When I first arrived there was me and Grace (USA), Hannah (Germany), Denise (England), Judy (Canada), and Genna (Spain). Genna left on Thursday but a few hours later Sharron (Sweden) moved in.
The other day I went to the supermarket with Hannah and we bought yogurt and muslie- so German!
We all eat most of our meals together and it's been really fun sharing our experiences at Sanyu, traveling together into town, talking about home, etc.
Most of the Mamas at Sanyu are (rightfully) territorial, and without the company of the other volunteers I would be much lonelier inside and completely lost outside the walls of the orphanage.
after dinner
Other unexpected daily facets:
- Christian dogma. I had no idea how extremely Christian Uganda is. On almost a daily basis a local will ask me in the middle of small talk conversation, "So are you Christian, or Catholic?" Seriously, I've probably been asked this by a half dozen different people at this point. It's one of the first things everyone wants to know, and personally I find it very uncomfortable. The first time I was taken aback and said "Christian," where I was then invited to attend church with their family on Sunday! I avoided answering the next couple times and once I said neither, to which the man again asked, "So you don't go to Catholic church?" "No." "But you go to Christian church?" "No, I don't go to either, I have my own beliefs." "...But why don't you go to church!?!"
I also somehow did not put together at first how being a dogmatically Christian nation influences other aspects of the culture- for example the paradoxical unavailability of birth control yet heavily stigmatized unplanned pregnancy where abortion is not an option, which in turn is how Sanyu receives most of its abandoned babies.
Another example of my naivety was in a conversation with some local teenagers where they asked me what I thought about a speech Obama recently gave in which he threatened to cut U.S. financial aid to African countries that did accept homosexuals. I said I hadn't heard of that speech but when they asked me again about homosexual rights I told them I saw it not as an issue of "gay rights" but as an issue of human rights and not any different than letting a black person and white person marry each other. This turned out to be very controversial and radical thinking to a local Ugandan, and everyone became awkwardly silent for a while after that. I later learned that in Uganda its still against the law to be openly gay and can mean death for someone to "come out."
Another facet of daily life in Uganda I was not prepared for:
- The fact that I'm not black.
This one probably sounds painfully obvious but the reason it effects me in particular is because while I'm obviously not black, I'm also not obviously white, and my racial ambiguity has proved to be very fascinating to locals.
The first question EVERYONE asks me is "What country are you from?" To which I respond "America." This is always followed by a disappointed "Nooo what country are you from?" I realized they want to know my ethnicity. I tell them my mother is from Japan and my father is from Italy and you can tell by their reaction that the "Japan" answer is what they were looking for. Apparently there aren't a lot of Asians who visit Uganda! I've been here a week and have answered SO MANY questions about what it's like Japan, how many times I've been there, how to say things like "hello" in Japanese, etc.
The other night I went to a club with Grace and Hannah (more on that later) and a local man wanted to buy me a drink and I said no thanks, but he was really adamant about it, asking "Why don't you like drinking?" and "What are you scared about, you can have one... or two!" I was really annoyed by this- I know can drink, I just didn't want to. He argued with me again that I could have a few drinks and not worry, to which I pointed to my face and said "But I'm asian." This is not a entirely untrue excuse- I have inherited from my mother a fairly low tolerance for alcohol.
The reason I tell this story is because of the man's very funny reaction to me pointing at my face and saying "I'm asian." His expression lit up and he said, "I've read about those!" (by "those" he meant asians). He then turned to his friend who was next to us and watching the whole conversation and explained how he had read somewhere that "the Chinese can't drink almost nothing!" I'm guessing that (at least I hope) I was the first person of asian descent that this man had ever met.
Another time when someone asked about my ethnicity and I told them I'm half Japanese, they told me very excitedly that they know someone who's Japanese named Kenji. As if by being half Japanese I would know their friend, he then called his friend Kenji and handed me the phone telling me to say "hi" to him. So I said "hi" to his "Japanese friend" Kenji on the phone, who turned out to be a 50 year old volunteer doctor at the local cancer center.
That's all for now- the babies are getting shots today so they need all the help they can get.
Fun Fact of the Day: I learned from Genna that in Spain, to cheer/toast your glass with a nonalcoholic beverage will curse you with "7 years of very, very bad sex!"
i hope i didnt cheers with water in spain....
ReplyDeleteenjoying your blog gina! stay safe, sharp and enjoy