Day 20: Trip Memories

As we pack up and head to the airport, we're already reminiscing about our time in Rwanda and Uganda.  Here are some favorite anecdotes and lingering memories from the last three weeks. We'll update this post as students complete their reflections, so check back for more!


Clarissa:
“Everyone keeps asking me ‘How much longer are going to be here?’ As if it’s surprise I am living here in the first place. And yes it’s hard to live here and it’s not the end goal, but I like the work that I do and the experience is no doubt rewarding.” Kimberly says, as she sips her English tea. Her hair is beautifully set in a complicated looking braided half up-do, that looks like it would belong more to a princess than an in the field non-profit operations director. Kimberly works at Bududa Vocational Academy (BVA), a school that works to help adolescents of Bududa (a rural village in Uganda) gain valuable skills for work. Most of these teenagers (especially the girls) would not be employable in higher paying jobs without this vocational training. In addition the program sponsors life skill classes and basic care for orphans with it’s partnership with Children of Bududa. Though these programs are extremely beneficial and integral to economic growth of rural Ugandan villages, it’s not Kimberly’s work that impresses me, as much as her strength. She’s a westerner from California, brought into a privileged lifestyle, even just through where she happened to be born. She originally was working at a company doing marketing and advertising, but decided to leave a job where she could be living a comfortable and easy life in a big westernized city, making good money, for a non-profit position where the living is more rustic and rural than many of us could handle. From her work in Mozambique to now Bududa, she has proven that she is strong manager not only in a western business model but a African business model that can run on a completely different level.

I am personally not nearly strong enough to handle the everyday life she lives. From the complete cultural shock alone, I found myself perplexed and frustrated with rural life. Firstly I could hardly keep up with her on the rough terrain and muddy roads that lead to all major access of life, let alone handle the hoards of children, men, and women shouting at us “Mizungu!!!!! How are you?? I am fine!!!” everyday. And even after her nine months there she’s maintained composure and class. Even her lack of access to facilitates we take for granted like, restaurants, coffee shops, and quality fashion boutiques she goes without. Not to even mention the blatant and large amount of sexism she receives daily. For instance she had to fight, hard, to receive the ability to wear pants once a week to the school she works at. She constantly receives harassment, declarations of love, and strong micro-aggressions against her gender by her community. There are times when she isn’t safe. And she knows it. But Kimberly is so tough that she doesn’t waiver her convictions and stands up for herself when things seem unfair. She maintains her lifestyle of beauty and grace while still being in the field where it’s down and dirty. She keeps her feminist outlook present despite living in community where she is not seen as equal due to her gender. And most importantly she’s doing this alone. She’s working hard and has colleagues in the field with her, but no other Ex-Pats. No one to vent to on the hard sacrifice of doing something you believe in at the cost of putting aspect of your life on hold, or being alone from your family of boyfriend. And feeling unfulfilled on an intellectual level, from either cultural of language barriers she encounters in Bududa.

There’s no question that this is a hard job to do, but what is impressive is that she is unlike any non-profit in the field officer I have ever met. She doesn’t preach about what she does. She only speaks of the hardships and sacrifices when you press her. She is proud of her work but not arrogant. And she is extremely competent in what she does. I’m extremely impressed that she keeps a strong air of class and appears to only slightly adjust her life for rural Uganda (when we know it’s a huge leap) She talked with me on her experience here, and her plan for the future and I can’t help but be impressed by her ability, knowledge, ambition, resilience. She brings a new outlook to how I perceived in the field work in rural areas, and that you don’t have sacrifice you integral views and things that are important to you like tea or fashion. Kimberly deals with a lot and comes out stronger than anyone I’ve met. Which may be one of the most inspiring aspects or conversations I’ve experienced on this trip.

Annie:
One of the most impactful experiences of this trip was our day and overnight at Azizi Life. This was one of the most challenging and meaningful things we did this trip. We arrived in Muhanga Village in Rwanda and were greeted by numerous local women. These women took us into their home and showed us what they do everyday. We dug up cassava root, cooked, fetched water, made baskets, and went for a hike. I was struck by how challenging this experience was. We spent an hour in the field digging up cassava root in the direct sun. We walked down an incredible steep hill in order to dig up the cassava root and then continued to walk up the hill with the many pounds of cassava that we had collected. By the end of the day we were extremely exhausted and the women informed us that they work harder than we did everyday. This experience allowed me to see how challenging rural village life is. I am constantly amazed by how strong these women are. I have learned so much by the strength and resilience of many people here and I hope to take some of these things back with me.


Ian:
Perhaps the most surreal moments from this trip was watching Frozen with a group of Ugandan orphans, in Bududa, the day before Easter. Aside from the absurdity of the situation, I felt that the cultural significance of the scenario was an interesting case of cultural dialogue. Frozen is a movie set in a world composed almost entirely of snow and ice. I can only imagine how strange it must be for children who have never seen snowing their lives, in fact, one of the teachers came in half way through and asking me why the mud was white. I also considered how strange it must have been to what a movie about European royalty, a concept, which I imagine, is strange for them, composed entirely of white people. I was curious how the Ugandans in the room could relate to a world so foreign. Finally, I found it interesting that in the highly conservative culture of Bududa, the teachers were fine with students watching a film in which to two female leads where strapless dresses. The Frozen experience was an interesting exercise in western cultural broadcast and imposition. I don’t know what the kids in the room took away fro the film, but chances are that the movie influenced their view of the West and exposed them a culture different from their own. While it might have provided interesting cultural exposure, I am weary of the commercial and cultural imperialism that is still hard at work in the developing world. Frozen is not just a popular animation film, it is a two hundred million dollar American culture propagation machine. I’ve tried to not impose my values or judgments on the people I’ve met so far this trip, I’m not sure if Disney will do the same.

Katie:
Over the course of traveling across Rwanda and Uganda I have experienced many salient moments that seem emblematic of the themes we have analyzed in both countries, but one experience lodged itself in my memory as particularly noteworthy. Our time spent in Bududa, Uganda served as a fantastic example of in country rural life, an extremely valuable experience given that 80% of Uganda’s population resides in rural areas. From my experience, Bududa is a village of traditional Christian values (complete with a strong sense of misogyny and homophobia), subsistence agriculture in every nook and cranny of the rolling hills, and chickens scattered throughout the village as if god himself spilled them there.

In an area such as this one, the educational system vastly differs from what I have come to know and thoroughly appreciate in Portland, Oregon; this is only one reason why spending time at the Bududa Vocational Academy (BVA) proved to be an informative and intriguing experience. The day that we spent with BVA students began with songs and dances, 17-22 year old students pounding drums, swaying, and singing to welcome us into their community. We participated in some other preliminary activities, but right off the bat many of us Catlin students felt a disconnect between the BVA students and ourselves because our difference values surfaced fairly rapidly. Following the welcoming “ceremonies” (if you will) we got to participate in a debate working with BVA students around the prompt “After a major conflict, the perpetrators must be shown mercy.” We were split into affirmative and negative mixed teams and then formulated our arguments. My fellow Catlin students and I on the affirmative team began (by force of habit) by pin pointing case studies that supported our perspective of merciful thinking. Our Ugandan team members stared at us with wide eyes and quizzical expressions gracing their faces. I then discovered that the BVA students within out team held small papers that they had prepared for the debate the night prior. I inquired concerning the debate style and division of points, but the boy I asked did not seem keen to share the details. I followed up with asking to glance at his points, and what I saw left me somewhat befuddled. The numbers 1-8 were pristinely written vertically in the style of a bulleted list. Alongside each number was a single word, yet no evidence or reasoning in sight. These words, although related to the topic of mercy within transitional justice, were broad and vague such as “friendship”, “peace”, and “reconciliation.” I assumed that this was his broad outline that he would then use to elaborate on during the debate. The time came to share our arguments, each student talking for a series of minutes then to be followed by a speaker from the opposing side. The BVA students all spoke in a similar format, clearly marching through a series of ideas with little evidence or reasoning. On the other hand, the majority of the Catlin students chose a single idea or argument and dove into the evidence and reasoning. It became apparent soon after the beginning of the debate that the audience had a bias towards the opposition’s argument. This especially came to light for me when a boy on the opposing side stated the importance of killing perpetrators of crime and his talk was greeted by his classmates with enthusiastic cheers. As the debate drew to a close, a student announced that my affirmative team had lost and the opposition would reign victorious.

I originally did not read much into this experience, but after thorough thought, I realized how emblematic this debate was of the differences in education style and merciful mindset between our culture in Portland and theirs in Bududa. Following the debate, I learned that the teams were judged on the quantity of points rather than the quality of the argument. Because the standard Ugandan education is completely comprised of preparation for the final examinations, it is much easier for students to view things, such as this debate, from a more quantitate perspective, as opposed to judging the speakers on something as free form as passion or depth of reasoning. Also, given that critical thinking is omitted from the vast majority of Ugandan school curriculums, the ability to formulate a passionate argument that was anything but stating claims is somewhat unheard of. In addition to the statement about education, the debate also revealed the more widely accepted merciless mindset in Bududa. Because of the student’s bias towards the opposition’s argument, I extrapolated that the idea of strict punishment is ingrained in the minds of children from a fairly young age (whether that be through the church or home). The differences between BVA and Catlin students was clear through the debate, but at the end of the day, people are a result of the environment they were raised in. Cultural differences manifest can themselves in things as small as a casual in class debate. 

Luca:
Travel is an experience beyond words, and no matter how the journey fluctuates you always end up a more aware, more engaged, and more critical human being. Even after living close to half of my life outside the US, coming to East Africa was a culture shock that is still simply incomprehensible. Ideologies form quickly, from facts or opinion, but the Afro-pessimism belief is largely universal at this stage. When people think of Africa they likely jump to malnutrition or war and instability. But there is so much more to the region that you can never learn in a thousand days within a classroom. My most memorable or defining experience from this trip comes down to the ex-pats we were able to encounter whilst in Rwanda and Uganda. Three weeks was a long time. The days appeared to move by quicker than ever, but the amount we were able to accomplish made it seem as if we had been in country for over a month. And honestly, I, and probably most of the group found it extremely hard to adjust. Every time we were out on the street we were called Mzungos (universal African name for foreigners) and the disconnect between us and the Rwanda/Ugandan community became more and more evident. Even while in local classrooms with children our own age, we felt isolated and awkward as if there was a divide between us that we could never cross. 

That is why I am so utterly shocked by the foreigners we met with in country. From Lauren who was able to start her own business in Kigali, to Joe and Charlotte who were able to find their own means to fit into the Ddegeya community and make improvements at the clinic to Kimberly who has been able to work at a vocational school in rural Bududa completely by herself to Fiona who has been able to deal with the issues of being a women in a masculine society with seeming ease. My encounters and memories with each of these individuals has exposed to me that it is actually possible to live abroad, to live in a culture and society entirely different than my own. I have always known that I desire to travel the planet throughout my life, hopefully reaching all the corners of the world. This trip and the people I have met have only strengthened my resolve to make that dream a reality. If any of you (Lauren, Joe, Charlotte, Kimberly, Fiona) are reading this post, thanks so much again for your hospitality and thank you so much for displaying to me what is possible. 

Sophie: 
Throughout Uganda, large families are common and even encouraged by the government. In the recent past, Museveni has pushed for more children per family despite the lack of economic resources in much of Uganda. During my time at the clinic, I spent some time in the lab and was able to test a pregnancy kit. The woman who was being tested had previously been in the clinician’s office while I was spending time there, and she had spent the whole time holding her young son. Because of the language barrier and her focus on him, I had thought that he had the medical issue for the first half of the visit. After placing a few drops of urine on the stick, it quickly turned to be a plus sign. This was certainly exciting, but I couldn’t help thinking about her son’s torn up shoes and her dirty clothing. I asked the lab technician how people reacted after hearing that they were pregnant, and she told me that women usually seemed positive and it was rare for dismay to be the response. This surprised me because with all of the poverty that we had seen, how could these women want more and more children? Later that day I spoke with Charlotte, a U.S. student working at the clinic. She explained that she had never seen a negative pregnancy test at the clinic. She also told me about how contraception throughout the country and at the clinic is cheap and in some cases, free. However, many women do not use contraception because they are afraid that their husbands will leave them if they do not produce enough children. There are also many religious and cultural stigmas surrounding birth control. This leads to large families with too many children to feed and clothe, and females dropping out of school if they become pregnant. When I heard about Museveni’s big family plan, I was shocked that he would be so irresponsible. Having fewer children per family will lead to economic gains as well as a likely healthier and more educated population. If Museveni really wished to support his people, he would not be advocating for even bigger families, and maybe the woman from the clinic would have received a negative sign.

Dash:
At my homestay in Bududa, I lived with an older man who had travelled extensively in the West and serves on the board of a fair trade coffee cooperative that supplies a European chain. This was not what I had expected of my village experience (which is not to say his life was lavish; by most Western standards he would have been poor), having only as reference points my time at Azizi Life (our homestay in Rwanda) and many years of media education. The man, Nimrod—yes, Nimrod—was happy to talk about his village, his country, my country, and many things in between, and I had to pinch myself to make sure I was really sitting in a small village talking about the NBA with a sixty-plus local man. I pinched myself twice when he mentioned that he was very interested in the NBA because there was a gay player. Without the overtone of patronizing homophobia with which a school-teacher had questioned us a few days earlier, and without the disgust of others that we had met, he expressed a genuine interest in the life and experience of a gay man. Given the extent to which many of us have disagreed with prevalent beliefs on homosexuality in Uganda (many gay and lesbian Ugandans have been killed for their sexuality), and the amount of discussion/perturbation that pushed me into, it was a little breathtaking to sit there and hear that so nonchalantly, and from a respected member of the community. One of the main moral problems I have struggled with in Uganda is that its development has necessarily spread the influence of its value system, one that I have a few major problems with, specifically the treatment of women (which Ugandans seem to be changing) and their views on homosexuality (where changes most often move away from what I would like to see). There’s obviously been a lot more thought behind that, and I understand concerns about the import of Western value systems (some of which created the systems of oppression in place today), but I could not help but feel disconcerted knowing that most of the Ugandans I met likely held views antithetical to mine. I was not sure how, if, or when I could and should use my power to combat institutions I disagree with, but talking to Nimrod offered me the hope I was lacking. I realized that the way to combat those institutions was really to strengthen the others; Nimrod, in a place of relative economic success that had led him to experience many other cultures, was able to arrive at his own opinions on issues important to Uganda and to the world, and not just accept the ones that are given. Perhaps it will not change tomorrow, but if tomorrow there are more people willing to have the dialogue, it could change the next day.

Miguel:
I find myself thinking of a school visit that we took to Bududa Vocational Academy. We visited the school a total of two times, but the day that sticks out to me was the second trip, the time that we spent with the orphans that are sponsored by BVA. The whole day was interesting, but more in a comparison sense rather than a ‘yes, I really like this topic’ sense. We ate our meals separately from the students, something that many later attributed the lack of student-to-student connection to when we had a group meeting. The idea of time was a recurring theme as well, and how it plays a different role in the areas we visited, and, if we were to extrapolate it out, Africa greater than in the west. Throughout the day, I found myself considering how it didn’t seem to matter that we were close to an hour late, as nothing seemed to be going on before we arrived. After a little time, we took tea with the teacher in the Women’s Micro-Finance building, which resembled a pillbox because of the narrow slat windows, the concrete construction, and its seemingly strategic position overlooking the main school buildings. While this experience served to help us talk with the teachers, we did not get a chance to converse with the students as a result of our geographic position. While lunch was carried out in a schoolroom, the effect was the same as nobody from the school came in the open door, instead, some would walk by and stare (who wouldn’t, really, I would probably do the same). We watched the movie Frozen, although by the end, the audience consisted of us and maybe a fifth of the original student population. Many students would get up mid song and leave, having a loud door make a rather large noise every time it was opened and closed. Again, while this really doesn’t matter, it was interesting to see how different people, and by extension, cultures, react when experiencing some part of another’s. The final cultural exchange that I will mention from the day is when I and two other students (Luca and Ben) were assigned to a classroom to talk to a group of students. From the very beginning, the whole situation was odd: we were the last group to be assigned to a class, by a good thirty minutes, and when we did enter the classroom, there were students spread out, with some in the back listening to the radio from their phones. We found ourselves thinking about what we were going to talk about (we had been given close to no guidelines regarding what we were to do), so we settled on describing Portland, and some of the key features about it and its surroundings. After we delivered our small description we asked if they “had any questions”. We were greeted with a silence, and then a round of applause, and, if I were inclined to romanticize the account, I would say that there was no comprehension in their eyes. After we delivered the account, and checked again if they spoke English to any degree (the same number of people raised their hands) an older woman who had been sitting in a corner stood up and declared that she was a translator. While many of what we said was possibly lost in translation, we elicited a number of responses, with many saying that they wanted to play professional football (soccer for us yanks) and a couple mentioned basketball. With all of these varied experiences, the whole day was a mishmash of ‘hurry-up-and-wait’ combined with a bizarre atmosphere that did not seem particularly conducive to our semi-integration with the students at the vocational school. 

Ben:

I admit that I am a city boy. Nature isn’t a place where I feel most at home, so when I participate in outdoor activities I’m really stretching my comfort zone. During our stay in Bududa, Uganda we had a six-hour hike through the boarding hills of Mount. Elgon. The beginning of the hike was great. We walked past rural homes and villages saying “Mulambwe” (hello) to children who enthusiastically yelling “Mzungu” (white people). After an hour of uphill hiking I was ready to be done. Realizing that we had five hours to go quickly put me in a very negative mindset because I saw no purpose in the long hike, which seemed as if we were walking for hour for the sake of just walking. Negitive thoughts swirled through my head the entire hike, and as we neared the end I shared how I was feeling to our trip leaders Dave and Greg. I told them how much I hated every moment of the hike, and that I felt like it was a physically exhausting waste of time. But my words of negativity were met with words of encouragement. They both shared stories about their worst traveling experiences and why they were their favorite memories and experiences because they chose how they would perceive those experiences. They both offer me a different lens through which I could choose to view the hike. I could chose to sulk or realize that the winding dirt rode littered with rural Ugandans and banana plants was a completely unique experiences, and that I could decide how I viewed the experience and what I chose to remember from the experience.

On an intellectual level I think that I was able to comprehend that we have the ability to decide the lens through which we view and interpret our experiences, and depending on which we chose you either have negative or positive experiences. But in practices I admit that fail to realize this and chose a perspective that would allow me to gain more value from my experiences. As we walked on that gavel path, the lessons in stories that Dave and Greg shared with me had an impact on me because they helped me realize how much power I have in experiences in the events in my life. It was both empowering as well as pivotal moment that I have remember when I have fallen into negative thoughts about the world around me.

Shantih:

I’m highly skeptical of the entrepreneurship and start-up culture I see in my own life in Portland. I see young people pushed into creating “the next best thing” to make money or solve huge social issues, rather than taking the time to work through existing channels to create change. I attribute this phenomenon to an American obsession with standing out and young peoples’ growing anxiety about college. As part of this trip, the group looked at entrepreneurship and business in Rwanda and Uganda, focusing on social entrepreneurship. I was excited to have the opportunity to explore some of my thoughts on this facet of the business world and compare it to what I see at home. While I don’t have a single widespread conclusion about entrepreneurship in these countries, the following are some of my (unorganized) thoughts on foreigners running businesses in the two countries.

When foreigners start businesses in Rwanda and Uganda, they take a potential business from a local person. Many companies “create jobs” for locals by giving them low level jobs and employing Americans, Indians, Chinese, etc. for management positions. While their employees make very little, they take advantage of the low cost of living and have guards, cooks, cleaning employees, and lavish homes. Additionally, Westerners often bring values that are culturally inappropriate for the people they’re trying to help, working with, or marketing to. At the same time, they are the key to bringing foreign investment into their companies. At one company we visited, we met with the Ugandan founder of the business and a non-Ugandan employee that had worked in the U.S for Google for three years. He spoke candidly about his position at the business, saying, “Foreign investors like to say that they want to invest in people like Abu (the founder), but really they like seeing my business experience” I’m glad that this employee was able to secure funding for the company, but worried that this will create a precedent where only companies with a “safe” employee receive funding.

Contrary to what I expected to find, I was won over to the concept of social entrepreneurship in some ways. I realized that I considered NGOs to be superior out of my own problematic need to help, from my privileged position as someone living in a developed country. The two countries, and especially Rwanda, don’t need or desire charity. Citizens are eager and willing to work for their livelihood and a sense of purpose. If outside companies are truly able to create jobs for locals and involve them in the company in a meaningful way, this model seems to do more than throwing money at impoverished communities through NGOs.