Walking ATM

I haven’t mentioned yet that living in Africa as a mzungu, everyone automatically assumes that you have loads of money, and furthermore that you will be willing to essentially throw it at them as long as they ask for it. Actually it is the people who know you the least that are the most likely to ask for money. Of course there are the people that you would expect - homeless people, street kids, etc. - the same people that are begging in every country across the world. But also there is also the mentality that people from any demographic can ask a white person for money. I can’t count how many times in the last couple of months that I have walked past kids in their expensive school uniforms and one of them musters up the one English phrase they know “give me money”. You would think that because the parents of these kids can afford to send them to fancy private school they would also teach them not to beg. It’s not just school kids, however - a couple of weeks ago I had a guy wearing a perfectly pressed Italian suit, who was walking to a shiny new white Toyota, ask me to help him out with some money in passing. This is an extreme example, but it illustrates my point. Sometimes when I am riding the daladala people yell for money from the white face in the window as we pass… like really, am I going to just start throwing bills out the window on command? I realize that most white people here are the richest people around, but it is relative, because the economies of our countries are so different. I can get by with spending 10$ on groceries a week here, but those of you in Canada (and other western countries) know that 200$ a week is cutting it close now for an average sized family. It is really dehumanizing when people regard you as a walking ATM, because it feels like you’re not a person but just a money machine. Not that I wouldn’t love to help everyone – that ideal is why I am here – but giving money does nothing to solve the problems that are rampant in this country, poverty, disease, lack of education and resources. I know that I am “richer” then the people here not because I have more money then them now, but because I have a ticket home and the potential to earn more in one year than some will in their lives. I can deal with the question of giving because I know I am giving my time and energy to these people everyday, and that is better then money. Someone once said that real poverty is the lack of choice; when people are so poor that they cannot choose what to do with their lives because they have to struggle each day to meet their own basic needs. What this world needs is not only for the rich people of the West to wake up and start giving some of their massive surplus to those in need, but also for the leaders of the developing countries to motivate their people to use aid in a positive sustainable way, and forge their own future based on innovation and hard work. Only then will we discourage the inferiority and dependency paradigms that are the legacy of colonialism in so many countries.