Muzungu

Today felt unproductive relative to yesterday in Timba. We went to the Chinsali High School for girls. The shipment of computers they received from Aleutia was all wrong. They received 8 monitors, 7 E2 computers, and 5 flash cards. As the flash cards are the “brains” of the computer (there is no hard drive), it meant they really only had 5 functional machines. We did our best to copy from one flash card to another, but after several hours, and opening up an E2 and adding the second flash card as a secondary drive in the machine, we failed to get 5 working flash cards copied to our new flash cards which we brought with us. So again, compared to yesterday, today seemed unproductive.

Nevertheless, the teacher we worked with seemed very grateful that we stopped and made the effort. He did indicate that even with the new computers that there were simply too many students for each computer that they had at the school. Unfortunately there was not much we could do about that at the time…only to communicate this back to Camfed. He also mentioned that there were viruses on the Windows machines that were causing problems.

We plan on sending him a new E2 (for the 8th monitor that is missing a computer), 3 flash cards with the full Ubuntu installation, and a memory stick with AVG free virus scan software on it so he can clean the Windows machines.

During the evening I decided to walk around the village a little bit. Chinsali is tiny and so a short walk and you’ve essentially covered the entire village. Nonetheless, I could not help but notice I was being stared at. Back in Lusaka people are used to seeing “Muzungu” or whites, but here, everyone was not only staring but my attempts at a “hello, how are you” were literally going unanswered. Zambians are incredibly friendly and a simple smile and most will answer back with a wide smile and bright eyes followed by a “Hello! How are you?” In fact, the word in Bemba for hello is “Mulishani” which literally means “Hello. How are you.” “Muli” or “Shani” taken on its own makes no sense. In Bemba, you greet not only with “hello”, but always accompanied it with “how are you”.

However, here in Chinsali, my hellos went unanswered. But it was not out of rudeness or disrespect, but rather a general shock at seeing a white man. And for some, their very first white man. All of this was indeed a very unique experience, but it did not change the fact that it made me feel very uncomfortable. And it made me wonder how a black man walking around a remote Swiss mountain village feels. Does he feel the same? Probably not.

Though I was stared at and kept hearing “Mazungu” being called out and whispered as I walked past the Chinsalians, I realized it was most likely (or most usually) not said with any degree of prejudice. They would say it or whisper it, but it was out of shock or being startled by something or someone so rare, but I think I can safely say that it was not out of fear. But in the case of a black man walking through a remote Swiss mountain village, no one would ever dare say aloud, “A black man!” or point and exclaim “Hey look at him”. But many if not most would have preconceptions or some degree of prejudice. And unfortunately, and perhaps I am not being fair here, but I feel I am being truthful and downright honest; it would come with some level of fear or mistrust. So I could not relate to the experience. Mine was totally different from what a black man in a remote Swiss mountain village would experience.