To fit or not to fit.

I wasn’t going to say anything but it is becoming increasingly obvious that I don’t fit here—with anyone. There is an expat group that I occasionally encounter and today I simply am shaking my head at what I see. There is the usual banter about where to find what, travel tips and how to get a visa etc. But recently I’ve seen a whole barrage of first world interests and expenses. I don’t get how missionaries can live this way. Someone selling their egg poacher. Who has space for such an item in their suitcase or container for that matter. Containers cost tens of thousands to get here. But people ship their Pottery Barn beds from the states in those things. A woman desperately looking for a particular kind of beaded sandal. It’s obvious that she has spent a lot of time looking. People selling dogs for 1or 2 million shillings. That is 3 times my income. People coming and going, selling their household items and there has been no step down from the mansion they once lived in, in Edina. The picture of their compound even looks like they simply moved their stone and brick house, lawn and gardens with the driveway with 3 vehicles in it and planted it in the middle of the best neighborhood in Kampala. Sometimes I wonder if they got a salary increase with moving here. Certainly the dollar stretches further but also many Western items here cost a lot more here than they do in the states. I saw a hair product I've used for the girls' curly hair sold in Kampala for $36. Something I would buy for $15 at Target.

Don’t even get me started on the things a western professional sells to other westerners. No Ugandan salary can ever pay for it. Trauma victims, torture victims will simply have to live with their demons if they are on a Ugandan salary. I was once referred to a chiropractor after seeing the price per session, I still live with the pain which started a year ago. I also wonder about the lady who recommended him. She works in my organization. I wonder how my organization sees me--am I Ugandan to them or Western?

And of course the locals won’t have me either. I am far too rich for them. But really, this post has nothing to do with fitting or not fitting. It is about living appropriately in your context with awareness.

And to go with this I have a Public Service Announcement.

I just need to announce something about supporting and donating to help organizations to the third world. Take this as a PSA, even though I feel I am ratting out some said missionaries here. Please be careful who you support and who your church supports.

1. It is good to donate food to those who are currently experiencing famine. It is not good to support food donations to a region that has not experienced famine or food crisis in the past 20 years or more because you dis-empower people and create dependency. 

2. Make sure your organization truly supports orphans and does not create orphans. Many parents give their children away so that they can save on cost of food, schooling and care at home. 

3. Research and understand what an missionary you support is doing with his/her budget. If he is shipping a container of goods from US with a Pottery Barn bed in it all the way to Africa--it is only one indicator that other monies may not be efficiently used. For some western people, it looks like their compound was uprooted from one of those homes on grand ave. and placed here along with the 3 cars and such. It may be that you don't want your missionary to live in desperate poverty with the local people, that is okay but you also don't want to support them to live a level above what they were living in the US. Local perception is very sensitive to what occurs when large groups of the same people come and live a particular way among them. For Americans in Uganda, they understand them to live high on the hog, generous with money handouts without working and it taints any other message or intent coming with the missionary, they simply believe it possible to be rich by stealing or doing nothing as per the example they have before them. I actually think the problem of how western people are perceived is so big, we cannot be very effective as the front people in the country. We should instead support and send people from Latin America to convert Africa.

4. Supporting education is usually a winner. Carefully though. Varky Institute has a great initiative which trains current teachers in how to teach better. Support shipping books to Africa. I haven't read a book in 9 months because there is a book famine here. Paying school fees for kids is often tricky. Fees are often swallowed by school administrators to build their own fancy houses, while kids live in crammed dorms eating the most basic rations. Additionally, there is a lot of fraud committed when one sponsors a child. Wealthy people often pay a local auntie near an organization that sponsors poor children's school fees. She poses as as the rich man's children's mother and the rich man gets a free western quality education for his children. This occurs between 20-30% of the time. Then there are the social workers in these organizations which approve children for sponsorship. They often get money under the table from families to approve children for sponsorship. Finally, there is the sponsorship organization itself, they sometimes swallow a large percentage for overhead cost. Ultimately, the expense for quality of education doesn't match. Sponsors often pay a high price to send children to low quality schools. Low quality schools are the norm. Parents of these sponsored children can easily be persuaded to be grateful for any free education. Or they are uneducated and have no idea that the teachers are mere posers. So, if the sponsorship organization does not ensure quality, nobody else will. The parents won't. The teachers will do as little as possible and will be paid as little as possible by the administration. The administration won't care to ensure teachers teach well--they have free money from sponsors. All they need to do is when it comes time for exams (which ensure quality), they obtain a copy of the exam and answer sheet and teach the questions and answers.

Please know who and what you are supporting. Others in the know may have things to add. This is likely not conclusive.