Mzungu moments

Let me start by saying that our life here is pretty sweet: nice school, busy social life, great friendships, unbelievable weather, crazy wildlife, a housekeeper who comes in to clean the kitchen four separate times while you are cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 8 families and who sneaks in and cleans up while you are outside teaching the brits about Thanksgiving Day american football.....etc. We can get on a plane and in 3 hours be on the beach in Zanzibar. I can go outside and pick oranges, mangoes and passionfruit from my garden. (The lemon tree did not survive the dry season, unfortunately.) There are many many things to be really excited and happy about.

But.

In the words of Pee Wee Herman, “Everyone has a big but....”

Every once and a while we have these moments where things are so frustrating you want to scream. The horrible thing is that there is no point in screaming, no point in pulling your hair, no point getting all stroppy -- unless it keeps you from doing worse, of course. The complete irony is that you just look like a crazy mzungu when you start expecting people to behave rationally, all compounded by the problem that you can’t go home and eat an entire box of cookies -- because you didn’t buy any cookies!! Thankfully you noticed that not only are all the boxes of cookies (imported from brasil) $12 apiece, they are ALL SMASHED to bits, so you came home from the supermarket with an empty wallet, milk, and eggs -- the bread was all burned and it was from yesterday anyway....I digress.

Today it was an issue with the printer for a design that we are trying to crank out to send a good-will gift along with a government official who is traveling to South America tomorrow - am I being vague enough?

The example I will give is something else altogether but it goes to the core of the issue, which honestly, even as I write, I am still trying to reconcile. The problem as I interpret it is that I am operating on the assumption that ‘the customer is always right.’ Some have said that ‘customer service does not exist in zambia’ but I think that is not quite it.... there IS customer service, BUT - and it is a big but - it is that people and businesses operate on the assumption that the customer is NOT always right.

In fact, the customer could even be WRONG. Most importantly, the customer is VERY FREQUENTLY wrong. As a result, part of providing customer service is taking the instructions that the customer gave you (in this case DETAILED written and verbal instructions) and deliberately NOT following those instructions.

what I wanted

This example concerns a set of stools I had made by a very able and talented carpenter, Crispin, who works with the local hardwood, mukwa. I took Crispin a photograph of design I wanted him to copy, a 3-D sketch (to scale, on graph paper) with the exact measurements (in cm and in inches). I explained the design, the finish, etc. and we settled on a fair price. When I went to pick up the stools and the kitchen island (I’ve shown this off before, it’s really nice), it was as if he was working from someone else’s drawings. He made some modifications at the workshop "....because surely, Madame, you did not mean for it to be like THAT." Oh, Really? Silly me. I took my island and stools home, but the modifications were not working, the kids were frightened of sitting on the stools and what I really wanted....well, was what I had originally wanted!

Try #2 with the same sketches, the same measurements, the same conversation about the fact that what was in the photo, what was on the paper REALLY WAS HOW I WANTED IT. EXACTLY how I wanted it. Stool set #2 came....with modifications. Several of our friends had eyed my design and wanted them also. Stool set #3 came....with modifications. and set #4, set #5. All from the same measurements and all from the same drawing, all from the same, all from the same carpentry studio. All different from eachother and NONE executed as instructed.

what I got .... attempt #1 and 2.....SO close!

This happens with everything from getting business cards printed to getting your car repaired, from ordering a birthday cake to having a dress made. It is now more surprising when something comes out as you intended than disappointing when it does not. To add insult to injury these orders are expensive and usually you pay twice or three times to get it done right. If you are lucky, you just live with these 'modifications' if you are unlucky (as is a friend whose car is in the shop AGAIN) you pay over and over for the thing you asked for in the first place to just be done correctly.

OK I'm done.

1950

Hysterical, yes? We were just back from a party where we had to dress up - how we settled on the bored 50s art film director and eager starlet I'm not sure. This is what happens after the kids are tucked in their beds in Lusaka...the freaks come out.

Speaking of kids: (below), Owen and Finn on the way to Thanksgiving Dinner with the Hecks. (and yes finny looks just a wee-bit like dad)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Stonetown

(Above, the Port at Zanzibar City)

Stonetown, the historic center of Zanzibar City is a tangle of streets filled with spice shops and tourist traps, smooth salesmen, cafes, guesthouses, workshops, schools, apartments, restaurants and mosques. We were just there a few short days after Kempinski on the north end of the island and Jambiani down south. While we were there we walked many miles though the narrow, crowded streets. Walking is not a luxury we have in Lusaka so that in itself was a treat. Every shop seemed to have something marvelous, something wonderful, something funky, something cool; The shopkeepers really were lovely and kind, especially to the boys, who were enchanted. We walked in the evening, at midday, and the last day there, early early in the morning before anyone but the schoolchildren were rushing through the crooked labyrinth.

I am always reluctant to photograph street scenes, not wanting to haul around my camera in a crowd or take photos of unwilling or unknowing subjects so my most precious memories of Stonetown are mine alone. The ones here are from an early morning walk O and I took with the camera when the streets were empty the shops closed. I let him lead the way, let him choose right, left, straight on. We got horribly lost but enjoyed the adventure and the feast of the senses.

Below: Scenes, Streets, Shops, Doors

SCENES

The little big guy listening to the morning call to prayer. The muezzins call 5 times a day over their mosque loudspeakers, it's an unforgettable sound broadcast across the city. Click on the link below to hear the call to prayer while you are looking at the photos to get the full effect!

-hear the call to prayer: http://www.toursaudiarabia.com/prayer.html

-learn how to pray: http://islam.about.com/od/prayer/ht/pray.htm)

What you need to pray: heart-felt intention to perform the prayer, a clean body with correct ablutions, a clean place to pray. Prayer rugs are optional.

below, the view from our window at the Chavda

STREETS

SHOPS

(Above: nuts, cloves, peppercorns, cardamon, vanilla, ceylon cinnamon (ground, whole and in soap), lemongrass soaps, tumeric, iranian saffron)

DOORS

To say that Zanzibar has gorgeous carved doors is an understatement. I was imagining a beautiful door here and there, lovely doors on stately buildings. As you can see from the collection below, there are ornately carved doors on every shabby falling down building at every twist and turn on every road...

Have you seen enough of Zanzibar? Are you sick of it or are you booking your flight right now? Thanks for indulging me with this huge mountain of photos from such a quick little trip...

Bye Bye, back to Zambia....

Manda Hill

Street vendors are a normal thing here...you are sitting innocently in your car at a traffic light and young men come to your window with things for sale. The Manda Hill intersection usually has the most vendors with the best array of products. (Perhaps because the goods are stolen or because they don't have legal permits to sell so don't pay taxes, they have the best prices in town!) There are vendors who have permits to sell newspapers and talk time and this is a great convenience not to have to go to a store -- most of us have pre-paid phones and you buy scratch cards to 'top up.'

The other day on our way into town the offerings at Manda Hill included:

mango, apples, pears, clemantines (all imported from SouthAfrica)

plastic fly swatters

Zambian flag bath towels

car-mirror hanging flag things (with gold tassels)

TV Rabbit ears/antennae

hair clippers/razors

Santa car windshield screen

badminton racket

new silver track suit

Zambia team scarf

Monopoly board game (from Saudi Arabia)

metal hand-made dog collars and chains

Tummy Trimmer

Plastic Chess game

Pirated CDs and DVDs

mini guitar

plastic passport covers

steering wheel covers

cell phone car chargers

striped oxford button-down shirt

white tee-shirt

green wristwatch

Plastic Toy airplane

Toilet plungers

pleather belts

sunglasses

pumice stones

handkerchiefs

and of course, a 3 week old puppy.