I was pleasantly surprised the other day by the observations of a stranger on the street in Zambia and want to share them with you.

As I was walking to the market in the capital city the other day to buy vegetables, a sharp looking Zambian of about the same age approached me from behind.

 "Madame, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes," I replied somewhat guarded as most inquiries by the opposite gender here tend to revolve around whether or not I have a husband and whether they have a chance of filling that role.

"Why is it that you whites are so guarded? I see you all the time in groups or walking alone, eating by yourselves and it is like you don't want to talk to any blacks. Why is that?"

Immediately my walls went down and I had to smile at the question. Coming from where I live in zambia you only find a white person every 30-40 km, however in the capital city we are plenty and the community of ex-pats, interns and foreign workers forms a light skinned island typically floating between the various malls, offices and high end restaurants of the city.

I do not intend to sound malicious or accusatory of the social habits of "whites" in Lusaka or Zambia as a whole. However having a young, intelligent and polite university student ask me why my kind never socializes with Zambians was a bit shameful. My answer to him was that probably people are afraid of what they do not know. And are just timid.

What would you have said to him? Is it shameful or understandable how foreigners tend to isolate themselves in Lusaka and elsewhere in the country??