So i have left Malawi via bus and traveled to a similar but very different landscape. Zambia, while so close is just as different as if i have gone to another continent yet has pieces which remind me of my home of the last two years. Similarities: i can still get by with chitumbuka, women are wrapped in the classic chitenje wraps, there is sima in every small market (only pronounced differently), villages and cities are stark opposites and apparently neive to the others existence, cheap things from china are everywhere, and the people in bus stations are just as annoying. Differences: chain stores alipo!, less people... 11 million in zambia to malawi's 12.5 million (look at their size differences and you will see why that one million less is a huge deal), more cars which are not strictly owned by NGOs and government people, transportation is onetime and somewhat reliable, more expats, higher prices, bigger cities (or places which can at least be classified as such), and less hand me down markets (everything is from china... are we not sending them goodwill stuff?).

Basically, it was a funny place. and while i had a good time and can never forget the site of victoria falls or he feeling of getting on a bus which ran to it's schedule; i will never like it anywhere near how much i loved malawi. okay, so i am partial... but that being said my fellow travelers agreed! but maybe that is because they were in Usisya as well. oh yah, and i was a tourist in zambia which was something i had to come to terms with seeing as i grew to hate them in malawi.

All in all.. zambia is beautiful... but its no malwi