We're Visa

There are not insurance companies in Tanzania (other than auto insurance for those wealthy enough to have vehicles), but there is plenty of insurance going around. People build up credit with friends, loan to other friends, and make sure they have a wide, deep network of giving and receiving money and other help. If they have a problem, they can call in some loans, and they are okay with giving out some loans, because it extends their credit network.

Also, underlying this infrastructure, is the idea that those who have more wealth are to take care of those with less. For example, a good Tanzanian friend here once had a job, a real job as a clerk in a store, but refused to receive a salary, because he knew he'd live better as a dependent of benefactors than he would on his own salary. He said that as soon as people heard he had a salary, they'd come to him, expecting him to be a benefactor and he'd be obligated to help them. So he went to work every day, knowing it was good experience that would enable him to have a better job someday, but never took home a paycheck!

So, in this culture of the "wealthy" helping the poor, coupled with everyone living off of loans and most folks being in debt, you can imagine how we fit in. People look at us like we're unfriendly if we don't participate in the general system of friends helping friends, and since we're wealthy in their eyes, when we don't help those less fortunate, we appear selfish and greedy. We're asked for financial gifts and loans constantly. It's one of the greatest stresses of being here. I thought the most difficult thing for me would be the heat, the food, or the language, but instead it is definitely the mixture of friendship and money.

I have no problem refusing a total stranger who asks me for money; that's easy. But when it's a translator I supervise and consider a friend, our neighbors, or a Christian stranger who is clearly in dire need, it's much more difficult to know what to do. What do you say when someone whom you know well asks you for a loan/gift to pay for their child's school fees? If I say "no", there is a good chance that child will not go to school. But if I say "yes", I'm continuing this pattern of living beyond one's means and putting them in debt.

A friend here recenly said "I'm Visa". As odd as it sounds, I realized that we're Visa, too.

By saying we're Visa, I mean that we help people when they have been caught by an unexpected expense, and just can't pay for it all at this moment. Our system for deciding whom to help usually has to do with deciding if it's really something they couldn't have planned for in advance. If I feel like someone should have found a way to save for something they knew was coming up, and then at the last minute they ask for a loan/gift instead, that's not a good time to put something on a credit card. But if their son was sick and the money they'd saved for rent had to go to pay his medical bill, then that's when they really need some help. That's when we become Visa to people in a country where Visa is not everywhere you want to be. There is no insurance and no credit cards here, but there are friends.

-Misha