Friday, September 14, 2012

Is the grass greener in Zambia?

Not particularly. It is comparing job opportunities because I get to work as a physio here with a decent salary as compared to Malaysia.

But the hard unavoidable truth is that even with the salary, and the nice secure saved up life I would be coming back to in 2 years; being alone almost makes it all not worthwhile! I've come to learn quite a lot about myself living alone, away from all securities and familiar faces and places; I'm no good alone!

Maybe life is no life at all; with no one to share it with all the time all day everyday and being poor is way better when you're surrounded by just LOVE! I can remember all the awesome times I've had with my family and friends, it was when we were all broke talking about life and making jokes with the cheapest cup of tea in the cheapest mamak stall or a public park...and just laughing really hard!

The highlight of my days are coming home and skyping with my family back home; just some interaction talking about my day listening to their day! Thankfully my job serves me well as I do talk and listen to stories when I treat patients; but nothing like home i suppose.

Zambia has certainly been an experience; totally unexpected one that is. I pictured local Africans walking around in colourful festive clothing and street parties with loads of dancing and drum beating every other day and instead I am faced with what seems like a totally Westernised culture everything from clothing to restaurants to shopping malls. Ah, it's saddening really. The locals live in shacks beside the roads and the rich foreigners in ridiculously priced private home that employs these locals as maids or drivers or guards.


Its hard to imagine any local worker earning minimum wage which is about 700,000 Kwacha ( 140 USD) living comfortably in this city of Lusaka, where everything and I mean EVERYTHING is at least 2 to 3 times more than it is priced there in Malaysia. I was talking to the nice lady that comes to clean the Physiotherapy centre and as well as my temporary home, Carol and she walks for an hour every day to the hospital and back home just to save on transport money cause even the crappy van buses here are expensive and those are the cheapest, most dangerous way to get around town. She has 3 children, whom all go to government schools because they're free but very badly equipped with teaching aids as well as qualified teachers. She earns 700,00 K and with deductions for NAPSA (the EPF equivalent here) earns 500 000 K and support her children and herself and lives with her mother and her siblings in a small flat. She says buying rice, cooking oil and some beans takes up most of her money already which I can totally imagine being true as I faced a similar situation heading to the grocery store last weekend to pick up some stuff to cook. As I emptied my shopping cart for the cashier to scan, not even 1/3 through my cart, the bill reached 100 000 K and I only had 100 000 K in my wallet. I had to ask her to stop scanning more items, put my cart aside,pay for the items that she has already scanned , run to an ATM and withdraw some money and come back and pay for the remaining cart.

The problem according to Abraham, the hospital's driver that tells me where to get really cheap local food knowing i'm a hobo and teaches me all the easy routes to places I wanna visit, started about 10 years back when all of a sudden there was a surge of foreigners coming into the country and prices of all things went up double-fold and more. All the prices of groceries and everything else  was priced according to the US dollar so a bottle of coke only costs about 1.5 USD but thats about 7000 K and about RM 4.50 for what costs RM 2 back in Malaysia. I am just not used to the prices here and will NEVER be! But foreigners find it all to be really cheap comparing the prices here and from where they came from, so it's all good.


Ah and it's the typical shitty cycle of all foreigners treating the locals like servants and lower class people, making them the help and nothing more; no opportunities for the local to build businesses or to make extra earnings; nothing. I'm probably the most hobo foreigner here because I refuse to eat in those fancy fine dining places I can find anywhere else in the world and would never spend so much for food I can get on the streets of Malaysia for far much less anyway. So I'm on a mission:


1) To buy local produce and fruits and vegetables from the roadside vendors

2) To volunteer my time to any local NGOs or voluntary organisations that may need extra hands! (I've found one; a patient of mine runs a local school for the children of underprivileged mothers!)

3) To show almost all other foreigner here that it IS possible to be nice and civil and friendly to the locals, and still be treated with respect and get things done as this is a two way process!


Africa I'm sure is beautiful and it's people even more so; if it wasn't for all the crazy money making advantage taking foreign employers here. Everyone complains about how laid back the local Zambians are; maybe it's just us who's overworked hyper senses cant rest knowing we're not making money every single second of the day. It's so tiresome this whole money making business, how everything is a business; healthcare and education even.

It's about time we took a step back and assess where all that money making has lead us to; to a lifestyle only adaptable for the absolute rich expats ; a widening rich and poor barrier and where the average person is not able to live off her monthly salary and buying groceries from the cheapest grocery store in the city is still ridiculously priced.