WiFi is never free.
America: Home of the brave and land of the free WiFi
Here’s a list of some of the things that will happen when you’re in Africa: just for fun.
You will get dirty. Especially when playing with children. And everything in Africa is dusty. There’s no avoiding it; embrace it.
You can scrub as hard as you want, you will never get as clean with cold water as you do with hot water. But cold is all you get.
Rice and nsima every day. Every meal. Except breakfast, which is bread. You will become a carb. One giant carb.
The van you’re riding in is definitely not made for the dirt road you are on.
You will wash your clothes while it’s sunny, then as soon as you hang them to dry it will rain.
Everyone wants to touch you.
“Azungu”
The only sunscreen available for purchase is 10 ounces and costs 20 dollars.
No matter how hard you try there will always be that one pesky mosquito in your bug net at night.
Everyone assumes you have a lot of money so they will try to charge you more.
The power will go out. And so will the water.
Flashlights and bucket showers.
Cockroaches: big ones.
If you leave something outside at night, you better not want it. It will be gone by morning.
Church: things might happen that you don’t believe in, and the services are long, but try to make the best of it. Worship can be a really fun dancing time.
Play with all of the children. They will love you no matter how stupid you look trying to understand their games. Actually, they enjoy it more if you make a fool of yourself.
The highest bill is 1,000 kwacha; which is worth a little more than 1 dollar… so you’ll end up carrying a huge stack around with you just to buy a couple things.
Skirts. For ministry you will have to wear a long skirt or a chitenje (a piece of fabric wrapped around you to make a skirt).
You might wake up to a riot in the street out front because they caught a thief and are trying to decide what to do with him.
Being on time is not valued like it is in America. 1:30 means 3 o’clock or later, and everything takes longer than it should.
The clinic looks like it came straight from American colonial times. And it usually costs less than 4 dollars because basically all they do is make sure you don’t have malaria.
If a water pipe breaks it takes a week for it to get fixed and during that time there will always be people sitting out by the leak collecting the water in buckets.
Most people, especially the kids, don’t wear shoes. You will find yourself wondering how their feet don’t hurt when walking on sharp rocks and broken glass.
A lot of the kids have signs of malnourishment and other illnesses and you can’t help but feel sad that a lot of them won’t live to become adults.
The sketchy, local, fried chicken places are actually pretty good.
It’s exciting that the electricity here charges your devices very quickly, but it’s sad because you know it’s killing your battery a little each time you charge it.
When taking public transportation there will always be too many people per seat.
Good luck finding any neosporin or anti-itch cream that actually works. And you also will not be able to find bandaids that are sticky enough.
The thrift store definitely has some cool, cheap stuff.
Almost every road is an incredibly bumpy, dirt road that was probably not originally intended to be driven on.
Women carry everything on their heads and tie their babies to their backs. It’s very impressive. Even children carry their siblings on their backs.
Become good friends with your host family or neighbors. It will make life better for you and for them.
Sitting alone on the front porch can be a great part of the day. But sometimes kids will see you, and they will surround you.
African sunsets are stunning.
Buy the soccer ball or the deck of cards for your host family. They will get more use out of them than you could ever imagine.
Take a camera everywhere. You never know what will happen or what you will see. Africa can be really beautiful and also really weird.
(chickens under the bus seats)
Little children will cry when they see you.
When you see elephants in the wild for the first time you’ll almost cry.
Locals will wear winter coats when it’s 70 degrees.
Raw meat and fish sit outside in the market covered in flies; and you can’t help but think how quickly the FDA in America would shut that down.
The mini bus drivers will fight to get you into their van.
The children have so much joy. Learn from them.
The language is hard, but try your best.
A lot of the kids have great artistic talent. Encourage some to draw in the dirt and you might be surprised.
Random guys on the street will propose to you.
Your host family will probably think you brought a lot of stuff…. Even though you probably cried when packing because you couldn’t bring all that you wanted to…
You will think you are used to the heat, but then it gets hotter.
Baby powder is a great investment, because it helps when you get super sweaty. And you will definitely be very sweaty, all day, every day.
These are just some of the crazy things about Africa.
