Cultural Observations

It’s been awhile since I’ve included any kind of Ugandan cultural trivia on here, so I have a few observations to get things started today.

First, everybody in Kampala loves mobile phones. Everyone is always texting (“SMSing”) or buying more airtime. Most people have prepaid phones, so selling airtime is a lucrative business. Guys stand in the middle of traffic during rush hour holding little airtime cards. Drivers will literally stop in the middle of the road to buy airtime. You have to really love text messages to risk life and limb just to type “C U L8R” on your mobile.

Second, people don’t try to charge me mzungu prices nearly as much. Maybe it’s because I see the same people all the time, or maybe it’s because I don’t look so confused anymore. Whatever the reason, merchants usually just charge me whatever they charge everyone else now. I always say something in the local language, and I think that helps a lot.

I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it makes my life much simpler. After a while, it gets psychologically tiring to be singled out for your skin. Locals I trust have explained to me that attempting to overcharge mzungos isn’t mean-spirited – it’s gambling. Sometimes you get lucky. I can’t get too mad because the merchants and I both know that our financial situations are worlds apart, but it gets frustrating. I’ll never blend in here. If I’m here for thirty years I’ll still be “Mzungu.”

Third, the Ugandan sense of humor is a little different than mine. Here’s a pretty good example – Today is a pretty slow work day so I started playing with my cell phone. It has a feature that allows me to receive things like jokes of the day, quotes of the days, horoscopes, etc. Here’s the joke of the day:

Teacher: What do you do if you choke on an ice cube?
L-Johnny: Don’t panic. Simply pour a kettle of freshly boiling water down your throat.

That just doesn’t do it for me.

My final cultural observation of the day displays worldwide solidarity among men. The observation is this: most Ugandan men don’t like to dance. They will only go if their girlfriends or wives make them, and even then there are no guarantees. Also, men here make fun of their girlfriends and wives for taking a long time to get ready to go out. In fact, a local friend of ours told us that if he needs to leave the house by nine, he tells his wife to be ready by eight. He said they are still usually late.

Maybe we have more in common than we think.