Day's Diary

April 12 , 2007 ~ Culture Shock

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Culture shock is a phrase that we easily toss around but it took on new meaning for me in the last week when Dr. Sue Makin and I went to Victoria Falls. I have been in Malawi for 3 months now and have adjusted rather well. I am enjoying my time here. I note differences between life here and in America, but that is just for point of comparison. But I had a rude awakening when Sue and I flew to Johannesburg, South Africa on Friday. After coming through passport inspection, we walked out into the airport lobby and were met with people clamoring for our attention to give us rides. We changed some money into South African Rand and found a taxi driver to take us to our hotel. It was intentionally on the other side of town, near a large mall, to give us the opportunity to shop before we headed to Zimbabwe. But the ride made us both aware of how different life is there from Malawi. Yes there are houses and shops and parks and cars and roads, but they are all so different. There is so much more available; housing is so much grander than anything that is available in Malawi and each house in the city is on a tree-lined street, surrounded by walls and heavy security; the houses vary in size, but each has electricity and other amenities; on the hills above are mansions that dwarf the houses of the city streets. Shops abound with all sorts of goods in greater profusion than Blantyre and certainly more than Zomba or Mulanje. The roads are all paved and are at least two lanes, many four and some six lanes. There is one four lane road in Blantyre and it lasts for only about a mile. There are two very nice hotels in Blantyre and one in Zomba, but they are small and ill-equipped compared to the dozens around the Jo’burg airport. Our hotel was old and stately with eight floors. There are no buildings in Blantyre higher than 5 stories. All of Blantyre would fit into the space from the airport to the edge of the city. The city sprawls for more than 20 miles. These seem like simple things but all put together it is a bit overwhelming. It reminded me of being in Southern California in many ways. The lifestyle is rich and comfortable, at least in the city. On the fringes of the city is poverty and struggle, but in the center are comfort and choices and wealth. The mall drove that point home. It is a magnificent four level structure with stores offering everything imaginable, and all with designer labels and large price tags. Restaurants abound all around, and offer any type of food you might want. Most offer patio dining as well as indoor seating. The meals were well prepared and presented, abundant and easily affordable. It took some time to adjust to the luxury of choice and the comfort of opulent service. Air conditioning is something that is rare in Malawi. In Jo’burg it was everywhere. The television offered more than 20 stations to choose from. I don’t have TV in Malawi and Sue has the selection of four stations. I sat and watched CNN and caught up with the rest of the world. We laughed that we were so out of touch with the “outside world.” We quickly enjoyed being back.

Saturday morning we went back to the airport and flew to Zimbabwe and experienced yet another type of culture shock. The airport reminded me of Blantyre’s, small with only one or two commercial flights a day. But the ride to the city was significantly different. The road was well paved and smooth, surrounded on both sides by national park game land, open and natural. The town of Victoria Falls is really just a small tourist town. It exists only for catering to the tourists who come from all over the world to see this wonder of the creation. The two main streets are lined with hotels and curio shops, with excursion sales offices and banks. They intersect just a block from the railroad tracks that provide connection to the rest of Zimbabwe. The excursions offered include safaris, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, dinner cruises, and guided tours anywhere you might want to go. The locals are extremely friendly, all there to serve in one way or another.

It was when we engaged the locals in conversation or we did business transactions that we discovered the real differences.  Our first shock came in the desire and at times insistence for US dollars. It was $30 each to enter the country. We had that, but little else in US currency since we have both been living and operating in Malawi for sometime and using kwacha, not dollars. The other currencies accepted are South African Rand, British pounds and the Euro dollar. There were a number of Asian groups we met and they were all using US dollars – interesting. There were very few places that accepted credit cards, other than hotels. The reason is that the exchange rate is so fluid that by the time the credit bill is settled, they are losing money. Zimbabwe is in a dire financial situation. An article in the April 2 Time magazine highlighted the problem. Their current president, Mugabe, is a dictator who has depleted the country of resources, thrown out all non-Zimbabwean land owners and murdered anyone who opposes him. There are easily 10,000 deaths in one year alone. The inflation rate is at 1,760% at present and if it continues will be at 4,000% by the end of this year. It is an incredible situation. As we spoke with our taxi driver and folks at the hotel, we learned that any exchange rate is an artificial number used to help try and do business, but does not reflect the true value or lack of value of the transaction. For instance, if we paid for our dinner in US dollars, it would cost us $20 each. With the exchange rate at 250 to 1, it would seem that the cost in Zimdollars should have been 5,000 zimdollars, but we were told that to pay in zimdollars would be 250,000. That didn’t even make sense to us. They explained there is no actual equivalent. We paid on the credit card. Since we did not have US dollars, we were at a great disadvantage and the trip ended up costing us more than we expected and we were limited in some of the things that we had planned to do and so did other things instead. This was an inconvenience for us. It is a disaster for those who have to live there. A young lady at the hotel told me that she can’t afford to buy any new clothing for her children. A pair of pants for her little boy would take her whole month’s salary. She says she and several friends trade clothing for their children as the children grow. Our taxi driver explained that if they could find bread to buy, it would cost the equivalent of $30 a loaf. But there is none available in the stores, so they must grow their own crops for food. At least the rains have been good and the crops are growing well. He drives to Zambia to get gasoline because there is none available in Zimbabwe. That is one of the reasons for wanting US dollars. Things are available just across the bridge in Zambia and the dollar is strong there. Everyone we spoke with voiced their delight to be living in Victoria Falls, because they could make a living of sorts and were so far away from Harare, the capital, that they were not directly affected by the political unrest.

We thought there was poverty in Malawi, and there is, but in a totally different way. Zimbabwe was once one of the strongest economies of the African countries. Today it is in shambles. Suddenly, it made the economic situation in Malawi look stable and somewhat hopeful. In Malawi the exchange rate is 140 to one and it has been at this rate for over two years. This is an honest and exact exchange. That is a shocking comparison to the situation in Zimbabwe. This is a different kind of culture shock. This one impacts people’s lives in profound ways. The future is completely uncertain for those living in Zimbabwe. They have great natural resources but no hope at the present of realizing benefit from them. Their only hope is the death of their president. He is 84 and that is what many are waiting for. They feel that then things will change. Our taxi driver, Oliver, is planning for the future. He is taking his test to become a tour guide. He believes that by 2010, the economy will turn around and he wants to be positioned to take advantage of it. His thinking is reflective of many of the folks with whom we spoke. They live in hope of the future and trust that at some point things will change, that the economy will go back to the way it was before. The infrastructure is there, if only the political structure were. Only time will tell. In the meantime, it is a shock to the pocketbook to travel in Zimbabwe. If you are planning to go, take lots of US dollars!

Sue and I decided that this was a learning experience for us. We came away with a new perspective on the difficulties of poverty, a poverty different from Malawi, but poverty all the same.