My buddy, Adam, and I, did a homestay in Lusaka, Zambia. There was a 20-year old kid who worked there named Bonie (pronounced bō-knee). He spoke a sophisticated English, and always had a smile on his face.
The trip was back in 2015, so I don’t remember the first thing Bonie said when we met him. But it was probably something like: “I have recently been placed in charge of garbage. Do you have any that requires disposal?”
Let’s go back to 1988, the year Rain Man, Die Hard, and Beetlejuice, were released in theaters. Forced to rank them, I’d keep the same order. But my number one that year would be Coming to America! My favorite scene is when “Prince Akeem” meets Mr. McDowell’s daughter, Lisa, for the first time. He asks her if she has any garbage that requires disposal. She didn’t. But he tells her, “When you think of garbage, think of Akeem!” The kid at our homestay, Bonie, reminded me of “Akeem.”
All Walks of Life
I’ll state the obvious here. The world is made up of all kinds of people. Some you feel an instant connection to. Either their energy matches yours; or you see the ambition in their eyes. Or sometimes, through their cheerful service to others, you get a sense of their soul. I felt all three with Bonie. He was up before the sun to ensure we had breakfast. Our clothes were washed, laying folded on the bed when we returned home in the afternoon. He’d take us for walks before dinner, infinitely curious about what life is like where we live.
A bit about Africa. Even on leisurely strolls down a dirt road, I was struck by its size and beauty. Its vastness makes you forget yourself a little. The horizon seems to stretch farther than back home. And the sun has a yellowish-purple tint that makes it seem different from our sun in the US.
One day I brought my Bose headphones on our sunset-walk. I put them on Bonie’s head and played “Beggin for Thread” so he could hear the sound quality. I watched his face light up before he asked me to take a picture of him [with headphones on].
I asked Bonie about Victoria Falls, which is located in Livingstone on the Zambian border with Zimbabwe. Adam and I planned to fly there after our safari in Mfuwe. Since Victoria Falls is one of the great attractions of the world, I figured Bonie had been there, but he hadn’t. Said he’d always heard about “The Falls” and dreams of going someday.
What Am I Doing in Zambia?
By now you’re wondering why I was in a landlocked country in south central Africa. The short answer is we went to help widows and orphans.
We live in a country (USA) where a man can lose his job and possessions, yet still be highly unlikely to die from starvation. Like most developed countries, we have insurance schemes, governmental agencies and NGOs, which all provide safety nets to ensure people are provided sufficient calories to survive. In Sub-Saharan Africa, not so.
In 2014, I was ferrying between Phuket and Phi Phi Island in Thailand. I met a red-headed girl named Valerie who said she was from Zambia. You have better odds of winning a Dallas Cowboys -2.5 wager than meeting “a white” from Zambia (it’s 99.5% African black). We stayed in contact through Facebook. Then when I told her I’d be traveling through Africa in 2015, she said I could stay with her mom in Lusaka (Zambia’s capital).
A Trip to Victoria Falls
On our last day in Lusaka, we surprised Bonie. I told him we’d pay for a bus ticket, food and accommodation in Livingstone if he wanted to join us.
He was excited, and said he would ask the madame (his boss) for time off. She said yes, but he could only stay one night.
Livingstone is a small town named for David Livingstone, the first European to explore the Zambezi River 1851-1853. The river divides the Zambia-Zimbabwe border where Victoria Falls plunges 355 feet. Lunar rainbows come in and out of view over the massive cascades, which are twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara Falls.
Coming to America?
There’s a scene from Coming to America where “Prince Akeem” and “Semmi” get dropped off by the curb with their luggage. Akeem can hear banter coming from the barber shop…
“Sugar Ray Robinson is the best pound-for-pound fighter who ever lived…”
Akeem smiles and says to Semmi, “Listen! Real Americans!”
Bonie had never met Americans before us. When his bus arrived in Livingstone, I told him someday he should take a long trip to visit us in Texas. In all sincerity, he looked at me and said:
“Can I get a bus ticket to America?”
I said, “No, we’re 8,600 miles from home. You will need to fly.
He said, “Ok I will do that. How many hours is it? To here it was 12 hours (from Lusaka to Livingstone).”
Since Adam and I had taken a short flight to Livingstone, we were surprised to learn it had taken him half-a-day to get there by bus. But Zambia is roughly the size of Texas. Bonie had basically trekked from Lubbock to Brownsville on bumpy roads. He would only have time to see Victoria Falls and head back.
Trip of a Lifetime
The next morning we got an early start. Adam and I jumped off Victoria Bridge (with a bungee cord), and asked Bonie if he wanted to zipline.
We ate dinner that night at Olga’s Italian Restaurant with fellow travelers we met in Africa. We ordered family-style salad, lasagna dishes and a large pizza. I thought we’d have leftovers, but Bonie was eating like it was his last meal.
As we sat back in our chairs, stuffed like piñatas, I nodded toward the last piece of pizza and said, “Bonie, that last slice of pizza is calling your name.”
He looked around the table at each of us, smiled and said, “Okee, I will answer that call.”
We laughed and told stories until the waiter brought our check. And Bonie kept eating. I’ve never, before or since, seen someone eat so much in one sitting.
Abundant Returns
Our time in Zambia was a stark reminder of how incredibly blessed we are in America. We never worry about our next meal.
Hunger in America is an imaginary enemy. Statistics on “food insecurity” wouldn’t be so laughable if our poorest counties didn’t have the highest rates of obesity.
At home in Lusaka, Bonie eats a staple food called Nsima twice a day. It’s made from maize flour (white cornmeal) and water; it looks like porridge. His family spends about one-third of their monthly income on Nsima. He’s lucky if he gets to eat meat or fish once a week.
Adam and I didn’t know we were giving a kid the experience of a lifetime. We learned Bonie had never been outside his hometown, never stayed in a hotel. When I asked if he’d ever been to a restaurant, he said, “Yes, a few times, for tea with the madame.”
In my audio blog posts, I talk a lot about different types of investing. But the best investments I’ve made have been in people. In Zambia, I “invested” $60 in a kid. The returns? I got to see the look on his face when a waiter took his order. When he left town, I was on the receiving end of one of those smiles you can only get from someone who can never repay you. As Charlie Munger said, “If all you do in life is get rich, that is a failed life.”
From left: James (from Atlanta), Brad, Bonie, Adam, in front of Victoria Falls – Zambia/Zimbabwe Border
What a great story!!!
Thank you!!
Great post that perfectly encapsulated out experience in Zambia and with our new friend Bonie. Well said on all of it. Experiences that will last a lifetime. As I think you said in your reflections on Africa FB post during our trip, they say a part of Africa stays with you forever, and first and foremost that’s the people we met, built friendships with, volunteered for, and helped bring a smile to along the way, which brought a smile in turn to our faces
Seeing the smile on Bonie’s face joining us at the falls and staying at his first hotel room and being waited on by a waiter for the first time besides tea with the madam is something I’ll never forget. Not to mention the experience of Bonie’s interaction with the locals at the falls and his life long lessons for them. Amazing stuff.
Lastly, thank you for the idea of us doing some volunteer work. Those few days were undoubtably the most impactful of the ten weeks I joined in traveling on that trip, and quite possibly of my life.
As I said at my wedding, you could’ve been anywhere in the world during that time you had off from work (Ireland, a full moon party in Thailand, etc), but nope, you believed in what we were doing. That “drop in the ocean” of service has created a serious ripple effect. Amazing stuff indeed. Thank you, Adam..