Roughing It, But Not Really

When moving to the developing world from The West, it is assumed that your life will be very different from how you are used to living: diseases are more common and more dangerous; infrastructure is less developed; sense of time and urgency is, ahem, 'more relaxed' (read: really, really slow); feelings of isolation are common, etc.

What do all the above have in common? They are negative impressions. What many people fail to consider when contemplating the differences between "Here" and "There" are all the good, fun, and just plain random ways that your life changes when you leave your country and your culture and move to someone else's.

One of the first and most important lessons I had to learn in Malawi was how to deal with the drastic change from being a poor person in a rich country to being perceived as a 'rich' person in a poor country. In other words, I am white, therefore I am wealthy. I'm not going to deny that I am a heck of a lot more well off than many Malawians; it's more that I perceived myself very differently at first than locals do here and it was quite a shock to realize how different my lifestyle was going to be for the next year, both from what I am used to and from how I could see most people live here.


Probably the best example of how life changed for me on a daily basis is the services of a maid and a cook that I inherited upon moving in to my organization's swanky guest house. The maid comes every week day and the cook supposedly comes MWF, although, in reality, he shows up randomly. Contrast this to my former life in Boston, crammed into a tenement with 3 others and struggling to find both time to cook and room in the refrigerator for said food (a big deal, mind you.) I spent weeks feeling guilty about any mess I made in this new house, even though the out-going fellow pointed out that the maid work for expats is considered a coveted job here. I have no reason to not feel guilty about the cook; that's a privilege even most of my co-fellows don't have. :) 


Another change was the instant celebrity status I achieve simply by walking around with white skin. This is especially true regarding children, who absolutely LOVE waving to azungu (white people) and screaming, "HI!!!!!!!!!!!" as you pass them, no matter how far away you are from them or if you are in a fast-moving vehicle. It was rather disconcerting at first to have so much attention paid to me simply for looking how I look and I now have a greater compassion for the pervasive feeling of 'otherness' that minorities in my own country must feel at times. These same kids (and their much-less-cute teenage counterparts) will also sometimes demand, "Give me money!" in addition to the waving, but it is mostly said in jest and accompanied by giggles because they know they are being naughty.

The last example I will give now of a pleasant difference between Zomba and Boston is the change in eating habits I have been forced to adopt. While pre-packaged, processed foods reign supreme in America, it's all about fresh fruit and vegetables here. Granted, I live in a smaller city, so people in Blantyre and Lilongwe probably don't experience this quite as much. In Zomba, you can shop at the local market for fresh produce brought directly from the farm....or you can eat Ramen noodles. There are no frozen vegetables or microwave meals here. (In fact, it's an extreme luxury to even possess a microwave.) There are some chips and cookies you can buy if you are really hard up, but they are pretty gross and super expensive compared to the fresh food. I don't trust the meat in the stores, so I my roommate and I decided to be vegetarians when it comes to cooking our own meals.

All-in-all, while there are many things I dearly miss about America, I can't complain about my life here. Whatever struggles I do experience only serve to remind me how precious the lifestyle we lead back home is and that nothing should ever be taken for granted in this world. All I have to do is walk down my road to see vividly all that I have to be thankful for.