Zambia at first glance

Driving around the country’s capital I am surprised by that it looks so nice and sophisticated; I just can’t believe this is the really Zambia. Figures keep crossing my thoughts: 40% undernourished, people living for one dollar a day, on the bottom rung of the world’s development ladder, and so on… These figures are in flat contradiction with what I see around me. To me, when I walk the paved sidewalks of the shopping malls, it looks like a sort of artificially created world within the real world. Rich people living their lives are provided with every service they could possibly wish for, mixed with local Zambian workers they need to keep their services running. It is a sort of first world where the third world manoeuvres within. Zambian people creatively try to seize the opportunities this new world offers.

Soon I will discover that this is only one part of town. Outside the shopping malls and the big hotels that surround them, you’ll find large areas with what they call ‘compounds’. This is where the average Zambian lives; we are advised not to go in there. I just hope that during my intern I’ll have the chance to visit the people in the field WFP is working with. I am really excited about the work I will be doing here and hope I’ll be able to contribute to this place in which the differences seem absurd.