Coming Home #2: Survival, Choice and Opportunity

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So how do I begin to explain Africa? First, as you know, Africa is a phenomenally large continent. To give you an idea of how big it really is, check out this overlay of some of the other continents or countries that actually fit inside Africa all at once including, the US with Alaska, most of Europe and China.


We have only visited six of the 53 countries since arriving here so when I speak of Africa I am really talking about the small area referred to as East Africa, although we did make a quick jaunt up to Egypt and Ethiopia. Nonetheless, through my reading I have concluded that everyday life in East Africa is very similar to life in West Africa, Central Africa and southern Africa excluding South Africa itself. And what are the characteristics of this “life”? The simple answer is that life in Africa is all about survival. Of course, as in any place, there are those who are surviving quite easily here, but the overwhelming majority of the 800 million inhabitants of this continent live a daily life of struggle and survival. One can see this everyday on the faces of the women working in the fields, or the kids who are skipping school to gather wood and water for cooking. It’s absolutely amazing to see the responsibilities that are thrust upon the children here. It is all too common to see three and four year old kids hauling the yellow jerrycans of water from some far away well or spring, or come across a three year old girl with her one year old sister strapped to her back. While I wish that the kids could be in school instead, I am also constantly impressed at how practical people become in many facets of life because of their lifelong survival skills.

If you ask me, “What exactly are Africans lacking that we in the west are not”? The answer is not democracy or money or food, it is the choice and opportunity to realize those very same aspects of life. Choice and opportunity are two things that not only do we in the west have in abundance, but, unfortunately, we also take for granted. I live in a country where the life expectancy for a man is 48 years, and I am considered an elder. We have friends who have grown up their entire lives, to this day, without running water or electricity, or have spent half their lives living in refugee camps. There are thousands of places in this country that do have running water and electricity; our place has it. Do you think my friend chooses to not have running water or electricity? No, his family simply has not been afforded the opportunity to acquire, what some would call, such basic necessities. But are they really necessities? Apparently not, as illustrated by the fact that he is a bright, athletic kid who finished secondary school, and who is also ambitious and motivated. He is willing to work, but job opportunities are few and those that are available require either 3-5yrs. experience or, more importantly, knowing someone of stature that will give you a job because he knows you, not because you are qualified. I have several other friends in the same predicament, young, healthy, smart and nothing for them to do. However, my friends are special because instead of falling into the vicious trap of loitering around the local pool table, drinking and waiting for the next Premiership football match to be aired; they are actually donating their time to charity. Yes, these guys who have so little have taken it upon themselves to start a community based organization that disperses donated goods and provides health & sanitation workshops to some of the most vulnerable people in the country. I imagine there are thousands of people in this country like my friends who look beyond their own needs and truly believe Uganda has the potential to help itself, but the opportunity to be heard is drowned out by the “cha ching” of aid money flowing into the government coffers.

Choice is also about the most fundamental things like what clothes to wear on a daily basis. Did you know that about ¾ of all the clothes that get donated to places like the Salvation Army are packed up and sold to dealers who then ship it here to Africa to be sold even cheaper in the markets and stores? I didn’t know that, just like I didn’t know there were so many thousands of Eminem and 50 Cent fans in Africa, but I see their shirts everywhere. I don’t think the boda driver I saw the other day chose to wear a red knit Christmas sweater with dancing reindeer. I don’t think half the colleges in America know they are advertising their schools on African bodies. And, I don’t feel gratitude when I see my friend wearing a nicely pressed button down shirt that happens to be from McDonalds. But, this stuff, that’s already been thrown away once, gets dumped over here at ridiculously low prices, killing the local textile market and removing the opportunity for many people to even choose what to wear. My friends can and will go very far in life, but it will be a struggle everyday because of the lack of these and other types of choice and opportunity.