My scorecard as a Volunteer

People I worked with

Dress is called kitenge

They saved lives

As my two years have come to an end, I ask myself... what have I really done here in Gulu?  My end-of-placement report of 33 pages (with pictures) says that I have: prepared process

couldn't send them to school

checklists, demonstrated that work is not your own creation but follows documented procedures, showed what is customer care, organized some workplace, and so on. I have been engaged also in what is called the Wider Role of  the Volunteer by making myself useful to the priests and nuns whose selflessness gave me inspiration.  But, I have not: built anything visible, saved a life in an operating room, taught the poor some  livelihood activities so they can eat beyond beans and posho, sent a single child to school by underwriting his school fees.

So, have I accomplished anything meaningful? Well, a Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) brochure says, "to spend time in a developing country volunteering and sharing your experience is possibly one of the most rewarding things you can do. It is said we make a difference and so we do but, the biggest difference we make is to ourselves".

It's just the color of the skin

As a volunteer, I deliberately lived in an environment devoid of desire for things that I cannot have or do. I learned: to keep a healthy mind and body, (the stomach may grumble, bladder may begin to burst but they can be tamed by mind control), the virtue of patience, realizing that being impatient will not dramatically change my life (my endurance had been tested), that I am comfortable with abandonment of my identity, and the deeper appreciation of the simpler things in life.

white mosquito net,  now gray

What difference in me has this done for others? I made: simple people happier by giving them almost all the material things that I possessed here, some people display and be proud of their skills by patiently waiting for them to finish their work no matter how long it takes. 

Now you see him, now you don't

I showed them that it is only the color of my skin that is different. That in this global village, some countries are ahead but others (such as Uganda) will catch up.

From them, I learned: the bonding effect of prolonged greetings and handshake, to value the wisdom of elders, that responsibility for family extends to the whole clan, that yesterday and tomorrow are not as important as today, that in Africa, when you support someone, you don't stay in front or beside the person - you stay behind to provide that big push.

With youth groups

But the biggest payback I got was when a young man told me that he would want to marry a white woman like me. I said, well, are you willing to cook, wash clothes, and do other household chores because white women, unlike African women, expect their men to do these things, too. He said, he can learn. 

I had two very good years in Gulu, Uganda, East Africa.

One of them wants to marry a white woman