Stuff

Lately I have come across the reads on new wave that is gaining speed in the west - minimalism – the benefits of having less stuff. I have arrived in the Gambia with two suitcases and the shoulder bag and found most of the things I brought useful except for few that are still sitting around my house. I can’t remember missing or lacking anything. Well, except food:).  I have accumulated quite a bit of stuff: furniture, clothes (most of them from PC ‘free pile’), books, dishes and other things. I tried to make my new place feel like home and mindlessly bought stuff that I thought is necessary but which have never found its use. Oh well – more things to give away when I leave.  For comparison I have accumulated in my sixteen months of service probably close to half of the stuff that my family of 9 people have had in their lifetimes (except for furniture). Of course the money play significant role in this, but it is not the point. They live happily without much of it. Pot holder? Well, I can use head-wrap or my wrap-up skirt to hold the hot pot. Need a grater? Poke some holes on the bottom of a milk tin and viola!

Sometimes I look with disbelief to how they do not value stuff. Not long ago the nice big umbrella that was used by all family members during last rainy season I saw laying in the garbage pile – dirty, broken and spotted with white paint. I think there are two aspects of that - to value things and be enslaved by them. In Lithuania I grew up with daily reminders to take care of the things I/we have because we did not have much money to replace them. The same habit is still with me. Stuff is not valued here in the Gambia. We had it and now we don’t – not a big deal. People are so flexible to adapt to live in any conditions. Maybe we will afford to get another one, maybe someone will give us another one or maybe we will live without it. Stuff is stuff here. It still mesmerizes how detached people are from things. Where in US we are used to construct our lives, stuff with things. I am guilty of that too. People define themselves and others by the job they have, the cars and gadgets they own, apartment/house they can afford – reshaped values by long-term stuff overflow, consumerism and smart use of media – more and more buy and consume. Money redefines our relationship with stuff – the more money is in our bank account the more we are in love with things. It does make sense, but are we happier? I do not have internet access at home in my village and I do not wish to have it, because it allows me to spend time with my family, read and etc. instead of getting sucked in vast sea of random (most of the time useless) information. The family and relatives takes the central place here. One of the reasons why people have many children is social security – children are the ones who will take care of their parents at the old age, not government. I would dare to say that in the Gambia there are very few homeless people, because in families everyone is being taken care of. They will take you in, give a shelter and feed you (there is a downside of it too, but I am not going to go in the detail). I know about only one orphanage here.

Two extremes are in front of my eyes: a society overflowing with stuff and degraded relationships and a society with very little but strong human bonding. I am not saying that one is bad and the other is awesome – both have pluses and minuses. Where have I seen more happy faces?  Heard more laughs? Yes, The Gambia. A person does not need much to survive. In the consumeristic society the relationships and self value are redefined.  We try to hold on to things because if we lose them, we think, we lose ourselves. Who am I without any of it? What am I? Unfortunately, I see the changes here as well and I am sure in ten or twenty years the Gambian society will obediently learn the western ways… I hope I am wrong.