The Land of Extravagence

As we have said to a number of people since our return to the States in July, we aren’t all that shocked by American culture. In fact, it feels a bit strange how normal things feel despite the radically different “normal” we feel over in Ethiopia. Well, we put that normal to the ultimate test earlier this month when we joined in the fun of a family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the Dells, it is a fairly typical tourist town. Wisconsin in general is Chicago’s weekend playground as evidenced by the crazy Illinois drivers that speed up the interstates on Friday and zip back down again on Sunday. Where do they go? Lake Geneva and Door County are hot spots, but for the true adventurer, bent on overdosing on fun, Wisconsin Dells is where it’s at. Huge resorts, golf courses, amusement parks, themed restaurants, native American shows, boat rides, rock formations, cave tours, and Noah’s Ark, the largest outdoor waterpark in the world. Why someone would build the largest waterpark in a state like Wisconsin is beyond me, but three months of summer must generate enough revenue to make it open up year after year.

 

Two months earlier, I was sleeping in a mud-walled, tin-roofed hotel. One of the nicer hotels in the areas whose amenities included very loud music blasting outside my door until 10:30pm, onion choppers tapping away at 6:00am, two community squatty potties in stalls without doors, shared with people who obviously have very bad aim, a shared shower in the common bathroom, once again without a door, a sizeable hole in the ceiling which I hoped the rats were aware of so as to not join me and the fleas in bed (yes fleas), room service and most important, electricity, with the added feature of the management running a generator from 7pm-10pm if the city electricity is shut off – all for the competitive price of 35 birr (aka. $2) a night. I’m not bragging, nor looking for sympathy, that is just normal. But, if that is normal, how could I walk into a two-story, three bedroom air-conditioned condo rented on a golf/waterpark resort, situated in a city built entirely to satisfy those with a craving for flashy, overpriced fun? How could I feel normal shooting down water slides in one of the two HUGE indoor waterparks, or keeping my head above water in the wavepool when my neighbors in Gesas are busting their tails to find water six months out of the year? How could my head not spin in circles as I walked through the resort’s arcade room, bigger than my Ethiopian house, with a multi-leveled, high ropes course overhead, a massive indoor playground the next room over and a 3D mini-golf course on each side (whatever 3D mini-golf is)? How could I not be shocked as we drove around looking for go-kart places, checking for special offers at four different places just on the main drag of town? How could I not do a double take at fancy gimicky restaurants such as the one that earned my business and Micah’s resounding approval with their billboard – “Have your meal served on a train!” (I have to admit, the model train delivering the food to our table was pretty cool, and those down the line from us were lucky not to lose a fry on the way by)?

 

And yet, our weekend in the Wisconsin Dells was not dampened by culture shock. Why? Because it felt oddly normal – just as normal as the hotel in Gilgel Beles, Ethiopia. Such extravagance is what we, as Americans, have come to expect of our entertainment, resort towns. At the end of the weekend, my uncle Dave came up to me and asked, “What do you think about all this? Pretty ridiculous compared to what you live in, huh?” Yes, he has a point, but it made me think. Is it wrong to enjoy a weekend at the Wisconsin Dells? Do I owe the rest of the world an apology for these two days of soaking in extravagance?

 

It reminded me of the first time that I brought rural Gmz people into Addis Ababa for the Anthropology workshop. Habtamu and WoHis were scared spitless for the first couple days as there was much more than they could take in.  Slowly, they adjusted and ventured out on their own here and there. One evening we had them over to our house for dinner and Habtamu pointed at the stove and asked, “What is that?” I explained that there is gas hooked up to it and we light a fire on it for cooking. Then I closed by saying, “You know, we foreigners, are lazy and we don’t collect firewood or make clay pots for cooking our food.” Habtamu cut me off before I could finish, “No, no, no, you aren’t lazy, you do different work and this stove thing is a good thing.” In other words, he did not accept my apology for our simplified cooking methods. There were a few times, as I stood in line for a waterslide or buzzed around the go-kart track, that I thought to myself, “What would the Gmz think of this?” Sure they would think more practically about how a go-kart would help them get to town and out to their fields. And seeing all the chlorinated water in the waterpark may create some interesting reflections. But, overall, I think that the Gmz people would not accept an apology for our enjoying even our most extravagant playgrounds. Rather, they would dive right in and enjoy it with us if they had the chance. Eventually, the final whistle would blow, the pool would be emptied, and the Gmz would return to their subsistence living with the same joy and contentment that they always had, changed only by the memory of extravagant living.

 

I guess what I am saying is this. Our Wisconsin Dells weekend was a time to be enjoyed, a temporary experience, building lifelong memories as a family. Our contentment in the real world should not be based upon, nor even affected by our enjoyment of the occasional extravagance. For us that’s actually somewhat easy. In Ethiopia, our everyday life is simple, and there is no other option. Here in America, you are constantly confronted by billboards of life screaming out the latest technology, entertainment venues, “gotta have its,” and “you deserve its” whose primary goal is to erode your contentment in the simple life. When we come into Addis, eating at the Italian restaurant is a nice. When we come to the States, driving through Wendy’s is a special treat. When we arrive at the extravagant, over-the-top waterpark resort, we enjoy it to the fullest, without apology, and without regret.