The 26-hour flight to get to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) felt like eternity. I was perplexed as to why flights to get into Africa and within the continent generally are so expensive, infuriatingly long and complicated. But the answer lies in a myriad of intricate details like stringent regulatory barriers (meaning airlines can take forever to obtain clearances to launch new aviation routes), high tax rates (aviation fuel in Africa are twice the global rate) and limited demand. Still, it’s hard not to get frustrated when you’re stuck in transit for over 10 hours!!

After the long journey, I landed in Kinshasa, or ‘Kin’ as the locals call it. It is Africa’s second largest city with a population of around 12 million. Honestly, I was a bit nervous travelling to DRC given the Ebola outbreak in the North-east provinces, constant threat of violence and lax security. Afterall, UN Peacekeeping has its largest troop presence in DRC! But with each trip to a different country, I discover that these (sometimes irrational) fears subside once you land and make your way through the city and watch thousands of people lead their normal lives doing everyday activities.

Things started getting interesting in Kin real quick! I work and live in an area which is supposedly the priciest in the country and where all expats live (for safety reasons).  It’s where all the government ministries, UN bodies, NGOs are located. This is what it looks like (one can get into trouble here for clicking photographs in public, so this image is sourced from elsewhere):

But the cost of living shocked me. An average trip to the grocery store here can put you back by $50, a regular restaurant meal costs about $25/person and renting a small room costs $1000/month. This was equivalent or even more than what I spent living in Washington DC! For a country where over 80% of people live on less than $1.25 a day, these costs made absolutely no sense. Turns out as with several cities in Africa, expats (especially UN staff given their generous allowances and salaries) are driving up costs of basic necessities, making things much harder for the locals. Kin almost seemed to operate in 2 parallel worlds: One, a pricey lifestyle geared solely to expats and rich Congolese government officials. Two, a relatively cheaper one geared to local population working regular jobs. However, it is evident that the local population is hurting as a result since it is almost impossible to isolate these two economies in a city like Kin. Really made me wonder whether humanitarian work in the developing world has another side that we conveniently tend to ignore….

 Another interesting thing that caught me off guard is the traffic. Being from India, I’m no stranger no congestion, frustratingly long jams and bad driving. But Kin took it to a whole new level! With no traffic signals in sight and roads filled with left AND right hand-drive cars (you read it right, both types of cars are imported into DRC), it is absolute chaos. A 3-4 km drive to work took me 1.5 hours! Photo below is a quick snippet of the traffic:

Honestly, given the size of the city (9,900 km²) and the relatively low number of cars, it shouldn’t be this difficult. But bad urban city planning, poor infrastructure (like the fact that many important connecting roads are mud-roads which become a mess at the slightest hint of rain), and that international organizations lavishly encourage use of 4x4s for staff, exacerbate the existing road conditions.

It’s only been about a week but this francophone city has already given me so much to experience! With a bustling art and cultural scene, a lust for life, an infectious energy and everyday frustrations with electricity and traffic, this city is overwhelming at first but it begins to grow on you. There is still a lot to learn about DRC’s complicated history and politics, but for now, Kinshasa has been a whirlwind introduction to the Congolese life!

At the end of my second week in Maputo, I’m amazed at how different Mozambique feels in comparison to Sierra Leone! Swanky malls and hotels, clean wide streets, high rise buildings and Wal-Mart style supermarkets….it all feels so elaborate. I have yet to venture beyond the capital (and perhaps the set-up changes drastically), but the first impressions were unmistakable. Below are some photos:

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Some of you may be surprised that Africa could appear this ‘developed’. Even a part of me had internalized rural Sierra Leone as a reference point and had low expectations prior to the move. But Maputo gave me a reality check in confronting my own biases and predispositions and learning that there exist many shades of Africa…

It is intriguing that countries in this continent are plagued with similar deep-rooted structural problems (of corruption, aid-dependence, and resource mismanagement) but are still so different from each other. Consider these facts….Africa’s largest economy is Nigeria with a GDP of $397 billion, while South Africa, once the biggest player on the continent, has a GDP of $366 billion. Sierra Leone, on the other hand, has a GDP of $3.8 billion!! Mozambique, a larger country in terms of geography and population, has a $12.3 billion economy, which still seems quite miniscule when compared to the continent’s big-wigs.

This is all to say Africa is often treated like a single entity in common parlance, but is far from one. It is hugely varied in terms of stages of development, culture and institutions. Unfortunately, the tendency to generalize the continent as being ‘poor’ and ‘under-developed’ (as reinforced by the media) not only encourages dangerous and misinformed ideas but also undermines the remarkable progress that some young African countries have managed barely decades after decolonization. Specifically in the field that I work in, this thinking translates to a notion that there exist ‘pan-African’ solutions for policy issues and an assumption that if a program works in Sierra Leone, it can obviously work in the neighbouring Liberia.

Another related topic that troubled me was that I, like most others, sub-consciously continue to associate economic growth with ‘development’. The better infrastructure, housing and public facilities in Maputo immediately pushed me to make an association of Mozambique as being more ‘developed’. But there certainly lies more to this term as Nobel-prize winning economist Amartya Sen points out. He conceptualizes development as an ‘expansion of capabilities’ whereby the focus on is on the freedom that a person actually has to do something or be someone – things that he or she may value doing or being.  To simplify, merely presence of more economic resources or money is not enough. People need to have the related capabilities and functioning to gain actual utility from it. So the rush to blindly push countries towards a neo-liberal economic growth framework to ‘develop’ can have damaging consequences! This is exacerbated by the fact that we (unrealistically) expect all countries to adhere to a westernized, post-industrial societal standard and try to frame policies achieving the same without evaluating local contexts.

Perhaps the first step to accepting these different shades is to confront our own cognitive bubbles. The next time we make all-encompassing statements about a continent’s development or culture….it might be worth pausing and thinking!

Packing up my room in Freetown 4 weeks ago, I felt a strange mix of emotions. I was ecstatic to move home for good after my one-year stint in Sierra Leone. After all, it meant getting back to a life of comforts (most importantly hot water!), but also meant leaving behind people and a fast-paced life of everyday excitement and challenges!

Looking back, I came in as a bumbling but slightly naïve 22-year-old, straight out of grad school, ready to take on the world. I now leave as an emboldened, pragmatic 23-year-old, who still wants to take on the world but with patience, sustained efforts and a hunger to learn more.

While reflecting, there were some takeaways that I thought might be interesting to share. Perhaps you went through similar things and can part advice or share experiences! Here it goes (in no particular order and certainly not exhaustive)….

• The burnout culture and mental health

In the field of international development, work hours and conditions can ironically contradict the noble intentions of the sector (this topic to be explored further in upcoming blog post!). Over an extended period, a lifestyle that revolved purely around work, deadlines and targets took a rough toll on me. For a brief period, I was perpetually stressed, physically exhausted and emotionally wobbly. Family, friends, an understanding boss and teammate all helped me through this phase. But it made me think a lot about why we put ourselves through this….

As millennials, we are socialized into believing that the capitalist society rewards the ‘best’. In this rather meaningless pursuit, we tend to overlook the red flags that our body sends and exacerbate the situation further through self-induced stressors! By subjecting ourselves to social, technological and economic pressures, we threaten not just to overwhelm ourselves but also our coping mechanisms. It’s time to start recognizing these stressors and talk about its impact on our everyday mental health openly, without judging others as ‘lazy’ or ‘unmotivated’!

• Dealing with ethical dilemmas and the ‘isms’

Nothing spells ethical dilemmas better than field work. As a young, economically and socially privileged outsider in a largely underprivileged society, I was faced with dilemmas on an everyday basis like:

• What should I do when a Sierra Leonean woman tells me that she underwent FGM (Female Genital Mutilation or FGM is a ritual that involves cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia) and defends the practice saying it’s her culture and foreigners don’t have the right to question it?
• How to convince a 10-year old girl who thinks that darker skin is ugly and fair skin is what makes a woman truly attractive?
• Or a man who tells me I shouldn’t hike because I won’t have the energy as a woman?
• How should I respond when someone comments about India’s cultural conservatism?

Initially, I was mortified at some comments and would passionately attempt to engage in a dialogue with everyone on the ‘isms’ (like racism, feminism etc.). However, I soon started to wonder if it was fair for me to impose my value propositions on someone who didn’t feel the same way, especially given the sensitive history of the region where white-supremacy and exploitation reigned. Are my largely western notions of social rights, gender roles, freedom and individual liberty truly universal when these countries continue to experience economic and social colonization on an everyday basis?

I didn’t seem to find any definitive answers and these thoughts only gave rise to more questions! But I realized that maybe I don’t need answers, and the first step to dealing with ‘isms’ is for us to question our worldview and engage with competing arguments with openness, empathy and critical thinking. At a time when bigotry, intolerance and fanaticism are plaguing the world, it seems more important than ever to get back to the basics and learn to question!

This may be the end of my stint in West Africa, but the experiences and exposure will last a lifetime. Until then, I am excited for where my next job takes me and hope to continue blogging on more policy issues!

Finally, here are some pictures from the beautiful country of Sierra Leone! 🙂

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At a fancy Lebanese restaurant in Freetown, we all helped ourselves to a delicious spread of food. The conversation at the table drifted towards relationships, and the owner at one point joked to my boss saying “We should get you a Lebanese wife eh….you try ‘em out once. You don’t like them, you return, no problem”. As the large table, mostly filled with male expats uncomfortably laughed, I kept a poker face. The owner looked at me and said, ‘Come on, you should laugh more, it’s only a joke’.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. During a challenging hike once, a local Sierra Leonean guide ‘joked’ to me saying ‘You did this hike, that’s good, but don’t try the higher mountain. You’re a woman, you can’t do it’.  Similarly, when I was once returning in an auto, the driver insisted I take the seat between my 2 male colleagues so they can ‘protect’ me. From what, I never understood. The wind?

Anyhow, the point is that, fieldwork in Sierra Leone (which also happens to be my first full-time job) brought out a whole new challenge that I was grossly underprepared for. Being surrounded by liberal friends who are willing to engage on gender is one thing, but trying to convince people for whom patriarchy is a way of life is another. As I came back from the Lebanese restaurant that night, I mulled over for a long time if I should have confronted him in front of everyone. That definitely seemed like the right thing to do and I cursed myself for not being more vocal. But I was also supremely confident that I could not have changed his way of thinking one bit and maybe left the others uncomfortable. That being said, I should have spoken up no matter what.

This also made me dwell over my identity and dig deeper into why these things happen. I was reminded of the concept of ‘intersectionality’, which I first came across a few years ago. Simply put, intersectionality asserts that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of identify (their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion etc) that dynamically interact with each other to create and perpetuate oppression. In this context, my identity was driven by my age, nationality and gender and helped explain a lot of my experiences as a young foreign woman.

From interacting with government officials who wouldn’t take me too seriously or working with local enumerators who preferred to turn to men for instructions or just being blatantly cut off by others while talking, it started to make sense. What I also realized was that a lot of these things were just labelled as ‘cultural’. For instance, cutting someone off in Sierra Leone is a common way of communication. But the fact that this happens to women WAY more than men is also evident. So, can culture be an acceptable excuse to mask sexism? Most certainly not. But what if it is not your own culture? Do you then respect it or disrupt their belief systems at the risk of angering the hosts and appearing morally superior? Where do we draw the lines between respecting somebody else’s culture on their land and giving up your own individual beliefs and liberties? While fieldwork gives me more to mull over, I’ve realized I’m in no mood to learn how to take pathetic jokes. Neither should you.