Two findings from the field:
1. Apparently someone in the field thought C was Madonna. I read that in a supervisor's diary and started laughing hysterically. I can imagine that most petite white women would get that at some point or another, especially in Mchinji where her son is from. Then I finished reading the sentence--she brought her baby for C to adopt. Still a little funny, but mostly just sad.
2. Yesterday I went out with another team to the field. We were having some trouble finding one house and stopped for directions. The guy who asked for directions came back with a guide, which isn’t uncommon. So the guide hops in the back of the truck with the rest of us, he's probably 16 years old or so. I look at him as he gets in, but notice that no one else even acknowledges his presence (this is common when guides come along, although I don't understand why), so neither do I. He says something, someone says something back. Then he gets a little fidgety, starts shifting around a bit, then lunges for the door yelling, "Ma dula! Ma dula!" He pushes down and pulls up the lock, and keeps yelling. Finally one of the people opens the door for him and he takes off running. This all goes down in probably 10-15 seconds. At this point I have no clue what happened, but am assuming that the kid is a bit crazy. Then I hear what he’s shouting as he's running and I hear that word I know well--azungu--and know I have something to do with it. Turns out that when he saw me, he thought we were abducting him. So he yells "Dad! Dad!" and tries to get out (he doesn't know that he's locking himself in, but I doubt he’s been in too many cars in his life to know what the handle is). His first statement was trying to make an excuse that he had no shoes and that’s why he couldn’t come along; then he just couldn't deal and needed out. I felt kinda bad, but it was so bizarre and unexpected that it was actually pretty funny at the time. Apparently, he'd only seen one white person before, and never that close up. The team leader said that many people in the villages think that white people want to abduct and eat black people. I replied that I was glad I didn't say hello…I probably would have made it worse. In the end, the father came over while we were pulling away and laughed about it, we waved and smiled at each other, he gave us directions and we took off. It gave the team a laugh the whole way home.
1. Apparently someone in the field thought C was Madonna. I read that in a supervisor's diary and started laughing hysterically. I can imagine that most petite white women would get that at some point or another, especially in Mchinji where her son is from. Then I finished reading the sentence--she brought her baby for C to adopt. Still a little funny, but mostly just sad.
2. Yesterday I went out with another team to the field. We were having some trouble finding one house and stopped for directions. The guy who asked for directions came back with a guide, which isn’t uncommon. So the guide hops in the back of the truck with the rest of us, he's probably 16 years old or so. I look at him as he gets in, but notice that no one else even acknowledges his presence (this is common when guides come along, although I don't understand why), so neither do I. He says something, someone says something back. Then he gets a little fidgety, starts shifting around a bit, then lunges for the door yelling, "Ma dula! Ma dula!" He pushes down and pulls up the lock, and keeps yelling. Finally one of the people opens the door for him and he takes off running. This all goes down in probably 10-15 seconds. At this point I have no clue what happened, but am assuming that the kid is a bit crazy. Then I hear what he’s shouting as he's running and I hear that word I know well--azungu--and know I have something to do with it. Turns out that when he saw me, he thought we were abducting him. So he yells "Dad! Dad!" and tries to get out (he doesn't know that he's locking himself in, but I doubt he’s been in too many cars in his life to know what the handle is). His first statement was trying to make an excuse that he had no shoes and that’s why he couldn’t come along; then he just couldn't deal and needed out. I felt kinda bad, but it was so bizarre and unexpected that it was actually pretty funny at the time. Apparently, he'd only seen one white person before, and never that close up. The team leader said that many people in the villages think that white people want to abduct and eat black people. I replied that I was glad I didn't say hello…I probably would have made it worse. In the end, the father came over while we were pulling away and laughed about it, we waved and smiled at each other, he gave us directions and we took off. It gave the team a laugh the whole way home.
When I was in Kenya in '97 I was in a similar situation -- we stopped for water out in the countryside and met a family; the children were crying and screaming which we thought was very uncharacteristic; the parents, who were laughing, said that they were scared of our ghost-like appearance....... Love you -- CCL