Africa is dangerous - in your dreams I say!!!

Its been over a week since I left my beloved Singara Chennai to settle temporarily in Lusaka, Zambia, an African country.

I always took life back home for granted. Its only when you wake up wanting to have filter coffee and having no way of getting it, do you realize how much it actually meant to you.

A lot of my friends wanted a peak into life here and this post is this beautiful place through my eyes. 

I landed in Lusaka airport at 10 AM on a Friday. My colleague was to pick me up. I went to the exit and found no Indian. I didn't panic. When I was leaving from India I had done enough research on the place to write  book and was a little assured it was a safe place. 

And while on the flight a very nice Zambian citizen took the pain to help me with all my queries. 

Anyway on seeing that my colleague wasn't there I decided to call him. My Indian connection was not working anymore. And I couldn't find any pay phones at all. I think this is where panic began to set in. As I stood waiting a lot of local cab drivers came up asking if I wanted a cab and I felt like a kid in a new school - scared of everything and everyone.

As I stood I saw an Indian coming up (call it a gut feeling, I seem to recognize an Indian anywhere, even among similar ethnic people like Bangaldeshis or Pakistanis and Srilankans). I was relieved. As I went up and uttered his name a hand quickly took my hand baggage from behind! For a second I was on an adrenalin high. As I looked I saw the person taking my bag smiling at someone behind me. Turning I saw my colleague grinning.

They had played a prank. Colleague decided to use the misinformation loaded in my head to scare me!! The baggage grabber was our cab driver Joseph, my first local contact in Zambia. 

And thus started my life here. The place, if I were to describe  in as concentrated form as possible is laid back, very polite and very friendly. The road from the airport to the city is a very good one - wide and without any pot holes (first impressions are the best impressions) and the sides of the roads are filled with a browny colored vegetation of shrub and tree - the typical types you see in Nat Geo Africa shows and "The gods must be crazy" movie. The best thing, as we were coming I saw a huge blue board welcoming people on behalf of the Tamil literature and language community and boy was I happy!!! Incidentally I am now acquainted with the head of the Tamil association head here - am I resourceful or what!!!

One thing that amazed me immediately was the assortment of cars - ranging from our humble Maruti zen to the large number of BMW's and the 100's of models in between. People here seem to have a love for four wheel drives. In fact I would say with confidence that almost 30% - 40% of cars on the roads are big 4 wheel drive trucks!!!

Anyways moving on, the weather is cold. The sun comes out during the day, but the winds are chilly and mornings and nights a very cold. Apparently its winter here now - I never heard of a concept of winter in any other month other the December - Feb. I should have paid attention in geography classes!! Summers are said to be warm without much humidity and nights are pleasant.

The people here - absolutely friendly, very courteous. In fact when you meet a stranger and if you ever make eye contact, they always smile and say one of the following - hi, good morning/afternoon etc, how are you etc. At first I really didn't know how to respond, but I've now learnt, you smile, say hi, good thanks, how are you and move on. In India I usually stared, ogled if it was a good looking woman or at best just ignored. I was a liquor store one day and there were a lot of intoxicated people ( see the difference, if in India I would call these people drunk - because they behave that way). I was a little scared, but I saw white men buying booze, women coolly asking for their choice and the best thing - the intoxicated guys gave me the same response of smiling, saying good evening and asking how are you. I say this to make a point clear. All the stuff about Africa as a whole being unsafe etc are just baseless stories and rumors. 

In fact I personally feel Lusaka is a safer place that many Indian cities - case in point, pubs in Bangalore, Gurgaon and recently Assam!!!

When people are at an ATM the person behind would stand at-least a good 5 feet away. I once went closer and someone politely told me with a smile that the queue was behind - I thought the person behind was waiting for something or someone else, he was standing so far away. So basically people here have huge respect for privacy and follow the British way of things - politeness, manners etc.

Everybody speaks English here. When I mean everyone, I mean EVERYONE across social, financial and employment categories and so for an Indian who knows English language is not a problem at all. The local languages spoken are Ngyanja and Bembo. The currency is Kwacha and 1 Indian rupee amounts to roughly 100 kwacha. 

The local cuisine here is filled with meat, poultry and fish. Veggies may find it a little difficult here though thare a multiple Indian restaurants. The staple food is something called shima, made of boiled corn flour. It looks like our local Indian upma and is a very nutritious food. So people have this for all three meals and with it they have beef stew, fish or chicken curry or steak or grilled meat etc.

The Music in Zambia is so bloody awesome. Would make anyone want to dance. The beats are afro and the  base is actual african stuff. No dilution with other music. My cab guy Joseph on the other hand loves Hindi music and plays ot in his car all the time. His fav song is from the movie Pa called "Ittefaq se" and I must say he has choice!!! Now that's the song that plays on my laptop all the time!

The night life is amazing. The clubs come alive by 11 PM or 12 AM and go on till 5 AM. The best beer brands are Mosi, black label and Heinikein. Only pints are avilable. Liquor is pretty cheap. A captain morgan rum costs 700 bucks and a J and B whiskey costs 850 - almost 50% less! 

The fun things here are the Victoria falls, multiple wild life resorts and fishing resorts. Outdoor beer and barbecues are a weekly thing here.

And yes cost of everything is higher than in India by at -least 20 to 30% as everything is imported here. Zambia is a small land locked country and so this issue.

But on the whole - if this is what Africa is about I would love a life here. Its safe, stable, and has very good people. And that is my first week of Zambia for you!!!