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Published: October 26th 2008
Yesterday was the first day in two weeks I saw the actual color of my feet, they are now clean. My blistered hands are healing, and my sun burnt skin is no longer pealing. I guess I would say that physically I feel fine, with these aftermath conditions I could have just about spent two weeks anywhere, but I didn’t, I spent two weeks in the heart of Africa, Malawi, and in the forgotten dirt roads of Zambia. To explain it best, I feel emotionally raped.
In retrospect …
We (students at Franklin College) are in general people of westernized countries, are people accustomed to the luxuries of life, and by luxuries I simply mean the daily shower, the freshly pressed bed, and the choice of 3 meals a day. Prior to arrival, we had decided that one of our goals would be to connect and to attempt to be equal with the local people, because we had just learned about imperialism, development and globalization. Once we stepped onto Malawian grounds we were met with a ridiculously oversized comfort truck. One that had previously been a cargo truck and now recently renovated to include shock resistant seats, air conditioning, and lavatory facilities. With one of our goals in mind does that really make much sense? what happened to the theories of imperialism, to globalization, and development? In my analysis of the situation I believe we were a show, a source of entertainment for the underdeveloped people of Malawi and Zambia. For every time our gigantic truck drove through any dirt road we were received with children running in our direction, and they were content with one of us simply waving back. And as soon as the oversized 16 wheeler stopped, and we stepped off, we were received with these confused looks, as though they had never seen anyone like “us.”
Several of afternoons were spent browsing through the artisan at the local market. In general the market was intense. Every man had just about the same items so stopping at every stand seemed unreasonable. But each man pushed for me to see their stand, to look at their sculptures even though I had just seen the same items two stands away. “sista, sista, you must stop at my stand,” was the universal echo as I walked through the stands. Even if I did like an item, and was keen on purchasing it, the experience itself was an emotional conundrum. Their consistent guilt trip about their starving family, made bargaining very difficult. And my prior knowledge of the average daily income, made me only want to lower my price even further.
Other then the Market I would say that one personal experience that left me in awe was at Lake Malawi. I was relaxing on the beach, trying to get through the first few pages of sir Gawain and the green knight, when in the corner of my eye I could see someone coming toward me. It was a lady holding a baby, and she stopped right when she reached me, “can I take your picture?” Not really find much wrong with the situation I agreed to hold the baby as she took my picture. After the women had left I had quickly forgotten all about the baby and the picture, and about an hour later she returned, because she wanted to say bye. She had dressed the baby in a clean pink jumpsuit and was holding her out so that I could hold her. I carried her in my arms for a few minutes. When I was going to give her back she said, “Why don’t you keep her, she looks good on you.” Granted I am sure this was not her first language, but at that moment I was simply in shock. I did not know how to respond, I simply held the baby out and gave her back. If I were someone else, maybe a few years older, someone who could afford to take care of another life other then myself, I would have bought the baby. Not particularly because I deem to adopt a child, but merely because she wasn’t wanted, and that in itself is a reason enough at least for me to want to help the child. It is just heartbreaking knowing that there was nothing I could do.
After we left Lake Malawi we traveled close to 7 hours to reach Zambia, and the main purpose of our trip, the Balboa village. The last day at the village we had arranged to have lunch with the village. However, the situation did not work out the way I would have wanted it to occur. The people from the village were fed our left over from the previous night. And we were cooked a full meal separate from what they had already ate. I had been to a hunger banquet before, but that moment was a hunger banquet placed into reality. We the elite were expected to indulged in our fresh rice, beans and eggs, while begin watched by 50 starving children. The entire experience was awful, I couldn’t eat instead I gave my food away.
In both these underdeveloped nations the overall the malnourishment and the general health of the people is a big concern. Physically most people were short in height, and appeared frail and weak and many of children had the bloated malnourished baby belly. The children at the gardens of Bunda college had the luxuries of fish farming, some of them I saw had little tilapia in their pockets, most likely their only meal for the day. In contrast the children of the balboa village who only had raw un-rip mangos. Not only is malnourishment a big concern for the people of these underdeveloped nations, but so is HIV/AIDS. Driving around, I couldn’t count the amount of posters I saw that read “assume you’re positive unless tested negative.” Speaking to the people they seem to have an awareness of HIV/AIDS, but the problem lies in their cultural ways. At the Balboa village I saw the mother of one child breast feeding a baby that wasn’t hers, not considering the possibility of spreading any diseases. In these small villages there is no such thing as women empowerment, so if Daka ( the head of the village) wants his way with one of the women at the village, I have no doubt that there is nothing that will stop him from receiving the pleasure he is looking for. In a village as small as the Balboa village HIV/ AIDS seems so easily spread, it only takes one to get infected for the rest to suffer its effects. The domino effect has already commenced if one is already infected I am sure many more also share the same diagnosis. Many of the children I saw at the village had liaisons on their faces, and on their arms and legs. In the attempt to aid these people I feel that one most commence with health. On a positive note both countries provide free testing, and free medication to those already infected with the disease. However, the health clinics are often many kilometers away so the comfort of getting test and medication is purely for those that can afford to get to the clinic.
Much of what was learned in the first half of our voyage through Malawi was about the effects of NGO’s, and the development theory. The problem that developing nations face with constant aid is that with available aid people begin to depend on it for survival and no longer help themselves. The professor’s spoke about many of the villages actually digressed instead of progressed when NGO’s go to aid the country. After listening to the probable effects of NGO’s our travel group began to have consistent firm beliefs that there should be no hand outs at the balboa village. Therefore, the female products we had purchased in Switzerland, the donated soccer equipment, the tools we had purchased in order for them to start a garden all were obsolete. If hand outs equals dependency and “we” clearly wanted no part in such a thing. Then prior to arriving at the village the decision of not leaving anything at the village was made, and instead everything would be donated to freedom gardens, where we had learned about organic farming and self sustainability.
However, what was contradictory about that decision was that we had no problem helping the people at freedom gardens. Who in prospective had much more then the people at the balboa village, but even still any hand out, is still a hand out. The equation that was decided upon on NGO’s and dependency quickly fell through as soon as we arrived at the village. There was no longer that perfect solution of simply not giving, it became complicated. There was soon a need to reevaluate or definition of aid, of dependency and of what we really wanted to accomplish there.
The health issues with baby Michael at the balboa village was were the doubt in our definitions fell through. Michael is a five month old baby at the village, who his mother had asked for a ride to the clinic from one of our students, because she believed Michael had malaria. Seeing that we had previously decided that there would be no hand outs, the group discussed several options on how to handle the situation. The possible solutions included taking her to the clinic in our oversized truck, walking her to the clinic, taking the local transportation, or simply not taking her. For me this situation was probably one of the hardest experiences during the travel. I couldn’t understand why the group had such a difficult time decided whether they should even take her. For me it was as if nobody really understood, that all she needed was a little a help. The decision of taking her was made but only at the price of a bag of mangos. did we really just take these starving peoples mangos? We did. We took the mangos from these people knowing that, that was the only thing they had to eat. So when the time comes to apply the theories of imperialism and globalization, what do we do? We the imperial power, imposed our ways on the village. And in a democracy there was nothing I could do, but watch and let it happen, for I quickly learned that one person cannot move an entire mountain.
For me I never saw the problem in helping the people at the Balboa village. These people that found hope in our students, was a wonderful thing. The so called “dependency theory” I would say does not apply to the people at the balboa village. Franklin College sees these people maybe 10 days a year, and the amount that we are able to give is in no way sufficient enough for them to be able to build a dependency. In contrast to dependency I believe that the people of the balboa village find hope in our bi-annual visits. Because they are no longer placed on the forgotten roads of Zambia, they are known, some one cares enough not to forget they are there, enough to help them when they can.
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Geoff Barlow
non-member comment
So Deep, But why did u take the whole bag of mangoes,
What about just a few mangoes, Did you bring much food with you? How many girls and guys in your party?, It must also give a real sense of how lucky we are to live like we do, I myself and not rich and happy to be humble and am always amazed when people who are wealthy can live like that and drive fancy cars when people are less fortunate i could not spend money on expensive cars or houses even if i did have it, to see it goes in educating and helpin others is worth so much more...