The Precious Few
on Me Talk Pretty One Day (Malawi), 27/Feb/2009 12:50, 34 days ago
His name is Teonas.My employers instruct me to reimburse the attendees of my meetings and trainings for the transport expenses they incurred. When claiming this refund, most participants think not of how much their travel actually cost, but how much they could ask for without arousing my suspicion. I am a white man—I do not know how much it costs to take a bicycle taxi from the rural areas or how much you must pay to travel the dirt roads by ox cart. I know people claim too much; I just do not know the full extent of the fraud.But his name is Teonas. Whenever I see his name written on the claim form, I see a figure next to it which does not represent the full cost of his journey. Teonas calculates the cost of his travel and then rounds it down. He claims too little for he knows that the more people claim, the fewer meetings and trainings there will be. He is one of the precious few.I do not know his name.When waiting to begin a training session for special needs teachers recently, I noticed that only half of the expected participants had arrived. A few phone calls established the fact that the person responsible for relaying the message to one group of teachers had neglected that duty. More phone calls were made to inform the absent teachers of the training and to request their attendance as soon as possible. Most arrived a couple of hours later, having missed much of the instruction.I do not know his name. He was sweating profusely. He arrived by bicycle and entered the room at a sprint so as not to miss another second of the training. He sat down, composed himself within an instant, and began concentrating. I do not know his name for he did not pause to give it. But I do know that he is one of the precious few.Her name is Joyce.The District Education Office issues motorbikes to Primary Education Advisors so they can travel to the schools in their jurisdiction offering training and support. Unfortunately, there are not enough motorbikes to go around and some go without. Those lucky enough to have been given a bike do not share it with those less fortunate, are not grateful for the gift, and instead complain about how they should be given more money to buy fuel. They do not travel to the schools in their jurisdiction to offer training and support; they travel to the District Education Office to complain.But her name is Joyce. Though most of her colleagues have been assigned a motorbike, she has not. Nobody offers to share with Joyce, forcing her to walk to all of the schools in her district. The furthest is 20km away. She walks there and back in a single day despite the fact she is getting on in years and has a bad knee. She never complains. She is one of the precious few.His name is Titus.Most people have a habit of looking out for themselves, for making sure they have everything they need before they begin to think about helping others. I believe this to be as true of the inhabitants of theFirst Worldas it is of those who live in the Third. The behaviour is just more pronounced here because fewer people are in a position to offer help without making painful sacrifices.But his name is Titus. He works at the health centre for a local charity. When a group of us visited a school in a very rural area ofMalawicalled Kasungu together, a teacher there told us of a sick and malnourished child in a local village. A few of our group went to see that child and found a boy close to death, maybe only days away. They offered to drive him and one of his parents to the main hospital inLilongwebut that offer was refused. It would be unfair to say that the boy’s parents did not care if he lived or died, but I know that is what many of us thought upon hearing the story. Titus offered to cover the cost of the bus fare so that one of the boy’s parent’s could take him to hospital another day if that was more convenient, and again, the offer was refused. Without time to negotiate further, Titus gave a sum of money to the teacher and told him to talk to the village chief to see what could be done.I do not know if that boy is alive today. I would guess not. But I do know that Titus is one of the precious few, and as long as there are people like him inMalawi, there is hope yet.