Post by OnlyMark on Jan 22, 2019 18:40:24 GMT 2
I’ve no idea why I’ve suddenly come across a number of short videos that I never thought to look for before. They are obviously not mine. Each has information about what I see and experience every day. I thought, if you have the patience, that they would give you a bit of an insight of what it is like for me being here in Lusaka.
They are far better than trying to describe it or just show a photo. Some of the videos are good, some not so, but they still can be quite informative and give a window into my life at the moment.
They are all within easy reach of where I live, in fact only a few minutes walk, apart from one or two that I’ll point out.
First there is one regarding a place called Tusha Lodge.
It is a typical budget place but nevertheless quite attractive and worth considering for those who don’t wish to spend the often extortionate amounts that accommodation normally costs here. The most expensive room costs $26
Roughly $1 = 12 Kwacha now.
It’s just a couple of streets away from me, the beginning and end feature the “lodge” but the centre section deals with a couple of things again close by.
The first is a small shopping centre (Foxdale Court) that I could go to, but don’t as there are better ones for food purchasing. Then a short street scene followed by a craft market held every Sunday that we sometimes walk to and have a wander round. The touts are a bit of a pain though but usually mild-mannered. I did quite a while ago make a little photo report of this and mentioned that very little is made in Zambia. The things from material are, but the rest tend to come in from surrounding countries (and Zambia is surrounded by many countries).
Then the video moves on to my usual shopping centre, East Park Mall. An easy walk but I usually go in the car to carry the shopping bags back. It shows the entrance to Food Lovers Market, my go to place for fruit and veg and the subject of a later video, as is the mall.
If you notice the staff at the end saying hello, you’ll start to see the various facial features showing that as there are about seventy two languages in Zambia, and each will be from a certain tribe, hence there are similarities, but also differences in build and so on. The history of the country shows there has mainly been a melting pot of tribes and whereas I experienced quite a lot of racism in, for example, Kenya, between tribes, there is none of that here (after all this time I would have seen/experienced it, so I’m reasonably confident in saying that).
Another point, if you think you are good with languages, is that at a minimum, most people are fluent in at least three, from the lowest class to the highest. The house help we have twice a week speaks four tribal languages and English. I’ve not come across anyone with two or one.
Have a quick look -
The next shows East Park Mall. It is one length of shops, at one end is Food Lovers, at the other there is a quick glimpse of PicknPay, a larger general supermarket. I usually go to both when I’m shopping.
Walking takes about ten minutes, there is a fish restaurant that served quite reasonable sushi, of all things, though as expected it all comes up from South Africa. I go for the hake every time.
There is also a Lebanese I attend for falafel wraps/ tabbouleh/fattoush and an Indian for thalis. Also, about the best ice cream shop in the city and recently opened is a take away I won’t be visiting called “Goat and Chips”. There used to be an excellent pie shop as well, but that was taken over by a shawarma place (that isn’t the Lebanese) -
Then we have Food Lovers, the place for good veg in this mall and one of a chain around the city that do have mostly the nicest stuff like that. Though, you’ll find that it will be about a third more expensive on average than the other supermarkets.
At the start you’ll see the shop juice bar near the entrance, good and fresh stuff, to the left of that is a small cafe that does about the best toasted cheese sandwich and chips I’ve found. It is also part of Food Lovers.
The video as made as part of the old mannequin challenge if you are wondering what they are doing and is good fun. Especially to catch out those in the background that are moving.
By the way, beef fillet is currently about $8 a kilo -
Next is where I do not shop. It is the central local market a ten minute drive away shortly after an outbreak of cholera when most of it was shut down. You can see the drains at the beginning. I have actually no idea at all why there are so many people standing/sitting and appear to be waiting. Can’t work it out -
This is one of the city centre streets, again ten minutes drive, after a usual rainstorm. You can see how cholera rears its head from time to time, as the water from the sewers and rain gets into the wells which are not very deep. If you can afford it, you have a borehole dug -
Again about ten minutes walk away is a small office park with some places to eat. The park houses a few HQ’s of banks and such like There is a very good Indian restaurant there, but not the best in the city, but a good Thai and a cafe.
As you watch, ignore the USD conversions. They are way out. The local money, Kwacha, amounts are right but divide by twelve to get USD and fourteen to get Euros.
The Thai I’ve been to ten times or so, because it is handy for me, and the cafe two doors along (the Indian is between them), The Mint Lounge, I’ve frequented more times than I can shake a stick at -
Virtually every Sunday morning I can hear the singing at this church from across the houses. I must admit, even though I’m not religious, sitting with a coffee in my conservatory (Germans would call it a Winter Garden) and with the patio doors open to get the sounds wafting in, is very pleasant (and such a lot of noise from so few people. Not like in the UK at all). If you’re going to do religion, that is a good way -
Enough of my European and expensive, relatively, food, this is how to make the standard carbohydrate eaten at least once a day from corn flour/corn meal (not cornflour for thickening stuff, but flour from corn). Most of you know of this sort of thing I suspect as it is widespread among many countries but just has different names - polenta is one version you will definitely have come across. Here it is called Nshima, a name I’ve mentioned a few times over the reports. It comes in various grades of fineness, this one looks like what is called “Breakfast” as it is fine and powdery.
If a Zambian asks you if “you have eaten today” it doesn’t matter what you have had to eat, if you’ve not had nshima then you’ve not eaten and you will be sat down and fed some.
With the nshima will almost certainly come as a classic traditional meal some fish or chicken or sometimes beef, but usually some green stuff.
In the video the fish is bream, which some confuse with tilapia, but I’m sure you don’t. Bream can be fresh or dried.
The green stuff or other veg comes in various shapes and forms, mostly very simple with a little sauce of tomatoes and onions, and can be one of the following dishes - kalembula, which are sweet potato leaves, impwa, like a bitter tomato, delele which is okra and chibwabwa, the leaves of a pumpkin. Also lumanda with ground nuts, the sour leaf of a plant I think is hibiscus, and cassava leaves which make a dish called katapa. A standard is bondwe, a form of wild spinach. There is a smooth mix of greens with peanuts called ifisashi.
The local place I’ve been to a few times just up the road from me serves the same meal and would cost about $4, but from a street seller would be maybe $2 - $3 at the most. A portion of nshima is less than $1 usually -
If I find anything else of interested (to me anyway) I’ll add it on, but for now, that’ll give you a little idea of a small part of my life.
They are far better than trying to describe it or just show a photo. Some of the videos are good, some not so, but they still can be quite informative and give a window into my life at the moment.
They are all within easy reach of where I live, in fact only a few minutes walk, apart from one or two that I’ll point out.
First there is one regarding a place called Tusha Lodge.
It is a typical budget place but nevertheless quite attractive and worth considering for those who don’t wish to spend the often extortionate amounts that accommodation normally costs here. The most expensive room costs $26
Roughly $1 = 12 Kwacha now.
It’s just a couple of streets away from me, the beginning and end feature the “lodge” but the centre section deals with a couple of things again close by.
The first is a small shopping centre (Foxdale Court) that I could go to, but don’t as there are better ones for food purchasing. Then a short street scene followed by a craft market held every Sunday that we sometimes walk to and have a wander round. The touts are a bit of a pain though but usually mild-mannered. I did quite a while ago make a little photo report of this and mentioned that very little is made in Zambia. The things from material are, but the rest tend to come in from surrounding countries (and Zambia is surrounded by many countries).
Then the video moves on to my usual shopping centre, East Park Mall. An easy walk but I usually go in the car to carry the shopping bags back. It shows the entrance to Food Lovers Market, my go to place for fruit and veg and the subject of a later video, as is the mall.
If you notice the staff at the end saying hello, you’ll start to see the various facial features showing that as there are about seventy two languages in Zambia, and each will be from a certain tribe, hence there are similarities, but also differences in build and so on. The history of the country shows there has mainly been a melting pot of tribes and whereas I experienced quite a lot of racism in, for example, Kenya, between tribes, there is none of that here (after all this time I would have seen/experienced it, so I’m reasonably confident in saying that).
Another point, if you think you are good with languages, is that at a minimum, most people are fluent in at least three, from the lowest class to the highest. The house help we have twice a week speaks four tribal languages and English. I’ve not come across anyone with two or one.
Have a quick look -
The next shows East Park Mall. It is one length of shops, at one end is Food Lovers, at the other there is a quick glimpse of PicknPay, a larger general supermarket. I usually go to both when I’m shopping.
Walking takes about ten minutes, there is a fish restaurant that served quite reasonable sushi, of all things, though as expected it all comes up from South Africa. I go for the hake every time.
There is also a Lebanese I attend for falafel wraps/ tabbouleh/fattoush and an Indian for thalis. Also, about the best ice cream shop in the city and recently opened is a take away I won’t be visiting called “Goat and Chips”. There used to be an excellent pie shop as well, but that was taken over by a shawarma place (that isn’t the Lebanese) -
Then we have Food Lovers, the place for good veg in this mall and one of a chain around the city that do have mostly the nicest stuff like that. Though, you’ll find that it will be about a third more expensive on average than the other supermarkets.
At the start you’ll see the shop juice bar near the entrance, good and fresh stuff, to the left of that is a small cafe that does about the best toasted cheese sandwich and chips I’ve found. It is also part of Food Lovers.
The video as made as part of the old mannequin challenge if you are wondering what they are doing and is good fun. Especially to catch out those in the background that are moving.
By the way, beef fillet is currently about $8 a kilo -
Next is where I do not shop. It is the central local market a ten minute drive away shortly after an outbreak of cholera when most of it was shut down. You can see the drains at the beginning. I have actually no idea at all why there are so many people standing/sitting and appear to be waiting. Can’t work it out -
This is one of the city centre streets, again ten minutes drive, after a usual rainstorm. You can see how cholera rears its head from time to time, as the water from the sewers and rain gets into the wells which are not very deep. If you can afford it, you have a borehole dug -
Again about ten minutes walk away is a small office park with some places to eat. The park houses a few HQ’s of banks and such like There is a very good Indian restaurant there, but not the best in the city, but a good Thai and a cafe.
As you watch, ignore the USD conversions. They are way out. The local money, Kwacha, amounts are right but divide by twelve to get USD and fourteen to get Euros.
The Thai I’ve been to ten times or so, because it is handy for me, and the cafe two doors along (the Indian is between them), The Mint Lounge, I’ve frequented more times than I can shake a stick at -
Virtually every Sunday morning I can hear the singing at this church from across the houses. I must admit, even though I’m not religious, sitting with a coffee in my conservatory (Germans would call it a Winter Garden) and with the patio doors open to get the sounds wafting in, is very pleasant (and such a lot of noise from so few people. Not like in the UK at all). If you’re going to do religion, that is a good way -
Enough of my European and expensive, relatively, food, this is how to make the standard carbohydrate eaten at least once a day from corn flour/corn meal (not cornflour for thickening stuff, but flour from corn). Most of you know of this sort of thing I suspect as it is widespread among many countries but just has different names - polenta is one version you will definitely have come across. Here it is called Nshima, a name I’ve mentioned a few times over the reports. It comes in various grades of fineness, this one looks like what is called “Breakfast” as it is fine and powdery.
If a Zambian asks you if “you have eaten today” it doesn’t matter what you have had to eat, if you’ve not had nshima then you’ve not eaten and you will be sat down and fed some.
With the nshima will almost certainly come as a classic traditional meal some fish or chicken or sometimes beef, but usually some green stuff.
In the video the fish is bream, which some confuse with tilapia, but I’m sure you don’t. Bream can be fresh or dried.
The green stuff or other veg comes in various shapes and forms, mostly very simple with a little sauce of tomatoes and onions, and can be one of the following dishes - kalembula, which are sweet potato leaves, impwa, like a bitter tomato, delele which is okra and chibwabwa, the leaves of a pumpkin. Also lumanda with ground nuts, the sour leaf of a plant I think is hibiscus, and cassava leaves which make a dish called katapa. A standard is bondwe, a form of wild spinach. There is a smooth mix of greens with peanuts called ifisashi.
The local place I’ve been to a few times just up the road from me serves the same meal and would cost about $4, but from a street seller would be maybe $2 - $3 at the most. A portion of nshima is less than $1 usually -
If I find anything else of interested (to me anyway) I’ll add it on, but for now, that’ll give you a little idea of a small part of my life.
