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| Friday, 09 May 2008 |
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Home  Musings More Musings (2004) |
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The porch where I am sitting is newly screened and the open style
living, palm trees, and beach just six or seven hundred meters to our
east is all Floridian (or as I imagine it might be). We are told that
these days of mild nights and morning are a three months aberration in
what is otherwise a secession of continuous and relentless heat. We are
forewarned. Tuff Times Shoe Repair, waiting...
Then there is the real Tanzania. The
first hint comes from the Peace Corps volunteers who claim they need a
few more bucks then their current $100 a month per diem. ‘But they get
free housing,’ we’re reminded. Which brings up the story of Richard.
Richard is the gardener here. Well, he was the Jack of all Trades,
gardener, guard, owner’s live-in spy, but when we took the place we
said ‘no live-ins, spies or otherwise’ (I’ve gotten smarter since the
last time – no one starts work here until 10:00 so I don’t have to
creep about looking for a quite place to work). Unfortunately, that
pronouncement put Richard and his wife – both Malawian (here for the
robust economy…now that tells you something) out of a place to live.
We
offered Richard a single-title job (gardener only – no starting work
before 10:00) at the same rate he had been making ($70 a month for 6
days a week of work), but said we would add to cover his lodging and
transportation costs. He came back to tell me – and I was shocked at
this – that he would need $120 as a deposit for his room. I checked
around and found out that the number was correct. It is customary to
pay the first year in full. Yep, rent, $10 bucks a month. That is where
this real economy starts.
Ana, our cherubic 24 year old house keeper –
not a word of English but a sense of Clean to beat the band - makes two
bucks a day, the average wage around here, but we also pay her the
standard thirty cents she needs to buy her lunch from the lady on the
corner who cooks out of a big common pot for the community laborers.
Ana gets neither a housing nor transportation allowance, but then she
can walk the couple miles it takes to get to work.
And despite all
this, the Tanzanians are a wonderfully cheerful, peaceful lot. They are
welcoming and graceful, humorous and polite. I hear there is a lot of
crime here – understandably (and, really, where isn’t there – besides
maybe Switzerland, but look what it costs to live there!) The crime is
not yet violent against Mazungus…though I hear they can be somewhat
more vicious amongst themselves.
Last points: Cell Phones and DVDs –
the points at which the two economies meet. The cell phone is the
ubiquitous signifier of status here. Above a certain station (4th grade
for Mazugus – I kid you not - and professional employment status for
locals) the cell phone is de rigor. We, being good and important
Mazugus, have 3 cells and a land line (one cell being Nancy’s pass
around duty phone which we happen to have right now) and our kids have
not yet weighed in (though that is coming soon). The thing is, cell
calls cost half a buck a minute! George, the senior guy working at our
house, cook and chief whatever (charming delightful guy – perfect
English, great with dogs and kids), who makes a whopping $100 a month,
asked if he could recharge his cell at work (no electricity chez
lui)…and he needed to spend that $100 to get the phone (a full month’s
salary for the professional man) so that he can spend
that buck (three days rent) to make a two minute call! And you really
don’t leave home without it.
And finally DVDs – another deal entirely.
Most clearly supporting the Mazungu life style requirements, these high
quality DVDs are sold wherever we congregate (pizza parlors, beach
bars, shopping centers). They run about $4-$7 apiece. I just got The
Manchurian Candidate last week ($4)…and not the old one either – Denzel
Washington or whomever…good flic, if you haven’t seen it. You might
want to catch it – I believe it is still showing at a theater near you.
Or you can wait a couple months for the DVD to be released.
And the
bootleg DVD market is hot – it is dog eat dog out there. I just bought
a 5 set (Farenhight 9/11, around the world in 80 days, Last Samuri…a
real contemporary anthology) for $7. Can’t wait to watch it…and watch
it..and watch it…but how to explain it to the kids? That’s been the
dilemma – yes it is pirated, yes it is illegal, yes I did buy it, yes I
did see your teacher standing there. After great deliberation (and
before we bought the first one) we – at least Luke and I – decided that
if we could promise that we would try not to do anything worse than
this, we could watch bootleg DVDs and still live with ourselves. And
so, with such small steps, does the life of crime begin. More soon from
the Birthplace of Man (still don’t know if that’s correct, but I think
it is kind of catchy…) |
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Heard This? |
Mchezea zuri ,baya humfika.
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He who ridicules the good will be overtaken by evil. |
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