Cultural Time

I ate lunch with my friends Diana and Rita this week. They own a craft shop here and are doing pretty well compared to most people here. These are the women that I was told to seek out by my friend Sam at Church back in Oklahoma. They are really so much fun to converse with and are very personable. Every time I see them we end up dancing for someone that comes in the shop. They taught me like 2 moves and say I can dance like a Ugandan now, but I’m really not good at all. Anyways, it wound up being a whole afternoon with them because eating is a long, relaxed ordeal with Ugandans, which I love. If I were to go to a friend’s workplace in America for lunch, it would be 30 min. at a drive-thru and then we’d have to go our separate ways. I’m getting pretty used to taking my time doing everything here, it was really hard at first because in America I am/was very scheduled, on time, and always in a hurry. When I got here, it felt very weird taking hours to do things that in America would only a short time. I’m enjoying taking my time now and am anticipating a little frustration going back to the fast-paced American culture.
Something that I’ve wondered about frequently here is whether or not people here take time to reflect, process, and deal with life but I’m beginning to think that maybe they do all of those things the moment they occur. Perhaps they process at the time something happens, maybe they deal with life when it comes, and maybe reflection is less common because they are so present in the moment. I have noticed here that when people die, they deal with it right then and there. They wail and mourn and scream all day long when there’s a death and they take a few weeks off to mourn with others, do a burial and be with family. I’ve also noticed that when I ask people about things like death or severe struggles, they are somewhat detached from emotion. Maybe this is because they are numb to the situation, or maybe it’s because they deal with the struggle/death when it happens, they mourn so fully, deeply and completely that they are soon able to talk about without falling to pieces. So, is this maybe why I rarely see people depressed here, is this maybe why joy is the main word to describe Ugandan people? I’m not sure at all actually, I’m processing and thinking through words, but perhaps how they deal with pain and suffering is to be noted and learned. So many Americans are depressed and going through counseling for problems they haven’t dealt with since childhood or a very long time, rarely do we take time to reflect and process. Would the word for our culture be joy if we were to learn from cultures such as these? I’m not saying Uganda has it all figured out or that they deal with things in the healthiest of ways, because this is all speculation here, but I definitely thing we have a lot to learn from them and we definitely do not have it figured out. It’s ironic because early on in my trip I felt sad that they could talk about their struggles with no emotion, and maybe they are indeed numb to them, but I also don’t want to assume this because perhaps they are unemotional because death and struggling are a part of life and they deal with that and realize God is always good. Would joy emanate and would we find ways to live life to the fullest despite the crap that’s shoveled our way if we could learn from that idea? Something to “reflect” on perhaps.
All that said, it’s been really fun seeing the progression every week at Mesese, the village we go to on Fridays to pass out food and juice. A couple volunteers from an orphanage here started up this now tradition on Fridays and I’ve always enjoyed tagging along to help them out and to see all the children in Mesese. When I first started going to help, it was one of the first few times they had gone and it was near….no complete chaos. The children would fall over each other trying to get to the front of the line, they would push and shove, they would get in fights, and someone would always end up crying. Now it’s been about 3 months of consistently showing up on Fridays to pass out food and juice and they have come along way. The picture here shows how nicely they are lining up now, which is a miracle in and of itself. We have some adults that help control the children now, the kids even got quiet enough for us to pray before they were served their lunch. Last week, we had no fights and no one pushing each other over to get to the front of the line. I think everyone has realized that we bring enough food for everyone each week and they will soon get it if they wait in line, whereas in the beginning it was like survival of the fittest and no one would cooperate. When we showed up last week, the children were already in two lines (one for bigger kids and one for smaller kids), it was so neat to see how far they had come from the pushing and shoving chaos of 3 months ago to the nice and respectful orderliness of this week. It’s made it a lot more enjoyable and for the kids and us.