Today we had our first informational meeting with Taylor and Mal to get some basic information about what to expect in Sierra Leone, both the country and at the hospital. There was a lot to take in, and I realized that I have quite a few misconceptions about what life is like in Africa. First, when I asked if it would be a good idea to bring personal 'trinkets' to give people I meet and connect with, I was told that simple presents like friendship bracelets that people can remember me by are okay, but shouldn't be given too liberally. And that 'toys' and such for kids are not a good idea. For so long, people have tried to help out by just donating material goods and expecting it to help. As a result, they have come to expect to receive most things without having to work for them. If you start giving hand-outs, people will expect them from you and everyone will ask where "theirs" is. It doesn't help that everyone thinks that white + American = LOADED. I was told that people will ask for money non-stop, proposed to me plenty of times, and that people will ask to come back to America with me all the time. They are also under the impression that everyone in America has it easy, that everyone has money and life is a breeze. Taylor said when she told people, "I can't just take you back to America with me, it's not that simple," that the response nine times out of ten was, "Of course it's that simple. It's AMERICA!" It's definitely time to transition from thinking of this as a service mission to a sustaining mission. We are not there to give, but to help sustain so that they can eventually survive without our help.
It sounds like the culture will be different, but nothing unmanageable. As one would expect, because caucasians are the minority, there's a certain amount of fascination with someone so 'exotic.' Usually, twenty-one year old females are married with at least a couple kids. Taylor was apparently told often that she is a burden to her father for remaining unmarried for so long. Polygamy is also legal in Sierra Leone, and women are not considered equal to men. Women tend to dress modestly, and it's advised that skirts and shorts should reach at least to the tops of your knees, and that showing your midrif or too much shoulder is considered scandalous. Because people are so used to having everything handed to them, locals tend to be somewhat lazy and have poor accountability. They expect that if they don't do it, that someone else will pick up the slack for them.
We will be staying in a guest house on the hospital grounds that has electricity during select hours, but 24hour a day internet (a little backward? lol) and running cold what in the sink and shower. The guesthouse is safe and lockable, with cleaners who clean for you and do the laundry as well. All laundry is ironed to kill any mosquito eggs trying to live in it. Drinking water from the tap is not safe, and must be filtered, or you can buy bottled water. While there is a real chance I could get melaria, typhoid, etc., if I get sick I get free care there at the hospital, which has a lot of experience with such diseases and can easily treat them. I will need quite a regiment of vaccines to make sure I'm healthy for the trip. Mail is unreliable and slow, and envelops that are thick at all end up opened and searched for trinkets that can be stolen. Packages rarely arrive at all.
One thing that blew my mind was that anyone who has a means of charging a cell phone has not just one, but sometimes as many as four cell phones. Because service changes from one server to another depending on location, everyone has all the cell phones that will cover the areas they visit. By the sound of it, people are even worse about constantly being on their phones than here in the US (how is that possible?)
There has been so much to process! I'm so excited, I can't wait to see it for myself!
No comments:
Post a Comment