Oh yes...the blog. Pardon my lack of posts, however my writing attention has been elsewhere at the moment. I just completed a short Zombie movie script that a friend and I hope to make here before I come home, which is just two short months away! This time here has been pretty amazing and with two months left I feel like there is still much more to come.
Last night I went to yoga class with Carolyn. She loves yoga and goes twice a week, so for Carolyn's birthday week, I went to class with her. Got some good breathing in and realized I still can't sit cross legged on the floor without my feet falling asleep, but otherwise it was kinda fun. It was 10 middle aged British women a Dane or two, Carolyn and me. When I workout at the gym during the day it is all women as well. Sometimes I feel like Mr. Mom when he makes all his housewife soap opera buddies. Speaking of which, if any body has some All My Children updates go ahead and post them here. Langston, I'm looking at you.
Last weekend we also went to a Pranic Healing meditation to open a Pranic Healing center here in The Gambia. I do find it a strange juxtaposition to be going to yoga classes and passing old men with polio on the street as I do. It's a contradiction that is taking some getting used to. There are people doing very well over here in the developing world and want to live the best way they can. In a way this is a beacon for others to try and do the same, as well it could be looked on as a waste of resources in a climate that needs them badly. But ultimately one must decide for themselves how to best use their resources. People de need to take time for themselves, to center their own souls before they can help others. As well, it's not really anyones responsibility to help others at all. for many expats, seasonal residents and foreign businessmen (who have come to call Gambia home) the money they spend on living here, employing locals, and the taxes they pay is all they feel they need to do for any of the less fortunate. But that's not the only reason why C -class Mercs cruise pass old blind men begging for pennies, their own government cruises past them in stretch Hummer limos. When the Government squanders money on the trappings of dictator life it's hard to want to fork over your hard earned money to be wasted in places it was never intended. An uneducated populace will cheer as the President drives by, what motivation is there to change that?
The good I may do here is only going to last until I leave, and then what? If I give a kid 15 dalasi every day so he can eat (shit, if I could I'd give everyone who asked 100 Dalasi every time) but what does he have when I leave? That's why most agree that education is the only thing that will change the way of life here for the better. The people of the third world must begin to live more than just day to day and plan for their future. The future is a concept that many here don't think about in any way whatsoever, and when the needs of the moment take such precedence it's hard to think about two months or 10 years down the line.
The tourist season is ending and things are getting positively stagnant. Petty theft and muggings go up during these months without the people buying souvenirs and staying in hotels. Many leave the area and work up country in the farms. The very poor that stay, the ones that approach for hand outs are getting much more desperate. The other day I was buying a shirt in the main market for this area. I was trying on some and one kid was helping me, but as I stayed longer a group gathered around me ranging from small boys to men my age. Some had their own shirts and were trying to interject on the sale of the guy I was dealing with. Some just wanting to be in on the bargaining tell my the price I was proffered was very good or telling me where I could go to find better shirts. In the end I bought two shirts and was trying to leave when the group around me wanted me to buy whatever they happened to have on them. One man who was "helping" the kid I bought from asked me for money for food. I said I didn't have any, which was true at this point. I only had a 100D note and wasn't going to give it all to a strong man my age. He pleaded that he helped the boy sell me my shirts and even ran off to find another size for me. It was the desperate pleading of a child who demands an allowance because he cleaned his room the other day. I had 4 kids around me waiting for their turn to ask me for money so I declined this man. Then another man walked up with god awful t-shirts that were all too small for me. when I told him I already bought my shirts and was leaving he pulled out one more, and offered it to me for very cheap. this one I kinda liked, I bought the shirt because he looked real hungry and he was working for his money. Then I gave the leftover money to the kids who blessed me. I rode off as more people were trying to get my attention. It is a scene that happens evertime a white person goes into a market like this and I don't have any ill feelings to any of the people who pestered me. I did go through a period of annoyance when people would approach us non-stop not letting me even finish a sentence to the person I was talking to, but I've changed that attitude, I know where the motivation lies.
It makes me feel good giving money to kids. The other day I gave 25D to a group of four kids and by the look on their faces you would have thought I just handed them 1000 Pounds. They ran out of there faster than the Olympic torch through San Francisco. But I know I'm only helping for one day. One day at a time may work for drunks but not for life, not when crops can fail or the tourists can leave. One needs a plan for the future, that's why any and all charity groups not concerned with education are pointless. they are a band-aid on a fracture, like trying to rub 'Tussin' into the bone. A quick fix in a system that loves to be broken.
Africa is fucked right now, and through my experience it can only be helped by the people here helping themselves. We can give them aid from the west but if the people who plan to live here forever don't right their own ship then there will always be too many begging kids in the market instead of in school where they belong.
I don't have all the answers, I think the answers will be addressed by the people here, on their terms, when it is time. Reparations from the west are necessary, but given the way it is now it's just keeping that band-aid in place and letting things fester. The leaders of these countries need to think of a time without aid and strive for it, or step down and defer to someone who will, but that's not too likely. Dictators do love that position.
-bbb
Monday, May 5, 2008
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