2 Ghanaian friends of mine who live on the Mercy Ship are
shocked in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). They can't believe it when they see westerners begging on the streets. The impression that we westerners leave is that we are all made of endless money.
A Canadian O.R. nurse comes to Liberia and adopts a 12 year old orphan she has formed a strong attachment to. She takes her back to Canada and watches in amazement as the young girl eats half of everything and throws the rest away. She turns on the shower and then does another job before getting in. I wonder what sort of wasteful impression (or reality) we westerners leave the world.Two North American women hire a private taxi regularly in
Monrovia. They refuse to pay private taxi fairs and continually insist on giving the driver public taxi prices (US$5 vs. US$.35) because they feel all Liberians are out to rip them off. I am not sure they are aware that gasoline prices are higher here than in their own country. They have him chauffeur them around for half a day stopping for lunch at a restaurant where they invite him to sit with them. They feel generous when they give him the parts of their sandwiches they can't finish & wonder why he speaks of needing more money to send his son to school when they feel he is obviously well paid for a Liberian.
2 comments:
Oh Mic,
I am moved and disturbed by your stories and blog entries. i can't imagine how frustrating it must be for you up close and personal!
T
I love the post, I would only counter with a few things I have noticed/done recently.
One night we hired a private taxi to go out to eat, like a romantic dinner, just us, my wife and I (hopefully not even running into any MS crew).
Our driver was playing heavily up the 'Spiritual' aspect of being our fellow Christian and how much gas is, and how in between dropping us off and coming back to get us (because he was going home instead of waiting, thats fine) how much it was going to cost him in gas and time...yada yada he was trying to charge us price comparable to trying to take a cab in New York City...
Basically he wanted $20 USD to take us 4 miles or maybe 5 roudntrip on paved roads, one turn.
He bargained, negotiated, and hassled so much that we started not to even enjoy the ride or the evening...in the end, he lost the driving deal he already had (taking some of the woman to an orphanage every Wednesday) plus we let him go after our arrival at the restaurant (and he still wanted 7 dollars after we talked him down just for getting us there)...
I think it cost less 1 dollar in a public taxi, but we found a taxi that would take 'just us' back for $5 USD, and it could have been lower than that if we had haggled. We were prepared to pay up to $12 dollars for the round trip, just not to be hassled, but not $20. With our new taxi friend we could have done it for $10, and he may even get the once a week 'contract' of carrying the ladies to the orphanage...so the other driver really worked himself out of a 'sweet' deal of money he could count on, and I am sure we (my wife and I) would have used him quite a few more time in the next 7 months if he had been reasonable and left out the hassle.
So some of them are (and some already know the game of)getting the hang of pushing for more and playing on the 'tugs' of the heart strings.
So they question is, do we learn those tactics from them, or do they learn them from us? Does it come from selfishness and greed? Or does it come from desperation and need?
BUT to feel pride for giving them leftovers? They should have bought him a meal if he was waiting on them. And take the public taxi if you are only willing to pay the public taxi 'price' it may do them some good to sit on each others lap with no seatbelt feeling the air and dust rustle past them, I mean, come on, get a real cultural EXPERIENCE!...
Because I will probably do that next time and spend more money on my drinks and food! LOL!
Good post Michal
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