amkean pronunciation

I'm still experiencing some reverse culture shock, although "shock" is a little strong of a word. I passed someone on a cell phone yesterday and briefly thought it notable the person was speaking English. It was in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, so maybe it was unrelated to my trip anyway.

Looking back, I overestimated my traveling prowess before I went to Africa. Not by a lot, but I learned a lot along the way. My only international travel experience was 10 years prior in Europe, and there are a lot of differences between Africa and Europe, and all the ones I had to learn followed from the lack of development. (With the possible exception of the lesson "Respect the safety concerns in post-Apartheid South Africa.") I knew about the lack of infrastructure, but I was unprepared for the difference in the African economies and the effects thereof.

For example, unemployment is high, so in the cities there are a bunch of men, mostly young men, just hanging around. There aren't enough "proper" jobs to go around, although I'm guessing a much higher percentage of jobs involve security than over here. So if you're not lucky enough to be a gatekeeper or work in the tourism industry and would like income, it's up to you to figure out what you'll do. A common choice of people is to sell physical stuff on the streets, but information is also valuable. It took me the whole trip to figure this out. For the first few weeks I was in Africa, I was in Cape Town or on the overland tour. Cape Town has infrastructure and an excellent tourism center. While overlanding, I paid for the transportation and a guide to provide information. At the end, I was with B&K who had two years' experience. It was those few days in the interim that schooled me and how.

In Europe, it's pretty easy to navigate public transportation, as they operate under a line of thinking that goes something like "many foreign people will be using our transport, so we should make it easy for them to negotiate it. Plus, even locals enjoy good signage." Not so in Africa. Why would a tourist choose to use a bus? Tourists fly to get places. Thus, in the Lusaka bus station, there's no information booth (that I found, anyway). There are, however, lots of private stands and tons of people running around or possibly resting. Many of these people are young men who hang out at the bus station and make money by filling in for the information booth and directing you to the right place. It was a little overwhelming for me at first, because I didn't understand their purpose. I am supposed to pay for this service? Do I pay them all, including the guy just tagging along and grinning without speaking a word? Are they taking me to the second floor of offices to mug me? "Going to Livingstone?" My guard was up pretty high because I didn't know that this was their job, to direct you through the confusing bus station for tips, but I did engage them and followed them with my pack on because I needed help.

The second day I went to the bus station—my departure day—I figured out I could just say no to all the offers of help. Had I known this was an actual job of sorts, I could have saved myself some trouble. I would have seen them as providing a useful and valuable service rather than seeing them as beggars. Instead, I avoided all "helpers" and didn't know where I was supposed to be to get to my bus. It all worked out in the end, but still.

I later learned that it's okay to ignore the people saying "my friend!" who you've never met before. They use the strategy that the cell phone hawkers at the mall kiosks do, which is to mix up business and social. "Hi, how are you? What cell phone service do you use?" Your gut feeling is to answer them because you don't want to be rude by ignoring someone who's speaking to you, but of course they're the ones being slightly duplicitous because they ultimately just want your money as well. So feel free to ignore them, and you can ignore the opportunists in Africa, too. "What's your name?" sounds like a social question, so you answer it when you first get to Africa. But the only time this question doesn't start down a road to you getting asked for something is when you're outside a common tourist situation. When I was on the intercity bus, people talked to me in a friendly way. When I was in the Land Cruiser, I was a big money sign.

Although these bus station helpers were legitimate, they lacked training of course, and so they didn't know that when I was completing a financial transaction with the actual agent of the bus company, they probably shouldn't yell at the agent when I was trying to hear the agent give me details about the bus trip. Although maybe they were clever enough to get the agent to withhold information so that I had to get it from them, but I don't think so. When I asked what the helper got out of the deal, he talked about how the bus people helped each other out before tacking on at the end that he wanted a tip from me.

Traveling in Africa was well worth it, but it was difficult to see the poverty and deal with the people who wanted money from you. Many of those people, such as the curio sellers, are quite assertive. Our tour vehicle might as well have had a big dollar sign painted on the side, because when we'd pull in to a city frequented by tourists, guys would swarm the vehicle and stick their arms in the windows to attempt to get us to hold the things they were selling as a sales tactic in addition to getting your name, where you're from, and getting you to express interest. You want to help people, but I thought about all the poor people who weren't asking me thirty times what price I wanted to pay for something I didn't want and I didn't want to reward only the ones who pestered the tourists. Smarter people than me have analyzed the problem of Africa and not figured it out, so I don't know exactly what to do.

I should also note that I didn't have a single rand, dollar, pula, or kwacha stolen from me during the trip, that when the people wanting your money were swarming you, you never felt unsafe or that something was going to go wrong, at least in the daylight hours when we were normally traveling. And I hope I don't sound cynical, because I don't feel cynical about dealing with the people who want to trade for my money. It's just that there are so many of them that it can be tiring to engage them all, so you learn strategies. And if you do want a souvenir or information, definitely go ahead and make the trade.

Labels: africa