So before I left I was joking with Mugs...would I miss him or cheese more? Well actually I've barely missed cheese at all. I have of course missed Mugs but the other things I have missed have not been the things I had expected to miss.
The number one this is variety. Each day I wake up and I greet the same people, in the same way, at the same time. I eat one of the same two things for breakfast and I do the same chores in the same order. I got to the trading centre and visit the same shop to buy the same items (toilet paper and airtime!) and I walk the same route back to my house, waving at the same children who shout Mzungu how are you repeatedly! I then take the same route to my schools, teach different classes but similar sessions each day and go through the same repetitive process of greeting "How are you?" "How is the day?" "How was the night?" "How is work?". With the same responses "We are find sank you", "We are here pushing on" "We are trying" "The day is OK". I miss the flowery language, here the level of English is good but there is one way to say everything. If you try to vary that then they won't understand. There is a same sample of topics that people like to ask the Mzungu: "How do you find the climate" "What do you think of Uganda" and "Do you really eat posho?". In Uganda you tell people what they want to hear. You ask someone to do something and instead of saying sorry I am busy, they will tell you they will be there, but then fail to come. The ever frustrating "we are coming"! Fortunately when I meet up with the other international volunteers we are able to broaden our vocabulary and discuss issues other than the climate and posho. This has been my lifeline and I think intellectual and varied conversation has been one of the things I miss most. This is a country where the sun rises and sets at the same time each day, a place where many people with be born, live and die in the same village, maybe leaving afew times in the lifetime. it is a place where weekends blur into week days and each day is just a series of actions which constitute a survival. I wonder if the people here crave that variety, but how can you miss something you have never had? That is part of the problem with Western culture creeping into the developing world. Nobody misses something they have no knowledge of. Then you bring TV and show them sky scrapers, fast cars and places which look strange and foreign....only then do they become discontent.
My low point of the week was when a man on a bicycle, who I have never met, passed me as I was walking along talking to two school girls. He shouted at me "look our girls are suffering and you don't want to help them". These girls seems fairly happy to me. They were fairly smartly dressed (aside from one lacking any shoes) and could speak some English so obviously had had some level of education. It made me sad that people think the only way a Mzungu can help is to throw money at people.... When in my opinion that has created a lot of the problems here-a dependency on aid and a reluctance to work hard but to wait for someone to come along and give them money for being "poor". As I said in my previous post I have doubts about the true impact of what I am doing.....but the man on the bicycle was wrong. It is not that I don't want to help it's just that I am trying to help in an innovative way and that is why I am still proud to be here with Restless Development. Restless Development has some progressive and forward thinking views on development, equipping young people with skills and correct information to enable them to make healthy life choices, not just buying them a pair of shoes and leaving them to wait for the next handout.
So I miss variety but one of the things I will miss is meeting people everywhere I go. Whether I sit on a taxi, or I go for a soda and sit outside the shop, or a I walk along the street or spend a while in the staff room. I always meet someone. Some people have really interesting stories and many of them want to know all about me. Back home days can go by when you never meet a new person....here I am never alone.
When my time is up I will be sad to leave Busaana and all the friends I have made there. I will miss the eternal sunshine and the smiles and waves of the kids. But when the time comes I will be ready to come back to see all of your smiling faces, to eat my five a day again and sleep in a comfy bed. But please don't be shocked if I shout "I am fine how are you" at random intervals or if I start to wave at all the children I see. And if there is a family of chickens in my kitchen well maybe I'll have just brought a bit of Uganda home with me! (Right on cue a chicken just walked into the internet cafe I am sat in!).
I hope some of my ramblings have been of some interest to you and that they at least find you in good health.
See you all in less than 2 months!
Sula Bulungi (see you soon)
xxxx
Monday, 20 June 2011
Are you German-ese??
Hi all,
So I have been shocking at updating my blog-apologies for that. It seems everytime I find an internet cafe my patience for super slow internet lasts long enough to send a couple of emails but not to write a thoughtful heartfelt blog. Either that or I just can't think of anything witty or interesting to say at the time. Not that things here aren't interesting it's just life here in Uganda has become normal. It's like asking me write about going to Walkley high street to buy some milk and to the lab for a day of work. Teaching lessons with chicks wandering the classroom, traveling on the back of a bicycle to work and demonstrating how to use condoms to anyone who asks is just normal and doesn't seem news worthy anymore to me! I have just under 6 weeks left in my village now-time seems to be flying by. People in the village keep asking when are you leaving and then respond by saying "we will miss you so much". I feel myself just welling up thinking about leaving. Don't take that to mean I'm not looking forward to coming home-I am really excited. It's just during my time here in Busaana I have made some real friends who have got me through some tough times. The community have been my support network. They have made me feel so welcome and for that I will be eternally grateful. Yesterday Wakko my co-volunteer from the community said to me "everyone likes you. you greet everyone and they are now used to you" "soon I will be missing you". Comments like that mean a lot to me as I am so different to everyone here so being accepted is difficult and doesn't come overnight. I come from a different world and can be seen by some as coming in here and trying to push my Western ideas onto people. I am really aware of that-and the damage that Mzungus have done in Uganda and across Africa in the past. It means I am careful about the way I go about things. I conduct my work in a way that I am proud of. I try to be culturally sensitive. I try to give people information that is correct and help them to realise the reasons why changing their behaivour can benefit them and the community. I have done a lot of soul searching about whether what I am doing here is having any positive effect and I haven't come up with an answer. Development is a tricky problem and there really isn't a golden solution. I am confident that the work I am doing is at least not having a negative effect and as an individual I have learnt a huge amount about myself and about the world by being here. I apologise that these blogs aren't more thought out and coherent-they generally tend to be a brain vomit given the time pressure of internet cafes!!
One exciting opportunity that came my way was an invite to a wedding. The deputy headmistress from the primary school I work in was marrying a teacher from the secondary school I work in. Unfortunately I only had a weeks notice so ended up looking like a bit of a scruff bag amongst all the women in their beautiful gomesi (the traditional dress here). They were in such bright colours with no two the same. The whole church was filled with colour and music. There was a choir with a PA system (turned up a little too loud so it distorted when they sang too close to the microphone!). The choir were amazing though-they had such energy and vibrancy-you could see in their eyes they believed in what they were singing and looked totally absorbed in the songs. There were lots of people there that I knew, teachers from the schools, my friend Rebecca's mum and Mama Nagitta Teddy- the nurse from the health centre who is like my adopted mother! I sat with her and took some photos. As the bride, Annet, came down the isle she looked like she was on top of the world. She was beaming from ear to ear, totally embracing that this day was hers. She half walked half danced down the isle waving and smiling at people along the way. Her husband to be was stood at the end of the isle looking proud, humble and incredibly happy. The format of the wedding was very similar to that of a wedding in a church in the UK. A gift of the missionaries I guess!
At the moment when they ask "Does anyone know of any reason why these two should not be legally married?" there was the usual silence, followed by a nervous giggle. Then out of nowhere a woman screams AYE-JAI-JAI-JAI-JAI-JAI-JAI! This is copied by women across the church and whole church erupted in these screams. Fortunately I am used to these kinds of screams. Instead of clapping as a sign of appreciation Ugandans favour this super loud, almost panic sounding scream! The Vicar, who seemed to be quite the comedian, didn't seemed phased and continued to conduct the ceremony. Sadly the service was in Luganda so the humour was lost on me but I have never seen a vicar have so much fun! Part way through the service I heard a strange noise coming from the pew in front of me....then I realised there was a chicken, with its legs tied in a carrier bag sat under the pew in front of me. Certainly the first wedding I've ever been to with a chicken in the congregation! I was heading to Jinja straight after so I didn't make it to the reception (it also rained at the end of the service to we were stuck there for an hour waiting for the rain to stop) but it was a fantastic experience. When I saw the teachers the following week they all said thank you to me for coming...it seemed strange to me that my being there was worthy of thanks....but that's UG as they say. I was thankful to have been invited!
So I have been shocking at updating my blog-apologies for that. It seems everytime I find an internet cafe my patience for super slow internet lasts long enough to send a couple of emails but not to write a thoughtful heartfelt blog. Either that or I just can't think of anything witty or interesting to say at the time. Not that things here aren't interesting it's just life here in Uganda has become normal. It's like asking me write about going to Walkley high street to buy some milk and to the lab for a day of work. Teaching lessons with chicks wandering the classroom, traveling on the back of a bicycle to work and demonstrating how to use condoms to anyone who asks is just normal and doesn't seem news worthy anymore to me! I have just under 6 weeks left in my village now-time seems to be flying by. People in the village keep asking when are you leaving and then respond by saying "we will miss you so much". I feel myself just welling up thinking about leaving. Don't take that to mean I'm not looking forward to coming home-I am really excited. It's just during my time here in Busaana I have made some real friends who have got me through some tough times. The community have been my support network. They have made me feel so welcome and for that I will be eternally grateful. Yesterday Wakko my co-volunteer from the community said to me "everyone likes you. you greet everyone and they are now used to you" "soon I will be missing you". Comments like that mean a lot to me as I am so different to everyone here so being accepted is difficult and doesn't come overnight. I come from a different world and can be seen by some as coming in here and trying to push my Western ideas onto people. I am really aware of that-and the damage that Mzungus have done in Uganda and across Africa in the past. It means I am careful about the way I go about things. I conduct my work in a way that I am proud of. I try to be culturally sensitive. I try to give people information that is correct and help them to realise the reasons why changing their behaivour can benefit them and the community. I have done a lot of soul searching about whether what I am doing here is having any positive effect and I haven't come up with an answer. Development is a tricky problem and there really isn't a golden solution. I am confident that the work I am doing is at least not having a negative effect and as an individual I have learnt a huge amount about myself and about the world by being here. I apologise that these blogs aren't more thought out and coherent-they generally tend to be a brain vomit given the time pressure of internet cafes!!
One exciting opportunity that came my way was an invite to a wedding. The deputy headmistress from the primary school I work in was marrying a teacher from the secondary school I work in. Unfortunately I only had a weeks notice so ended up looking like a bit of a scruff bag amongst all the women in their beautiful gomesi (the traditional dress here). They were in such bright colours with no two the same. The whole church was filled with colour and music. There was a choir with a PA system (turned up a little too loud so it distorted when they sang too close to the microphone!). The choir were amazing though-they had such energy and vibrancy-you could see in their eyes they believed in what they were singing and looked totally absorbed in the songs. There were lots of people there that I knew, teachers from the schools, my friend Rebecca's mum and Mama Nagitta Teddy- the nurse from the health centre who is like my adopted mother! I sat with her and took some photos. As the bride, Annet, came down the isle she looked like she was on top of the world. She was beaming from ear to ear, totally embracing that this day was hers. She half walked half danced down the isle waving and smiling at people along the way. Her husband to be was stood at the end of the isle looking proud, humble and incredibly happy. The format of the wedding was very similar to that of a wedding in a church in the UK. A gift of the missionaries I guess!
At the moment when they ask "Does anyone know of any reason why these two should not be legally married?" there was the usual silence, followed by a nervous giggle. Then out of nowhere a woman screams AYE-JAI-JAI-JAI-JAI-JAI-JAI! This is copied by women across the church and whole church erupted in these screams. Fortunately I am used to these kinds of screams. Instead of clapping as a sign of appreciation Ugandans favour this super loud, almost panic sounding scream! The Vicar, who seemed to be quite the comedian, didn't seemed phased and continued to conduct the ceremony. Sadly the service was in Luganda so the humour was lost on me but I have never seen a vicar have so much fun! Part way through the service I heard a strange noise coming from the pew in front of me....then I realised there was a chicken, with its legs tied in a carrier bag sat under the pew in front of me. Certainly the first wedding I've ever been to with a chicken in the congregation! I was heading to Jinja straight after so I didn't make it to the reception (it also rained at the end of the service to we were stuck there for an hour waiting for the rain to stop) but it was a fantastic experience. When I saw the teachers the following week they all said thank you to me for coming...it seemed strange to me that my being there was worthy of thanks....but that's UG as they say. I was thankful to have been invited!
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