August 1, 2006

A year ago today, Rebecca and I arrived in Rwanda.

We actually landed in Africa the night before, but since all we saw was airport, road, hotel, road and airport, I won’t count that as our official arrival.

So today is the anniversary. Time sure does fly when you’re…well, um, er….

Kidding. I’m just kidding. In many ways I’m having a lot of fun. In many ways, it’s been really hard.

You’ve read in this space about the characters I’ve met – both the wonderful and the decidedly not – so I won’t bore you with that. It would give at least one of those decidedly not wonderful individuals entirely too much satisfaction.

On a personal level, tagging along with the luggage has given me a chance to advance far more in my career than I would have had Rebecca wanted a more conventional job. It’s good to be portable – I don’t have to worry as much about money as most freelancers do. I’ve been able to see history happen in front of me and how other cultures operate. Instead of reading the stories that other people are writing and thinking, “I wonder what that would be like,” I’m the one writing those stories. It’s really cool. I’ve been published in one major American paper (DaMN!) and the folks at the Catholic News Service have been nothing short of wonderful. A friend in Kampala, who has since gone on to Ghana, said that you want editors who are tough on the copy – journalists’ jargon for articles – but good to the reporter. That’s CNS in a nutshell. I’m lucky they gave me the chance.

And I’m pretty busy right about now. In fact, I had two CNS stories published yesterday, here and here. (You may be wondering how I covered the Congolese elections. I am everywhere at once.) I’m slowly building up my contacts, getting my pitches ready and hopefully that will result in some more work to come. Fortunately, the Catholic Church here in Cameroon is extremely active, so that makes for more and better stories for CNS.

I’ve had the chance to learn a lot more about Rebecca. You know what, she’s really cool. For most of the time we’ve really only had each other. Which brings me to one of my major complaints about the time on this continent, and you’ll be surprised to hear it. I’m bored. We’re starting to pick up friends and things to do, but on weekends and at night, Bec and I often sit there and say, “Well, what do you want to do?”

Jerry Seinfeld says that at about 30, a person isn’t taking applications for new friends anymore. In a way that’s true, although not entirely. It’s just harder to find something in common. I’ve found that it’s been easier to find good people to spend time with in Yaoundé than in Kigali, which isn’t to say I don’t have friends there that I’m in regular contact with. But it’s still hard.

And we’ve gone a year without regular access to television. I don’t really miss it. But every once in a while, it’s nice to have it around when you don’t feel like reading, there’s not much to talk about and the idea of watching a movie on a tiny computer screen doesn’t feel good. We’ve got so much to buy for our apartment that the TV and cable come way down at the bottom of the list, where they should be.

I feel like I’ve missed so much at home since I’ve been in Africa – births, weddings, new jobs and life changes, the Rangers making the playoffs, Miami Vice. But at the same time I’ve gained a lot. As hard as it’s been at times – and I only barely got out of Kigali with my sanity intact – I’m really glad we’re here. And I can hear your snarky comments about my sanity from Yaoundé.

As much as I’ve missed at home, I’ve learned on this continent. I have several cool new stamps on my smaller new passport. I’ve learned how to edit, run and not run a newspaper. I’ve learned how to get around in developing countries without much guidance and little or no support. I’ve grown up.

I’m not really sure what I expected about Africa before I got here. I definitely didn’t expect parts of it to be as orderly as it is. I can remember being surprised at the sight of license plates on cars. In Rwanda those mean a lot more than in Cameroon – you can buy them on the street here. I also didn’t expect parts of it to be as disorderly as it is, because I had no frame of reference. Three months in Cambodia only helped prepare a little.

There are some things that I don’t think I will ever get used to on this continent – the position of women of women in many countries (very low), the attitude towards homosexuality and other differences (very much opposed) and the violence that lurks just below the surface. Rebecca and I have been lucky in that for the most part we haven’t been in situations where violence was going to break out. But it’s always there, and situations can devolve extremely quickly. Someone you know and like and is extremely gentle one minute might be outside taking “Jungle Justice” – that’s an indigenous Cameroonian term, not mine – with a machete the next.

Africa is a complicated continent. I hate to generalize like that, as well as write clichés. But it is. While there are running themes throughout the continent – poverty, corruption, dictatorship, ethnic problems, good music, hopeful people – each country has its own special blend, like the rest of the world. My friend Ryan begins sentences “Africans do this” or “Africa is this or that”. That’s just wrong. There are too many differences between regions, countries; even regions of countries, to talk like that. This is yet another thing that I’ve had to learn.

While Africa is rich, it is very poor. And if people keep trying to say Africa should be rich because of its natural resources, they’re just blind. It’s what a country does with those natural resources that makes it rich. The United States didn’t get rich simply because it had natural resources. Along with slavery – is there another continent that history and the world has left more scarred? – the U.S. made its money by producing things from those natural resources. That led to farmers needing to get their products to market. That led to transportation networks, which led to businesses springing up around those transport hubs. Eventually financial institutions developed to process profits from those natural resources – farm products, coal, oil, whatever. And then cities grew, etc. I know. That’s way too simplified, but there’s a lot of truth there.

I just don’t see that happening here. First of all, many of the governments won’t let it happen. At least at its inception, the U.S. was known for its dream – all it took was hard work. Hard work doesn’t get rewarded as much here. Governments don’t want to give up power by letting money flow through their economies. Many government officials – and this is especially true in Cameroon – are much more concerned with their time on the farm rather than the rewards the peasant farmer is getting. One friend here said that the Cameroonian government is scared of having too educated a population. They’re probably not alone.

So there are few small and medium enterprises to create jobs and innovation. Without that, there’s not much happening in an economy.

And while Africa gets the short end of international exports because of farm subsidies in the U.S. and Europe, which just need to stop, the continent doesn’t make it easy on itself. The cost of trade between countries in Africa is ridiculous, so there isn’t all that much. Between the bad roads, corrupt officials and high tariffs that are basically official corruption, trading among African countries is stifled.

Which then brings me to one final thought on all of this. I’ve come to think that many development organizations have stopped thinking about development and only think about their organizations. How much more food aid needs to be shipped here before policy makers realize that it’s not helping? Maybe they do already, but buying all that surplus grain sure does bring in the votes and coming to visit some poor African village sure does provide the great campaign photo op. And don’t forget the guilt factor.

I don’t mean to sound cynical. Actually, I’m not. I see that many people – both Africans and international development workers – are starting to come to this conclusion. Aid is needed in many cases, but it needs to be changed. Unless it’s an emergency, cut off food aid. And stop sending all those old clothes. Instead, development should focus on development – helping people to create businesses and to stand up for themselves to fight for decent, representative governments. In a perfect world, organizations like CRS, CARE, Save the Children and the myriad others should want to go out of business because their jobs are done. Sometimes I think they’ve forgotten that goal. They certainly didn’t develop South Korea, Thailand or Singapore.

This has been a long posting, but I guess that’s appropriate since I needed to wrap up what’s happened over the year. There’s only about two to go. And then it’s my turn. I’m trying to get Rebecca to understand the beauty of a Brooklyn brownstone (goddam yuppie!). Anyone care to help?