Zambia - First Impressions

While I was waiting for my bus to leave Nakonde (the town on the Zambian side of the border), I decided to walk around a bit. The first buildings past customs were the offices of various customs clearing agencies (I suppose the complexity of the export process could be considered a good way of creating jobs for experts to facilitate). After that, I saw several cafes and general stores, many of which seemed to be catering to the sort of people who could afford passports, rather than the majority of the people who lived in Nakonde. However, after walking down a backstreet, I found the town market. They were selling lots of dried small fish and caterpillars as well as green leafy vegetables, onions and other veggies. I was surprised that there was almost no fruit in the market (though I saw plenty of tomatoes, which are technically a fruit) and tried to recall if I had seen any other market during my travels in Africa that wasn't selling bananas. My favorite part was a company called Power Tools. They were running a bus company, a hotel, a cafe and probably a few other businesses. However, I did not see any power tools connected with them.

I couldn't see much on the road from Nakonde to Lusaka, since the road was dark and there were very few lights along the road. I was impressed with the thick forest cover, but the sparce population made the area seem rather desolate. As the sun came up, we were passing through a few towns outside Lusaka, which seemed nice, but I really only saw the main road, so it's hard to form a real impression. In Lusaka, I admired the smooth transition from large farms on the outskirts to skyscrapers in the downtown area. I noticed that there were very few brands that I recognized from Kenya and Tanzania as we passed the billboards and signs plastered with ads.

When we arrived at the bus station, I hopped out and made my way past the over-eager taxi drivers to walk around a bit. The city seemed really nice, although I could tell I was in an affluent neighborhood and was very curious what some of the poorer areas looked like. I noticed that there were a lot of cartons on the ground for a beverage called Shake-Shake, which I later learned was a dairy product with alcohol. I couldn't actually make up my mind about the architecture in Lusaka, but I guess I don't have anything to complain about.

After setting off from Lusaka toward Chipata (the capital of Zambia's Eastern province) I had a much clearer view of the road (a different road). The villages were pretty well spaced, and even though power lines ran over the villages, most people did not appear to have connections. There were a lot of schools, which seemed to be the only buildings that had an electrical connection. At one point, we stopped at a roadside market to grab some food. I was really surprised by how expensive everything was, and wound up eating a couple of hard-boiled eggs. We arrived in Chipata and I saw a nice bustling medium sized town. A few major stores, and a nice big market, but nothing too distinctive about it. It was really nice to arrive in the middle of mango season, where big, ripe, juicy mangoes are sold for two cents or less.

All the Zambians I met were very friendly (though a few tried to overcharge me). They spoke very good English and were happy to talk and asked lots of questions. I couldn't quantify this, but the people just seemed really happy with their lives, probably more so than in most of the places that I've been in Kenya or Tanzania. My friend Jackie said that Zambia was one of her favorite places from her travels, and I can definitely see why.