Home Again, Home Again!

7.29.09
Today in Kampala my friend Elisa and I were on a boda and our driver was talking about Americans. He said that he liked them more than Europeans because they try and adapt to African culture more. But was the generalization of Europeans and American culture correct? He continued by telling us that Germans were the worst because they had no desire to be with Africans. Whizzing through the streets of Kampala I had a huge realization: seemingly harmless generalizations turn into segregations which manifests into discrimination that has occasionally erupted into genocide. The Rwandan genocide originated around cows. When we as humanity find our differences to be flaws we lose the diversity and unfortunately sometimes we also lose our humanity in pursuit of cleansing.

Although I loved Rwanda, getting to Rwanda was very hard. We had to take a greyhound type bus nine hours from Kampala to Kigali. But before that we had a three hour taxi ride to Kampala. On our way to Kigali we left on a one am bus ride.

Since the roads in Africa are littered with deep pot holes and sometimes are not paved, the journey is very very bumpy. On the way back to Kampala we sat in the last row of the bus. Apparently children can ride the bus for free if they sit in your lap or on the ground. The back row had six seats. My three friends and I occupied four of the seats. Two Ugandan women sat next to us. They also had a baby and twp children. Somehow we managed to fit seven or eight people in six seats. At one point the children on the ground puked in a bag and they may have pied in it too.

As I have mentioned before I am learning patience above all else. It has been very interesting for me to watch the people around me. Some volunteers are very calm with Ugandans and the situations that arise. While some are the complete opposite. Andrea, our director has more patience than anyone. She knows how to handle the situations as well. Americans tend to raise their voices to show frustration but this really bothers Ugandans and tends to escalate the situation. I am learning how to deal with all types of people.

I’ve had a few medical issues. I get severe lower abdominal and back pain. I went to Kigali’s hospital and IHK in Kampala. In Kigali they thought it was cysts on my kidneys but after an ultra sound in Kampala they have no idea. More tests soon. Hope I am okay!

Also we just got 5 new kids:) iam so excited!