Happy Hour Hero

Now that you know WHAT we drink in the village, the next step is to know how to appropriately drink with Zambians. When arriving at a friend's house who has made beer or liquor for the day, usually there is a circle formed with 3 to 8 or so people drinking. In the center of the circle is a plate with a cup in the middle. When first joining, you must be invited into the circle to begin drinking. Once invited, you can fill the cup (about the size of a tea cup) and then chug the cup. A polite thing to do is to buy a container jug (2.5 liters) of beer and then add that to the center of the circle. Usually you finish a cup, then wait a few minutes before the the cup continues around the circle. Or, you can drink a couple times before passing. It's kind of a chug, chug, give rotational system. Messing up the rotation is taboo.

When drinking the distilled booze, it is the same idea, but you just pass the cup around taking shots. There isn't anything like noon here where it is taboo to drink before. I've shown up to some farmers' houses to work at 8 or 9 am and they're sitting there with a friend or two drinking moonshine. And these aren't tiny shots either. I've been intoxicated more frequently before 10 am here than at home (not including tailgating days).

One of my favorite things about Zambian drinking is this wise proverb they have which states, "The cockroach does not get the beer." That is effectively stating that if you have a bug in your beer, just remove the bug instead of pouring out the glass.