Being back
on Sally in Namibia (Namibia), 17/Jun/2009 11:53, 34 days ago
Returning to Namibia has provided me with an interesting awareness of stereotypes between the UK and Africa. Typical exchanges at home were along the lines of 'How's it going', 'do you have electricity', 'what do you eat?'. Typical exchanges in Namibia were along the lines of 'How are your family', 'was it cold'. You can learn quite a lot from this:The individual culture of the west versus the collective culture in Africa. I still find it strange that people who have never met my family ask how they are and ask me to pass on their greetings but the family is much more central here.British people picture Africa as mud huts with no electricity or running water. Just to confirm I live in a house with electricity, hot and cold running water and brick walls. Well most of the time anyway.British people are concerned about food availability. Rest assured the local supermarkets provide me with the basic necessities of life.Africans think England is cold. Fact. Now I have lived in Africa I too think England is cold as shown by friend arriving in vest top, sandals and¾ length trousers to find me in jumper, jeans and boots. Clearly a mismatch in temperature perception.Other than that life continues much the same– endless battle to get my car back which has become a feature of everyday life. It has to be said that my circumstances were rather brought home when a fellow volunteer commented that my office was like something from Prisoner Cell Block H! Sadly looking around this is true – grey walls, barson the windows and a burglar gate on the door, minimal lighting. At least there are no predatory lesbians here!I now have a neat summary for my time here which was unwittingly provided by a colleague– 'it's like teaching a lion to be vegetarian' – I think she wondered why I was laughing so much.Onwards and upwards as they say.