Africa- The Final Frontier

I was standing in the midst of downtown Lusaka looking to purchase a bearing for our broken washing machine.  I was definitely off the beaten path and probably the only white person for a few miles in any direction (I was down there for 2 hours and never saw another “mazungu”).  After walking through a few alleys surrounded by makeshift workshops constructed mostly of recycled wood, cardboard, and pieces of tarp, I came to an opening and found the place for which I was looking.  To my left, there was a man soldering metal.  He closed his eyes and turned his head with each solder because he had no glasses (or gloves).  In front of me, a woman in an apron was cooking shima (a traditional Zambian staple food like corn meal), rape (a spinach-like vegetable), and frying chicken in a cauldron over a small fire.  To my right, a few guys were gathered around a pool table that had been squeezed into the dirt floored space between the surrounding shops.  After a little haggling (at the shop with the guy soldering), I managed to purchase the bearing at a reasonable price.  I made my way back through the workshop alley maze and out to the main road, where the cars were busy zipping around.  In that moment, I thought to myself, “This is Africa.”
There is just something about it that I love.  Actually, there are many things... but there is one in particular that comes to mind: Africa is unprocessed (It is like pulling a piece of fruit right off the tree, where America is like buying it in the store with a sticker on it).  Africa is a pioneer’s paradise.
In the states, it often feels like all that there is to explore has already been charted and mapped out.  All the boundaries and limits have already been pushed, leaving behind laws and signs that restrict you from testing them for yourself (for safety reasons, of course).  It is not that those things are bad, it is just that they make for a less adventurous world.  (I know my mom would appreciate it if I valued safety over adventure, but... I don’t.)
In Africa, most things leave you with a raw, natural, and unique experience that in the US would be commercialized, prepackaged, and restricted.
I have found that one of the by-products of this unprocessed culture is that you are likely to acquire skills (and experiences) that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
Whether writing website code, making mosquito screens, repairing washing machines, or building a house, you find that in many situations, you are as knowledgeable a source as anyone else.  So with a little help from google, you may find yourself to be the nearest expert on any given subject.  You may be a long way off from being a “licensed” or “certified” expert in the US and your finished product will likely look like it was “made in Zambia” (where final results are more often “close enough” or “it will work” than “exact” or “perfect”), but you will definitely learn something new- which is always worthwhile.