Friday 15 June 2012

Beauty In Unexpected Places

Catching up with a couple of things I have been up to lately.

Last week I had such an exciting time going into what I can say is one of the “ghetto’s” here in Lusaka. It’s called “Garden” because apparently the area used to belong to an expatriate farmer and now it has so many makeshift houses with locals living there.

I was reluctant to share this because I really hate how the Western world tries to portray Africa as a dirty place where there is starvation and no hope. I believe Africa has some of the most beautiful places in the world but like any continent there are places where people are poor and just trying to get on. It is the same here in Zambia, we have the beautiful shopping malls, people driving very expensive cars and wearing trendy clothes but as always the extremely poor are also among us.

I was having a photography session for a tour operator company called “Lusaka Experience”. They have such a brilliant idea, while most tour operators will take tourists to all the fancy places, this company does the exact opposite! They want tourists to have a sense of both worlds and so they take them to Garden. Tourists can visit the local market, some orphanages, taste the local brews and food and even crazier the tour guides take tourists to see the local witchdoctor!

Unfortunately we did not find the witchdoctor so I did not take any pictures of him for those of you who would like to see what a real life witchdoctor looks like! I do not believe in witchcraft in the sense that though I am aware that witches and wizards exist, I would not go to a witchdoctor to solve my problems because I am a Christian and I believe consulting spirits and magic is wrong.

What I loved the most about the trip was some of the beautiful artwork that “Lusaka Experience” had done in Garden. It is lovely to see a spark of colour in a gloomy place. I would recommend a tour with these guys to anyone if you really want to have a true cultural experience of Lusaka.







4 comments:

  1. Awww! I LOVE the pictures! I like the painting on the wall. The children looks so happy and the women selling produce reminds me of Nigeria! :)

    I also hate the media portray Africa as poor, but we have to show them that they're wrong. And, that we do have beautiful people and places in our continent.

    Thanks for sharing! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, I have never been to Nigeria so I'm tickled to know you have some markets like this too! Are you originally from Nigeria?

      To be honest I think we africans are the worst culprits when it comes to selling our continent short, we get so wowed by the western world that we start talking badly about Africa. If everybody made an effort to say lovely things about Africa, we would defeat the negative publicity!

      Delete
  2. I love this post, you're totally right! I feel like they think the only thing we have in Africa is the jungle and poor people and that annoys me so much :/
    Anyway, the pictures are beautiful and I like your outfit too :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you Diane, I bet you get it all the time seeing that you are overseas. A friend of mine in Australia was actually asked if she lived in a tree and wore leaves! Can you imagine how ignorant people cane be? It's our job to set the record staright! Thank you for readingxxx

      Delete