Zambia...GETTING HERE WAS AN EPIC JOURNEY THAT NEEDS ITS OWN POST...nonetheless i got here in one piece. I am in Lusaka for an IFC Trade Operation training. I got here a day late due to issues to do with my travel documents which got me into trouble with my boss...i need to sort that out when i go back to the office on Monday
My flight landed in Lusaka at around midnight and checking in took like 30m8in or more...waiting for the transfer from the airport to the hotel another 30min..checking in at the hotel..another long process..let just say by teh time i got into my room i was completely exhausted...
The intercontinental in Lusaka has absolutely lovely rooms. The quality of service and finishing is superb. I absolutely love my room. I could go on and on but i love the spaciousness...the cable TV...the iron box and iron board provided...the hairdryer...the bathroom is in such pristine condition with extra stuff..i love it..the decor makes me want to carry the stuff to my new home...
The down side it is EXPENSIVE...in fact Lusaka is a very expensive town...a sandwich cost me KSH.1200 AROUND 17DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!...I justified it thinking maybe the hotel is juts being dear...when we went to the mall..the transport cost and the commodity prices just confirmed what we had been told...the place is expensive..maybe because its landlocked..who knows...
Lusaka has some charm in that it is urban yet still retains some country characteristics.,..if you are one who likes taking walks on avenues of trees yet still have urban amenities..then Lusaka would be i8deal...The people are friendly yet not in your face like some of our neighbouring countries...yet they still respect your privacy even if they can tell you area foreigner..i really liked that...
The weather has been hot yet not unbearably so...its mild weather...just as its people are..of a very mild nature..or at least in my opinion...
THE PALATE is what has intrigued me...as we have interacted with people from various parts of the continent...we have also talked with some members of the host country and i must say it has been interesting...Some Zambians apparently those from the north bordering Tanzania and DRC...EAT MONKEYS......The very thought almost has me gagging as to me that is almost an abomination!!!!!!!!!!!!how now? One of the guys was explaining it all to us and two other people confirmed...one of the guys even regaled us..should in my case horrified me...with the tale of how the brother came home with game meat for the whole family and it took like two or more weeks to finish eating 8it and at the end of the period he informed the family that they had been feasting on monkey meat.....YUCK YUCK YUCK....i was so disgusted...AND HE WAS JUST LAUGHING SAYING NOTHING MUCH WAS DONE TO THE BROTHER as they know other people who eat monkeys...i was like i would never forgive that brother..he would never enter my house...i would never ever trust him or eat anything he prepared or bought...HOW NOW?...and the guy was just laughing...one of the ladies we were with a Malawian said she would never even talk to that guy if he was her brother and he did that...one of the Kenyan guys we were with asked the ZAMBIAN why they started eating monkeys....was there a famine perhaps..and they said that apparently they just found their ancestors eating them....And continued eating them??????!!!!!!!!
Each day during lunch at the intercon..we would see this pot of fried caterpillars and we would all look in horrified fascination till the day we saw some of the locals eating them...i tell you we are DIFFERENT...I AM TRYING TO IMAGINE WHAT I EAT THAT WOULD ELICIT THE SAME REACTION I HAD WATCHING THOSE PEOPLE EAT THOSE CATERPILLARS..AND for the life of me..i cannot!!!!!!!!!
The story of the Zambians from the East who eat rodents from the field but do not eat any in 5their houses..really had me in stitches...apparently they will eat the mice in their tobacco fields as those eat 'Healthy foods' as opposed to the rats in their houses as these eat chemicals in the foods humans prepare...its ludicrous...at some point i was asking them...where do the rats in the houses come from if not from the fields? They were adamant there was a difference...
I COULD GO ON..BUT THAT'S IT FOR TODAY.....MORE LATER..I DOUBT I WOULD DATE A GUY FROM HERE..UNLESS HE IS RELOCATING TO LIVE IN MY COUNTRY..but who knows what he would cook for me one day??????????
As I AM HERE I cant help but review some undefined relationship or a non-relationship i have been having with some guy...It so sad that I used to know this person or at least i thought i knew them...I CAN NO LONGER SAY THAT WITH CONFIDENCE...the TOTALLY BAFFLING THING..HE DOESN'T SEE THAT HE HAS DONE ANYTHING WRONG...Maybe when am forty..i w ill get that....
There is a line in a fray song...either Cable car or another song..which say i am losing you and its effortless....Thats what it is...there is no anger...there is no bitterness,,there is this detached feeling..i can even call them and talk to them..in a manner of sorts coz in the real sense we are not communicating..and there is a part of me that is fully encased in some vacuum..and i doubt this person would reach it..not that he would ever try...
There are moments when i recall earlier times when we were friends..and it meant so much...and there was such innocence..i feel like all the innocence in me has been robbed by all that occurred in the year that was...Yet every time i think that..i remember this person saying being more than freinds could harm our frie4ndship..i pushed for us to be more..so i guess ultimately..its my faults
Perhaps in my head i feel betrayed by this person that when i needed them 5thye most they were not there....but in my heart i probably don't acknowledge that as i am an accomplice in that..am perpetrator against myself...
Its like i am not living in this plane of reality but in a suspended one..as if i am waiting for something to happen...i dont know what..i cant go back to where i was and i cant seem to cut off all links to move to a new dimension...
Most times i don't dwell on these thoughts..most times i try to convince ell you..AND THEY WANT THE WHOLE WORLD TO KNOW..SO I GUESS I HAVE MY ANSWER....
You were not there for me before i had to do what i never imagined i would have to do...you were not there for me during the crucial time..and even now when i reach out to you,.against common sense and my friends advice..you are not there...WHERE WERE YOU????????
Natalie Imbruglia says it best in TORN
I thought I saw a man brought to life
He was warm
He came around
And he was dignified
He showed me what it was to cry
Well you couldn't be that man I adored
You don't seem to know
Or seem to care
What your heart is for
I don't know him anymore
There's nothin' where he used to lie
My conversation has run dry
That's what's going on
Nothings right
I'm torn
I'm all out of faith
This is how I feel
I'm cold and I am shamed
Lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed
Into something real
I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
You're a little late
I'm already torn
So I guess the fortune tellers right
I should have seen just what was there and not some holy light
But you crawled beneath my veins
And now, I don't care
I have no luck
I don't miss it all that much
There's just so many things
That I can't touch
I'm torn
There's nothin' he used to lie
My inspiration has run dry
That's what's going on
Nothing's right
I'm torn
The odd trying is i cant even say whether i was in love with you or not....its all so muddled in my head...but right now that doesn't even matter...coz its not the girl who may or may not have been in love with you who was betrayed..but the friend who has been beside you...I was your friend...so what changed...or did i read you wrong all along?