What Mzungus are...

One day Paul and I were having a discussion with one of our clinicians, Juliana. Juliana’s a strong woman with a sense of humor to match. She’s smart and also outspoken- a trait not shared by many of her African sisters. Those are some of the reasons she’s our in-charge in the HIV clinic.

She was explaining to us why the patients often want to talk to the Mzungus or come to clinic on a day when we’re there. She told us that patients believed that we Mzungus had some special knowledge, some special power that set us apart from our African counterparts.

I laughed out loud, knowing all too well how we Americans sometimes exude an air of confidence when we’re really flying by the seat of our pants.

Undeterred, Juliana tried to convince us this was a belief deeply seated in the cultural fabric of their community. To make her point Juliana said this: “Mzungus are”…pausing to slap the back of one hand loudly into the palm of the other …”next to God!”

We all laughed at this. Our African colleague recognized the absurdity of this as well as we did. I have to admit, it makes our job a whole lot easier. We just have to be white and show up. The bar couldn’t get much lower than that!