Day #10

5-29-09

Today I was able to observe an urban slum in Kampala. Just as I suspected, it looked horrendous. Like Budumbuli, most water sources were not free and the majority of individuals were renting their "homes," if you can even call them that. Not only this, but many of them had to pay to use a toilet! It just seems so wrong to me that these people (who are in horrible conditions to begin with) have to pay for basic human rights such as water and toilet facilities. Maybe this is something I can bring before a government official if we end up meeting with somebody.
After walking through a slum with Alex as our guide, a few of us asked Sam why different people react differently to us walking through their neighborhoods. He said some people are probably embarrassed with us seeing their living conditions and therefore, don't necessarily want us there. Others, however, are very excited at the sight of our presence (mainly children). I wonder why that is.
In the mall where we ate lunch there were so many Mzungus (the African word for "foreigners" or "white people")! I don't know why, but it bothered me. Perhaps it was because I knew most of them were Americans and obviously possessed a lot more than 75% of Uganda's population (just an estimate). I don't know why there were all here- perhaps they came for similar reasons as us or are even on a mission trip. But it just bothers me to see rich Americans in a third world country. In my Modern Social Problems class, Prof. Norwood had us watch a movie about tourism in Jamaica and it just put things in perspective. While tourists are "living it up," the locals are struggling daily just to survive. The same is true of Uganda, too, I'm sure. I guess for this reason I felt a little funny about staying on Mt. Elgon in Mbale. It would be interesting to know what the locals feel about this particular issue.
I'm glad we consider ourselves sojourners (temporary residents) rather than tourists, but I wonder if the people of Uganda see us as such, too. Sometimes when walking in our large group it's hard not to feel like a tourist- especially with all our cameras and such. But then again, we've seen and experienced so much that tourists would essentially run from and avoid. So in that sense, we are definitely not tourists.