Page 358 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

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m̩ 'zuŋ u memories of NGO in Africa

walk softly, go quietly and you will see...

It was my experience of waiting several hours for the bus to leave (that bus that the Africans

have to use precisely because its not a luxury service, it’s cheap! ) that rammed home to me just how the
'uncertainty of delivery' dominated local business life and local markets.

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As a 'zuŋ u, it’s absolutely necessary for me to expose myself to the reality of what it
means to be an African in an underdeveloped country.
The issue of safety that UK administrators raised serves to underline why Westminster-

centric, institutionalised university graduates should never be allowed to be involved in

overseas development projects. They have absolutely no idea of the reality on the ground.
The reality in the country where I was is simple.

Long-distance bus travel
This is done by full length buses, they are poorly maintained, They breakdown. But the

journeys I was making were almost all flat terrain with straight roads and minimal traffic. They
were daytime journeys.

The risks to me personally
The prospects of any personal injury were infinitesimally smaller than if travelling on a UK
road.

The benefits
I saw and experienced any number of African experiences that taught and still teach me
the reality of life there. The realities that any business operation there has to work within.

And I met and was befriended by a wide variety of Africans. The most common reaction
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you get when you a 'zuŋ u travel with ordinary Africans is that they protect you, keep
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you safe. They feel a sense of pride in ‘taking care’ of you, the 'zuŋ u!
Urban travel (in the motola)
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Wow! This is something that institutionalised 'zuŋ u have no idea of - and completely
misunderstand. In the country where I was, the typical urban transport is a sort of old-

fashioned Ford Transit van, that once was several write off vehicles lying in a messy scrap
yard. But which now has been welded to form a single and very unroadworthy vehicle.

The risks to me personally
Urban travel in this is completely safe. Driver and his fare collector - who you will often

find sitting on the window frame with most of his body actually outside the bus (an