with palm thickets. Each canoe held 4 to 5 passengers and the front passenger paddled while the guide pushed with a pole from behind. It was very hot, sunny and humid and we were already pretty hot from riding on a bus where the air conditioning wasn’t working. We all wore life jackets even though the water was only about 2 or 3 feet for most of the ride until we reached the lake. It was very hot wearing the life jacket. Before getting in the canoes we were asked to pay $1 for each cameral we were taking along. It was worth the $1 for the pictures I took of the schools, chapel and most of all the people living in this village on stilts. There must have been at least 10 canoes filled with SAS students going along together in a row. One of the men poling started singing some African songs. It was so cool listening to them. All of a sudden one started singing Row, Row, Row, your Boat and then Amazing Grace and pretty soon we all chimed in. Then we were into Kumbye Ya My Lord and even the Hallelujah Chorus. Such a neat and fun experience. Phyllis was along on this canoe trip and she was so nervous. She doesn’t know how to swim and even though she wore a life jacket and the water was only a few feet deep, she was a wreck. I kept telling her to breathe deep and to relax. The canoe was a bit tipsy so it is no wonder she was anxious. By the time we reached the village where we had to climb up a couple of logs out of the canoe and onto a platform above, she was exhausted and took a seat in a little building and she told me she wasn’t going any further. So I left her to sit and catch her breath while I went ahead to scout things out. It wasn’t long before I went back for her. I told her she had come too far not to see what we had come to see in the first place. So she was a trooper but says that is the last time she is going in a canoe. We’ll see about that though. I know she is scheduled to go in another canoe in Vietnam.