One thing that has been redefined since I have been here in the meaning of luxury.

I knew before I came that so much of American life is a luxury. Running water, washing machines, good beer, cars …

On my recent trip home I remember going to the bathroom and feeling the toilet paper. Thinking it was soft as a feather, and being like “this toilet paper man, this is living life”.

Needless to say, there are things I now see as luxuries that I didn’t see before.

Before I came here I knew the American school system was probably hands over feet better than Zambia. I just never imagined by how much. I couldn’t imagined a school that is made from mud-brick, standing on mud floors with a roof that has so many holes in it, that after seventeen years of rainy season it’s slowly melting away. A school with computers and books, that’s beyond lux. A school with windows and doors, that’s luxury.

Back home I’m a vegetarian, and it’s never something I’ve ever thought of as an luxury. Any self implied dietary restrictions are. Low carb. Luxury. South beach. Luxury. Vegan. Luxury. Gluten free. Luxury. Having a different style of food every day. Luxury. When you don’t have enough food to feed yourself and you live off the crops you grow; almost all food is seen as a luxury. Even for me, food is seen that way. I don’t even have to worry where my next meal is coming from and I have enough money to eat out in the boma when I’m there, or get items from the store (within PC budget reason). When you live without electricity, or anyway to really keep food for a long period of time. When you have to walk two hours and hitch another to get to a “store” that’s basically a glorified 7-11. Your views on food change. Things like variety, meat, microwave, food slowly start to become the finer things.

Easy transportation!!! Hug luxury. If you have read my past blogs you know I’m not a big fan of transportation in this country. I hitch a lot, which I feel safer about than riding buses. Anyway, for me to even get to a place where I could get picked up by a bus I would still have to hitch. And the horrible lack of infrastructure (the government just doesn’t have enough money to invest in it) makes getting anywhere take forever. It takes me at the very least three plus hours to get anywhere. It makes flying fourteen hours a piece of cake. Flying is amazing! You get to go to the bathroom whenever you want. You have movies to watch. The flight attendant isn’t trying to fit twenty people in two sets. You have food, beer, people waiting on you. Economy class. Luxury.

Ice, ice is as big luxury. I’m sure there are Zambians who have never even had ice before. Walking in the hot season, over hills to get to a fish pond or two hours to the nearest road to hitch. Many of my thought were of ice. Drinking an ice cold water, siting in an ice bath, Vanilla Ice, anything at all. Another volunteers said when he visited home he remembers being at a restaurant and hearing a customer get upset at a waiter because they didn’t put ice in their drink. He said he just sat there thinking “Really? You got to be kidding me”. Luxury.

The sad thing is I know when I go back home and get adjusted to my life. I probably won’t think of many of these things as luxuries. I know that it is relative to where you are and the life you are living. These are my views, coming from someone who grew up middle class. It is hard for me to fathom, that people like the one-percenters, and the people living next to me are living in the same world. They seem like two unconnected planets.

Now, I think you should read this again; but as a drinking game. Take a drink every time I wrote luxury. Luxury, luxury, luxury …. luxury. Drunk yet? That’s a luxury 😉