Lusaka Saturday, May 22, 2010

The group woke wearily this morning and took the bus at 4:45 to Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. We were tired during the bus ride but enjoyed seeing rural Zambia. We passed many ladies sitting by the side of the road selling fruit. There were large stacks of watermelons and tomatoes all along the road. I wondered how so many watermelons could be sold in such proximity but the ladies seem to return to the spot so they must get some business. It makes you wonder how many people might buy them cheap from the countryside and bring them to the city to mark up the price and make a profit. It seems a bit unjust but people have to make a living somehow.
We stopped at the Arcade Mall when we reached Lusaka. A couple of guys from the dormitory at Northrise mentioned that this was a must-see. We arrived at an ordinary strip mall with a grocery store along with several food outlets and retail shops. This mall was nothing compared to what we have in North America and it struck us how there is not much consumer drive in Africa compared to the States. Therefore there is smaller demand for these shopping malls and everyone buys local instead. For some reason I liked this idea of buying local instead of from a huge grocery store. Zambia might be doing something right here.
We also saw more Caucasians at this mall. It actually was kind of weird to see “white” people besides ourselves. The group also discussed the change that overcome our mindset as well. After spending so much time with the guys in the dorms we stopped seeing a colour barrier. They were just people, and you never noticed the skin colour. The group was very encouraged by this as we had all taken on this view.
In the afternoon the group met up with a missionary couple from the CRWRC in Lusaka. We spent the night there and had many conversations about development in Africa. These topics varied from the need of agriculture and engineering, to diseases, to future development, and also to religion in Zambia. We learned a lot from this couple and were encouraged by them to enter the missions field. They stressed that the Lord will use you if you are willing to go as they had little to no missions experience before they moved from the Philippines. We enjoyed the conversation and the food was scrumptious. We were grateful for the roof over our heads and another example of how the Body of Christ works together for all things.
Soli Deo Gloria