First Impression

WELCOME to Sam’s Zambia Experience!

I started this bog to share my experience of living in Lusaka, Zambia. Azadeh, my wife, and I arrived on April 9th, 2009 and expect to stay here until December. We are volunteers for a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).


Initial Opinions

Initial reactions of friends and family, when we told them about our decision to come to Zambia, ranged very widely. On one hand, many encouraged us, thinking of what a great life experience this will be. On the other hand, many thought how “insert inappropriate adjective here” crazy we must be to leave our stable, income generating jobs as an IP attorney, and a director of finance in this global economic crisis. Finally, one friend thinks that we are making a huge mistake, by not being around to take advantage of big money making opportunities, given the current economic environment (thinking that prices of potential investments are low, and given the right network, this is a great time to buy).

Talking to people and doing research, I also came across many many health “threats” such as: high percentage of people infected with HIV/Aids (estimated 15%+ in Zambia, and 20%+ in Lusaka), “high risk” status of being infected with malaria, presence of hepatitis, and many other illnesses and diseases, not to mention crime. My experience so far is that if one takes preventative measures, and uses common sense (such as get vaccinations, don’t walk at night…), one should be fine. I hope my experience and philosophy hold for the time we’re here. If not, you’ll certainly hear about it.

In the end, we stuck with our decision, and here we are. So far, so good.


My First Impression

Although many things, as expected, are very different here than in the US or in Europe, I was surprised about the many similarities, mainly of the same or similar availability of goods and services – PWC, FedEx, Subway, Dove, Red Bull, BP, Pringles, Coke, …

As you can imagine, there are many many topics to cover. For this initial entry, I decided to share a few sentences at a high level.


Zambia

The people are extremely friendly and trusting - most people at work eat lunch on credit and pay at the end of the month. Many Zambians seem very religious – mainly Christians, but we’ve also seen Muslims, Hindus and Baha’is – I’m sure there are many additional religions represented here. Most everybody speaks English, but overall, there are over 70 languages being spoken here.

The weather is very nice currently. Not much unlike California, with the exception that we are heading into winter, while California is heading into summer. Through the year, there are three seasons. Hot and wet (rainy season), cool and dry (currently), and hot and dry.

It is visible that the country is not doing well economically. The roads are filled with pot holes and are very dark at night (I heard that only an estimated 35% of the people have electricity). Inflation is high. Unemployment is high. There are plenty of other concerns as well. However, there are also people who seem to be doing very well financially. Those individuals enjoy the big difference in economic well being by having maids ($100 or less per month for full time), nannys, gardeners, guards...

We hear that there are many beautiful places here in Zambia, such as the Victoria Falls, and that there is lots of wild life (friends have seen giraffes, hippos, monkeys, snakes, …).


Work

Azadeh and I are volunteering for Project Concern International. It’s an NGO, based in San Diego, with offices worldwide. My particular involvement is to help partner organizations who applied for, received, or may receive funds through PCI. Given my background, I am mainly involved in finance and strategy.

There are several interesting details about the workplace – for example the fact that nothing and no one is ever on time (Response I get all the time: Welcome to Zambia!), or the fact that PCI employs full time drivers, or the incredibly slow internet connection (Google thinks I’m in Germany, maybe that has something to do with it?!).


Home

Initially, we were supposed to stay at PCI’s country director’s guest house (note that I wrote “guest house”) for a month until we sort things out. However, much to our surprise, the person who picked us up from the airport - very cool guy named Musonda – dropped us off at a lady’s house, where we have been staying since our arrival. There is nothing quite like a surprise like that after you arrived in a continent that you never stepped foot in before. Luckily, things are working out. We are here temporarily, and expect to move to our “permanent” place soon. Our current landlady and our future landlady are both native Zambian business women. Both seem to be very nice and very sharp.

Interesting things about the place we are currently staying at: Our landlady has a full time maid, and a part time maid who clean the house on a daily basis (as in scrub the floors daily), wash dishes, and do laundry (not everyone has a washing machine here, so laundry is a pretty big task). The landlady also has a gardener who comes three times a week.

Hot water is not always available, and the sinks function under the old English system, where you have cold water on one side, and hot water (when available) on the other. I still haven’t quite figured out how to use it properly. For now, one hand freezes while the other one burns.

Another interesting fact is that we sleep under a mosquito net. On one hand it’s nice, because it reminds me of my childhood. I always liked camping, and I think of the mosquito net as a tent. On the other hand, it is quite bothersome to put it on in the evenings, and take it off again in the mornings.

That's it for the first post. I plan on publishing one every week or so (on Zambian schedule!)