card playing....shhhh

I haven't read anything prohibiting me from playing cards on the
station, although I have restrained my urges to try to swindle people
out of money by gambling. :) Nevertheless, a simple game of gin rummy
with one of my Zambian brothers last night was pretty amusing. Our
western ideas of taking turns and waiting in line are not common here in
Zambia. When you go to the grocery store, while they are totalling up
your amount, they will often attend to several other customers who barge
in with their purchases, whether a big order or just a child wanting to
buy 5 pieces of candy. Needless to say, trying to play a card game
without the concept of turns becomes a tricky prospect. I'd discard a
queen (or a Q, to a Zambian) , and he'd take the card whether it was his
turn or not. He'd then proceed to take another turn, because that
didn't count as a turn. This was the natural and right way to do
things, and although we took several breaks to explain the concept of
turns, it never really sank in. It's funny the different emotions you
go through, but you eventually end up laughing at the absurdity of it
all, and it becomes a license to have a free-for-all playing the game.
It challenges a very basic cultural assumption of my concepts of
fairness and respect and fun.
I've noticed the same thing when trying to teach people to play tennis
here; tennis in Zambia is mostly a game of hitting the ball as hard as
you can if it will go over the net. Hitting the ball within the lines,
or serving the ball, or keeping score become very secondary goals and
not usually adhered to by the kids or even the adults that play.