The other day I was walking with a community member for a few kilometers through a nearby village and, somewhere between tripping over every imaginable loose stone and sweating out approximately 8.5 L of body fluids, I managed to compensate for my remarkable lack of social grace with a pleasant demeanor and polite greetings to every person we passed, as per custom. Then my walking companion asked a really good question:
“but madam, how do you know when to greet someone in English or in local language?”
Sometimes you can guess by how they are dressed. Buttoned shirt, nice shoes, and stylish second-hand-previously-for-women man’s side bag? English. If I pass a woman walking in thin kitengye and barefoot, with a baby strapped to her back and 6 kilos of firewood on her head….yeah….Runyankore. But most wear fairly neutral clothing, worn but clean, so usually it’s not quite so clear! I’ve come to the interesting conclusion that people who have passed far enough in their childhood education to learn English just…carry themselves differently. They walk with their heads up and don’t look away when you approach them. They make eye contact and you can read something there. A confidence, a knowledge, a…something. A similarity to myself? They actually WALK differently, and control their faces differently. Am I making myself clear (as mud)? Am I spending too much time swimming inside my own head? (These anti-malarials make great company!) Or…should I just accept that I have natural powers of perception and move on with my life, or at least another blog entry?
Anyway, it’s interesting. I’m not drawing any rash or sweeping conclusions other than the fact that I continue to believe education is the answer to every single problem in the world, ever. Cough. Most Peace Corps Volunteers and their Ugandan counterparts are pretty alarmed at the state of the education system in Uganda. But for now, if a kid can just stay in school, any school, for as long as possible, I think that is a significant start. After all, life doesn’t get better until someone believes it CAN be better, and I think that has a lot more to do with personal confidence, self-discipline, and exposure to even the simplest new ideas than about times tables and the fur trade of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Though, you’d be surprised how many Ugandan kids know about the fur trade of the Hudson’s Bay Company …It’s a lot.
Stay in school!
