I am left-handed. This has never come to a huge shock to anyone. I’ve always been left-handed. My sister is also left-handed. Logically, our right-handed parents put us in softball and we both pitched and got the bunt sign a lot. Duh. That’s what you do with left-handed children.
I got the occasional comment from my parents—you know, about being “wrong-handed” and stories about “the olden days” when you weren’t allowed to write with your left hand and whatnot. Standard stuff.
Apparently Zambians aren’t left-handed. Nope. At first I thought it was weird that everyone at work was commenting on it. And then I started watching. I have literally not seen a single person here write with their left hand in 3.5 months.
People have actually looked at me incredulously and said “You use that hand!? So you can write with both?” Uh, nope. Just the left. I’m pretty dominantly left handed. A few people have actually then looked to judge the legibility of my writing. Which is a little awkward when I’m taking notes about Dunavant projects I consider to be…ahem…opportunities for improvement.
I idiotically tried to find information about left handedness in Zambia before remembering that looking for basic unemployment statistics yielded everything from 15% to 80% to “figures unavailable.” But I did find this article from The Post Online. I’ll save you the trouble of reading it, because it’s lame and poorly written as are most Zambian journalism pieces. The bottom line is: some kids are left handed. Parents, don’t stress out, this is normal and you should love them anyways.
The Easiest Verb 