VISITING AFRICA
PART II
A week has gone by….!!! Mmmm where should I start??? I think I will start by telling you…that here time passes at a different pace…depending on things we see…when I see the houses and buildings, for example…It all looks like time has stood still for 60 years…for the majority of the constructions look old, wasted, unfinished...to me it seems as if I am looking at a city in agony rushing towards death…but on the other hand, suddenly I see the plans…the dreams, and the goals that the leaders of this community want for their people…and it looks like they want to run…fly!!! Move rapidly and magically bring the progress, the development and wellbeing that they know in other lands…
And when we sit down to eat…time passes very slowly…1 hr…sometimes more…to be waited on…one of my European colleagues…nearly lose her mind…she can not conceive that for people here time has another dimension…the Mexican says nothing and is fascinated seeing the contrast between one another…
“Contrast”…is the best way to describe to you what I see here every day…many of the people travel by motorcycle…there are few cars and among the few you can see new and luxurious cars…and when I enter public buildings you can just feel the poverty…but inside…government functionaries wear fine, impeccable western suits which make them look more like models from a modeling agency then representatives of a community that suffers from poverty…marginalization and abandonment…
In one week…I have seen the enormous openness that the people have towards foreigners…everyone smiles, they greet you…they welcome you…and they talk to you…they extend their hand…many show wide smiles adorned with large white teeth…(their teeth are healthy and they don’t even use Colgate!!!)
In one week…I learn that here…there are no dogs in the street…(neither alive or run over)…there is no trash…and there are no flies…yes you read right…there are none!!!
In one week I have learned many things from my project partner…a powerful, mature women…capable…ambitious (in a good way about work)…intelligent…a sensible woman that knows of suffering and poverty because her people (in Poland) have gone through that painful experience…the Mexican…learns…
The group that has embarked on this adventure consists of many nationalities…each and every one of them have their own lives…each one of us has something in our personal history that has made our paths cross here and now…
One of them asks me…How do you fined this place different from yours? The way you are treated? The work? The smells…the tastes???
My answer is quick and precise…it is different and I like it!!
Curiously he is the only one that asks those questions…for no one thinks about that…or at least they don’t talk about it…
They say that a city is known by visiting its homes, its churches, its hospitals and its jails…I have now visited some homes, a school, and a hospital…tomorrow I will go to see a church and maybe…if time permits…I will go to see a jail…(as a visitor of course)
Speaking of jails…today we were invited to two weddings!! Mmm you know??? Here weddings last a maximum of three hours beginning to end…they get married…dance-eat-drink…they congratulate each other receive gifts and leave…done!! That is it!!!
Of course there are a lot of things I want to share with you…but that I will leave for when I return and have the opportunity to be among you…until that happens…the world will continue to turn frantically in many places…while here…in CALABAR…time will continue to pass in different ways…
Each and every one of you receive a cordial hug…
Take care of yourselves and take care of your loved ones.
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