1.
Culture of “Waiting”
(a) Consumer
Transactions
Shortly after arriving in Malawi, we were told that we
should get accustomed to waiting in lines.
Queuing up was just a part of Malawian life—indeed it seems to be a part
of African life in general. It doesn’t help
to get impatient or testy. Getting mad
or venting or snapping at clerks wouldn’t make the lines go away, improve the
quality of the service, or make for a better personal experience, so it is best
just to recalibrate expectations to retain a bit of sanity as one gets things
done in Blantyre. Getting to the banks
first thing in the morning, or arriving at the MRA offices (local version of
the IRS) before the early-morning crowd gathers, were offered as prudent suggestions. Taking a book to read while waiting was
offered as another wise precaution. We
didn’t have to worry too much as the “queueing” up phenomenon, until we became
the office couple in Blantyre in mid-March of 2015.
But it is not always convenient to time our trips to the
banks and MRA to target the off-peak hours.
So since mid-March, we had had our share of long waits to withdraw and
deposit money at the main office of the Standard Bank, in downtown
Blantyre. Usually one, and at most two,
tellers are asked to a line of 15 to 20 customers, each wanting to withdraw a
little or lot of money from their accounts; hence, 20 to 40 minutes waits in
line are routine. The bank has a
separate line for depositors, with similar wait times, and frequently the
depositor line is equally backed-up. At least once or twice a month, we are
required to make trips to the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to make leasehold
tax payments to the government. The
Church leases a number of properties in Malawi—flats and houses for
missionaries and church buildings.
Whenever the Church pays the rent to the landlord, it is also required
to pay, on the landlord’s behalf, 15% of the gross rent to the MRA as a
leasehold tax. If the payment is not
made, the Church becomes secondarily liable for the landlord’s tax. This way the government gets two parties on
the hook rather than one. Lines at the
MRA Office, in the Msonkho House, can be as long and crazy as those in the
banks. You might think the government would
have an incentive to make it easy for taxpayers to make payments, accelerating
the receipt of tax payments, by adding low-cost tellers to increase volume, but
for some reason that kind of thinking has not prevailed. No doubt the same might be said of various
governmental agencies in the United States, where taxpayer satisfaction is not
a high priority.
Financial institutions are not the only places where
queueing up is common place. We have
encountered long lines in grocery stores (Chipuku and Shop Rite), the local
utilities (TNM and ESCOM), hospitals (Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Seventh Day
Adventist Hospital), and Internet provider (Skyband). Recently, when mailing a package to the
United States, we waited over 30 minutes at the local office of Federal Express,
where Carole was asked to sign 8 copies of the same invoice/order request. Sometimes it is difficult to see how the
wheels of commerce work with such built-in inefficiency. Presumably, businesses find they optimize
profits by squeezing employee costs (fewer employees interfacing with
consumers), while not losing business.
Customers queue up, waiting as long as it takes to complete a
transaction, rather than taking their business somewhere else where the
customer experience might be better.
There is no premium on delivering a Nordstrom customer-oriented
experience to the consumer. As long as
there is not customer attrition, businesses have little or no incentive to
increase the number of employees who are directly interfacing with customers or
to streamline the paper trail. Many
businesses have in place paper intensive practices. Malawians love
officially-looking stamps, triplicate copies of documents, countersigned
copies, indeed anything that makes something look official, whether or not it
really serves the purpose of formalizing or authenticating the transactions. As a consequence, it is amazing how helpful
an ink pad, coupled with a wood-handled stamp with the Church’s name and
address, can be in getting something done.
(b) Dealing
with Tradesmen
The inconveniences are waiting are not limited to
consumer-type transactions. They apply
with as much, if not more, force when engaging tradesman to provide services,
such as repairing water heaters (known locally as “geezers”), cleaning and painting
apartments, or replacing stubborn door locks and broken cabinet doors. Under local practice, the landlord is
responsible for maintaining the exterior of apartments, while the tenant is responsible
for problems that arise within the interior.
But irrespective of who have legal responsibility for the costs of
interior or exterior repairs, practically speaking the tenant must coordinate
with tradesman to get anything fixed, repaired or replaced within
apartment. Because of the pervasiveness
of theft in Malawi, one would never allow tradesmen to work within an apartment
without oversight; this means that the tenant or a representative is
effectively tied up, just keeping watch, whenever work is done within the
apartment.
It is almost impossible to convey the utter inefficiency of
local tradesmen. Some may doubt the
accuracy of the following example, thinking it exaggerated, but it isn’t--similar
problems crop up all the time. About a
month ago, we discovered that the Church’s Stephens Road flat, used by the two
elders helping the Ndirande Branch, was without hot water. For months the young elders, rather than
complaining to us, tolerated icy cold showers, which are not pleasant, even if
they are not as bracing here as though would be if the elders were working in
Norway or northern Germany. Shortly
after we contacted the landlord, the landlord arranged for a plumber to meet us
at the flat to assess the situation. The
first problem is that no one is ever there when they say they will be. The plumber promised to be at the flat at
8:00 a.m. Back home we roughly know what this means and
can usually rely upon the workers to be at the appointed hour or sometime
reasonably close—and, if they are tied up, it is customary to get a call about
the delay, But anyone who thinks that
what it means in Malawi is going to be disappointed. An 8:00 appointment may show up anytime
between 8:30 and noon, or in the afternoon, or for that matter, sometime the
next day. When the workers do appear, they sometimes come
with an excuse, but often not. In any
event, they expect the home owner or occupant to accommodate them. The temptation is to do precisely that,
because, if one doesn’t, who knows when the tradesman will surface next. Homeowners and residents are constantly at
the beck and call of the tradesmen, waiting hours for them to show up, but
never knowing when it will occur. Being
annoyed, showing frustrating, or complaining has little effect. One is at the mercy of the tradesman. But, in our case, once the plumber finally
surfaced at the Stephens Road flat, a couple of hours late, he determined it was
not a plumbing problem, but instead was an electrical issue.
The Church leases the Stephens Road flat from the same
landlord (a family of Indian descent which has been in Malawi for several generations), who leases three other flats to the
Church. The landlord has been very
responsive, and we have no complaints about the landlord’s attentiveness. Hence, the next day the landlord’s
electrician was scheduled to show up first thing in the morning. Another couple hour wait, but finally the
electrician, plus a handy man, are at the door. The geezer (hot water heater) is located in
the attic space above the living space.
But what might have been an easy fix is not. First problem—the electrician does not have a
“torch” (flash light), and needs to borrow Carole’s; fortunately she had one on
hand. Second problem—the electrician
does not have a screw driver (indeed, he doesn’t seem to have any tools), so he
returns to his office to pick one up—returning a hour later, screw driver in
hand. Third problem—when he finally
inspects the geezer, he decides the problem is a burned out element. Of course, he does not have a replacement
part, and this time heads off to the local market, in hopes of finding a cheap
refurbished part. By now the day is
largely spent, and we reschedule for the next morning. Finally, after three days, five or six
separate visits, the geezer is finally repaired, and the elders can enjoy for
the first time in months a hot water shower.
Frequently, tradesmen will does not have “transport,”
walking being the primary mode for getting around—so they look to the customer
to pick them up, drop them off, and get them to a retail store to purchase
necessary tools, parts and supplies.
What have we learned through this, and similar
experiences? The following painful
lessons have been taught. First, if we
can help it, we never go to the flat to meet tradesmen—either they come first
to our residence at One Kufa Road and then we follow them to the flat or we
show up at the flat only after they are there and call us to come. That way we avoid becoming hostages of the
tradesmen, waiting indefinitely for them to finally appear. Naturally, it is much easier to establish
these inflexible rules in the abstract—they only work when we are not in a
hurry to have the work done. When
there is some urgency to the project, we end up going down the same old rabbit
hole over and over again—waiting for tradesmen; hoping they will come when promised;
trying to maintain our composure; being nice but insistent about getting work
done on time; tolerating the multi visits that it invariably requires to
complete a simple project. Second, if
it is a simple task, or at least one we are capable of doing, it is usually
much easier to do the work ourselves.
Why hire the tradesmen, when you have to pick them up for the job, take
them to the store for supplies, and wait the entire time they are doing the
job? Elder Reynolds, for this reason,
alone often did the work himself. He
was very handy, so this was not particularly difficult for him. Alternatively, it is much easier to hire a
general handyman either to do the repairs or to coordinate with others. This, in effect, shifts to another all of the
hassles of dealing with independent tradesmen.
He is left with sorting through the details, inefficiencies, and
problems of coordinating with subs.
This option is more costly for the Church, if measured solely in dollar
terms, but much easier on our nerves and frees us up to spend more time
visiting members. The option is however
feasible only if the Church can find a supervisor whom it trusts, who is
reasonably competent, and who will not gouge the Church when billing the
work. Fortunately, the Church has such
a handyman in Gabriel Chinomwe, a returned missionary. He is wonderful to deal with—positive,
responsive, prompt, and good spirited. Lastly, we recognize much of the
problem is “economic:” tradesmen never come prepared largely because
they are so poor. Rarely do they have a
box of standard tools on hand for use in diagnosis and basic repairs, and never
do they carry with them standard “inventory” parts. Much to our chagrin, each repair project
entails at least two separate appointments: one for diagnostic purposes and the
second to effectuate the fix. Tradesmen
never have the necessary parts in inventory, but instead must go to the shop to
purchase them. Also it is not uncommon
for the tradesmen to ask the consumer for the money to purchase the parts,
since the tradesmen don’t have credit arrangements in place to allow them to
carry small trade balances, even for relatively small periods of time.
Often we prefer to hire members to handle small projects
within their expertise. If we need to
hire someone anyway, it is better to pay members, many of whom struggle to find
work, than to direct the work to others.
The Church wants them to be self-reliant. But, of course, this may complicate
matters. Sometimes the members are not
fully qualified for the work, even if the projects are simple. Sometimes they do the work poorly or are
slow or charge more than we think may be fair. Sometimes they need or want more support
from us than other independent parties might require. Obviously, it is to resolve grievances with
members. One doesn’t want to jeopardize
their standing in or feelings about the Church, because of the ill-will created
by a project that went bad.
(c)
Major Life Events: Funerals, Engagements and
Weddings
Elsewhere we have described in considerable detail how
funerals are conducted in Malawi. One
defining characteristic of funerals is how much time family and friends take to
show support for the family of the deceased.
Literally hours upon hours are consumed, included participating in
all-night vigils at the family home of the deceased. Here one “waits” as well—but the waiting serves
an entirely different purpose. It is not a by-product of inefficiency, credit
problems, or a lack of resources.
Instead, the “waiting” is used as a way for showing support and
affection for the family of the deceased.
(d) Nothing
Starts on Time
Nothing seems to start on “time” in Malawi. This applies to Church meetings, funerals,
weddings, engagement parties or social activities. [We assume schools start on time.] It also applies to bus schedules. Time schedules are treated as “rough” approximates—indeed,
in some cases, not even that. If a
Church social event is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, no one is
present at the appointed hour. No one
takes the schedule seriously. For several
hours after the scheduled start time, individuals and families slowly
assemble—quietly talking, mingling and waiting for the activity to begin. It is as though there is a generally
understood social convention that the event itself will not commence until a
quorum, however that might be defined, has finally gathered. At first one might wonder what is so terrible
about this. Perhaps starting on time is
just a fetish of the Western world—an unfortunate, and perhaps unhealthy outgrowth
of the West’s focus on schedules, timeline, and bottom line orientation--and
shouldn’t be given much priority.
But now, after having to live in a world where “schedules”
are largely ignored, we have become true believers--starting on time really
matters and is at core to imposing order.
Absent these expectations, one does not know when to arrive or when the
activity will actually begin. In fact, by
any rational measure, coming on time is “irrational.” It makes far more sense to guess when the “requisite”
quorum will finally be present, and to timing one’s arrival accordingly. The current norm is disrespectful—it is disrespectful
of the time and commitments of others, and disrespectful of one’s own time and commitments.
We
have tried hard to encourage the two branches with which we work—Zingwangwa and
Blantyre 2nd—to start Sacrament Meetings are on time, even if few members
are in their seats at the appointed hour. Slowly the
branches are making progress and we are hopeful that that progress will over time
migrate into greater punctuality in other meetings and social activities.
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