A Day in My Life in Zambia

Welcome to Livingstone, Zambia. A few things you may encounter to be odd at first will over time become your new normal. For example, brushing your teeth in the bathtub because there’s no water pressure in the sink when the power is out. Oh yeah, I guess I should first mention the up to 16 hour power outages every day. Sometimes the government will bless us with cutting it right after we have heated our water for coffee at 6am and graciously turn it back on by 10pm before we drown in our pools of sweat. The sun so kindly boils our water in the water tank outside all day so when it’s time for our flashlight lit bucket showers we get the pleasure of warm water instead of the cold water we would kill for in that moment. Warm bucket showers is the perfect recipe for sweat to begin producing on your body again before you even have your sweated through pajamas (from the previous three nights) on for the night. After a couple sleepless nights sleeping on the top bunk in the hottest room in the house, you discover that the living room is the place to be. So after your bucket shower, to keep the new layer of sweat going, take your mattress into the living room and don’t even bother with a blanket or even the lightest of sheets to cover up with. The name of the game when laying down to sleep is to find the position where no skin touches skin. There are limited stomach and back positions and side options are simply out of the picture. You will find yourself dreading sleep when the power doesn’t go off til late in the morning or noonish meaning the power won’t be back on til about 1:30am. That’s a solid couple of hours of attempted sleep before the fan turn ons. The small single fan only manages to produce warm air circulation but hey, it’s a breeze of sorts and that’s better than nothing. 

Between 4:45am and 5:45am it’s a race against time to get outside before the sweat game begins. Either get running clothes and shoes on to go for a morning run or make coffee and gather things for quiet time to enjoy the few hours of cool…er temperatures outside. It’s also fun to discover when you wake up how many new mosquito bites you got over night. If you’re really special you may have gotten an ant bite that swells and stings for a couple hours. 

Your menu is the same each week so you’ve become a pro at the 11 or 12 meals that your cooking team prepares each week. On the rare chance the power is on and you get the privilege of using the stove, be sure to wear shoes or you will find yourself being a current or some strong electricity bolts to an undeserving teammate. You’ll quickly learn tomatoes and onions go in EVERY meal. Peanut butter and salt are staples. Personal experience tip: make sure you check the milk before eating it with your cereal. Milk sitting in a refrigerator that’s been off for 16 hours is not a great combo to your cornflakes. Your hands will toughen up over time after removing countless burning lids from pots cooking over abraizer outside. These people do not believe in hot pads. Who knew those were such a luxury in the States! Also eating steaming Nshima, kale and beans with your hands will leave your hands wrinkly and tingly from heat burns. Your lap becomes your table for all meals that are regularly eaten in the living room. 

Be prepared for the moans of shock and disbelief when the power goes off in the morning and the shouts of pure excitement and relief when the power comes back on at night… or early the next morning. When the water pressure is low in the kitchen, there is no shame in reaching through the window to the outside sink to rinse your hands off. Get ready to break your back and knuckles as you hand wash your clothes and hang them up on the line. But don’t worry cause in this heat you only need about 45 minutes for them to completely dry. Good sized cockroaches have become as normal as flies and mosquitos in the house. You find yourself barely flinching as you fill up your water bottle from the sink while at the same time trying to kill the cockroach crawling around in the sink. The blame game usually begins in the morning when the freezer is opened only to discover the water bottle containers weren’t filled by anyone the night before so we could have cold water to drink throughout the day instead of the sun heated water from the sinks. But you know it’s a good day when you discover the water bottles are full and ice cold!

Naps in Africa are real. Some days you feel like you need a nap before 10am. Your best friends for nap time are the carpet and a cushion from the couch. Steer clear of the tile for it creates pools of sweat while the carpet just soaks it up so nicely. No mess! 

You will literally stop yourself in your tracks when you notice for the past five minutes you haven’t been sweating (these times are rare and few between) and you say a prayer of thanksgiving. 

You form a secret eye contact with those you live with to know, without even saying a word, you’re highly miserable and there is absolutely nothing you can do to change the circumstances. But you loose calories when sweating right, so that’s a plus to always keep in mind! Count the number of times locals have told you this is the hottest Zambia has ever been before. Hold in the laugh that wants to spill out when another miscommunication with your hosts happens. Whenever you think you’re prepared for something you probably aren’t. Do your best but in the end just go with the flow and embrace the awkwardness (thank you Mr. Holmes for giving me lots of experiences on mission trips to practice this). 

But in all seriousness don’t let the seeming “hardships” of life in Zambia distract you from the beauty of it all. There is so much beauty, joy and laughter to be found in the “hardships”. Allow them to change you, strengthen you, humble you, build your character and teach you lessons you won’t learn anywhere else. Thank you Zambia. You’ve successfully convicted me and convinced me of the beautiful simplicity of life. Thank you for reminding me that in life you just need to K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid.