August Reflections

It's been awhile since my last post. Mainly because it's been difficult to find a substantive topic to write about. So I'm just going to write about my observations over the last month.

Term II officially ended on August 12. And before that our school was only just half functioning. So I've had more time on my hands to focus on other things besides teaching.

I want to write about the concept of normal. What is normal exactly? The New Oxford American Dictionary defines normal as "conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected". Normal is everyday, expected. So over time and with change, everyone's normal evolves.

Coming to Uganda 18+ months ago represented a substantial shift in my normal. The normal for me was living in one of the, if not the most wealthy, productive, and advanced nations in the world. I took a step back and realized that what that is isn't really normal, on a global scale. We're not the normal. We're odd. Peculiar. Different.

Much of the world continues to live in harsh conditions, in oppression, in poverty, in suffering. We volunteers of 20 + x years of age came over here with our conception of normal based in a world where less than 5% of the population lives the way we do. I don't think there is anything that can fully prepare you for such an abrupt transition.

I've talked a little bit about the concept of option and choice in the past. These luxuries are a major discriminator between the rich world and the poor world. I've appreciated this difference in some regards and been frustrated with it in others.

The things I really appreciate, for example, are inherent in Uganda's simplicity. In it's lack of choice.

In the village, I know I'm going to have one of maybe five different wholesome and nutritious local Ugandan meals everyday. Not something that was processed and injected with chemicals X, Y and Z whose selection was based on some test results from a focus group of a study conducted on a representative sample of the overall population of consumers based out of Columbus, Ohio. In Uganda, you get the opportunity and privilege to go back to eating actual, real food at its most basic level. Not some derivative of what used to be food.

I appreciate the cash economy. Meaning, cash is the economy. Business is conducted and goods are exchanged via payments made in cash, with actual notes. Credit is just not a feasible or sustainable option for most. I appreciate the simplicity inherent in this system. You can only spend what you have and you only receive what you earn.

I appreciate the limited options at the market. Not having to decide on which one of six different types of tomatoes to buy. There is only one type, if they are even available that day.

I appreciate the simple mechanics of everyday life. Most people get around in my village by foot or by bicycle. Transportation is exercise here. It is also a social function. Everywhere everyone goes they greet one another. And greeting is a HUGE deal here, one of the most important social duties countrywide.

Ugandans don't compartmentalize themselves like us Americans tend to do. Isolated. Moving from one box to another. Bedroom box to bathroom box to car box to office box back to car box to return to home box, rinse and repeat. Boxes are few in Uganda. And the boxes that exist are shared by many.

Every time I go into Kampala, I'm overwhelmed by the options of places to eat. Choice brings about complication. First world problems.

I appreciate the different phrases Ugandans use to say things. Examples....

"Well be back!" - A derivative of "Welcome back!", this is said to someone who has come back from doing something or being somewhere, one of my favorites.

"Next time better." - Said to someone when a situation doesn't quite work out the way you had hoped for, another close favorite

"Well done." - Not sure what I think about this one but it is said to just about anyone for just about anything. Even if you have done nothing at all.

"You've been lost!" - Said to someone when they have not been around for some time and/or have been somewhere else for some time.

And then there is the plethora of replies you hear when you ask someone how they are doing. I love them all....

"I'm fine."

"We are ok."

"We are somehow fair just."

"Well, yes, we are trying."

"We are progressing slowly slowly."

And then some of the more thought provoking responses I have received....

"We are struggling."

"The struggle continues."

"Praise God."

And my personal favorites.....

"We are fine, but poverty."

"We are ok, just famine."

"Good, but no money."

Yes, I am a fearless, heartless PCV who casually brushes dismisses the likes of suffering individuals and feels nothing when encountering homeless and starving children on the streets. Ok, not quite. However, there is some truth to that statement. You do become incredibly desensitized to seeing so much hardship.

But you become incredibly sensitized to seeing all the good in people, and the comedy that often ensues from it. Not because good people and funny things are uncommon here, but because you don't expect to see them in such a hard environment. Nothing could be further from the truth. And when you come across them, it's a transcending experience.

Like when I'm in Kampala making a purchase and the salesman tells me they don't carry plastic bags for the goods they sell because they are environmentally friendly. In a city where the streets are filled with garbage and smoldering exhaust, this is comical. And I appreciate it. It makes me love that guy and everything he has done for me in the past five minutes. I want to just throw money at him to reward him for such a simple circumstance.

Or when a man buys a water for me on the bus ride home because he knows I'm thirsty, out of courtesy. My heart swells up with joy at this simple act of kindness.

And when I'm sitting on that same bus, in someone else's seat, and a man approaches me and tells me I'm in his seat, we promptly find a way to figure the situation out. He and a couple others engage in a satirical exchange mocking the recent opposition protests. "Yes, yes, we had a problem with the seats here, but we are resolving it, amicably, on our own, without protests. We are civilized." It makes me want to burst out laughing. Where do these comments come from?

Or when I'm buying airtime at the closest "shack" where a woman provides me with some of the best service I've ever received and then, gives me a pack of gum on the house just to top things off. I'm floored.

Or the countless times my neighbor kids surprise me with their respect, maturity, and selfless acts that make my life easier.

You realize just how similar we all are as human beings. And all those preconceived associations we have in our heads about different people, different cultures, different values, melts away. You are able to identify with those half a world away from you. And you know that every living thing in this world deserves dignity and a decent life. That each life is significant and suffering universal, yet each person's suffering is unique and present to them only. The triumph is the good that breaks through and persists without retreat.