Things I've learned about Ugandan Culture!

You learn real fast that a white person is an mzungu (M-zoo-n-goo) and anywhere that you are seen you will hear at least one person yell that to you. It doesn’t mean anything bad just that you are white and you lead a comfortable lifestyle, some are begging but most are just saying hi. I have learned that in order to adopt a child from Uganda you have to live here for 3 years to be able to legally adopt them. So those of you who thought I would be bringing a child home, I will not be. It has caused problems because Americans come here wanting to adopt but can’t. The problem is that some people come to “adopt” but really take them for child slavery. Also I have learned that Uganda like many other places has some stupid laws for instance any medicine (including gauze) that is expired can cause your clinic to be shut down. So people that send stuff to Rafiki have to send things that won’t expire for a long period of time, really this is just a ploy for the agency that checks for the dates to get money. Another backwards thing here is their understanding of marketing. They believe that if a product sells quickly that they should not replace it. So you can go to a store looking for something that you have gotten before and they will tell you “it is finished” meaning it is gone. They don’t restock it because they believe empty shelves look bad so they just never re-order that product. I have also learned quickly that laughing here means many things it can mean surprise, wonder, embarrassment or that something is funny. That was hard because I thought the kids were laughing at each other like kids in the states but they were probably really just embarrassed. Also silly means stupid here not funny, luckily the kids are used to having so many visitors from the states that they know at Rafiki that silly means funny. So I continue to learn new things everyday about the kids and the culture here, it is way different from the states and New Zealand.