Mundane Thoughts

After more than a year in Uganda, most things don't seem very astounding. A man carrying a bed on a bicycle? Common. Squeezing 8 people in a car? I'm sure there's room for another person. A 3 o'clock meeting that starts at 4? Perfectly on time. Washing clothes by hand, fetching water, and occasional power outages? That's just life.

So, I haven't really felt like I had much to say. My adventures out of school have, mostly, been documented with photos (http://picasaweb.google.com/becky.uganda) which seemed more explanatory than anything I could write.

But, there are other, cultural differences that aren't visible on the surface that I'm struggling with understanding. I've been nervous about posting them because I don't want to offend anyone. So, please, don't be offended. These are just my mental wanderings. They'll probably change tomorrow.

TIME MANAGEMENT
As the saying here goes: "Whites keep time; Africans have time". Most people I've met are very poor about 'keeping time'. This means people leave for a meeting around the time it is supposed to begin. This can be relatively frustrating, but becomes less so when you don't bother about keeping time yourself. My challenge has been balancing school, which does run on time, with the rest of life, which doesn't.

Having now gotten used to 'having time', I really enjoy it. I'm not stressed or hurried. When I take a taxi to the next town, I bring a book and don't look at my watch. If the drive takes 30min, I'm happy. If it takes 45min, I don't mind. If it takes 1 hour, I just get to read more of my book.

The downside is that it's challenging to organize things, because people just meander over, and to get everyone sitting down at once can be a bit challenging, and can take going around and collecting them. Two or three times.

The upside is that it's really easy to make time for things. If a student asks a question, I can answer it and not worry about the class I'm headed to. If I'm a couple of min late, no one minds, and I can just go over a couple of min.

MONEY
Is not a personal possession here. If I have money and you don't, I really should give it to you. And you'll, probably, pay me back. I think this has 3 possible causes.

1. The culture is very community/family-oriented. Things aren't done for the individual, but for the group. So keeping money would be extremely selfish
2. Most people live hand-to-mouth. If a teacher is making 500,000/= ($250) a month, he/she will take it all out as soon as they're paid (which is another topic - they're not always paid on time). There is a limited idea of saving money. Most of the money will go to pay school fees or to start a project such as a new plot in the garden, build a house, buy land, etc. This leads to the third point:
3. Banks don't play a large role in money management. They're main function seems to be a way to pay civil servants, who then remove all the money. This is partly the culture, and partly the unfriendliness of banks. To withdraw money costs 35 cents at an ATM and $1 from the cashier. The lines to withdraw money can be 2+ hours long, especially when civil servants have just been paid. Getting a loan is also a challenge, with interest rates at 25%. So, things like land, crops and buildings are good ways to save money. And friends are good places to get loans, with exceptional interest rates.

As a side note, I have two of these loans out at the moment. Both to teachers who want to buy land. One for $250 and one for $500. They're both paying me back at $50 a month, which is nice for me - I can cut down on my trips to the bank.

BEING A 'MUZUNGU'
This one I don't know if I could ever get used to. I've been thinking about how to explain the feeling, and this is my best analogy:

Imagine Martians came to visit earth. They look and act like people in all ways, but they've got green skin. And they're really friendly, and have helped us by giving us lots of fossil fuels and some new meds that even fight the common cold (by pure luck, they're ahead of us technologically, but they're not actually any smarter). Let's imagine many of them come and want to live in our communities to learn about us, teach us about them, and maybe share some technology. Now, what would the reaction be when some walked down the street? How would people treat them? Would they stare? Would them come up to say hi? Would the kids get extremely excited every time they walked by? Would people invite them over for dinner? Would people ask them how they themselves can go visit Mars?

Okay, so this analogy isn't extremely accurate, but it helps me imagine it from a Ugandan's point of view. Even though someone is the hundredth person to ask me if I can take them to the US, or to tell me about the horrible poverty, or just to randomly greet me and want to know where I'm from, etc. they've probably just asked me for the first time, and don't mean to be annoying. Usually.

The guys still get me though. The things they think work on girls are outrageous. And the speed at which they think relationships form is astounding. I meet someone on the bus and they want to be my best friend. I stand in line with someone at the bank and they want to get together for a weekend. I greet someone in town and they want to marry me. Beats me where these ideas come from, but I've gotten tired of arguing, so I try to avoid greeting young (anything less than 40) men in town, unless I know them.

A side note for worry-warts like my Dad: The men may be annoying, but they are not threatening in any way. I think some of them do it just to tease me and see how I react.

TEACHING
A major part of why I came to Africa with the Peace Corps was because I wanted to teach math/science. I was hoping to figure out if being a teacher is something I could pursue as a career. Answer: yes. Most days. When my kids act up, or I mark 100+ failing papers I think about abandoning that idea. But, on the whole, I love sharing knowledge with kids, and I love having an excuse to keep learning new things everyday and to come up with ways of explaining it.

However, there are some things I don't like about teaching here:
1. No textbooks. Think about this for a sec; how do students study without a textbook? Answer: the teacher gives it to them, bit by bit. Now, there's nothing I hate more than giving students notes to copy, but there's not much choice; they need to have good, clear notes.
2. Large class sizes. 60+ students are hard to teach. More tests to grade, more names to learn, more students to manage in a classroom. But, the biggest challenge is a lack of personal time with students. Especially in math. Sometimes I've got 5 students who've already figured out the problem and 5 students who can't even figure out the first step. Keeping the bright kids engaged and the slower ones from completely zoning out is a serious challenge.
3. Very fact-oriented curriculum. I hate this one. With a passion. Who said that students should focus on learning all the characteristics of cockroaches, butterflies, termites, etc. and not focus on critical thinking? Because it really is a shame. And not any fun to teach
4. Uniforms. I'd never been to a school with uniforms, and I don't like them. They idea is good - everyone is on the same level, but clothes are such a good way to express individuality. I've got a class full of kids in white shirts, black ties, and shaved heads. They all look the same. I love it when we have events on weekends, and the students come in their usual clothes. They seem more like people.
5. An office, or desk, or something. I would never have thought of this before, but having a desk is such a wonderful thing. You can keep papers on it, and textbooks. Your students know where to find you. You can keep a planner on the desk and not forget things. Instead, I carry everything to and from school everyday, which limits what I want to bring, and often means I'm going home for something I forgot.