Abeka (family)

So this week and next week we split up into groups of 6-7 students to focus on a certain topic. For obvious reasons, I am in the gender and development concentration. It's been super frustrating for the past few days because we've been having lectures at the university and the teaching style is soooo different here than in the US. It really puts all of my complaining about american teaching practices into perspective.

First of all, it feels like they think we are 13 years old. I am not entirely sure whether they think we are all just really uniformed, whether this is how they teach all of their students, or whether this is really the level they think at. For the sake of uganda, I really hope it's the former... We spent literally 20 minutes yesterday defining human rights. Even when we move past basic definitions, most of what we are taught are large generalizations and concepts with no case studies. Even the other students in my group who do not have any background in gender studies are learning very little.

Also, the teaching style itself leaves pretty much no room at all for critical analysis. Lectures consist of a professor standing in front of us, reading off of a powerpoint. When we ask questions of clarification they either repeat what they just said or say they will cover it later in the presentation and never do.

They do, however, bring us tea and snacks every day, which I'm not sure they do for all students, but most definitely do not do in the US. Wash U, if you're looking for something to really make the school stand out, I highly suggest imposing a university-wide tea time at 11am every day.

Hopefully next week will be better though. We are doing a bunch of site visits instead of going to the university. We never really know what we are doing though ahead of time so instead of speculating, I'll just write about it next week.

After having a really long conversation with my host dad last night, I have basically decided that my research plans for the second half of the semester are not going to work at all. I was thinking that psychological empowerment of married women could be done simultaneously as they gained economic independence. It turns out though that economic independence needs to happen before women are even going to be willing to discuss going against culture norms. It makes sense, but is kinda a bummer. And as much as I realize the necessity of working to help them gain independence, I have very little interest in working with economic stuff. Its just not my thing. Oh well. Back to the drawing board... I still have 10 days to come up with a final written proposal... Very few other students have a real plan yet either so that makes me feel better.

These chats have kind of become a nightly thing with my host dad and I've really been enjoying it. Tonight's topic was loosely centered around the family and we talked a lot about how inclusionary (is that even a word?) the ugandan family is. It's kind of a mixed bag in that there are so many orphans here (mostly from war and AIDS) and extended families often take them in. On the other hand, in these families the orphan children are often treated like second-class family members (we did not actually discuss this side.) I find it very interesting that familial bonds and traditional family structures (read: heterosexual) are so important, yet polygamy is widely practiced and the average birth rate is over 7 children per woman, so most people have upwards of 20 siblings. Talk about a fun family reunion! But seriously, how can you even keep up with that many people? A man could end up having like hundreds of grandchildren.

The topic actually came up because we were talking about how odd it is that right now I have 2 families who are so separate. Not talking about my mom and dad's sides (though explaining the logistics behind THAT was kind of amusing for me), but my family in the US and my family here. I really am feeling like a part of this family, which is pretty cool. I have a routine down and have mostly figured out how stuff is done here and how I can contribute. Even my little brother seems completely used to me being around. When we go out, they always introduce me as their daughter (which people get a huge kick out of) and yesterday my host mom took me to her tailor and helped negotiate getting a dress made for me like I think she probably has done with her other daughters. I showed them pictures from the US of my friends and family last night, which I think helped them feel closer to my other life. They say that one of the biggest cultural differences they have is that they are surprised my parents don't want to talk to them more to bring my 2 families closer. It hadn't even occurred to me, so that will most definitely be happening soon, so more on that later.

Tomorrow I will have officially been here for a month. Today after classes, me and 5 other students went to one of the bars to celebrate and reflect. In some ways I feel like I just got here, but in many ways it feels like it's been way longer than a month. I'm really surprised at how I've adjusted. Some things were much harder to deal with than I expected, and others that I had braced myself to have a really hard time with turned out to be not a big deal at all. More reflection tomorrow. For now, some much needed sleep.
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