Reflections on My First Month in Uganda

Wow, it’s already been a month here in Uganda! I’ve seen and experienced so much in just this one month, and learned even more then I could have imagined. If this first month is any indication, the next 11 months will be full of even more surprises, experiences, and learning. Although I have to say, it’ll take a lot to beat the experience of riding the boda boda!

Here’s my list of what I have observed and/or learned in this first month:

• There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of in Uganda. From the moment I stepped off the plane I have not had a trace of fear, worry or anxiety. I feel completely at home here, and well cared for by all of my new friends.
• I am learning/receiving SO much more than I am teaching/giving. In fact, there isn’t all that much for me to offer to the friends here except my love and moral support, and maybe a game of “Uno.” But what I’ve been given by being allowed to be here, being able to pray daily in the Temple and singing in it on Sundays, and the unconditional acceptance and friendship I’ve received, far far outweighs my feeble attempts at “helping” in any way.
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  It is perfectly reasonable to have at least one cow, several goats or sheep, chickens and several children in your front yard at any given time.
• The digital age was created for third world countries like Uganda. Whereas it was difficult to get electricity and

  phone lines to many rural areas, and indeed there are many areas where those lines never reached, now everyone is “connected” with mobile phones and the internet. Plus, internet access and mobile access is so much easier and less expensive to have then in the U.S. No need to be tied to a corporate entity like Comcast and pay more than $100 a month for service. Here, you pay as you go for both internet and mobile phone – I’ve only paid $10 for my internet service so far. Plus – here we have “mobile money” as well which is genius. Another thing a lot of Ugandans don’t use regularly are bank accounts. But if you need to send money to someone in a rural area, or pay a bill, you can go to the mobile phone outlet and pay them however much money you want to send, then they send a text message to the mobile phone number of the person you’re sending the money to and they simply take it to their phone outlet, show them the phone with the amount of money they’re entitled to, and it’s paid to them. Another nifty trick in this land of sporadic electricity is that most of the mobile phones have a “flashlight” feature! Genius I tell ya’!
• It takes 3 times longer to complete any errand – such as banking, grocery shopping, just even getting from point A to point B – but it’s infinitely more interesting!
• You don’t need nearly as much “stuff” to live a decent life then you think you do.
• G-nut sauce on posho or matooke is very delicious and nutritious too.
• Electricity is overrated.
• Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and Johnny Cash sound just as good in Uganda as they do in the U.S.
• You can get used to looking in the opposite direction when wanting to cross the road, but you better move fast when you do start to cross!
• People here think it’s “cold” and put on heavy jackets when it’s only 65 degrees.
• Smiling and greeting anyone you meet on the street is the order of the day. The Ugandans are some of the most polite people I’ve ever met. In fact, it’s very much like being in the South – everyone says good morning, good afternoon, or good evening whenever they meet; if you enter a home or a business you are told “You are welcome,” and when you return home from work or wherever, whoever is home will say “Welcome back.” I haven’t quite heard “Y’all come back now, ya here?” – but it’s been close.
• Regardless of how tiny the gift might be, whenever you give anything to a Ugandan they receive it as though they were being given gold. I’ve never met more grateful people.
• I’m not as “self-conscious” here as I was in the states. In the states, you have to be concerned with how you look, whether you weigh too much or too little, whether you have the right clothes, shoes, hairstyle, etc. I was always very aware of myself and inhibited as a result. Here, you are accepted at face value. No one is looked down on, that I can tell, because of how they look or how they dress. I feel like I can really accept myself because I feel so accepted by others. I think that’s why I had no fear about getting on the boda boda – I didn’t have to worry about what people might think. Of course, all of the Ugandans were amused by seeing the “mazune” – white – on the boda, but it was good-natured amusement – and I was amused as well!

To get serious for a minute, I do want to talk a little about what I’ve learned as a G.R.I.T.S. as regards African-American culture, issues of race, etc. Something that I’ve learned really fast is that the African-Americans in the U.S. aren’t so far removed from their African ancestry that they don’t still retain some of the speech patterns of their ancestors. For example, I had been told that certain tribes or clans have trouble pronouncing “r”s and others have difficulty pronouncing “l”s. When I heard this in someone who was talking, I realized that it was similar to how I have heard some African-Americans speak. For example, saying “chirren” instead of “children.” I always thought (part of my ignorance) that hearing an African-American say chirren implied either a speech impediment or a lack of education or sophistication. Now I see that it’s part of the DNA. How many prejudiced assumptions do white Americans make about African-Americans that can be explained by simple DNA?

In the South especially, typical southern fare in terms of food includes greens, sweet potatoes or yams, beans, peanuts, and corn. I had already learned that most of these items were introduced by slaves. Well guess where they got the idea of eating these foods? – again – from their ancestral roots – these foods are daily fare here in Uganda, and no doubt in many other African countries.

I had wondered before coming here if I would feel the impact of being in the minority – a turn about from how I was raised. But I have to say I’ve never been made to feel self-conscious at all because I am white. And in fact, I think there’s still some deference given to whites here in some establishments, much to my discomfort. And it was interesting that because in the U.S. we are, and sometimes have to be, so conscious about race – especially when trying to make sure someone is not being discriminated against because of race, that it unnecessarily informs my behaviors here. For example, we had a staff meeting that was attended by the one member of the NSA who is not native Ugandan. He’s Irish – although he’s been here about 30 years and has a Ugandan family. In this staff meeting, which I was conducting, I was suddenly and painfully aware that all of the staff, who are all Ugandan or Eritrean, were on one side, and the three whites were on the other side. I got extremely uncomfortable as I felt that it was coming across to the staff that the three whites were in power and were telling the Ugandan staff how to behave. When I checked this feeling later with Carolyn, who is white as well, she felt as though that would not have been a concern for the staff at all. I’m not totally convinced of her assessment, but I did realize that I’m the one who’s imposing the racial “thing” on my experiences, and I probably don’t have to do that.

This is just a small sampling of what I’ve learned this first month. And the primary thing I’ve learned is that I made the absolutely right decision to come here – and for that I’m ever so grateful.