17
May 2012
Yesterday, after the market we went
to eat at a restaurant recommended by Justin, a journalist grad of UC Berkeley
that we met here.
The traditional Ugandan food that we
ate there “matoke” (plantains boiled and mashed up), what looked like mashed
potatoes (except very, very hard, as if it was made with no milk or butter, and
with flour instead) (which I later found
out was Ugali, made out of cornmeal) pinto beans and rice. They also served meat but we didn’t eat it to
not get sick (plus, we had just come from the market with the hanging cows and
black fish and eating them would not have been the greatest of ideas). The food was pretty good and it filled me up
immediately. It is amazing, Ugandans eat almost all carbohydrates! We have heard that vegetables are expensive
and salad is a luxury. No wonder they
have so many nutrition issues! But I can
also completely understand why it is so practical to eat this way.. you get
full quickly and thus need to eat a lot less then if what you were eating was
something else. With just one small
handful of matoke I was full. And yes, I
am not one to judge by because I don’t usually eat large portions, but I am
sure the rest of the group would agree when I say that the food was very
filling.
The restaurant was on the main
street of Mityana, in a small room at the back of another, with walls painted
of light orange, and four tables with Pepsi tablecloths. There were 3 women there, waiting for
customers to come in. One had a baby and
when she began to set our tables she set the baby on the ground and the cute
little girl started crying and screaming away while the mom went back into the
kitchen to cook our meals. You can imagine
that 13 white, strange people looking at her, smiling, and making funny baby
noises to make her happy did not work very well.
 |
| I had a similar picture of our food. Beginning from left, clockwise: pinto beans, some more bean juice, rice, matoke, and there used to be some ugali here as well. Photo taken by LeeAnn |
It took us a while to explain to the
waitress what we wanted… first she brought over the whole combo dish.. with
meat, liver, matoke, mashed potatoes, rice, beef sauce, and beans. Then, after some very slow English and funny
miming she brought another dish with no liver, but with the meat. Finally after three tries we ended up eating
rice, beans, matoke and mashed potatoes.
It was a very funny miscommunication situation…
Today, I have still been reflecting
on the market from yesterday. When we
went it was just incredible how people looked at us! I mean, yes, it made perfect sense… after all
we were 13 white woman, taking pictures and walking around the market in the
middle of Uganda as if we were shopping or sight-seeing. But still, it impressed me nevertheless. They looked at us as if we were animals. I don’t mean that in a bad sense... maybe
animals wasn’t the best word choice... as pieces in a museum… as interesting
things that they don’t usually see in their day to day lives… exactly the same
way we were probably looking at them.
The majority was happy to see us, others, you could easily tell wanted
us far, far away. And I understand them
completely. I mean, who are we to just
peruse around their market? Who are we
to go around taking pictures of their children, their men and women, the state
of poverty in which they live in? Who
are we to do all that when in a week or so we will just go back to our nice and
comfortable lives, with cars, and food everyday, and clothes to buy and
computers, and cell phones... the list could go on and on and on. Who are we to enter into their lives, look at
them, and then leave… when we have everything… and they have nothing? We are NO ONE.
That is what makes me feel so
uneasy, guilty, ashamed… I don’t quite know what name to give it. Here we are,
wanting to teach these people things when in reality we are the ignorant ones
that know absolutely nothing about what their lives are like! It seems as if they think of us as superior,
as intelligent, successful people that they aspire to be like... and that just
makes me feel so… I don’t know! Yes, we
may have more economic resources, and a better education, and more job
opportunities… but what about what’s really important in life? What about what’s
it’s like to suffer, and be resilient and strong and courageous and keep
fighting and fighting? And the value of
family, friends, food, shelter… life? We know nothing about all that in
comparison! And that is what makes me
feel… uneasy. A part of me doesn’t want them to follow in
our footsteps. I don’t want them to
start a business and then get consumed with the capitalist mentality of
individual superiority that the rest of the world has. That “I must succeed, and under no
circumstances stop reaching for more, and more and more” attitude that drives
the “developing” of the “first world countries” … I don’t want them to have
that! That kind of mindset often becomes
more important to some people than their family, their friends, their values,
their time to enjoy life and not spend it always trying to get what is in the
future. But here, in Uganda, it is
relieving to see that those values and ways of life still seem to be in
place. That sense of community, of
brotherhood and sisterhood, of helping one another so that everyone can succeed
and not just me, me, me… that is still here!
And, of course, I know that what we came here to do will not have a
catastrophic impact and immediately cause them to lose those values and become self-centered,
“success” hungry, superficial people, obviously no… what we do here will help them
have a better life… but I am just pondering on it though, on the big picture of
helping those in developing countries.
It is such a sensible thing to do, in the sense that we have to be so
careful! I want them to be well and
happy and have food and clothing and shelter, but I don’t want them to end up
like extreme capitalist, competitive, individualist, self absorbed people like
the majority of the world! Okay, maybe I
am going a little far, I get wrapped in things sometimes and take them to irrational levels.... I don´t want anyone to think that helping others is bad and I am afraid that if I keep babbling on it may seem that way… my mind is just wandering now... and that is a very,
very dangerous thing… |
| Here we are at work with our posters for the presentations. |
Don´t forget to Like my Facebook page to all of the pictures!
No se olviden de ir a mi página de Facebook, ahí están todas las fotos!
You have your heart where it should be, Mane! Love you!!
ReplyDeleteSole