It took me a whole month to get accostumed to the rythm in Africa. It’s hard to tell, why it took me so long. I should define the word chigirillo. It is saying that rushing doesn’t take you anywhere and everything is OK.
During this month, I spent a week in a hotel, a week with the family from whom I rented a room when I first was here and now, finally, I’m at my home. The first week I spent cleaning and relocating all the excessive stuff. I was trying to avoid everybody who offered me help with the cleaning. It seems strange but it looks like a way of earning. Local people seem to think that white skin means you can’t hold a brush or that white people shouldn’t be doing this work.
This view has been strongly rooted by the wealthier locals who can’t be bothered to do even the most simple house work. From one side, it is a good way for the poor ones to earn some money, if otherwise they can’t afford to buy food every day. On the other side it shapes a careless attitude to everything that takes effort to be done. Be it a broken tap or carrying the smalllest bag home from the market. So when you go to the market, in seconds there will be a crowd of people willing to take your bags home. It’s hard to get adjusted to this for a white person. So it was very difficult for me to carry home (about 500m) my 2kg pumpkin because all those who passed me wanted to help me almost forcefully. It was more tiring to assure people that I’m ok carrying it, than the actual carrying of the pumpkin. But magically, the crowd got used to a white person carrying her own bags. So the first struggle made the upcoming easier. Nothing you do here is unnoticed by others. They are controlling you and are always there when somebody is fighting or in need of help. They intervene even to the smallest misunderstandings.
Last night around 3AM a kiosk on the main street was caught on fire. There is no fire brigade in Soddo, where there are more than 350 000 inhabitants. All people from the neighbourhood were there with their buckets. It keeps amazing me how active the social life is and how much they care. If you are in trouble, then even those come, who usually keep away from working. Looking at their electrical systems, I wonder how this can be the first fire I’ve seen here in 2 years.
All life here is simple, yet enjoyable. Sometimes it seems though that the warmth is the greatest privilege. Seems as I exchange the warmth for staying away from home and giving up all that is important for me but all the simplicity fills me up on every step and giving up doesn’t seem so hard anymore.
MERLE