Buses and Culture Clash

My parents always told me growing up that what mattered was not what you had done, it was how you handled the situation. This brings me to the biggest cultural challenge I faced this week: American call to action versus Swazi sense of passivity.

Today, 17 September, I had arranged to meet some friends in town. I would take the 11:00 bus in and arrive around 11:45. We would hang out, shop for groceries, and have a good time. I got to my bus stop at 10:30 just to be sure I didn’t miss the bus. 11:00 came and went, as did 11:15 and 11:30. I had given up hope on the 11:00 bus and planned instead to arrive late and take the 1:00 bus. Since I was planning to catch the 3:30 bus home, this would not be a problem. 1:00 came and went, as did 1:15 and 1:30. It became clear that this bus was not coming either. The Swazis waiting at the stop with me said they would wait for the 4:00 bus and try to go to town then. I went home, figuring that 3 hours was long enough to wait for a bus and knowing that the next bus to come was the one that I was planning on catching back from town.

If this happened in America, the person responsible would be fired. Angry consumers would call the company, write critical reviews on the internet, and maybe a letter to the editor of the local paper. The bus driver or company would be held accountable for the mistake, and it most likely would not happen again. Americans have a lot of control in the delivery and quality of goods and services, and we are not afraid to exercise that control through any medium we can.

In Swaziland, the Swazis shrug it off. When I asked the people at the stop if we could call the bus conductor, they laughed. When I asked if we could call a khumbi (a 15-seater van) to hire it, they said that they would rather just wait for the bus coming in 2.5 hours, even though the cost is the same. Swazis have a sense of passivity about them that is really frustrating to me at times.

I think that what it comes down to is a mindset that is based in culture. Americans feel very strongly that we have control in what happens in our day-to-day lives. We understand saving money for tomorrow because we are pretty much guaranteed a tomorrow. We live for our futures and the futures of our children. If a product is not quality, we write a review that will turn other consumers away. If food makes us sick or doctors make mistakes, we can sue for damages. If a car accident happens and it is the fault of the other driver, he or she has to pay for our repairs. If we get robbed, we call the police, who respond quickly and are ready to help.

Swaziland, like much of Sub-Saharan Africa, is different. There is an expression here: “Tomorrow is a lie.” When 31% of your country has HIV, and 80% of the people who have HIV also have TB, and you have a life expectancy in the 30s, there is a feeling of a loss of control. HIV, TB, malaria, dysentery, dehydration, injury, animal attack, yellow fever, and drunk bus drivers could end your life at any time. There is no point saving for tomorrow, because it’s not very likely that tomorrow will happen for you. There is no point worrying about the future of your children, because HIV or diarrheal diseases claim many of them before their fifth birthdays. When products or services are subpar, it doesn’t matter here, because not having control of your health makes you feel like you have no control over any part of your life. Tomorrow is a lie, so what does it matter if the bus comes today or not? I may not need those groceries I was going to buy.

The lack of control, particularly over health, became painfully apparent to me this week. I have been going door-to-door conducting a survey to get a picture of the community I am serving. At one of the homesteads, I found something that broke my heart. A gogo (grandmother) was sitting on the floor of her mud hut. She spoke no English, and kept asking my Swazi counterpart if I could do anything to help her. Her whole family died of malaria last year, so she lives alone. She had broken her ankle, and the bone was clearly visible. She couldn’t walk to get to the far away clinic or bus stop, and she couldn’t get food. She was eating the dirt to prevent herself from starving to death. I had no medicine, food, or medical training. There was nothing I could do to help her, and I had to walk away from her hut knowing that she will die of starvation within the next few weeks. I got back to my hut and cried.

There is a lot of work to be done here. I think that an attitude shift will lead to better health, so I hope to do a lot of work in that area. I had a family tell me that they couldn’t have a garden because they don’t have a Jojo tank and they have to walk to get water. They then told me they were starving. Instead of learning another way to store water or thinking to put the garden in the shade where it would need less water, they did not garden at all. Critical thinking and drive are lacking here. I think what this village needs is a motivated, driven, analytical, and facilitative American to turn things around. I sincerely hope that I am up to the challenge.