It's been 9 months since I first landed in this wonderful nation. Working and living with Zambians and other southern Africans has been a huge eye opener and life lessons. Let me start off by telling you a little bit about myself. I was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Toronto at the young age of 3. I see myself as Canadian, I grew up in Canada, I went to school in Canada, and I call Canada home. I grew up in classrooms where minorities were the majority. I grew up and lived in a part of the nation where race was never an issue. Regardless of the colour of our skin, we learned, we played and we all grew up with one another without conflict. Immigrants and Canadian-born citizens can co-habitat happily, but yet respect, and maybe even embrace the diversity of religions, cultures, and traditions. As I walk down the streets, eat at restaurants, and work in offices, never have I had to think twice about my actions and rational decisions because of the colour of my skin.
I have lived in many parts of world prior to coming to southern Africa, but due certain factors, this experience stands out and provided me with an immense amount of personal learning. Not until I arrived in southern Africa, did I realize that such a multicultural environment, like the one we have in metropolitan Canada, is very unique in the world. For the first couple of months of me being here in Zambia, I would get stares, points, and stereotypical comments directed at me based on me being Chinese. In the recent years, China has ramped up their investment in Zambia. And not surprisingly there are many Chinese currently residing in Zambia to complete these infrastructure projects. Based on my observations many Chinese do not speak English very well and have a set of values that differ, in some aspects, from those of Zambia. I assume that this clashing of values has resulted in reputations and stereotyping for the Chinese expatriots in Zambia. Without knowing that I am Canadian, Zambians would naturally group me with the expatriots from China.
When I first arrived, I would have the patience to make an effort and engange in one-on-one conversations with those who would "direct comments" at me to breakdown misconstrued assumptions. Sometimes I would joke that I do, in fact, know king-fu, that I am, in-fact, the brother of Jacky Chan and Jet Li. Sometimes I would engage in genuine convesations about being both Canadian and Chinese. However; during those "bad days" or when work became stressful, my patience would start to wear off. I would become frustrated, irritable, and sometimes angry.
My EWB team lead, Ka-Hay Law, like me, is a Chinese Canadian. Ka-Hay has spent the past 3 or more years here in Zambia. She too, had gone through a similar learning process that I have been going through here in Zambia. Through her guidance and advice, the biggest lesson that I took from her experience is to understand my own frustrations and ask myself "WHY". Is it because I feel Zambians are making unwarranted assumptions? Or is it because I haven't made a big enough effort to put myself into the mental shoes of Zambians? I think it's a bit of both. After living in many parts of the world, I have slowly come to realize that, in order to work together with locals while living in other nations, one needs to get to know and understand the values and mindsets that make up the host-culture. After gaining that understanding, I was better able to control my emotions, responses, and actions in a more professional manner.
When someone greets me with "Ni hao ma" or "Kon-nichi wa" to me on the streets of Lusaka, it is because they are assuming that I am a visitor or expat from China or Japan. At times I would get frustrated by this because they are making an incorrect assumption. However; when I greet others here with "muli-bwanji" or "muli-buti", I am assuming that they are Zambian, when in actuality, that may not be the case. So am I not doing the same thing? I, like them, am making assumptions based on what I see. As human beings, it is natural for us to make assumptions based on what our senses tell us. When others make incorrect assumptions about us, it is our job, especially as Canadians, to instead of being frustrated and filling ourselves with strong emotions, is to clarify these assumption and to inform the other party about who we actually are. It is also our job to understand and place ourselves in shoes and understand the mental models of those that welcome us into their countries.
