I went to Zambia for
about a month after about 6 years.
The great things
- It was during rain season and therefore all the food I really missed was there and ripe for the eating
- I ate so many mangoes I got sick, and then I ate a few more, and then I made mango jam.
- I ate so many amasuko my mouth became tingly and numb and then I ate a few more.
- I ate so many mushrooms… well they don't make you sick, so I just ate even more.
- Interestingly, mushrooms like Tente literally just slide down the throat and you can just continue eating and not even feel like you are putting in eating effort, it's amazing
- I was a mere few weeks late for ifisongole, but this will be remedied soon, for the seasons come and go and then COME BACK AGAIN!
- I blended in the crowds, I was nothing remarkable, which is an amazing feeling of being home.
- I saw enough family to make my head explode, this was both good and bad.
- But it was amazing to reconnect, and the really great thing that I forget is I have an extremely large family and there are people in there that I love and hate. So even when I am around some I don't like, somone else comes along that I really like and it's all right, cause that's how family is. I really enjoyed this, being surrounded by family in such a basic way, it's not that they are helping me do anything in particular, they are just existing
- Ultimately just being surrounded by so many people was amazing
- Travel
- Went all the way from Nakonde to Mazabuka and saw plenty of people along the way
- Basically I love Zambia, I love being there, and I am excited about the next time already. Definitely never gonna wait that long again.
- Six years was way too long between visits.
The not so great
things
- Although I absolutely loved being in Zambia there were a couple of things I noticed, now these things were possibly always like this and I was just never looking or possibly they do represent changes in society.
- Hair
- I feel like there were a lot of weaves in Zambia and they were looking exceptionally fake. I feel like when I was young people had fake hair and wanted to make it look real, but now the fakeness is just so obvious, weaves that are practically standing on end. I'm unsure what this means, but I noticed it.
- I found myself in a giant shopping centre in Lusaka on the weekend in the evening.
- And all I saw was a culture that I'm not quite sure how to describe but it made me a bit sad, luckily urban Zambia is a very small proportion of Zambia as a whole.
- And this might just be a 'young people' thing, and all it means is that I am aging.
- But it was just so superficial and so pretentious, and so materialist. It was just name brand seeking young people.
- And obviously now that I think about it, it might be an age thing.
- But then I wonder what this generation will look like when they grow up. Will they grow out of the materialism, or is that what the future of Zambia will look like….
