Week 3: Miscommunications, eehhh?

Location: Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

The first few weeks of Uganda have been very eye-opening, yet there are still much more to learn. One concept I encountered multiple times was the problem with miscommunication. There are many factors that may seem to cause this: even though Ugandans speak English, their accent makes it hard to understand, and vice versa; the vocabulary used by both parties are completely different. For example, as discussed in a group meeting the other day, the word “funny” has a completely different concept describing George. In his stead, “funny” would describe someone who says one thing, but does another thing, basically breeding incompetence. There have been several occurrences where I have fallen into a pit of miscommunication.

As part of my experiences here, I wanted to incorporate an observational and experimentational project involving the community perception of quality of HIV/AIDS healthcare. In order to carry out this project, I wanted to be part of a renowed NGO, Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC). We had fair warning behind “Luganda time” before coming to this country. People will show up late and meetings will be canceled without prior communication. In the States, this would be considered rude, but here, it almost seems like an everyday activity. I went almost every day of this week to try to solidify my plans for the next few weeks, only to see that I am only treading water getting to a shore that doesn’t exist. Every time a formal report was presented, they would direct me to someone else of “higher importance” who needed to review my proposal before approving the research. It seems that the hierarchy is much less structured here and it would take months just to be active in the research I wanted to perform.

A second smaller involvement I wanted was an MDD (music, dance, and drama) training that involves a play by a group that communicates a significant life story or message. The past week, I met with a very nice and humble man named Charles who was the director of a professional MDD group named Sansa Troupe. I originally presented my project which involves being part of a performance in which they present to audience theories against stigma and violence against those with HIV/AIDS. I wanted to join a story in which people with HIV/AIDS was presented as normal. However, Charles had the impression that I would direct this group, bring them to Chicago, and present a tour of African/ Ugandan culture in Chicago. No matter how much I pushed the fact that I was a student with NO MONEY, provided that I only have a month’s time to do this project, he would consider me as a muzungu who had the ability to bring change. I was brought to him as a student, but he brought his mind to interpret me as a professional. He wanted me to write a program and story, and he would perform the MDD behind it. Obviously unable to develop something at such a large scale, this NGO, though effective and impressive, had to be scratched.

It’s difficult to stray away from the attention we attain from the way we dress, walk, and present ourselves, but it’s very important to try to learn their culture, not from the perspective of a muzungu, but as if you were one of them. Miscommunications tend to happen very often, and if you are never straight forward of your intentions, a humbling relationship could result in a disaster. There are always going to be preconceptions of you because of your skin tone, but the adjustment to their culture is undeniably something to strive for.