We all look the same to you, don't we?

You remember that Seinfeld episode when George tells his boss that he looks like Sugar Ray Leonard?  And his boss replies, "We all look the same to you, don't we?"  

Well, its funny, but there is a woman in Malawi who repeatedly goes up to Azungus and tries to trick them specifically on this premise.  She's tried with me.  Here's the scam.  I almost fell prey to it except that Megan (a fellow EWBer) had warned me about it before it happened.

She'll call you from far away, and she'll be waving and smiling.  She has a baby strapped to her back.  Now, because you've met so many Malawians in the last few days, you can't exactly remember all of them.  She'll be smiling and say hello.  Now, you start thinking to yourself, 'Oh crap, where do I know her from?  I can't remember.  This is so embarrassing.  Should I just come out and say that I don't know her?  No, I'll play along and see if I can figure it out.'  Now, she looks like a woman that comes to the office once in a while.  "Hi", she says.  "Hello", you reply. 

"You don't remember me?" She notices the stunned look on your face.  

"Yeah, I remember.  Sure I do."

"You know my brother, Mr. Banda."  

You start thinking to yourself, 'Banda, Banda, yeah I know a Banda' (there are a lot of Banda's in Malawi, I currently know at least 10).  "Yeah, he works at City Centre with me.  At Department of Science and Technology."  

"Yes, exactly."

Again, because you don't want to offend her, you start offering information to prove that you know her and she just smiles and nods approvingly.  Whew, disaster averted.

Then she says, "My baby is sick, and I need to buy some medicine at the pharmacy.  It only costs 1000 kwacha.  My brother will give you the money tomorrow at work."  Okay, this makes you a little uncomfortable, but you have met her before and you do know her brother.  You reach into your pocket to get out the money, but then it finally hits you, Megan's warning.  You remember how she explained this scam earlier.  Somehow the woman sells the medicine somewhere at pockets the money.  You actually start to admire this woman, it's a good scam, and she plays the part well.  

"Uh, sorry, I don't have that much money on me.  I can't help you."  Then, as you walk away you start to realize that today is Saturday and there is no way you would meet her "brother" the next day.

The interesting thing is that this woman has approached me with the same scam twice more.  So, it got me thinking.  When I first got to Malawi, I had a hard time distinguishing between people.  I think the reason might be is that when you first meet someone in Canada, you don't have to pay a lot of attention to distinguish them later on.  They might have different hair lengths, hair colour, skin colour, eye colour etc.  So, you start to use these as triggers.  But how do you do that when everyone has the same skin tone, and hair cut.  You have to use different triggers.  I think the same works the other way.  In a world full of Malawians, being an Azungu means you stick out.  Therefore there is no need to identify them based on anything else.  You simply look for the different person.  Maybe that's why the people in my neighbourhood kept confusing me with the Japanese volunteer down the street...