Chaotic. That would be word I would describe this capital city of Zambia. In the suburbs life is quite normal in the eyes of an Finn. In Lusaka the roads are general in terrible conditions, big holes in the middle of the roads. Lots of traffic, actually enormous amount compared to the financial situation. Public transport is something hilarious. There is vans, “minibuses” like vans in Finland are, but here they are used as a buss´es. In one minibus goes 14 people (12 + drive and the cashier) and you can imagine how full it is then! It is very cheap though, only 3000kw (around 0.6e). Cashiers are like sharks how waits for blood coming out. Bus stops basically ever possible places and cashiers tries to get it full every time. They even drag, literally to buses and other cashiers even fight over the customer. Customer just go to the bus, who's cashier is the strongest and persistent. Comfortable? No. Efficient? No. Cheap? Oh yes.
When you reach the downtown Lusaka immediately people selling plastic bags, Christmas threes, lollipops, chargers anything come around and tries you to buy something. “Musungu” shout outs starts (which mean White man) and you just have to ignore it everything. When crossing the roads you have to be extremely careful, cause here human life is worthless. Cars do not stop or loose up the speed when you want to cross the road. You have to be patient, determined and fast to go over the street. And very careful!
Waste treatment? None. If you have garbage you just leave it to streets and you can really see it. All the trashes are basically burned. People do not seem to know what is sustainable development. In the supermarket your shopping are packed to plastic bags like one item per two bags, literally. Recycling? Of course, not in any kind of. There is some returnable bottles yes, have not figured out yet where to brought those, thought.
Poor´s are begging for the money all the time, you just have to ignore it. Ignorance is how you survive here as a western.
Now I´m here. Arcades, the shopping mall you can see the as you would like to see it everywhere. Clean, secure and comfortable. The real Africa?
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As my three weeks journey to Zambia is starting I thought, that people have asked lots of things about my trip. So what is the best way to tell about those experiences than a blog! My trip will start on 24th on November and will end on 12th of December.
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