Greener from a Distance

4. Identity Relay

21 4 Identity Relay n the weekend, Albert and Samson attended a birthday party for a five year old kid. It was hard to tell the age of the kid from the amount of planning and the guest list. There were more adults than kids; and the kids were relegated to the background when the party started. Just like Christmas nowadays. After eating and drinking came the dancing. Albert was amazed at a man in the mid-sixties trying to outdo everybody on the dance floor. “Who is that old man?” Albert asked Samson. “Look at him; he has some spectacular Makossa moves.” “That is Pa Mola. Old man Mola’s story is complicated. Let me see if I can summarize it for you” Samson replied. Pa Mola came to the USA decades ago. He stayed in the country illegally and did not go back to Cameroon for several years. Eventually he “regularized” his stay in the US. Then he started visiting Cameroon at least once every year. People still laugh when he tells how he met Ellen, his American wife. Ellen was a cashier at a grocery store. Mola went to the store for groceries a week after he arrived the US. Ellen was friendly, always smiling and chatting with customers; just doing her job the way she was trained. Mola had not noticed that she treated every customer the same. When she smiled and chatted with him at check out, Mola gave it a greater significance than it was worth. Just like Charles in Nyamnjoh’s The Disillusioned African who was O 22 tempted to give more meaning than it was due to his landlady’s my love. Mola hurried home to tell his friend that the lady at the store was into him; he might just have found himself a girlfriend already, he said. His friend had laughed, telling him it was just good customer service and nothing more. Mola had just come from a country where good customer service in big stores was almost nonexistent. Any descent customer service in his country was reserved for white tourists and influential people. Rudeness was common and a smile was rare when dealing with the average person. Complaints and grievances from customers were usually settled with insults, ejection from the store and sometimes physical fights. That was in stark contrast to what Mola had just experienced. To convince himself, he dragged his friend back to the store and went straight to check out without any groceries. “How can I help you, sir?” Ellen asked with the usual smile. “You don’t remember me? I was here not long ago?” Mola asked, with a shy smile and a slightly confused look. “No I don’t remember you. Did you forget something?” Ellen asked, with genuine concern. “No. You were so nice to me. You smiled at me. I came back to see you” Mola said. Ellen stopped smiling and put on the most serious face she could muster. “Thank you for the compliment sir. I am just doing my job. All our customers are special to us, so we serve them with a smile. Now, if you will excuse me, I have other valuable customers to attend to.” 23 “Can you believe that guy? That was so weird and creepy” Ellen said to the next customer who had been waiting patiently. Mola’s friend laughed at him and gave him some serious advice. “That kind of behavior can get you into trouble my friend. You are in a different society now; you have to be very careful. Just looking at a woman the wrong way can earn you a sexual harassment charge, not to talk of touching her. No unsolicited phone calls, no visits without an invitation and never assume anything unless there is an explicit consent. Most importantly, don’t show any sexual interest in a minor, it is just wrong and will ruin the rest of your life. “Also, never stop to give a female stranger a ride. That is solicitation or an attempted kidnapping. I am telling you these things because I know in your country sexual harassment is rampant. The boss tries to sleep with every female in his office and torments those who turn him down; dirty talk and sexually explicit acts directed at women are common and even encouraged. And people stop for any beautiful woman at the roadside. If you have...