Livin' La Vida Zambian

The Mini-Bus: the local transportation. The mechanical runnings of these vehicles are often sketchy at best. So what happens is you fill it with people to it’s capacity…and then you put about 4 or 5 more people in. Deodorant is expensive and therefore not often worn. I took the mini bus from town all the way back to the farm the other day. Luckily I had a Zambian with me to show me the ropes.

Nshima: the staple food here in Zambia. The moto here seems to be, “All Carbs, All the Time!”. The nshima is the white lump, made from a fine corn meal. It is often served with a relish of some sort made from such things as onions and tomatoes; cabage; a vegetable called “rape” (could there be a more inappropriately named vegetable?!); and usually either a meat such as chicken, beef, or fish; or beans. Frankly, I love this stuff. You eat it all with your hands.

Kwatcha: the currency here. It is about 4000 Kwatcha for ever $1 USD. So 1,000,000 Kwatcha is about $250 USD. This is probably the only time I will ever be a “millionaire”. There are no coins here just bills. So how do you ever figure out who is going to be the home team at a soccer game? Or make wishes in a fountain? The slang term for a 1000 Kwatcha is “pin”. So I’m thinking cutting a rap album and calling myself “2 Pin”…the Zambian counterpart of “50 Cent”…or as we in the biz say, “Fiddy”.