After living here for over two years, I have come to realize that efficiency-which I will loosely define as quality complemented by speed-is definitely something that is lacking here. Let's consider how our typical development organization works in Malawi. This generalized example applies to most private, faith-based, governmental, or non-governmental organizations that are at least superficially trying to help out "disadvantaged" people (this absolutely includes the United States Peace Corps-please see the disclaimer at the bottom if this reference makes you uneasy). Our typical aid organization most likely is trying to assist people that are mostly living in rural areas. In spite of this, the organization decides that their office should be set up in one of the big cities. Maybe, if the organization has enough resources, they can set up some smaller offices throughout the country to broaden their coverage and put them closer to the "beneficiaries." The organization most likely has the aim of eliminating some generalized problem such as water sanitation or child abuse. It's important to understand here that if they actually do fix or eliminate this problem that they have their sights set on, then they will no longer have anything to do. They will work themselves out of a job. To me, this set up seems to be a fundamental problem in all walks of development work. Why should someone working for this development organization (particularly if they are a citizen of the developed country in which they are working and will have a very difficult time finding a new job once they work themselves out of this one) work hard and efficiently in pursuit of the organization’s objectives if this means they will just be more likely to be removed from the payroll once they are no longer needed.
The drivers don’t have to worry. Neither do the ex-pats. Once this organization finds a miracle cure, providing clean water to the entire country or whatever, and works themselves out of a job, the organization’s foreign workers will just go back to the relatively stable job market of their home country or find a new problem to work on by joining some other organization. Drivers are so important to these aid organizations that I can’t imagine one of them having a hard time finding a new job, especially after having the experience of working with some well-known donor/aid organization.
I’m only estimating here and my estimates are only based off my limited experiences, but I would guess that at least a third of the staff of these development organizations is either drivers or guards. After spending some time working in a third-world country, it’s clear that these staff positions of drivers and guards are probably necessary, but their necessity only hinders efficiency. Imagine an electrician in the States. If he has a job to do, he just gets in his truck and goes and does it. Here in Malawi, however, an electrician has to find his driver, make sure his driver is at least moderately sober, have the driver drive him to the worksite, and then he can get the job done while the driver is screwing around doing whatever.
So here we’ve looked at one big example of how a development organization can beat efficiency into the ground and then never worry about the idea ever again. Keep in mind that these development organizations, at least from what I’ve seen in Malawi, are some of the most functional operations around. If we think of the behemoths like USAID, UNICEF, Save the Children, and the Government of Malawi, its these organizations that seem to have excessive funding, attract the best talent within the country to work for them, and have the best vehicles on the road. For these reasons of having so many resources available to them, we shouldn’t be surprised that these guys seem to have their act together most of the time and actually do some work that improves the areas in which they are working. But what about the rest of this society? What about the large other part of this society that makes up the rest of this third-world, underdeveloped, under resourced, uneducated, starving society that doesn’t live in the gated and guarded community north of the city and work in air-conditioned offices with high-speed internet? If the best organizations here are lacking efficiency as I have described, then what about everything else here?
I think a goat rodeo is an appropriate analogy. Yes, the rest of Malawi functions like a goat rodeo. One of the craziest events at the goat rodeo is the minibus race. The minibus race starts at the bus depot, but the buses can’t actually leave the starting line until they are packed full of people, animals, kitchen sinks (okay this isn’t that common, but I did see it once), and whatever other crap needs to be transported. Each minibus in the race has a team consisting of an owner (who is never seen or heard from), driver, conductor (who collects the money from the passengers, makes a half-assed effort to make sure the driver stops when a particular passenger wants to get off, and hits on young girls ridding in the bus), and hailers (who are usually down and out middle aged men who’s responsibility is to convince people looking for a bus at the depot to board their team’s bus.) Once the hailers have filled up the bus so that the conductor can barely squeeze himself in and shut the door, the race starts.
At least every other month I get on a minibus that runs out of gas or breaks down before it even makes it through 25% of the race. After doing this for many decades, most minibus teams haven’t figured out a good strategy for refueling. I’ve never seen a minibus driver actually fill up the gas tank, but instead they usually put in just enough gas that will get them through this race and back to this point on their return trip. This means that during most races, even if the route only uses up a tenth of a tank, the bus will have to make a pit stop to refuel. This can sometimes involve scrambling around to many different gas stations because fuel shortages have become more and more frequent in the country, and during these shortages, most people don’t have a good idea of which gas station actually has gas. Often times “just enough” fuel doesn’t do the trick, and the disappointing sound of an engine suffocating without hydrocarbons to combust has become all too familiar to me. The minibus can usually coast for about 200 meters, and then it's stuck on the side of the road. At this point there are usually two options for the driver, conductor, and passengers. If they’re not completely stranded in the middle of nowhere, the driver can send his obedient conductor off to find some black-market fuel at the closest trading center. This black-market fuel will no doubt be very expensive, which usually leads some kind of argument and name calling between the driver-conductor tag team and whatever swindlers are trying to sell the fuel. While all of these shenanigans are going on, if the passengers haven’t already paid, they’ll be trying to flag down any other transport that is passing by. The driver-conductor tag team will be trying to prevent these passengers that haven’t yet paid from escaping while they are flooding the engine with the over-priced fuel they just bought.
When a minibus stalls, it is more likely that it will be in the middle of nowhere. This means that the passengers need to find another means of transport, maybe another bus, private vehicle, truck, or even an oxcart if they think this will get them where they need to go on time. If they have already paid, an argument usually ensues between the conductor-driver tag team and the passengers about how much money is going to be returned to the passengers. (A few weeks ago a buddy of mine was in this situation, and he snatched the keys from the ignition and wouldn't give them back until he got his money-this effectively solved the dispute.) It is in the best interest of the driver-conductor pair to screw the passengers over because any money they give back will come out of their own and the owner’s pockets. Plus, customer service (the business-minded cousin of efficiency) doesn’t really exist in Malawi so there’s no solid reason to treat these passengers fairly when you probably won’t ever see them again, and if the conductor does treat them like crap, he won't be held accountable for his actions because any other conductor probably would have ripped them off in the same way.
I should say that when you get on a minibus you expect the worst, but you usually end up where you need to go in a reasonable amount of time. It’s just that your butt will be sore, your recently washed pants will now be dirty, and you’ll often get dropped off at another depot through which you have to lug all you luggage while struggling not to get your pockets picked or hit by a bus. The general disorganization of the minibus race epitomizes the inefficient, chaotic goat rodeo that is Malawi. If you're in a good mood and have people around with whom you laugh about all of this with, then this goat rodeo is absolutely hilarious. On the other hand, if you're having a bad day, something simple like an hour-long bus ride into town can easily turn into a horrific experience.
I'll end things today with a snapshot of the leisure activities we have here. American kids spend a lot of their time playing XBox, making bombs out of toilet cleaner, or looking at porn on the Internet. Well, here in Malawi, most kids don't have access to these things so they have to be a little more creative. Below you can see the open-air billiard hall that was recently constructed near our office. It's stuff like this that reminds me that I'm not in Minnesota anymore.
"As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is." Ram Dass
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