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After a long, long, loooooong journey the Zambia GLP team made it to Zambia! It’s crazy to think that we have been here for 3 weeks now. So far I’ve learned that Zambia is a welcoming country with awesome people and a sense of community that surprises me. All in all it has been a great experience so far, but there are definitely a couple of things I’d like to highlight!

Nshima, nshima and nshima! Nshima is the staple food of Zambia! I’m not going to lie, initially it wasn’t my favourite, but after eating it for a while I’ve grown to like it. Nshima is basically mielie-meal mixed with water. It is always combined with veggies, protein and groundnuts. I have it almost every day at lunch and honestly I don’t think I like the dish itself, but rather the way we eat it: hands on and sharing with friends.

Homestay family
Our homestay families are amazing! They are so welcoming, I personally can’t complain. At first it was weird getting used to living with kids after not having any kids around for 10 years, but now after adjusting to it, life at home is great. However, I would have loved to live with my friends, mainly because we don’t have a place to hang out together and after 6:00 pm we can’t go out due to the lack of light. But since we can’t change things like that, I couldn’t ask for a better family than mine.

People and culture
This one is a hard one to summarize. There are so many things that could be said about Zambians! But something noteworthy is their willingness to help and make you feel at home. In the last 3 weeks I’ve crashed a wedding, a kitchen party, a chilanga Murilo; I’ve been “adopted” by 3 families and I’ve met people every single day. It’s just great! I feel so lucky to be here.

I would love to keep writing but I’m running out of space and power is about to go off. So till next time!Chisuma!
– Tefa