Money in a New Land

from Katherine
Each time I have been in a foreign country it has taken me a while to "figure out" the money. The same is true here. I have to stop and think about the conversion before I buy.

I was at the market this morning and I thought I had enough Rand in my wallet to buy my groceries. I pulled out my bills and said to the cashier "Oh, I don't think I have enough money with me." The lady behind me looked at the total on the cash register and handed me a 10 Rand note.

I could not believe it! As it turned out I did have enough when I counted my change but I was still blown away by her generosity!

Chicken Pox?

from Katherine

We got a call from the school nurse today. Cason’s teacher was concerned that he might have chickenpox since he had a good number of red spots on his face, arms and legs and he itched. I assured the nurse that he had a number of vaccinations including measles and chicken pox something which is not typical in Africa. He returned to the classroom and after school I took him to the medical clinic in town. Actually, it is a pharmacy with a nurse for examinations and diagnosis much like a walk in clinic at a Walgreens or a CVS.

One key difference is that there was very little wait and the pharmacist was there to collaborate and prescribe drugs. On top of that, the bill was 30 Rand or about $4.25 for the nurse or ‘Sister’ as they call it here and 19 Rand or $2.75 for the two prescriptions.

The result was a diagnosis as we expected, of a bad case of mosquito bites. We are learning to expect that in this tropical coastland after three straight days of heavy rain. We are now focused on ways of minimizing the mosquitoes in the house due to the open windows since we do not have ‘air con’ as it is called here.

Tonight we have mysterious oil warming in an electrical outlet that claims to rid the room of mosquitoes. We hope this works. Because it requires electricity we are not certain it will work all night since the power was out all afternoon. That, we understand is a common occurrence.

Time

from Elliott

Time takes on a whole new meaning when you are in a new culture. First, each culture has a unique concept of time. Western culture, especially in the US, values speed and efficiency. We are quickly learning that Africa does not place a high priority on speed or even what from my Western eyes seems to be efficiency. That may be a prejudiced view though!

Instead they place a priority on relationship even when you are at best strangers. Whereas Westerners might have a clear and stated process for accomplishing a task, it seems here that you have to ‘discover’ the process through a series of encounters, each time digging deeper to get the ‘rest of the story.’

We have found this to be true in acquiring housing and a cell phone and especially the case in the arduous task of purchasing a car. We have still not completed that task though we are close. We thought we had one car purchased until we found out that it had already been sold to two other people! We came in third place so I am not sure who won out finally….

We have been at a disadvantage not knowing the local customs. Sometimes we missed an opportunity and other times we found ourselves spinning our wheels and wasting time.

Regardless of the inefficiency there is a benefit to the relationship approach. We are finding that we are very quickly becoming a part of the culture and making many new contacts and friends. Becoming a part of their culture also enhances our sense of belonging.