Getting things done

Getting things done
I have often heard ‘muzungos’ living in Africa (this is how white men are referred to by children around here) say, with an air of helpless despair and an obvious sense of superiority: ‘Oh, the Africans!... they are lazy, they don’t really want to work; look at them sitting around under a tree, chatting away to each other and laughing at anything! Without us, this country would really be a mess!’... Quite a loaded statement!
An ambiguous statement, opened to various interpretations. This is how I want to look at it today. Within me lies an African, sitting under a tree, watching a beautiful savannah setting sunset ( of course!). Within me also operates an efficient machine that can get things done, always thinking of ways to solve problems, of how issues are interconnected, of the best possible timing of action plans...
I was drawn to Africa by the part of me that wants to let go a little, that yearns to be passive, receptive, open, unworried, in the moment, enjoying unceasing beauty ... in other words, to be what many muzungos call ‘lazy’. ‘Lazy has taken a negative connotation in the western world, but quite frankly, I wish Nazis had been lazy... but unfortunately, a lazy Nazi would go crazy!
Back to Africa... After 10 days in Rwanda, what have I observed around the notion of getting things done and laziness? Here are a few random observations:
Soeur Josephine gets things done. Whenever she feels that I need something to enjoy my stay in Rwanda, she makes sure that I get it. Without her, it would have been practically impossible for me to settle in my house. She has organised all the supplies of food (no easy matter around here, as there is no such a thing as a supermarket or even a corner shop). She has organised for my motorbike to be fixed, for the generators to be functional, she found the missing pipe that goes between the gas bottle and the stove. She has organised for a carpenter to come and build a few shelves in the kitchen, so we don’t leave all the food on the floor. In my view, she makes Swiss efficiency look mediocre!
What drives her? I often wonder. She has a number of attributes that make her the strong person she is: first, she is an African WOMAN (sorry African MEN... but if I give you 5000 RWF, many of you will go and buy something to drink straight away, if I give it to your wife, she will go and buy some food for the family. Soeur Josephine is pragmatic. She is a nun and has dedicated her life to helping others – especially those in need. Her strong faith is obvious – not an exuberant, evangelistic type of faith, but calm, unshakable drive to serve, in a true Christian sense. I am not more a Christian than a Muslim or a Hindu, but I certainly see the Christ in her! Constantly helping those in the community, she has now the respect and profound gratitude of the thousands of people she has touched during her 50 years or so of being a nun (she made the decision at age 16 and took her vows at 18, she told me). So she has a huge network of people more than happy to show their gratitude towards her. It is obvious to me that nuns around here command a lot of respect from most people in the community.
So Soeur Josephine gets things done. She does so in a very modest, self-effacing manner.
Headmaster A and Headmaster B work in very similar schools – same geographical location, same type of staff and same socio-economical background of pupils (from poor to destitute). And yet, school A and school B are very different... Headmaster A works in a spacious office that looks tidy, organised: shelves for books, a desk which clearly shows that proper management of the school is taken care of. Headmaster B does not have an office proper. Rather he works in a room that does not seem to have a clear function: it is a storage space for textbooks (provided by the government) that sit in boxes and which need to be sorted out, total absence of a desk from which school management could be conducted.
Headmaster A is driven by a desire to help the children, the community. He has a clear understanding of the context in which he works. He is very aware of the difficulties he faces everyday but he never gives up. He has set up a system involving parents farming on the school grounds to generate some income (I need to find out more about this scheme)
Headmaster B doesn’t not even live around here. She has been appointed about a year ago but hardly ever comes to the school. She lives more than two hours away in Butare, in another world. I am yet to meet her. Nothing has been done to repair the broken windows or cupboards in some classroom.
All these people are African. Some get things done, some feed the stereotyping of lazy thinkers...