A Constant Hassle
Friday July 11th 2008
3:12 Pm
One of the constant hassles I encounter here is the idea that white people/ nonafricans can do nothing. They think you are physical incapable of anything until you do it. At first I couldn't pull my own water out of the well… until I did. I can't cook, rake, tie a knot or anything until I show them I can.
One of the worst things is they think that if I get a scratch from working, that I will die. The other day I was helping weed in one of the weeds (I definitely showed them I was capable of manuel labor.) I stepped on a piece of wood that got by my sandals and scratched me. As soon as one of the men saw that there was a trickle of blood from the scrape, he looked all worried and asked me if I was alright- plus that I should go and sit down and rest. I laughed respectfully and kept working.
Another anecdote is that I'm a sweater. I always sweat a lot, always have- not because I'm tired but because I'm hot. To the people in my village, as soon as I start to sweat alittle bit that means that I must be really tired and that I should stop doing what it is that I'm doing. During the peak of the hot, humid season, I was sweating ridicously sitting in the shade.
An interesting side not: On my little trip back to the States, I can't recall breaking a sweat- maybe once when I was salsa dancing. In fact I found the climate in California so agreeable that I even in the mid 80s I felt a slight chill. I'm not even kidding.
1 comments:
dude, you're a fucking wimp. and you do talk like a privileged white boy. you didn't know what you were getting yourself into? did you expect an office job, did you expect the locals will immediately like you after you show them that you mean well like in the hollywood movies? is that what berkeley taught you to expect? maybe you should stop expecting things from the senegalese people and start expecting things from yourself. sorry, for the tone, you do mean well of course, it's just your wimping got me..
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