BLACKOUT

Tonight was the best BBQ of the summer. We had a going away shindig that was tons of fun, besides a few bumps along the way. For one, Uganda has a series of power outages everday. We did not feel the full brunt of this issue because our dorm continuously ran on a generator, but most people were not so lucky and sat in darkness for most of the day. Just as we were set up to get our BBQ rolling, the power went out. So we had a candlelight BBQ, which felt very much like a vigil. Even though there wasn't booming music as planned, there was plenty of entertainment due to the excessive number of guests. The scope of the BBQ had been clearly misarticulated and everyone was under the impression that they could invite guests. And as the African way of doing things would require, each of those guests invited four or fice people. In the end, there were more than 100 people there, more than half of which program participants did not know. But it was a great time because of that. I met several new people. The best part of the night was the opportunity to have real, raw, and intimate conversations with Ugandan youth. I am already rather straightfoward when I talk to people, but after a couple of drinks, I was even surprised at how forthright I was with my questions. I had noticed that upon meeting a Ugandan, before you even got to a comfortable level of conversation, they'd adsk you "how you found life in the US". This question was problematic to me for a couple of reasons. 1. It's a fact that many times Africans befriend foreigners so that they can help them go abroad. 2. I didn't want my nationality to be a focal point on the trip. I wanted to experience a true immersion. So initially when asked this question, I'd dodge or brush it off with a generic answer. But tonight I was in the mood for intellectual stimulation and to challenge folks. So when asked the question, I'd ask them why they asked. Honestly, I was told that 1. They didn't like life in Uganda and wanted to leave and possibly go to America so they wanted to know what life was like there. 2. They were bombarded with American pop culture and wanted to know if that was how people really lived. I was happy to hear these answers because it gave me the opportunity to explain why the grass is not always greener on the other side. Yes, the financial quality of life in the US is more promising that most of Africa, but what many of the people I came across were unaware of was the social/racial inequality and challenges faced everyday. They had never been told that they'd be discriminated against because of their race, immigrant status, and being African. They couldn't understand why even though they'd have a degree from a very prestigious African university, it would probably mean nothing in the US. Or that I was living comfortably in Uganda because of the rate of exchange, but in the US I was STRUGGLING to pay my bills. These were things they never associated with the American Dream. So though I'm sure many of their initial goals were to capitalize off of meeting me, I was satisfied in knowing I had done something to broaden their understanding of life as a poor, black person in America.