Disparity

I’ve decided I’m going to try to come to some understanding about the disparity between poor and rich. It’s confusing me to no end. There are desperately poor people here and there are people who are making plenty of money and living very well. There is not much of a middle class from what I understand. I’m pretty sure the middle class, if one really exists, lives much like the poor but with nicer clothes, better mobile phones, and cooler American thingamgigs. I’ve really only made some observations at this point but from other foreigners, like me, I have talked to they seem to be as confused as I am.

We live in a two-story apartment next to a main road, Garba Jumpa Road. However, in between the road and us is a tin shack, no kitchen, bathroom or sanitation to be found. They cook on wood burning stoves and they defecate in the corner, as best I can tell, near the water spicket and drain. It smells so bad it swoops in our windows during a certain breeze. I have to shut the windows or else I’ll want to retch. It’s a thin, filtered and diffused smell. It’s sweet with an under layer of shit, almost unnoticeable at first. After I breathe in heavy to try and figure out what I’m smelling that under layer hits me and it’s, ‘hello, Mr. ass balls!’

Just now a newish Isuzu Trooper 4-wheel drive just drove by on our side street. Right by outdoor bathroom and off to their, most likely, nice house. Probably with A/C. Down the street is an enterprise (business) that always has a BMW 315i with after market rims and paint that in the states would cost an easy four grand alone. And next to that is a C Class Mercedes, decked all the way out. As best as I can tell, it’s a travel agency. I have seen, as early as today, kids grabbing at used plastic forks and cups next to African men drinking Julbrew (local beer) and laughing. It’s not much different than most developing countries I suppose. Years ago I saw a little boy half naked in Mexico literally scrubbing out a cardboard McDonalds cup, shoeless in the middle of a dirt street, San Diego in the background. I just don’t see how so much enterprise can be going on with so much poverty at the same time, and so much indifference.

Today we went to a trade fair in the parking lot of the sports stadium. Most of what’s valuable in the Gambia was represented. LG had a big booth, Flat screens and dishwashers. Cutting edge products from a world leader in cutting edge crap. There was a booth with Nigerian pharmacists selling local, natural products for life. There was a packet of Man Power for low sperm count that had, ‘Lot of Sperm’ written on the side, amongst many others. That booth was very busy with locals. There were booths with local crafts, Muslim crafts, bottled water, and bucket supplies. Buckets are necessities in countries, like Gambia, where the water goes out all the time. (Today we have no water) We bought a new washing bucket for laundry today to replace the cracked tubs we had. There was a model home set up as well, very small, with five jet showerheads costing 5,600 dalasi ($300). Chamber of Commerce had a booth, as well as many other business groups. Lots of stuff was there. From motorcycles to fabric to the Port Authority, all was represented. It’s simply amazing to see the modern aspects of life juxtaposed with such subsistence living.

Speaking of which, I belong to The Fajara Club now. It’s a country club with a pool and tennis courts, oh yeah, and an 18 hole golf course. It’s pretty cheap to join but its members are overwhelmingly foreign like us. It reminds me of a movie about British colonialism that shows a British hunting club smack in the middle of a village, or a ‘civilized’ pub on the Congo River that’s built by and for the whites. I love the club, they actually have a shower and I love to swim during a hot day. Like I said, it’s hard to wrap my brain around the disparity here. I think I’ll play golf this week. We have such nice caddies at the club. Maybe I can meet someone there who wants to help me open my diamond mine. I jest, but just barely, because I feel like I could go either way. Like someone was saying, “when you have the means you get nice things for yourself.” No matter if your neighbor shits in pile in the corner of their yard.

In America the middle class represents the vast majority of the country, shrinking though it is. In Africa the poor represent an overwhelming majority which puts it right in your face, everywhere you look. So Perhaps a brand new Cadillac Sedan Deville driving down my road, like I saw last night, looks out of place where it might not look so while driving through Springfield, VA past the billiards and bar stool store. But right next to that store, where it’s not easy to see, is an apartment complex that is famous for immigrants living eight to an apartment situated well below the poverty line. So there it is, out of site; out of mind. Out in my face; all I can think about. I wonder for how long though. When will the poverty become so commonplace that I don’t think twice about it? I hope soon. (kidding) I do want to become desensitized to the shit smell though, like Carolyn has. That would be nice. I haven’t decided what I can do yet to help in even a small capacity. Aid programs have been shown to almost cause as much harm as they do good, becoming expected handouts and not addressing root causes or issues that Africa is in desperate need of. Plus aid workers are kinda assholes. Holier than thou dicks who rotate in for a few years and don’t see the long view of what they’re doing, which is tantamount to a band-aid on a bullet wound. But they do have foreign money and foreign 4X4’s and they’re out here doing something. And something has to be better than nothing, doesn’t it? But not right now, it’s time for a dip in the pool.

-BBB