Culturally Stuck

This afternoon I was going to work on some reports for Tim and I had printed off a few documents in town. Well, upon coming back from the print shop I realized that I had worms (viruses) on my USB and everything got erased. Tim was not around, so I was unable to get another copy of the reports. My housemate Amos and I spent an hour playing with the computer and making sure that everything was cleaned and protected. That meant a delay in the system of getting my homework done.

So what do I do when I am frustrated? Go for a walk. Well, I end up meeting my friend Carol and she invites me over to watch a movie. Her neighbours are so excited that a foreigner has come to visit and they all want to prepare a meal for me. The problem is... it is 4:30 and I have dinner plans with my team at 6pm. But I just keep hoping that everything will work out. So I start watching the movie and I watch the clock tick. I need to start heading back to my house by 5:45 and I am brought a huge bowl of rice and cabbage at 5:35. Yikes, first it is way too much food... enough for three meals for me... second, I have ten minutes to think about eating it... third, how do I not offend anyone by leaving early? Ugandans think that people matter more than the clock. I have a feeling I stepped on toes by not eating everything and leaving before the movie was over... Carol and Susan couldn't comprehend that I had to stick to a real appointment time.

And often I would agree, accept that when you are meeting up with a team of North American folks at 6pm, it means 6 pm or the van will leave. So I ate as much as I could, gave out my apologies and headed out the door, later than I wanted too. I am maybe a 7 minute walk from home. I get half way when I bump (not literally) into my friend Christine. She is blind and uses a cane. Well, she wanted to walk me to my gate, so of course, my pace becomes slower. I kept hoping that Tim and Angie hadn't left yet.

When I get home I saw that they were still there. Yeah! Then the guard tells me that one of my Bible study girls dropped by from the hostel and he wanted me to go talk to her. I said, "I can't right now, I have to go into town." He said, "Well, if that girl comes back, when can I tell her you will meet her?" I had a feeling that I couldn't name a time or I would really mess things up today. So I told him to tell her that I would just come find her when I got home from dinner.

At 7:30 I got home, so I walked across the street and I quickly found out which one of my 16 princesses wanted to talk. Sarah. She just wanted to "greet" me and I was glad about that. Every day the walls of shyness and language are crumbling between me and the girls and we are becoming better friends. Three of them studied inside my yard today. Yeah - God is good.

Overall, I just had a strange feeling today that I didn't know whether I wanted to be a Mzungu or a Ugandan. Did I want to live by the clock? Or would I find it more helpful just to go with the flow? Should I let computer clitches get to me? And how much more can I rejoice that the Princesses are starting to call me friend? How important is relationship building here - even if it means eating street pork and plain rice? ... Thoughts to ponder

At the end of the day I watched War Dance with my housemates. It is another intense movie about the LRA wars that happened in Northern Uganda, but it also shares about how a primary school in an Internally Displaced Refugee Camp make it all the way to Kampala for a music and cultural festival and they win a few awards. Another eye opening story of the people I live and work with every day.