Zambian locals

I stayed in a place called Kaazmein Lodge. My travel agent totally ripped me off when he set me up in this place, telling me it was way cheaper than my other options. Ha! The good thing about it was that instead of a bunch of European and Australian tourists, this place was mostly populated by rich Zambians from the capital. So, I got to talk to relatively local people during breakfast, and the hotel staff took pity on me and we had some pretty interesting conversations. It turned out to be the most interaction I would have with local people for the rest of the trip, so I guess it was worth the ripping off.
Quite a fancy place, no? My room is the bottom left.

I was later wandering around the town, and fought my way through the curio market. I purposefully didn't have any money at the time, but people are pretty insistent. The fun thing was, once you convinced them you weren't going to buy, and if you showed some real interest in them, they were super friendly. This young man, Dickson, found out I teach biology and got very excited. He wants to be a doctor someday. When he found out I was interested in trying local food, he invited me to lunch.

I risked my life a little with this meal, you can't see, but it was absolutely filthy around here. The mush is made of maize and called Nshima (or pap in South Africa). You roll a ball up in your hand and dip it in the sauce. It was actually rather good.

I had told Trevor the same thing about my interest in local cuisine, and so he made plans for the evening. Of course, I couldn't tell him that Dickson beat him, but it was fun. Trevor kept my American sensibilities in mind and took me to a more touristy place. The food was comparable, and 3x as expensive. Fun music and dancing though.