From Uganda to America, Step One
Lillian, Innocent, Ronald, and Pepito pose for a picture before dinner on their last night in Uganda
40,000 years of American history explained in 30 minutes. Impossible? Yes. We gave it our all, but when everything was said and done, it took us almost an hour. :)
When you have myriad topics to explain to 16 Ugandans about to head to the US for three months, and when the majority of those Ugandans have never left Africa before, let alone flown on a plane, something that at its conception seemed like an easy few days of cultural training turns into a herculean exercise in patience and endurance. How do you prepare someone to navigate the murky cultural waters of the Land of the Free? Thanks to our diversity, there are so many implied whispers, so many subtle subtexts, underpinning the tangle of American behavior and philosophy. One thing no one ever boasts about when they rave about The Melting Pot is the type of gunk that has accumulated around the rim of the thing, the residue of centuries of cultural fusion. Where do you even begin to describe the most diverse country on Earth?
