Tips and Tricks

August 2, 2017

I have not once felt unsafe while on Dialogue in Zambia. However, one warning I was given which is very important to heed when abroad is to be careful of the country’s food and water. I was specifically told before I left home to only drink bottled water, even brush my teeth with it. While some people ignored the teeth-brushing rule and were fine, others got very sick from such small ingestion of the water. It really varies by person, so be sure to ask your TA’s about how seriously you should avoid water, since it is likely they have experienced it before. Something people might not tell you before you leave is that simply eating a foreign country’s food can upset your stomach, just because our stomach may be unaccustomed to the ingredients and/or preparation methods. By all means try the local food! However, you should definitely bring a first aid kit with you when travelling and throw in some anti-diarrhea meds. You’ll thank yourself later.
The most important “local secret” that I learned from some Zambian locals is how to barter. In Zambia, public transportation and taxi prices as well as the prices of goods at markets are always up for “negotiation.” My TA’s were extremely helpful in telling us what prices we should accept for transportation. Furthermore, they had some helpful hints when bartering such as to make your initial offer at half the price the seller tells you and work your way up to get the best price. Negotiation definitely took some practice, but by the end, friends would bring me around the markets with them to barter for things they wanted to purchase. My biggest tip when shopping internationally is to not always believe what a seller is telling you! At the markets, they would frequently stretch the truth to make a sale, so it is important to remain skeptical. Also, it is easy to become overwhelmed in a market when every seller is trying to get your attention and get you to buy their goods. Master the art of the polite “no thank you” and carry on to avoid becoming engaged in long conversations about something you don’t even want to buy. Also, when you’re trying to give your price for a good, ignore the seller’s offer and think about how you would value this good if you were in your own country. Don’t offer a price any higher than that value, regardless of the seller’s asking price.

Written By

Maegan Cross

My name is Maegan, and I couldn't possibly be more excited to be embarking on this once-in-a-lifetime journey to Zambia with my peers and some truly incredible faculty members. I am a second year Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major with a minor in Human Services. My program on this DOC is Driving Social Change. Although I someday hope to work domestically in the fields of economic policy, income inequality, and human rights law, I know that this is going to be an invaluable experience for me because I will get hands-on experience in third-party intervention strategies. I, like so many other Northeastern students, want to work for the federal government so I can incite positive social change that will benefit the least-advantaged, oppressed, underrepresented members of our society. However, a huge factor in my ability to accomplish my goals is that I, as I am not myself a member of many of the populations I will be working to serve, am limited in my understanding of the needs of these people. This is why learning foreign intervention strategies is so important to me. My work developing programs for youths in a Zambian nonprofit will teach me best practice for understanding the needs of a community and implementing programs that will fulfill what the people need, not just what I, or any other person coming from a place of privilege, think they need. The skills I learn in Zambia will fuel my ability to advance the social and economic well-being of minority communities in my own country, and allow me to be the most positive ally I can possibly be.