Uganda Agenda

My least favorite thing about Uganda is the prevailing missionary and volunteer presence. There are so many organization there that it creates an expectation that whites have money to spare and makes the culture (at least initially) less accessible. There were 2 Ugandans in particular where I sensed this duplicity. One was a young man who repeatably approached us in our hostel with an overzealous business plan that involved using orphan labor to produce sandals to sell to foreigners. The other was the woman who did our laundry. Though she generously invited us into her home, it never felt like a comfortable visit between friends. She would laugh and agree with most anything we said, but I felt she purposely kept her true opinions (about culture, religion, politics etc) to herself. Her real agenda seemed to include coercing me into teaching her daughter sewing lessons (though they are already lucky enough to be enrolled in a vocational school for this), getting Jamie and I to rent a room that a friend of hers had available, and convincing me to buy paper beads from her daughters. I rationalized these sorts of exchanges by reminding myself that these individuals didn’t represent all of Uganda and that their assumption that I have more than them is basically correct. They don’t have a particularly upfront culture so I suppose it makes sense that they would ask for help in what appears to me an underhanded manner. And the foreigners here have an agenda as well - whether it is to feel better about themselves by volunteering, to have an African adventure, or to push their religious views. There are so many different approaches to helping Africa and it is hard to sort out what is simply well intentioned (and not so well intended) and what is actually working. On a more positive note, I think Sewing Hope's secular approach of training teachers within existing community groups is truly sustainable. In contrast, many church groups make large donations of sewing machines, yet no one actually knows how to operate or care for them. While lesson planning this summer, we were constantly questioning our goals and our approach to ensure that our efforts were effective.