I’m in Uganda! I’ve been waiting a while to say that. I’ve
been here for 2.5 hours and it’s been an experience already.
I’m currently homeless and stranded. My taxi driver opened
the door and urged me out of the taxi at the closed doorstep of where I was
supposed to be staying. The guard let me into the reception area and informed
me I couldn’t stay here till Monday night. But he said it’s too early and too
dark to safely walk to find a new hotel for today/tonight so I’m stealing wifi
and waiting for the sun to come up (so different than Scotland by the way. It’s
almost 7 and the sun is just starting to appear). I also don’t have my luggage. Luckily I was
prepared with all my necessities, including a headlamp, but not any work
clothes for tomorrow. It looks like I’ll be starting work a day later.
Anyways, I’m back in Sub-Saharan Africa. That’s something
I’ve wanted for a long time. It’s sort of surreal.
I think this experience is going to be vastly different than
any I’ve had before. I don’t quite know how yet, other then I have changed a
lot over the last three years. This has changed the way I perceive the things
happening around me, and has changed the expectations I have for my time
abroad.
I always thought I knew that I knew very little, but the
more time that passes, and the more places I travel, the more I realize I know
even less than I ever imagined before. Knowing that I’ll learn new things and
make new discoveries about myself and the world we live is exciting, but it’s
also daunting and a little exhausting to know that I’m going to, yet again,
start at the beginning and have to reconstruct what I know and understand.
I love change and travelling and culture. I love the people
I meet along the way who have helped me gain a more whole understanding of
where I am, what it means to be a part of this world, and the value of
relationships. I love that anything can happen at any time, and the challenge
of adapting to the unexpected. I love witnessing, and learning, the beauty of
diversity.
But, I also know that traveling and living abroad isn’t
entirely romantic. There are a lot of negative things that go along with it,
whether that’s something as small as getting a parasite or being sick on a 12
hour bus ride, or something bigger like the number of funerals you go to for
people in your community, dealing with the uphill battle against corruption and
inequality, or dealing with all that goes along with being a woman travelling
alone in male-dominated countries.
I think over the last few years the hard things have worn me
out. No, they absolutely do not overshadow all the positive, but they make me
more cautious as I start this time in Uganda than I was five years ago when I
first came to Uganda. That caution does
not diminish my excitement to be back in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it has
reminded me that life is infinitely more complex than I can imagine and I need
to be prepared for anything. Not just prepared for any thing that could happen,
but be prepared to deal with myself in those situations.
When I was in the Philippines I had to deal with myself a
lot. When you are living on a small, quiet, island for two years you spend far
too much time thinking and being alone (although you are never actually alone,
which is just as difficult as isolation). You spend far too much time
processing the world with only yourself and anything you feel or experience is
yours alone. I was surrounded by other people and living with a great family,
but my perception of things was vastly different than anyone else’s on my
island simply because I was raised in a different culture. So when things were
hard for me to understand or deal with, they were internalized and thought
about again and again. Through this I started to realize I wasn’t exactly who I
had hoped I would grow to be. That’s a hard thing.
All that to say, I’m now cautious about the way I respond
internally to what I experience externally.
And, all that to say, I’m excited to be in Uganda. I have no
idea what these next few weeks have in store. In fact, I’m sure anything I
could anticipate will be different than the reality of what’s going to happen.
I’m looking forward to seeing how things unfold and where I end-up throughout
all of this.
I’ve only been here a few hours (I'm writing this a while after I wrote the first part), but here are some of my
initial thoughts:
1)
I’m still in shock by how many people have
imperialistic mindsets and view Africa in the way that they do. It really blows
my mind, especially when those beliefs come from people who have spent
significant time here. With that being said, it also boggles my mind how many
people spend in isolated tourist and/or ex-pat communities when abroad.
2)
I love the sun. I’m so glad to be back in some
warm weather for a while. Scottish weather was getting to me.
3)
I love the red soil of Africa
4)
I love, for now, the pace of life in Uganda. I’m
sure this might be frustrating once I start working, but for now it’s nice to
be back on a slower pace where conversations are more important than getting
things done
5)
I’m really grateful for the nice guard who
helped me out in the middle of the night, even if he was annoyed about helping
me
6)
The Philippines taught me how to bargain well. Sadly,
though, whining “sige na po” like a 5 year old kid throwing a tantrum doesn’t
help
7)
It is a little surprising how familiar things about
the Philippines came while I was there. I don’t think I realized it when I was
living there cause you get accustomed to things gradually, but not knowing what
to say to have the guard open the gate for me here or not knowing what matatu
to take to get to town or nto knowing the prices of load or even what load is
called here show me how natural things became in the Philippines. Everything became
second nature. Well, not everything. But
the basics.
8)
I love walking around new streets
9)
The Zimmerman case is allover the news here. So discouraging.
So tragic. So upsetting.
10)
I’m again sleeping under a mosquito net, taking
cold bucket showers, and sucking the last bits of meat off bones like a pro. As
much as I love long hot showers and baths and as tired as I get of mystery
meat, it’s nice to have all of these things again for a while.
11)
In Scotland
I only interact with people in grad school. No kids or old people. I’ve missed
that. Here I’m around everyone again. I’m gad for that
12)
On my
flight here they served dinner at two different times to respect those fasting.
Pretty wonderful.
13)
I’ve got
some great, very patient, very understanding, people in my life. I feel very
lucky about that.
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