Foreign Thoughts

So it is Monday and the beginning of the second week of classes. Many of the other people on the program seem to think that culture shock is finally beginning to take hold. This means they are irritable and frustrated at the cultural and lifestyle differences in the country that had first interested and amused them (the first stage of culture shock is initially euphoria). I however do not think I’ve yet reached the second stage, I still find virtually everything about this place fascinatingly interesting. Also, I’m beginning to feel at home both at my home-stay house and around Kampala. Kampala is a very crowded city, full of dust, people, pollution, and humidity. The first week the city felt suffocating, but now I’m becoming acclimated, and even the taxi park, while still the bane of my existence, is less taxing on my spirit.
I believe I’ve said before that it is a miracle that more accidents do not occur both on the streets of Kampala, and in the Taxi Park. The other day my home-stay mother informed me that she did in fact have a very bad accident at the taxi park. A few years back, she was looking for a taxi, and passed in between the front of one taxi and the back of another. There is often hardly enough room to pass through but in order to negotiate your way around the park it is both necessary and frequent to do this. Though there are constantly people moving in between the taxis like this, the drivers seem to detest the practice. It seems as though when people are in a line, the closer they physically are to the front the better they feel. Perhaps this is an embodiment of that principle. Although letting people pass through the taxi’s while they are waiting for those taxi’s in front to move does not actually delay the taxi’s at all they always make a point of leaving as little room in between each other as possible so as to feel comforted that they are as physically close to the end of their wait as possible. I have personally been boxed in and had to wait for the line to move and a space to open up on several occasions. When this happens you are left with no other choice but to scurry through the space before it closes up again and you find yourself trapped. At any rate, on this particular occasion the driver moved too close and sandwiched Mama in between the two taxis. I gather that at this point she was physically unhurt, only stuck. However, the driver, fearing that he had hurt her panicked and hastily tried to put the van in reverse. Unfortunately, in his haste, he mistakenly floored it into first gear and crushed Mama in between the two vans, completely shattering her pelvic bone. After this she was never expected to walk again. Thankfully, however, she has since made a full recovery and shows no signs of any permanent damage.
This anecdote is somewhat telling of people’s attitudes towards danger here. The lack of sufficient infrastructure means that people here are forced to accept much more danger as part of their day-to-day life. From dealing with the taxi park (the main form of public transportation in Kampala, interestingly they apparently tried to build a subway system several years back but lost funding, so occasionally you will come across a stairway leading down to no where) to driving on the roads (especially on the boda boda’s which are motorcycles that can be hired, though they are dangerous they are able to weave in and out of traffic, and are therefore immune to the citywide epidemic of traffic jams.) I was talking with my home stay uncle the other day, which was educated in America, and has therefore seen American infrastructure. He commented that if the taxi park was merely ordered into columns, with a platform for the people to stand and walk from one taxi to another (something analogous to the bus station at the port authority in NYC) instead simply an open lot with conductors yelling to tell people which taxi is going where and taxi’s trapped in between one another, that it would be a much safer and more effective system. Though this is true, Uganda lacks public funding for such projects. As a result people accept the danger of simply driving to work, walking in a dirty city, and a million other risks people in America would be outraged to be subject to as simply a part of life.
I must confess that in seeing the problems Uganda has to overcome, it at times seems like there is almost no hope whatsoever. To Professor Stone, who taught my Africa: Peoples and Cultures class, and largely argued that the western media lens often makes Africa out to be a place much worse place than it actually is, I would ask if he has ever been to Uganda. There is a civil war between the Lords Resistance Army, and the current government. The strife has been constant since 1986 and it seems that they no longer even remember why they are fighting, but show no signs of stopping any time soon. The LRA is known to kidnap small children, using the girls as sex slaves and the boys as child soldiers. There are northern refugees all over Uganda. What’s more President Musevini has coincidentally been in power since 1986 as well. Last Friday he was quoted saying that he has “killed the animal” and will therefore “not give up the carcass”. Basically saying that since he has made Uganda, and so why should he be expected to turn over power? Corruption within government runs rampant, it was explained to me that unlike the United States where only the rich have the resources to become politicians, in Uganda people become politicians as a means of social mobility. It is commonly known, therefore, that politicians almost always have their own interests in mind. On top of the political issues, Uganda is extremely poor. There are street children everywhere, and something like 30% of the population lives on less than 1 USD per day, with a majority of people living on less than 2 USD/day. There is no manufacturing of finished goods, so while many argue that engaging in trade will help Uganda to develop, they can export only raw material at a very cheap price, to be made into finished goods later, the finished good are in turn returned to Uganda and sold for exponentially more than the purchase price of the raw goods. Because of the poverty Uganda is heavily indebted both to the World Bank, IMF, donor nations and NGO’s. Though they are a very poor country they are in the top 50 countries with the highest debt. Unlike the US, who is number one on the list, however, Uganda continually defaults on its debt, and has no way to generate the revenue needed to pay the debt off. This debt prevents the government from doing things necessary to allow for developmental growth, such as the building of an infrastructure, or even the implementation of safe environment in areas such as the north. In part because of poverty, public health is a huge problem as well. Though Uganda, compared to the rest of Africa, is not as plagued by HIV/AIDS, it is still a fairly prevalent problem. Everywhere there are billboards warning against “sugar daddies”, who are men of means who offer money and protection to unmarried women in return for sexual favors. Naturally these promiscuous men commonly carry the virus, but for struggling mothers this can often be easily overlooked when the opportunity to properly raise their family is presented. The other day, my friend told me she had overheard her home-stay sister’s friend breaking up with her boyfriend via phone. The boyfriend had apparently caught the girl cheating. The argument, however, was not as you might expect that she had betrayed his trust and hurt him etc. It was instead that though he still loves her, he is afraid she will give him HIV if she continues to sleep around. Though this is a very legitimate reason to call it quits, such a conversation would seem very odd in the States.
People in Uganda continually talk of the problems of the country. However, this often makes for very uncomfortable situations, as it seems to me that this is a little bit like trash talking your family. It is okay for you to do it, but no one else had better say anything about “yo’ mama”. However, the problems are quite apparent, and when someone mentions to you that the roads are quite bad in this country, it is so apparent that you cannot deny it, and since there seems to be little hope of this changing it is hard to find something encouraging to say. Normally I find myself simply nodding in agreement.
Strangely, Ugandans seem to bear no ill will towards Americans. You would think that a country so undeveloped, in large part due directly to its exploitation by the west, would be bitter about their position in the world and resentful of more successful nations. Instead, Ugandans generally seem fascinated by the U.S.’s success. They are enamored of how effectively our democracy works, how our constitution has held for over 200 years with only a handful of changes, while their own has only existed since ’86 and changes whenever it suites a politicians needs. They seem to admire everything from the roads to the pop culture of the U.S. It is kind of refreshing to know that we are not hated by the entire developing world, and living here does make you realize that though we are certainly without our issues, all in all we have done pretty well for ourselves.
The only thing Ugandan’s do not admire about our culture is our relative acceptance of homosexuality. Never before have I seen such a vehement distain for all things homosexual. They are absolutely bewildered that a nation that seems so successful can take, what they consider to be, such a backward stance on the issue. Furthermore, the issue seems always on their mind. They seem bring it up with Americans every chance they get. The practice is against the law here and the prevalent religious institutions (mostly Catholic or Protestant but some Muslim as well) all take a hard stance against it. It seems that everyone on the program has had the home stay family pick their brain about why the United States would tolerate such a practice, and so far no one has seemed to make any progress in explaining why. Of course since so much of their opinion is simply dogmatic and religiously motivated, there is little reason to even try. However, in talking to my family I found that part of the reason they hate homosexuality so much is because they equate the practice with rape and pedophilia. My home stay brother asked me if, since gays were allowed to be open in the US, I had ever been molested or hassled by one. He was shocked to learn that I had not, and did not seem receptive to my suggestion that sexual harassment and sexual preference were two completely unrelated issues. There is a lesbian couple in our program, and though for the purposes of fitting in with local custom, they have been pretty quite about it, I can only imagine how uncomfortable they must feel at times.
Interestingly, polygamy is a legal and quite common practice here. Though my family is a single mother household, many others on my program live with mothers, while the fathers only show up once or twice a week. The rest of the week they are rotating between different wives. I bring this up because it supplements the best (and by that I mean most ridiculous) explanation I’ve heard so far for Uganda’s complete fascination with a gay tolerant culture.
During orientation week the Kampala chief of police came to give our program a talk about the laws and safety in the city. Even he, in the middle of his presentation, could not resist the urge to press a group of muzungus about the gay issue. He asked if we really did allow such things in the states, and quickly informed us that it illegal in Uganda. He went on say that even if it weren’t it would not be a problem in Uganda. A mischievous smile swept across his face and, completely misjudging his audience (remember 15 out of 17 of the people in the room were girls), said triumphantly “Why would a man marry another man when he can marry TEN women?” Apparently this “solution” to the “problem” was sufficient enough for him. At any rate I just find it fascinating how they (and a large portion of the world) seem to be obsessed with an issue that to me doesn’t even seem to be an issue (especially in a country like Uganda where there are a million other legitimate, life threatening issues for people to worry about).
Anyway, I had about a million other things to say, but perhaps fortunately for those who made it this far down the post, they have escaped my head for the moment. Kwaherini, until next time.