My Western Mind

Africans, but more specifically Ghanians, have very different way of doing things. Having lived in Africa for two weeks now, I understand why Westerns are unable to help in solving many of Africa's problems. The entire THINKING is so different. As a Westerner (and I have never taken on such a title until my experience here in Africa has made me hyper aware of how much I am under the Western influence) my natural inclination is to call many of the things I see here in Africa "backwards"; however, I will resist that judgement statement and refer to them as different. In the West there is an emphasis placed on the individual. Here in Africa, the emphasis is always on the unit, or the community, even if it is to the detriment of the individual. Westerners focus on accountability. Ghanians are more focused on relationships. I am currently reading an excellent book that explains these differences, it is called "African Friends and Money Matters". I highly recommend it to any Westerner traveling to Africa to stay for an extended period of time. Today I had to remember that the Eastern and Western mentality are different in order to deal with the situation I was presented. Here goes. The group that I came with was given a certain amount of project money in which we are supposed to assist in various projects with a few NGOs in the area. Our project money was given to one specific NGO to distribute to the others to take care of our project needs. As we are well into our projects the need for the funds has arisen. But where, oh where, has the project money gone? Oh where oh where can it be? When I asked the person who was given the money about the funds I received a lot of vague answers which came off as total avoidance. Fishy, huh? He would not tell me the amount of the money he was given but was very interested in knowing if I knew how much the group was supposed to have. Unfortunately, I did not. He proceeded to tell me that he could not give me the funds to use to paint the school or to buy trash cans to place in the communities because the NGO leaders had not filled out the proper paper work. He said that he has already told them to fill out the forms but they have not. I reminded him that the money that was given to him was OUR, the volunteers, MONEY and that we needed it so that we could get to work. We only have four more weeks to make our small impact in Ghana! He then said, It would be unfair to give us our own money because then we could decided what organizations to give it to and that would not be right. (If you are an American reading this, this is the point where you will have to turn off your rational mind so that the rest of this will make sense to you. I know this will be difficult but I have learned this as a survival mechanism that has saved me several times in Africa. Stop thinking with your rational mind now. This is not supposed to make sense, unless you are African). He proposed that the money should be divided evenly between the NGOs so that no one would be upset. This made no sense to me because one of the NGOs is a school that does not have enough classrooms, which is in need of a lot of assistance, and the others are organizations that go to the community and teach people how to properly wash their hands, which takes some soap and water and a bucket. He was more concerned with relationships and his goal was to make sure the leaders of the other NGOs were not upset. I, with my Western self, was more concerned with bringing forth the most long-term benefits to the largest group of people. As simple as that sounds, it was nearly impossible for him to understand (as it would be for many Africans) why I did not care if the NGO leaders where upset with me. After much debate and handling business like a true Aries woman, I was able to get all the project funds put in my hands so that the group can ensure that our money does not go to waste or end up in the wrong hands. Yes, I, "Western Woman", saved the day. We got our project money. Stay tuned for next weeks episode of "Western Woman" in which Western Woman and the group will determine how the funds will be used. And now a word from our sponsors...