My brother asked me if I was going to write another blog
entry about Uganda before leaving. I know I haven’t been as regular with the
entries as I had thought I would be, but I’ve been busy actually living in Uganda, and that’s a lot
harder than you would think! I’d like to think that G.R.I.T.S. in Kampala won’t
stop even after I’m back in the states. I’m still processing so much of what
I’ve experienced here and as I gain insights into the whole Uganda/African
experience, I may want to share them with everyone who has enjoyed reading
this.
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| One of many wonderful evenings at "Iqan House," home of Carolyn Wade |
So here I’m going to just share some random thoughts – and
trust me – they’ll be very random - as I contemplate leaving. Some of the
things I share were ideas I had wanted to write about and never got around to,
some are just observations about life in Uganda versus life in the United
States.
Life on the Hill
Living full time on the Bahá’í Temple properties has its
rewards but also its challenges. Yes, I get to look out my window and see the
Mother Temple of Africa day and night and yes, I only have a 30 second walk to
my office. However, being on the hill 24/7 often meant working 24/7. I hold the
keys to almost all of the buildings and offices on the campus – with the exception
of the Temple itself and the Temple Director’s house. We have dorms and other
housing here on the properties and we rent out the space to Bahá’ís who are
traveling through Kampala or who have some business to attend to here.
Sometimes these guests do not call ahead of time and will simply show up in the
middle of the night, at which point I have to go to the Centre, find bedding
for them, get the keys, show them to their accommodations, etc. Because I live
on the hill, no one has any hesitation about coming to my home anytime to ask
for a myriad of things, or sometimes just to visit. And I don’t mind the
occasional visitor, but no one here has any concept of privacy. It never occurs
to anyone that I may want to just have some down time. And closing the door and
putting up a sign never worked. They just stand outside the door calling
“Auntie Joyce, Auntie Joyce” until I open the door! Mostly it’s comical, but
sometimes it’s frustrating and overwhelming.
In a Facebook post after I got my cats I mentioned that they
came to the office with me. It didn’t occur to me how that would sound to
someone who is envisioning a different environment for a Bahá’í National
Centre. A friend who used to work at the U.S. National Bahá’í Centre quipped
“Your cats come to the office with you?” and I realized that Uganda normal
would not necessarily be normal anywhere else. I’ve only been to two other
Houses of Worship besides this one – the House of Worship in Wilmette IL and
the Lotus Temple in New Delhi. In both cases, the Haziratul’Quds, or National
Centre is on separate property from the Temple, and in the case of the Lotus
Temple, some miles away from each other. So visitors are only exposed to the
Temple and the beautiful gardens, and there’s some pretty good security to keep
visitors in the places they’re supposed to be. Here, the National Bahá’í Centre
is within sight of the House of Worship. And while there is some fencing around
the 45 or so acres of Temple land, that hasn’t stopped people from creating
gaps in the fences and using the Temple property as a conduit to get from point
A to point B. While many Ugandan visitors do stop at the Temple, many,
especially children, just see the grounds as an open area where they can travel
through, lounge and have a picnic lunch, or play. This is not necessarily
discouraged by the Bahá’ís. Everyone in the area feels this is their property
and we want people to feel welcomed. However, it can lead to potential problems
that for this muzungu, can be frustrating.
We don’t have a separate visitors’ center to receive guests
who want to know more about the Bahá’í Faith and the Temple. We do have Temple
guides who escort guests and answer their questions, but the only other place
they can bring them after seeing the Temple is the National Centre. So again,
unlike the U.S. Centre or the Indian National Centre, anyone can walk into our
National Centre at any given time during business hours. The Publishing Trust
bookstore is there so guests often want to come in and purchase something. The guests
aren’t so bad, as they have a legitimate reason for being there and usually are
accompanied by a guide. But the neighborhood children – I call them “free range
children” – often will show up and want to all come in and run around the
Centre, use the toilets, which then end up broken, etc. And it’s all a
distraction to attempts to get any work done. So yeah, I took my cats to the
office! They were the calmest part of the office!
The thing that is lovely about the Temple property and its
gardens is that it’s actually one of the only places in Kampala that is a park
like setting. And because we’re perched atop one of the seven hills that
surround Kampala, it’s usually a bit cooler up here and a constant breeze blows
– making it a refreshing place to visit. Subsequently we have a lot of weekend
visitors from the city itself – people who are anxious to get out of the hot
city and be somewhere pleasant and cool. On Sunday afternoons especially we
have many Indian visitors – there is a large Indian population in Uganda – and
they like to just enjoy the gardens and fresh air. One Sunday afternoon when we
were having some big event, an Indian family came and two young adolescent boys
proceeded to set up a cricket pitch right in front of the Centre! I had to gently
encourage them to relocate their pitch as there were people coming in and out
of the Centre and I was worried about someone getting hit with a ball!
Because we have such beautiful gardens, the Temple grounds
are also a magnet for wedding parties who want to have their wedding photos
made here. The rules about where you can get married are very strict in Uganda,
only “approved” or “gazetted” churches, mosques, and in our case the Temple
grounds, are places where people can get married. Since many of the churches do
not have gardens like we have, couples will have their wedding at a church,
then their entire entourage, complete with cars that are decorated with
colorful ribbons, make their way to the Temple and the whole wedding party
emerges from the cars in order to have their photos made. I’m in a few of those
photos as some couples wanted to be able to show that they had a muzungu in
their wedding! We were having a Bahá’í wedding one afternoon and when we
emerged from the Temple where a devotional service is always held before the
vows are exchanged in the Centre or on the grounds, there were no less than
FIVE other wedding parties on various parts of the grounds having their wedding
photos made.
So for all its frustrations at times, the Mother Temple of
Africa, the grounds, and the National Bahá’í Centre reflect the culture that is
uniquely African – and it’s not for me or any other expatriate to complain
about how it’s not like the other Temples – it’s for me to understand the
culture and accept it as it is.
Free Range Children
I mentioned earlier about the numerous children who often
use the Temple property as a playground or as a shortcut from their home to
another destination. I call them “free range children” because that seems to be
exactly what they are. When children are not in school, once they’ve got any
household chores done, they’re free to roam about – usually in large “packs” of
5 to 15 children. These might be extended families or groups of friends and
school chums. They’ll range in age from toddler to 13 or 14. In the large busy
African families, older children are responsible for the younger children and
have to take them with them wherever they go. And so they show up on the Temple
grounds, usually pretty well behaved, other times not so much. On a Saturday or
Sunday afternoon, if I am at home, the kids will drift by my cottage and
realizing a “muzungu” lives there, will often stop and simply stare at me – or
come to the door wanting something, anything, just so I’ll talk to them. Most
of the time I don’t mind it, but there were days when I felt like a freakin’
animal in the zoo.
However, some of the more enterprising of the Temple guides
took the opportunity to take the free range children and create junior youth
programs or children’s classes with them. And in discussing junior youth
programs, it has to be acknowledged in this culture that in tandem with the
junior youth programs there should be corresponding children’s classes so that
that the junior youth can participate without worrying about their little
brothers and sisters.
Initially I was somewhat in awe of these packs of children
roaming about freely. But then on reflection they’re not doing anything
differently that kids from my generation and older did in the United States. We
have become so frightened of everything in the states – and not without good
reason – that our children can no longer roam about with their friends looking
for things to get into. I think my generation may have been the last generation
who could do that before child abduction started becoming so much more
prevalent (or at least known about) and we all called our children in from
playing in the yard and shut and locked the doors. There’s still an innocence
about childhood in Uganda that we can only dream about. And they’re not without
their problems either. Sometime later I’ll share about the issues of child
snatching here that’s tied into child sacrifice for some witchcraft type
rituals which are still practiced in some parts of Uganda. One of my young
adult male friends has pierced ears because as a child that was a way parents
protected their children from being snatched by a witch doctor. The children
have to be “pure” to be sacrificed for the rituals, and a child with pierced
ears is not considered pure, so lots of kids, including boys, had their ears
pierced. Really, I’m not making this up!
A lot of life in Uganda, especially once you get away from
the city of Kampala, is like the U.S. in the 50s and 60s. And yet I don’t see
it as “backward” as some might think – but rather a simpler and different pace
of life. Something I think Americans could learn from.
I realize that I’ve written over 1800 words and I still have
a lot to say. So I think I will still be writing about Uganda even after I’m
back in the states. As I said earlier, I’m still processing everything I’ve
experienced in the last 18 months. I want to write more about things like
language, communications, relationships between men and women, racism and
tribalism, and so much more.
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| Rosalee Landry, visiting from Maine, with our beloved Edith Senoga |
But I will end for now with this – this has been the
experience of a lifetime and I’m so glad I made the decision to uproot myself
at age 57 and come to a world so completely different from what I grew up with.
I wish everyone had an opportunity to do something like this. Every American
teenager should be required to go to a developing country (Europe and Australia
don’t count!) and live for even just a few months. I think the mindsets and
attitudes of our overly spoiled children will be dramatically altered. I think
we’ll find an easier path to a world peace if Americans will learn to look at
people in Africa, India and South America as equals, brothers and sisters, and
not as “less than.” And the only way that will happen will be to go and live
among their African or Indian brothers and sisters, and start trying to
understand how they manage their lives. I’m a long way from totally
understanding much about Ugandan culture, but at least I understand that my
Ugandan family will be in my heart and soul for the rest of my life. My life
has been so much more enriched for having had this opportunity, and I thank God
for it.
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| Diane Gable and Rosalee Landry, friends from Maine. That's the Nile River in the background folks! |
And I’ve learned that even though this experience is ending
for now – I can now look for other adventures in life. Heck – I’m even going to
try living in Texas for a while! That’s bound to be quite the adventure! Yeehaw!
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