A Tale of Two Types

Here's a story about two very different people. One is named Ryvus, the other, Brighton. Ryvus is one of the harder-working, non-drinking, church-going Zambians that I know. More importantly, he respects education and volunteership. He is always ready to help Gina and I with projects, such as fence building, without expectation of material reward. Then there is his "brother" Brighton. Zambians don't have a word for step brother, niece, nephew, or cousin, so anyone who is similarly aged and related is a brother or sister. Brighton lives in the larger town, or BOMA, about 17 km away. He arrived by himself one day and was very excited to tell me that he was the "brother" of Ryvus, here visiting friends and family in the village. He didn’t know much english, and had an odd habit of filling any silent pauses with "Mr. Scott!" with a big grin that was less jubilant and more "I don’t know what to say" or "How can I best ask this white guy for something and get what I want". He tried to help me work on a shelf I was modifiying, and then left to visit more folks. He came back about 2 weeks later while I was working on a solar dryer outside. I got the same "Mr. Scott!" grins and some vain attempts at assistance (most villagers don’t know what a solar dryer is, less know how to build one). This time I could tell he was bursting to ask me for something, and sure enough, he asked for some sacks to carry beans back to his house in the BOMA. The village is ripe with fresh beans at this time of year. I am pretty sure he had heard that we had given Ryvus and his family some sacks to help them carry fish food to their ponds, as a favor to them for frequent gifts of food and assistance with labor-intensive projects. Gina and I have a policy to not give anything to anyone for nothing, with the exception of extra food, so I told him our sacks were for our projects so until those projects were finished, we would keep our sacks. He just said "Ooooh" followed shortly by "Ok Mr. Scott, I am leaving". We think about how lucky we are to have a generous, helpful, and respectful family like Ryvus’ living near us when we have encounters like this one.