Days 17-18: Social Responsibility
I sat on the bus with my windows rolled down and headphones on off in my own zone writing this blog post. As our bus came to a stop sign a boy came to my window. At first I didn’t notice him asking for money, food, and water to drink, but when I noticed him I quickly said, “No, I don’t have anything. Sorry.” As he slowly walked away, I was brought back to a very familiar feeling that I had felt throughout my travels in Rwanda and now Uganda.
The clear signs of poverty among many that I have seen and the conversation that our group and I have had with normal people, businesses, and government officials have developed in me a sense of skepticism both during and after those interactions. As you interact with everyday people on the street I quickly realize that people see me as a person to be taken advantage, or when you meet with government officials I wonder whether they are being truthful. In those interactions it is difficult to rationalize whether your interactions and the connections you are making with people are genuine. I’m a very optimistic person, but because of this situation that I have described I have had to put up mental barriers that have in away distanced me from the realities of the people that I have encountered on this trip, just like the little boy at the stop light.
In our first two days experiencing urban life in Kampala, Uganda we had days that were very full with meetings, visits and activities. We went to a big market with open areas and inside mini malls that were crowed with tons of people, buses and boda bodas whizzing past as I tried to find souvenirs. Next we visited Gadhafi Mosque, the center of Islam in Uganda, then Kabaka Palace where we saw Idi Amin’s torture chambers, then Tugende, a social entrepreneur company helping people own their own bodabodas, and finished the day at the Uganda vs Bukina Faso soccer game.
Today we visited the two social entrepreneurship companies, Unreasonable East Africa and Village Energy as well as the Uganda Aids Commission. With these experiences in mind, I have found out just how much influence government has in social atmosphere and economic condition of Uganda. These experiences have lead me to reevaluate the perspective that I view my world and experiences is difficult and in a way representative of what I think makes difficult it is to determine whether the people are and organization I interact with are working with good intent and converting that in positive action.
In addressing the social atmosphere in Uganda, I reflect on my experiences that exemplified the gender roles, most of which conflicted with my own ideals. At Gadhafi Mosque we were lead on a tour by Ashraf, a corky east African history teacher with a great sense of humor. Although he was such a nice guy, some the said to me aback. He mentioned that women had to pray in separate places then the men in mosque and his personal view that women’s’ best role is at home taking care of children and the needs of the household. I was left wondering about the positive and negative influence that religions had on the social order of human history and current social conditions. Reflection on the influence that religions have in the world, I realize how religion is volatile medium that can push people the most extreme forms of generosity as well as violence depending on peoples interpretations on religion. Gender role persist outside of religion and affects the education woman are able to attain. Undercurrent Abu, the confounder of Village Energy mentioned that often Ugandan girls are kept out of schools not because Ugandan culture does not love or value women but that the opportunities that education affords women have yet to be viewed as valuable, especially when they lead young women to leave home and go to cities far from home to find work as apposed to staying close to the family. These examples are relatively tame compared to much of the gender discrimination that happens in Uganda, however they speak to the complexity that arises when thinking about how these issues should be solved.
--Ben