Coming Back

I have been back to Uganda for a few weeks now. Some things are better, some are worse. The trip home was definitely wonderful and seeing all my friends and most of my family was beyond great. However, that did make it much more difficult to get on the plane back to Uganda-even more than the first time because I knew what I was going back to. I won’t lie, I cried the whole day I left, even in Brussells and Newark. And no, I didn’t cry in Newark because I had to hang out in one of the armpits of the nation for a few hours, but it meant that I had to leave everyone I love and care for and everything that is so nice and secure about the place I grew up. But once I back to Uganda and faced things I knew would be a problem and went to places I recognized, it wasn’t so bad. I actually didn’t want to spend too much time in Kampala-the closest Uganda has to a first world county, e.g. showers, power, toilets, etc. Maybe because I had so many luggages and was experiencing jet lag, I just wanted to get to my village, my two room house and sleep on my foam mattress. I also had my animals to come back to and my neighbors who I knew would be anxious to hear about my time in America, the far off fairy tale land where jobs and money are easily found and life is lazily simple-a delusion I’m still trying to expose. In some ways they are correct, we have machines and tools to do many of tasks they do by hand here, but at the same time we have to work that much harder and efficiently with a much higher standard for all products and services. The mediocrity that many people accept is astounding, for instance if someone makes something that you don’t want or has been built unacceptably poorly they still expect you to take it or at least pay for it. When people say ‘ignorance is bliss’ or ‘you don’t miss what you never had’ can definitely apply here, and probably most third world countries. It’s fortunate for some people that most of the country doesn’t know any better and will tolerate sub-standard products and services, but at the same time it’s keeping the economy down because it makes the country as a whole seem inferior-or, maybe just to me.