That's a quote from an interesting conversation with a taxi driver in Lombok, Indonesia a few weeks ago. It was near the end of an amazing trip with three great friends, and it left me feeling a bit sad and reflective.
I do a lot of my traveling in developing countries, and in those places I'm always struck by the inequality that exists in our world. Mostly at those moments I feel incredibly blessed, but there are also times when I sort of hate being the rich White Westerner. Sometimes that's because I feel a bit guilty for enjoying so much when so many others have so little. To be honest, though, it's usually because I'm being exorbitantly overcharged for something, which creates an inner dilemma: do I argue that I should pay the local price for the same product or service (like a taxi ride) that a local would, and do I try to avoid being one of the rich White Westerners who drives up the price for all of my fellow rich White Westerners to come after me? Or do I rationalize that the price difference (often a dollar or two, sometimes even less) wouldn't even cover the cost of a cup of coffee here in Seoul, but could buy, say, food for a day for an Indonesian taxi driver's family? More and more I find myself coming down on the latter side of that argument. I'd like to think it's because I'm becoming more compassionate as I grow older, but actually it's probably more due to the fact that I'm no longer a penny-pinching Peace Corps volunteer or grad student.
Obviously tourist dollars won't close the inequality gap, but I think they really do make a difference for those taxi drivers and market vendors who make a living that way. As we were preparing to leave our last campsite on Kilimanjaro (that's a topic for another post!), our guide thanked us for coming. He encouraged us to encourage our friends to visit Tanzania (and indeed, I encourage any of you reading this to go!), pointing out that visitors create jobs for people like him and our cook and our porters. After that, they all sang us this song:
Jambo, Jambo bwana (Hi, hi sir.)
Habari gani? (How are you?)
Mzuri sana (Very fine.)
Wageni mwakaribishwa (Visitors are welcome)
Kilimanjaro (Kilimanjaro!)
Hakuna matata (There are no worries)
(Thanks to fellow Kili climber Eric for the video and to http://www.museke.com/en/node/1125 for the lyrics and translation)
