The Mundane:
1. Farm animals
a. Almost every house owns at least one kind of animal here. Every day on my five minute walk from the bus stop to my homestay, I pass by at least ten chickens wandering around people’s yards or the road. You can consistently find cows and goats grazing on the side of the road or in the front yard. At my homestay we have seven goats that we let out into the front yard every day. I now understand just how touristy I was being taking so many pictures of animals my first few days!
2. Hand holding
a. Girls and Boys of all ages will casually hold hands walking down the street (as long as they’re the same sex). There are teenage boys holding hands all the time here. I have to reign in my discomfort every time one of my aunties decides she needs to hold my hand for a full ten minutes. The only caveat to this is that it is considered taboo for a boy and a girl to hold hands because that is too sexual.
3. Breastfeeding
a. Women will breastfeed in public all the time here. I have seen mothers on the bus next to me start breastfeeding in the middle of my ride home. Breasts are much less sexualised here so it is ok.
4. Greeting strangers
a. Saying hi to everyone here is common courtesy. If I’m in Philadelphia and a stranger asks me how I am I assume that they’re about to ask me for money or to come to their club or something. Here it’s often simply because people are being nice.
5. Being Multilingual
a. Every Ugandan I have met who went to primary school is at least bilingual. They speak their local language (of which Uganda has 52) and English. The majority of the population is also able to speak Swahili and understand a few other local languages. All of the languages of the South of Uganda are Bantu, so once you know one, it is much easier to pick up another. It would be like an Italian picking up French easily.
The Strange
1. Casual eating
a. Eating any meal is a formal sit down event. Food takes a very long time to prepare here so it is impolite to not sit and eat slowly to appreciate the meal. People also do not eat or drink walking or even standing up. That morning coffee Americans rely on has to wait until you’re at the office here. If you drink in the car or on the bus people will stare.
2. Running
a. In general, exercise is not a normal thing here. There are a couple gyms but in my seven weeks I have only seen about ten people exercising, and all of them were men. What they say is that if you’re running, they assume you’re running FROM something or being paid for it.
3. Following the rules of the road
a. Everyone here thinks they are Speed Racer. There are always tons of cars on the road and in-between the cars there are Boda boda (motorcycle taxis) that weave throughout the traffic. It’s not uncommon to see a care driving on the sidewalk during a traffic jam.
4. Not being religious
a. Every Ugandan I have met proudly identifies either as Catholic, Born Again, Protestant, or Muslim. It is a very important part of life here so it has been difficult for me to explain that in the US it is common to meet people who do not identify with any religion.
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