I also became a millionaire! In kwachas that is. The exchange rate is 5,225 kwachas to one US dollar. They no longer use coins, and their smallest bill K500 is worth a penny. I've heard they are going to update the currency soon, removing a few zeros to make the math easier.
The day before we left for Macha, Kathy took us all shopping for food and household supplies. It is always good to have someone along who knows the products when shopping in a new country. I would say a majority of the products come from South Africa, but there were a few from Europe. Lucky for me they have a few gluten free products (I found 6 bags of rice pasta and two packages of rice cakes). There are also a few European and Australian products. The markets were full of many nationalities. There are whites and blacks from Zambian and neighboring countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe etc), people of Indian descent (many with a long history in this country), there were also quite a few Muslims from various different countries by the look of their clothing. We noted at least two mosques in downtown Lusaka.
On Thursday, a week from the day the Ulbricht's and I arrived in the country, we headed to Macha. With all our stops along the way it took us about eight hours. The roads were in amazing condition. It was a two lane highway once we got out of Lusaka. We passed many semis carrying heavy loads of copper ore to the ports on the coast. The road we took is the main highway through Zambia and a major trucking and travel route from southern Africa to the interior. We passed many trucks from Botswana and South Africa. We passed several buses including one traveling from South Africa to the Congo. In this part of Africa, the borders are pretty permeable.
It is the end of the rainy season, so the elephant grass along the side of the road hides most of the houses and small communities, but you would see concrete signs for government schools and small stalls by the roadside selling different wares depending on the area. We saw chickens, chicken houses, squash, charcoal(lots and lots of this), tonga stools, baskets, sweet potatoes, etc. We stopped to buy sweet potatoes we got a whole stack (probably 8-10lbs) for $4.
Overall, I find that Zambians are very friendly and laid back. The lack of a recent armed conflict seems to have kept a strong polarization from having developed. I feel safer on the streets of Lusaka than San Salvador . Though petty theft is a problem, there is not the presence of gangs or armed criminals as there was in San Salvador or major cities in the US. I also have yet to notice an obvious drug use problem. The fact that Zambia is so sparsely populated, merely 13 million people in an area slightly larger than Texas, probably contributes to the absence of major discord in the population.
