Into Africa

There will be bigotry and there will be open minds
There will be days of peace you'll never have the time

Upon arriving in Africa, I was excited but also apprehensive, as it seemed to me I was beginning a whole new trip without actually going home or having a break. Now it is hard to believe that I have been here for a month already and been in three countries within that time.

Except for a short overnight in Johannesburg, I began in Uganda. Uganda seemed to me to be most different from my own country, or at least most different from what I am accustomed. Now, however, looking back Uganda does not seem so different or uncomfortable. I think that my combined seven months in South America within the last three years, as well as various trips to Mexico, have given me at least a vague sense of fluidity and continuity across the Americas. That, and I am formulating a theory that many travelers develop a life long love for the first country they spend any substantial amount of time in. For me, that country was Argentina and grew to include South America in general. I found myself leaving South America and already missing Buenos Aires like fat kids miss empanadas.

On that note, Uganda had a lot to compete with; however, I am grateful that I had Uganda, or more importantly the people of Uganda, as my introduction to Africa. I was lucky to hosted by Alex, the cousin of an old high school friend of mine. For once, I got to arrive in a town and not worry about where I was going to sleep or how I was going to get there. I found Kampala to be a very nice, easy and friendly city (though that is at least partial due, I am sure, to Alex helping me with anything I needed to get done) but I most enjoyed seeing some of the smaller towns.

I spent a week in Tororo, on the Kenyan boarder, observing a locally run NGO that works for women's rights. I really felt that I got a much better understanding of the culture in Uganda through my time in Tororo, though each new piece of information led to more questions and often sleepless nights (perhaps I am now just more confused, regardless of being better informed). I spoke with many women who came to the legal aid centers, most of whom had very tragic stories of abuse and neglect. Though I knew about the dowry institution in many parts of Africa before coming here, it is completely different to witness some of the negative consequences first-hand. To overly simplify a very complicated situation, dowry is a longstanding cultural institution which, historically, was used to thank families for raising a daughter, but is now used as an economic incentive and often traps women in abusive relationships. I have my own personal opinions about the dowry, though perhaps more importantly, I have realized that I cannot be too quick to pass judgement within a culture I am not part of and do not fully understand. Currently, the Mufumi Project is working to make the dowry a non-refundable, optional gift so that women may leave bad marriages even if their fathers cannot return the dowry to the husband.

There were pretty much no other travelers in Tororo, so I was a bit of a spectacleand attracted a lot of attention. I had some interesting conversations with local people regarding the differences between the culture in Uganda and the culture in the States. In particular, it was interesting to learn how important tribal affiliation is in Ugandan culture. I was asked whether there were tribes in the United States. That was the most difficult question about the United States I have tried to answer. I began by trying to explain that there are some remaining native tribes but that most people in the U.S. did not have a tribal affiliation. That answer led to the question, "Then how do you know who is higher or lower than you?" I began to try to answer that, theoretically, no one is inherently "higher" or "lower" in the U.S., but that in practice this is not usually the case. Trying to explain to someone who has never experienced a culture like the U.S. the various ways people may be prejudice or not in the U.S. is pretty much impossible. It is almost as difficult as explaining to a Ugandan that you are an atheist. My, at times brutal, honesty often made conversations more interesting and, luckily for me, I don't think I made any serious enemies through it. Overall, I had a good time in Uganda; my only regret is that I did not go rafting at the source of the Nile -- that might be reason enough alone to plan a return trip.

Next, I flew down to South Africa to meet my friend Sharlee, who was helping some other veterinarians in Hoedspruit. I wasn't quite sure what I had agreed to, but I was happy to have someone else doing the planing for a little while. We ended up staying with Andre, who works in game capture for various game farms outside of Kruger Park. The whole concept of game farming was totally foreign to me, though it occurs in some parts of the States as well. Basically, Andre's job is to help farmers manage their animals by chemically immobilizing them so they can be moved safely within and between farms. The veterinarians were not as much interested in the game farming, but rather the opportunities to collect data on animals still living in their (more or less) natural environments. This situation provided me with an opportunity to learn a bit about anesthesia monitoring in large wild animals, as my previous experience is limited to cats, dogs, birds and elephant seals. The main reason the veterinarians were there was to collect data on wild giraffe, so that they might better understand how to manage captive giraffe. Unfortunately, we did not get our hands on a single giraffe the whole time we were there. Hopefully the other two veterinarians had better luck later.

I found South Africa to be quite a bit different than Uganda (as expected). To me, the country seems very much fresh out of apartheid -- like everyone is still recovering and figuring out how to move forward. I definitely noticed a bit of what would obviously be described as racism in the U.S. from some of the white population; though it seemed to me to be much a product of circumstance rather than intentional bigotry. Like the U.S. and many other countries, there is also an obvious economic disparity that will take a long time to work through. That said, I visited Soweto, a well known township outside of Johannesburg and was impressed by the progress being made there and about my misconception of all townships being full of crime and poverty. I have been really glad to start out in Uganda and South Africa. Uganda has given me a cultural immersion, though I did not visit as many of the parks as I would have liked and South Africa gave me a bit of a crash course on many wildlife management issues, but came up a bit short as far as giving me a good idea of the interacting cultures.