Similarities and Differences

The difficulty with trying to set up new businesses in a community and society which has no history of capitalist culture is one of assimilation. Its not that there is no business in rural African villages, its that it takes on a very different form to that which we are used to in the West. Everything is different and when trying to develop and facilitate both small self-employed business and employment-creating projects it is vital that local custom is taken into account for both employer and employees to be happy.

For example, there is no concept of the '9-5' job, the idea that you work really hard for 8 hours (minus an hour lunch break) and then have leisure time from then on. It is wrong to assume that people here are lazy, although from a western eye they do look it. People don't rush with business, they go slowly and take a lot of breaks, in service industries they don't always appear entirely pleased to see you. In my opinion this is because work and leisure aren't so cleanly separated like they are in the west. People will work a bit, then talk a bit, then sleep a bit, then work a bit, then eat a bit, etc, etc. People will do the duties of work for longer hours here but just less intensely. This allows people to eat, provide for their family and maybe gradually build up to buying a bicycle or motorbike and perhaps expanding their business but many are happy for that process to take longer if it means that they can have a relatively relaxed time about it along the way. It makes sense, why rush to get somewhere if you know you will get there eventually and have more fun along the way if you take your time.

The problem comes when they are in the position where 1) they have to do more than just provide for themselves e.g. repay a loan, or 2) when they are paid an hourly rate to do a job. The latter requires employees to adopt the western approach to intensive work and does not allow for the combination with leisure and relaxation that is so much a part of work here. It appears then that both loans and hourly pay are not the most certain, profitable or efficient ways of maximising productivity and profitability. To try to put a positive emphasis on this negative view of business prospects in such places, there does seem to be a solution. Results-based pay (e.g. paying a per-kilogram rate for fruit or a per product rate for home-made crafts) allows local people to work at their own pace, employers to get exactly what they pay for and anyone is able to join the market providing they have the skills and the buyer can handle the supply of the product. Businesses which attempt to fundamentally alter the way that people do business are more risky to a small place. If done well they have the potential to succeed in reinvigorating the economy of an area and attracting more and more new business, if done poorly they have the possibility of doing exactly what was done by the old colonialists- bringing all the worst parts of capitalism (greed, exploitation and jealousy) to a culture and instilling that as the way forward.

Anyway, back to reality. The big news of the week is that we have two new volunteers here at Sunset. Flore is a 17-year-old dutch girl who is very creative and is the first volunteer for Celisse to coordinate in her role as... volunteer coordinator. Hilde is a middle-aged Belgian woman with 30 years experience in restaurant management and has taken an instant hands-on approach to working with staff and organisation at Sunset. It is refreshing to have them both here to share in the experience and provide new skills and knowledge to staff (and us!) here in Mossuril. Neither of them speak Portuguese so we have to be the intermediaries with the little Portuguese that we do speak but things are still able to move forward. Progress is being made with the cleanliness, work-rate and service quality in the restaurant and once some adjustments are made to the provisions needed for more people to be here (more food to be ordered in, more water to be brought from the well, etc) things will be moving even more smoothly. They plan to stay for 4-5 weeks in which time we hope to make significant changes to how things run here.

As Sunset is a training restaurant students are taken on to learn their trade and concessions are made for service and quality (although it is generally good anyway) on the basis that it is providing a service for local people to learn the ways of the tourism and catering industry. Since the College of Tourism was donated to the community last year, this has become the only functioning restaurant run by Teran Foundation with one being built currently on the other side of the country in Milange, on the Malawian border. Things continue to move along here though with the new rooms for volunteers continuing to take shape in the back courtyard and the acquisition of the mud-hut in front of the restaurant possible when a new house is built for the family who currently live there. But Sunset is really made all the more entertaining by the staff.

There are 2 full time bar-staff, 2 kitchen staff and 3 guards, in addition to the 3 students who are working for their year's course on half-pay. The staff have varying levels of English but are all interested in learning more and are become frustrated when I try to conduct sentences in Portuguese rather than helping them to improve their spoken English. The one I get on best with is one of the barmen, Waes (Why-Ess).

Waes is 27 years old, married with 3 kids and has been working for Lisa since she set up the college 7 years ago. He has the best spoken English out of everyone here and conducts most of the required translation. He also has a wicked sense of humour and cracks jokes concerning everything from sex to racism. He sometimes wishes that he hadn't got married so young and that he had held out for a white wife but reasons that he could simply marry her too and share himself around. He works every day of the week, cycling for an hour each way from his home and his family. He genuinely wants to work hard for Sunset to make it a success and is often the only steering force of the staff, conducting every duty of work if so required. Last week he had a nightmare day which included losing his wallet with all of his wordly money (lack of savings facilities...) then hitting a child when looking for it on his bicycle and being reported to the police by the mother of said child before being fined for both hitting the kid and not carrying identification as it had been lost in said wallet. All I could do was commiserate and lend him some money.

What is interesting about getting to know Waes and many other people here is that they really aren't so different to folk at home. There are easy parallels to draw with characters and personalities I've met in Scotland and Swaziland and people are just trying to live their lives. They have fun, play sport, have meetings and have romances. They go out to parties at night and go to work during the day. The old guys sit in the pub and the young guys go to the disco. Builders and fishermen whistle at women in exactly the same way that I'm sure builders and fishermen whistle at women throughout the world. The fairytale view of the African person so far removed from our world is vastly diminished when you realise that, really the entire social structure is very similar those found in the West.

A quick round up of other news: The dog is still alive and has gone for its first walks and swims in the sea, now the new volunteers are here too it is eating particularly well too. Celisse's birthday was a couple of days ago and was celebrated with 'pizza night' in the clay oven and the traditional music and dancing which has come to represent our Saturday nights. The World Council of Credit Unions seems to be a good place to start looking for funding for start-up banks but, much like most people I have contacted looking for information, funding or just to say hello, they haven't gotten back to me yet. Frustrating.

This week I'm going to continue writing an application to do a 8-week feasibility study on the bank and keep adding to the extensive project proposal I'm going to be writing over the next month or so for a solid amount of funding. I've had a couple of other personal business ideas since I've been here too so I'm looking at developing them as well if there's time. Life is busy down at the farm.