HUMAN BEING vs HUMAN DOING
"So, Sharon, why on earth are you spending nearly four months in Uganda???!!"
In August, 2010, I went to Iraq to entertain the U.S. troops. While there, I met several Ugandan soldiers who had been hired as security forces on all of the bases. Some of them became my Facebook friends, and we'd been chatting for months. One of them, Kato Jackson, invited me to come to Uganda to see his beautiful country. And so I did!
In January, 2011, I spent nine days in Uganda, escorted at all times by Kato, his best friend Moses, and our driver, Cyrus. It was an amazing week, with trips to the source of the Nile River, Lake Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth National Park for a safari.
What I really loved, though,
was how the people in Uganda seemed to be so much less tied to the clock. My entire life I've been working, working, working, competing, striving, rush, rush, rush, set and meet my goals and move on to the next. Being this type of person has served me well -- I've had an amazing life full of accomplishments. But it occurred to me that it might be nice, even if for a short while, to "step off" of my crazy, hectic world and step into a world where people are human BEINGS rather than human DOINGS. This isn't to imply that the people of Uganda do nothing. They just appeared to me, at the time, to be more into community and less into the rat race.
The plan was to go to Uganda and do NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Just spend my time getting to know the people I meet, and soaking in the culture. That's it. Nothing more.
Um.....that's not exactly how things have turned out. I apparently am unable to do nothing. As soon as I purchased my ticket back in April, I began trying to learn as much of the Runyankole language as I possibly could. This is not an easy task, considering that Runyankole isn't written anywhere. The only way you can learn it is by getting words from the Runyankole tribe members. So every time I chatted with my several Ugandan soldier friends on Facebook, I'd pump them for more words. Later I found out that most of the people in Kampala, where I'd be staying, speak Luganda rather than Runyankole. So I now needed to learn Lugandan also.
Then I began reading the online Ugandan newspapers, and discovered that there is stand up comedy in Kampala!!! It's new -- only about two years old -- and so I went on Facebook and searched for the comedians mentioned in the newspaper article. I found a few of them, and they invited me to perform with their troupes!!
One of the troupe managers mentioned to me in an e-mail that he runs a charitable organization to help school children and elderly people in the village of Bbira. Being a former teacher, I was drawn to the idea of going to the village and helping out at the school in any way I could. That idea later snowballed into my asking 200 of my Facebook friends in the USA if they would like to donate money for me to take to Uganda for this excellent cause.
Clearly, my plan to be a Human Being was out the window.....
In January, 2011, I spent nine days in Uganda, escorted at all times by Kato, his best friend Moses, and our driver, Cyrus. It was an amazing week, with trips to the source of the Nile River, Lake Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth National Park for a safari.
What I really loved, though,
was how the people in Uganda seemed to be so much less tied to the clock. My entire life I've been working, working, working, competing, striving, rush, rush, rush, set and meet my goals and move on to the next. Being this type of person has served me well -- I've had an amazing life full of accomplishments. But it occurred to me that it might be nice, even if for a short while, to "step off" of my crazy, hectic world and step into a world where people are human BEINGS rather than human DOINGS. This isn't to imply that the people of Uganda do nothing. They just appeared to me, at the time, to be more into community and less into the rat race.The plan was to go to Uganda and do NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Just spend my time getting to know the people I meet, and soaking in the culture. That's it. Nothing more.
Um.....that's not exactly how things have turned out. I apparently am unable to do nothing. As soon as I purchased my ticket back in April, I began trying to learn as much of the Runyankole language as I possibly could. This is not an easy task, considering that Runyankole isn't written anywhere. The only way you can learn it is by getting words from the Runyankole tribe members. So every time I chatted with my several Ugandan soldier friends on Facebook, I'd pump them for more words. Later I found out that most of the people in Kampala, where I'd be staying, speak Luganda rather than Runyankole. So I now needed to learn Lugandan also.
Then I began reading the online Ugandan newspapers, and discovered that there is stand up comedy in Kampala!!! It's new -- only about two years old -- and so I went on Facebook and searched for the comedians mentioned in the newspaper article. I found a few of them, and they invited me to perform with their troupes!!
One of the troupe managers mentioned to me in an e-mail that he runs a charitable organization to help school children and elderly people in the village of Bbira. Being a former teacher, I was drawn to the idea of going to the village and helping out at the school in any way I could. That idea later snowballed into my asking 200 of my Facebook friends in the USA if they would like to donate money for me to take to Uganda for this excellent cause.
Clearly, my plan to be a Human Being was out the window.....
No comments:
Post a Comment