(left: a motorcycle driver riding across an incredibly short term bridge)
According to the World Bank, the average life span in Uganda is 53. In Lesotho, it is 45 years. In the US, it is 78 years. These numbers are not merely statistics from books and from online. They are engrained into our souls as the measure of value we have for other’s lives and for our own. They are reflected in Americans’ multiple safety regulations and equipment pieces for each activity. They are reflected in Uganda’s bare footed toddlers playing in street gutters. They are reflected in the speeding, sometimes drunk, taxi drivers and the careless motorcycle drivers. They are reflected in the maternity wards where women are beaten by midwives to push must push even when the baby is wrongly positioned. They are reflected in the way that malnourished children with protruding bellies and ringwormed heads are normal. The other day, I was with a sister and a woman from the parish. They were talking about a village catechist and the woman said that the catechist’s child died a few years ago. The sister asked about the child’s age and the woman replied ten years. The sister then asked why the woman mentioned it and the woman said that this was no ordinary 10 year old, but that the boy was extremely bright and extra- ordinarily hard working. Lesson: if he had been normal, his death would have been a relative non- event, not worth remembrance. Another Peace Corps volunteer told me that a woman in her village related a story about being in a taxi that crashed. As the woman told the story, she laughed. The volunteer asked why she laughed, and the woman replied that she laughed because she was the accident’s sole survivor. They say that in Uganda’s fishing villages have HIV/AIDS infection rates of up to 80%. People, however, say that the water kills more quickly than AIDS, so why worry about getting the virus? It reminds me of Lesotho’s shepherds and miners, who, with hard work, hunger, and disease, were dying quickly. Their fear of HIV/AIDS, therefore, was diminished. The Pentecostals must have something here when they say you get what you believe. Many shepherds and miners believed they were going to die quickly and had better enjoy life now-- this translated into the world's second highest HIV/AIDS rate (around 30%) and their predictions proved more true than ever! Being here, I am still committed to living well into my 70’s and feel as if I have two lives while those around me only have one—at the same time, I am one of the only people around me wearing a bicycle helmet, watching what I eat, drinking water, sleeping under a mosquito net, and, in short, working toward the living of those two lives.
According to the World Bank, the average life span in Uganda is 53. In Lesotho, it is 45 years. In the US, it is 78 years. These numbers are not merely statistics from books and from online. They are engrained into our souls as the measure of value we have for other’s lives and for our own. They are reflected in Americans’ multiple safety regulations and equipment pieces for each activity. They are reflected in Uganda’s bare footed toddlers playing in street gutters. They are reflected in the speeding, sometimes drunk, taxi drivers and the careless motorcycle drivers. They are reflected in the maternity wards where women are beaten by midwives to push must push even when the baby is wrongly positioned. They are reflected in the way that malnourished children with protruding bellies and ringwormed heads are normal. The other day, I was with a sister and a woman from the parish. They were talking about a village catechist and the woman said that the catechist’s child died a few years ago. The sister asked about the child’s age and the woman replied ten years. The sister then asked why the woman mentioned it and the woman said that this was no ordinary 10 year old, but that the boy was extremely bright and extra- ordinarily hard working. Lesson: if he had been normal, his death would have been a relative non- event, not worth remembrance. Another Peace Corps volunteer told me that a woman in her village related a story about being in a taxi that crashed. As the woman told the story, she laughed. The volunteer asked why she laughed, and the woman replied that she laughed because she was the accident’s sole survivor. They say that in Uganda’s fishing villages have HIV/AIDS infection rates of up to 80%. People, however, say that the water kills more quickly than AIDS, so why worry about getting the virus? It reminds me of Lesotho’s shepherds and miners, who, with hard work, hunger, and disease, were dying quickly. Their fear of HIV/AIDS, therefore, was diminished. The Pentecostals must have something here when they say you get what you believe. Many shepherds and miners believed they were going to die quickly and had better enjoy life now-- this translated into the world's second highest HIV/AIDS rate (around 30%) and their predictions proved more true than ever! Being here, I am still committed to living well into my 70’s and feel as if I have two lives while those around me only have one—at the same time, I am one of the only people around me wearing a bicycle helmet, watching what I eat, drinking water, sleeping under a mosquito net, and, in short, working toward the living of those two lives.
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