The Muzungu Effect

Hello friends and family! Welcome to my new form of communication. Perhaps now that I have an official blog with a fancy name I will be better about writing. Nobody keep their hopes up, but I am feeling inspired. I figure that in two years I’ll get a book deal and leading role opposite Meryl Streep.

The Muzungu Effect:

It is a well-known fact that when you travel you often learn more about where you are coming from than where you are going.  It is kind of like being able to look through someone else’s eyes at yourself, but on a cultural level. That said, let me share with you my latest observations of our wonderful country, as it relates to the title of my soon to be famous blog.  What makes America (and other Western countries) unique from the rest of the developing world is that when you are standing at the back of a crowd and you look forward, everyone’s hair is different.  Seriously, number one difference.  You don’t realize how unusual this is until you are in a crowd where everyone is African (or Indian or Thai or Hispanic....you get the idea). I literally think that the most noticeable difference between the developing and the Western World  are the moments at the back of the crowd, when all the heads in front of you look the same. The whole 'melting pot' thing is not a joke.

This brings me to the title of my blog. You can imagine, given my observation, that in Africa I stand out. Just a bit. Not only am I white, I am whiter than the average white (some have said that I glow).  Thus, as a background to anything that I am doing, you must imagine that everyone is looking at me, or at least aware of my actions. There is never a second that there is not someone watching me. I went to a large and busy market the other day with two friends, and getting split up from each other was not a big concern, because at any time, any person could tell you where the other muzungus were (although the amount of grabby hands was an incentive to get together). They are just aware of your presence and your actions at all times.

Obviously, people often treat you differently, for better or for worse.  The obvious: I am immediately considered rich, which means I am immediately a target for begging, both overt and subtle.  Other effects? I am immediately a bad dancer. I clearly need protection from the hardships of African life, and I can clearly pay about twice as much for those tomatoes than my friend Helen. There is definitely some resentment, and I have definitely been taunted in the field (there is a traditional belief in rural areas that white development workers are Satanists). I was also flipped off by a 10 year old in front of my whole team.  It took all my self-control not to do it back and stick my tongue out. You’ll be happy to know that at the age of 25, I resisted.  However, there are also good things, and amusing things. No one ever forgets my order in a restaurant. When I call a taxi driver from last night, all I have to say is ‘I’m the Muzungu you picked up last night,’ and he immediately knows where to find me. And I am automatically perceived as an expert in just about anything. Oh….and yes, all muzungus look alike. No joke.  

 These things I have collectively termed 'The Muzungu  Effect,'  and it has become vernacular among my Zambian team members (who have been quite amused by the antics we have encountered) and among my fellow muzungu friends. You can also have a Double and Triple Muzungu Effects (DME or TME) depending on what else you are doing that is completely against cultural norms. For example, consider if I were to go running.  First, I am white. Muzungu Effect. Secondly, I am a white woman wearing exercise clothes. Double Muzungu Effect (DME). Third, I am running  in a place where NO ONE runs. Triple Muzungu Effect (TME). Thus we can rate our questionable activities rather well.

The wonderful thing about The Muzungu Effect is that it just keeps growing. Every day I discover something new. And while it is a phrase coined in humor, it also has a very serious roots because every time I discover an aspect of The Muzungu Effect, I am also getting closer to understanding an aspect of Zambian culture as it truly is, and not as a foreigner would see it. In other words, by being aware of the differences in treatment, I am at least being aware that of the ways in which my experience is not the norm. Thus I thought that it would be an appropriate name for my blog, as hopefully I will learn more and more about Zambian culture as it is, and not as a foreign tourist.

Stay tuned. To part, some pictures, because everyone loves pictures:

This was my favorite place to buy vegetables on the road from Luanshya to Lusaka.

One dollar buys a whole bowl of whatever they are selling.

 And closer to home, this is my food cabinet as of right now, the 15th of February. With my off hours schedule it has been hard to make it to the market. Thus the past two days of consisted of coffee, bread and peanut butter, and beans.

This is worse than college....

Love to all!