Visiting developing countries

Among our travels, we have been fortunate to visit two developing countries:  Zambia & Ecuador.   While these two countries are quite different, they share similarities:  poverty, inequality, and disparity.

Zambia, which is in the southern part of Africa, is a really poor country, but one of the observations that I made about businesses is that they seemed to be owned by whites, while the blacks are the employees.  For instance, the lodge where we stayed was owned and operated by whites from South Africa.  Ecuador is similar to Zambia in terms of those with resources and those without.  The indigenous Andeans are similar to the blacks in that they seem to be the most disadvantaged.

But not all developing countries are the same.  Ecuador’s infrastructure, at least Quito and Galapagos, seem much further advanced than Livingstone, Zambia.  Quito is a large sprawling city of between 3-4 million people and from a distance the city is colorful and attractive … until you are actually in the city.  Livingstone is much smaller and more or less lacks a transportation infrastructure.

The big factor to consider when visiting a developing country is that services and infrastructure are weaker than what we developed country dwellers are used too.  Hygiene is another concern.  My travel physician advised me to avoid eating fresh fruit and vegetables that could not be peeled.  Oftentimes, developing countries use waste as fertilizer.  What may not bother natives may make us deadly sick.  So, I am a more cautious about what I eat and where and I always carry an ample supply of anti-diarrhea, antacids, ibuprofen, aspirins, motion sickness medicine, and the like.  Ecuador was different and perhaps more developed, although I was never able to find eye contact solution.  What about service … western-style service will cost you.  But even here, there are some things that are just unavailable.

The one stable across developed and developing countries is people.  There are decent people across the board and there are haves and have nots, except in developing countries the magnitude seems to be exaggerated.

As an aside, one of my irritations is when people refer to Africa as if it were a homogeneous country instead of the large diverse continent that it is.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• recent updates