Impressions Of Zambia

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I have mixed feelings about Zambia. It is in it’s essence a good place to visit, and I did find myself enjoying myself there at times.

However, from the conversations I had, the attitude of Zambians, when it comes to money and honesty, reeks of laziness.

They don’t plan ahead, or save, and think that the reason that westerners can afford to take holidays to Zambia is because we are all loaded, it doesn’t occur to them that there are people who sweep the streets in the west and actually save for years.

As a result they think we can afford to give them loads of cash and do not stop to consider the fact that they have the ability to pull themselves out of their own hole, some thing which was helped by the west cancelling their world debt.

This attitude is further exemplified by the way they use NGO’s to get things like cars. It is usually run into, the ground long before its down 10000 km's for the NGO, by personal use

Add to this the stories of people wanting bribes to process documents, the sheer bureaucracy that you find here, the general laziness, inconsideration and incompetence shown time and time again…

There is hope for Zambia. I spoke to one student who recognised these problems and who wants to help lift Zambia out of this attitude, but the road will be slow, long and is probably as potholed as the road down to Livingstone.

Would I go back to Zambia despite what I’ve written above? No. There really isn’t much to do here as a traveller, apart from in Livingstone, and even then I would rather stay in Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwean side of the border…

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