The African Community

We've had our first experience being part of the African community.

Here, everyone is part of the community and the general feeing is that we all share and give of what we have...If you have more than I do, then you should give some to me. And, there's never any harm in asking you for stuff - for your watch, shoes, money, food, etc. You'd want to share with me since we're all one big family!

Well, our night guard, Goodson came to the door the other night asking me for mealie meal - the ground corn that they use to make their staple dish: nshima. I told him I didn't have any mealie meal, that we didn't eat it...then he said, "well, that's ok if you don't have it, can you loan me 50,000 kwacha (about $15) so I can buy some?"

We got some advice from friends that however we chose to respond to these types of requests (and we would get lots of them) we had to remember that we'd need to continue to respond in the same way to subsequent similar requests. And that IF we "loan" someone money, don't ever expect to see it paid back.

I made the decision to not give Goodson money because I knew it would open the floodgates for him to ask every month (or week!) for more...

If we paid him for his services, I probably would have given him an advance on his pay- but since World Vision pays for the guard service, I knew I'd have to consider this "loan" a gift since it would never be repaid.

The next thing we learned from Virginia, our housekeeper, was that a metal post from her yard had gone missing. This was the night after Goodson had asked for the food/money. He was the only person who had access to the back of the house so after talking with Virginia, World Vision and my boss, we all determined that it was best to fire Goodson.

However, we told him that if he brought the pipe back we wouldn't tell his company - and he could keep his job. Well, if he really needed the money, which it sounds like he did, I'm sure the pipe was long gone!

Until we get a new guard, Goodson has been here - but he knows that he'll be fired and seems to be very sad... With such a high unemployment rate, it's hard to make a decision like this that affects a life. But the reality is that he could continue to lift items that belong to us - and then what? People told us not to tolerate - or accept - theft.

Later that same week, we were on a family walk and a woman stopped me to tell me about her 14 year old daughter who had gotten pregnant - and could I help with her daughter's baby. I guess any expat is open game for seeking help and asking for money...

Welcome to the African village!