Aside from some culture related issues that would happen anywhere, the most frustrating times of my life here are usually centered around work. Uganda has an education system, they have a national curriculum, they try to educate every child below 16, they have examinations, and they have universities. All of these structures lead me to forget that Uganda is a developing nation, which still has a far way to go. When that happens I get mad that the teachers do not go to work and the students are not learning a thing. So although there are many great things in place that exist in the developed world, that does not inherently mean it is going to be successful because there are plenty of departments that need to exist behind the scenes to make education effective. Number one being accountability, which simply doesn’t exist. Number two being a body of people in Uganda that are reforming education according to Uganda’s situation and not merely copying what happens in western cultures. Number three could be what causes so much of Uganda’s delay in moving forward, proper management of money and resources. UPE (Universal Primary Education) was created as a mimic of what many western countries have been doing for decades, calling for all children to receive a basic education where they can acquire basic skills. Unfortunately, the planning period for this edict must have been short because it is barely funded at all and there is no monitoring being done to ensure what the government says should happen actually happens. So there is one way that I often forget, but then am subtly reminded I live in a country that is still trying to learn how to swim. On the one hand, they have a country-wide system of schools and, on paper, everything looks in order. Just seeing that causes my mind to operate like it would in the US and expect certain things to happen at school. However, digging a little deeper reveals all the infuriating little things that prevent schools from running the way they should, like teachers not receiving pay in three months and schools not being given any books from which the curriculum is based. Other areas, like the fact that Uganda has a complex system of roads and highways and that the capital city, Kampala, feels like a small US city often lead me to forget where I am. However, I would do much better to remember to have more patience and forgiveness for this place because they are in fact still developing and really trying. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world, the people here for the most part are so resilient and happy. You don’t walk around and see people who looked depressed or starving (although that absolutely does happen, it is just not everywhere and luckily agriculture is something Uganda does well and is very self-sustaining on so although a balanced diet is lacking for most people, so also is starvation lacking for most). Maybe that relaxed attitude is hurting Ugandans because they don’t have the desperation to change and develop that some of their less fortunate neighbors have, such as Kenya or Sudan. However, it also keeps Uganda relatively peaceful. If you look at all the countries surrounding Uganda, almost all of them have wars and rebel fighting going on. For the past decade or so, Uganda has remained quiet.
The other side of this is that feeling of living in a unreal world that my friends and I often get. That comes from little things like hearing Celine Dion or Shania Twain on the radio of a really macho man, waiting in a taxi that is pretty much full but not overfilled to leave for about two hours and then breaking down half-way to your destination forcing you to get out and stuff into another taxi that doesn’t leave, not being able to swim or touch water for fear of parasites, teachers thinking that mid-day cleaning of the compound is way more important than a lesson, when cleaning means sweeping dirt from one area to another nearby, and countless other little mishaps that happen (I will write a blog all about this). Sometimes these are really irritating, but mostly they are just funny. I have to admit the transportation issue was at one point the bane of my existence, but now I plan for it and rather enjoy being crammed into a taxi where I am smashed between four people; I am learning to be patient and go with the flow and realized how I have virtually zero concept of personal space! So Uganda is teaching me some valuable lessons and when I remind myself they are not a country with a GDP to match the US, I can relax and take a breath and let things happen the way they do. After all, the slow pace allows me to have such delightful mornings where I eat my breakfast, drink my coffee, and read before going in to work, in fact it is when I wrote this lovely little post. Cheers.
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