When I lived in the more rural area of Eastern Province in Zambia there was a nearby hospital that regularly had volunteers from abroad. We would often see them walking down the road, enjoying the sunshine in their shorts or mini-skirts.

One day a Zambian colleague came and asked why so many white women he saw would cover the top parts of their body but would show their legs and thighs in short skirts. This was not an unreasonable query for someone who comes from a culture where breastfeeding openly is not an issue but where if you are female you must keep everything covered from your midriff down to below your thighs. In Zambia this area of the body is seen as the erotic area and shouldn’t be shown, not even in trousers.

Ladies of the village sporting their chitenges

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Thanks again to Isabelle Prondzynski who is a regular contributor to our Food of the World Flickr group. These vegetable samosas were being fried at the roadside in Nairobi, Kenya.

Isabelle wrote: “They were the best I have ever eaten! I am sure I shall be back for more…”

Pocketcultures loves to talk about food from around the world. If you have some photos, why not join our Food of the World Flickr group?

Read more:
I love Madagascar on Blogs of the World
Nshima and Zambia’s food culture
A Kenyan festive lunch

As I walked past the ever-expanding Manda Hill shopping centre one lunch-time, I caught the smell of wood smoke and food.

Surprised, I looked around to find the source. In the corner of the construction site were a group of builders in blue uniforms involved in the important business of cooking nshima.

Unlike pretty much anywhere else I have lived, in Zambia, if you know how to build a fire you can find a little space, by the side of the road or on a patch of wasteland, to cook nshima. Everyday, our very own caretakers stoke up their fire and soon the pungent perfume of kapenta – the small dry fish they usually eat – wafts onto my patio. Their fire is a simple affair: a couple of bricks topped by a small iron grill, with a few dry sticks underneath as the fire itself.

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Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has what might be one of the most impressive CVs of any head of state in the world. Africa’s first elected woman president spoke at IESE Business School in Barcelona two weeks ago, in a session titled Africa: The last chance?

Backed up by a numerous entourage, including Dr Richard Tolbert, chairman of Liberia’s investment commission, she had a clear message for the audience: Liberia is open for business.

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When journalist Ruthie Ackerman founded Ceasefire Liberia blog in May 2009 she found that Liberia’s young people were very excited about the opportunity to tell their stories to the world.

The site now has twelve contributors from Liberia and abroad, all keen to tell their stories. And these are stories you can’t get anywhere else; although the first signs of a revival of Liberia’s tourism industry are starting to appear, for now the country is still off the list for most travellers.

Credit

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This is a guest post by Gayle Pescud. Gayle lives and works in Bolgatanga, Ghana. She writes G-lish with her partner Godwin.

I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I have absolutely no sense of direction. I mean, not a single cell in my body has any idea where it is once I turn a few corners, least of all my brain cells. As a collective, my brain cells throw their arms up and go on strike if I travel further than right, left, and right again. Game over.

So, I can only ever write a guide book for a country I have spent nearly four years traversing because it takes me this long to work out where I am and where I’m going—but when I work it out, I really work it out.

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In all the years we lived in Zambia we have never seen rains like this season has brought. Our lawn has become waterlogged and is actually growing algae, the old abandoned pool on our compound has become a dark green lagoon. Water is gushing through drains and across roads.

Credit.

It’s interesting how weather can change one’s perception of a landscape. I am a Brit and therefore used to rain and murky weather. (more…)