January 31, 2017 – Zimbabwe
Africa is a lot different than Asia.
*cue Lion King music*
But really, they are polar opposites.
In Asia, the culture is more reserved, quiet, they ‘save face,’ they’re never forward, usually timely, relatively modernized, and in love with selfies.
hardly on time, they dance ALL THE TIME, they’re not quite modernized, and you rarely see anyone taking pictures or on their phones.
Simply: Asia = quiet, Africa = loud.
I struggled in Asia. I text almost a 10 on the extrovert side of the introvert/extrovert scale. So the quiet, reserved culture killed me on the inside. Don’t get me wrong, I learned a lot about being bold, the importance of one-on-one time, and the benefit of sitting in silence and listening to God. BUT Aftica is my place. These people talk and dance and interact boldly and sing and it’s incredible.
I got my first taste of the culture when we were trying to get bus tickets to Victoria Falls from Bulawayo. Our driver, one of the ministry contacts, pulled around the corner and immediately we were swarmed. And I mean 30 guys attacking our car. Our window was cracked and all I could hear in English was FREE WIFI and PLUG INS and SNACKS INCLUDED yelled, mixed in with their language.
As our driver tried to press forward the guys grabbed onto our car tighter – a guy was even sitting on the roof of the car.
Here’s what’s going on: there are 2 bus companies that run the route we needed to drive. And each company has workers basically harass customers to ride THEIR bus not the OTHER bus. And we were the customers in the situation.
We finally got into the parking lot and out driver got out and tried to barter for the price of our tickets as we sat terrified and anxious in the car. He finally secured us tickets and the second we stepped out people were grabbing our bags still trying to convince us to use the other bus. But thankfully us, and our things, made it on the right bus.
Before this point on the race, I had traveled long distances only with my squad, on our own bus, able to lay out and walk around how we wanted. This was a different story. When we climbed the stairs, we were immediately pushed to the back row – our entire team of 6 crammed back there. And then the sellers came. People selling chords, mp3 players, bananas, sodas, hot dogs, SIM cards, candy – you name it and people were walking up and down the aisles selling it. People even had their hands reaching up into the open windows trying to sell.
As we waited for the bus to roll out we placed bets on the incoming victims (customers) as to which bus they would choose. Finally we were overfull with people and we started our 10 hour journey. About 5 minutes into the ride, the bus TV’s clicked on and they started playing African music videos. And by playing I mean blaring. I can safely say I know all of the popular Zimbabwe rap artists and could possibly even sing a few of their lyrics to you.
After riding the hotbox on wheels (it was so hot, even hotter than Cambodia, and that’s saying something) for 10 hours, we made it to Victoria Falls. We stumbled out of the bus and we were greeted by our hosts and welcomed with open arms.
This was only the beginning of the new culture we were about to experience for the next 3 months.
Toto, we’re not in Asia anymore.
Recklessly,
Haley
