The good and the bad

Life in Lusaka has many appealing attributes. For one, it’s healthier to eat here. The market has such fresh produce that you could swear it was just picked off a tree. Many people also have their own gardens that they pull herbs and vegetables from for use at every meal. Another positive thing about Lusaka is the amount of generosity, hospitality, and cheerfulness that is embedded in everyday life. My host family brought me to an Indian function yesterday. By the time I left people where offering a home to stay in if needed and I played tennis today with a couple of the girls I had met. The warmness of the people has made my transition much easier. People are also really, and by really, I mean extremely, and by extremely I mean intensely, laid-back (I've always loved irony). I’m sure you get the point.

Here are some things I’m gonna have to get used to:
1.) The roads and erratic driving
2.) The inability Africans have making a deadline or appointment and sticking to it
3.) Zambia is a very poor country with, what it seems, only extreme poverty or expensive and modern lifestyles.
4.) Load-Shedding

1.) Lusaka’s infrastructure was mostly developed during the British colonial years (late 1800s-1964) and during Kenneth Kaunda’s reign (1964-1991). It has only been within the last 2-3 years that roads and buildings have had any renovations. Therefore, potholes dominate many of the roads, paved and unpaved. I have yet to see one speed limit sign and it wouldn’t matter because people have excessive road rage. It’s actually quite amusing to see my Rotary home host, Pankaj, lay into the horn and nearly side-swipe another vehicle when passing. Car owners must have working horns or you simply can’t communicate with anyone.

2.) As previously mentioned I was supposed to go to the University (UNZA) at 12:30 today to register for my classes and move into the housing that Rotary had set up for me. I sat and waited for General Moses Chipika, another of my Rotary hosts, to pick me up for a couple of hours before I realized that nobody was coming. I emailed the secretary that I was supposed to meet with and apologized for the situation. I later find out that UNZA is not even open until NEXT Monday. Of course it’s not! So why was an appointment scheduled? Why had I planned on moving today? It’s because this is how Africans preserve their laid-back, no-worries lifestyle. People make plans with little intention to follow through with it and if it doesn’t happen, no worries, there’s always tomorrow. Life moves at it’s own pace here.

3.) Pankaj drove me around Lusaka yesterday to help get me oriented. Africans walk up and down the middle of the road trying to sell you stuff at stoplights. There are street children begging for money. The low-income housing units are one-room concrete structures that have no running water or electricity. I was told that minimum wage was around $1/day. Charles, one of the workers at my current home, rides his bike here 2 hours every morning, works till 6:30, then rides his bike home for 2 more hours. He has three living children. He had a daughter die 2 weeks ago from diarrhea. I often wonder if I deserve the privilege that I automatically get from being born a white American. On the other side of the spectrum, wealthy people live in homes with tall concrete walls topped with some sort of fencing. They have servants, and most of the time, a pool. They drive nice imported cars and have traveled all over the world. I read anything I could get my hands on about Zambia before I left. I could tell you about their history, economy, AIDS prevalence, etc. But to actually see and live in what all this textbook knowledge teaches us can’t be explained in a blog. I’m using senses that I didn't know I had and having emotions that I don’t have words to describe. More about the topic of extreme poverty as I become more immersed at the medical school.

4.) Load-Shedding: “normally used in industrial, large commercial, and utility operations, is monitoring electric usage continuously (usually by automated instrumentation) and shutting down certain pre-arranged electric loads or devices if a certain upper threshold of electric usage is approached" (wikipedia). There are certain times of day where the electricity stops working in certain parts of Lusaka because there is such a high demand for it. I happened to be washing my clothes during one this morning and playing tennis during one tonight. Thus, resulting in musty clothes and “swing and miss” tennis. But should I really be making a fuss when over a million people living around me don’t ever have access to electricity?

Captions: (Picture 1) This is my wonderful Indian host mum. She's a traditional Hindi and therefore only makes delicious and spicy vegetarian meals. She even puts curry in some of her desserts! She's my go-to gal here for questions and advice. (Picture 2) These are two workers at my host home. Charles is on the left. He is Tonga. Boyd is on the right. He is Bemba. Both, however, can speek Nyanja. Nyanja is a Bantu language that is understood all throughout Zambia. I would like to pick up as much of it as I can while I'm here.