All of a Sudden, I Know What I'm Talking About

Last week, a group of students from the University of Maryland came to Masaka to work with FSD and one of their host organizations, REAP (Renewed Efforts to Alleviate Poverty). This was a Service Learning Trip (SLT) that is a part of their curriculum for some global development course. It was kind of fun to have a group of American students here, but very weird to have so many like-minded people around; I haven’t been used to that.

Since they were only here for a week, they were learning everything in droves. As they learned bits and pieces about the language and culture of Uganda, I found myself feeling like I knew A LOT more than they did, naturally. But when I thought about it, I had only been here for 5 weeks before they came, which really isn’t all that long. But I was able to teach them some of the language. I was able to explain different nuances about the culture. I was able to articulate what I had learned about development, how it was affecting me, and what I thought about their short experience. One of the students stayed with me and my family (they tried to put the students with families in pairs, but there were an odd number of guys on the trip), and as I had conversations with him, I suddenly felt like an expert in microfinance, development, Luganda, and the Ugandan culture. (I’m not an expert in any of these areas, but in comparison, I felt like one.) It was nice to get a little boost in confidence that I have been learning a lot while I’ve been here.

And just this week, there are two new interns with FSD. Both are working with other local microfinance organizations, so it will be interesting to compare our experiences. This has had the same effect - it makes me feel like I’ve been here for a long time (7 weeks now! Sometimes that feels like a long time, but sometimes it still seems very short). It will be fun to interact with them as they learn and become acquainted with living here over the next few weeks. Oh, and on a side note, there is this ‘Africa-Middle East Microcredit Summit’ in Nairobi, Kenya in a couple weeks that we might try to attend, but there’s a few hoops we have to jump through first, let alone from finding the money to pay for it. I’ll keep you posted.