Cultural dissonance

I was riding around in the back of a Land Rover for 9 hours today as we
bounced down a sluice of red mud, and the conversation among the other
Zambian men dwelt a good while on what they should be doing to get
ahead, get noticed, get promoted, etc. Many Zambians spend a fair
amount of time and energy trying to negotiate the system here to get
ahead, especially since the government is one of the main sources of
steady employment and advancement. I was struck by the thought that
although many people in the US would be right at home in such a
conversation, few of the ex-pats I have met in Zambia share those same
basic life values. It's less of a cultural disconnect and more of a
selection bias, where people who come to Africa to work for awhile in
general are less interested in 'getting ahead', at least on those terms,
and many have a fair amount of disdain for people who hold things like
career advancement, monetary success, etc as important. I'm sure that
the sources of friction that often occur between NGO's and their
indigenous workers comes not just from cultural clashes but also from
philosophical ones, as people interested in advancement are drawn to
NGO's which offer opportunities, but are run by people who are not
interested as much in that type of success.