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Smith
Elects the World
On Monday, Nov. 2, 39 Smith
students will present perspectives on their recent experiences
working, living and studying in the world beyond Smith
during the fourth annual Smith Elects the World conference
from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Campus Center ().
Several hundred students travel, work and study abroad and
throughout the United States through internships, community
service projects and Junior Year Abroad programs, collecting
a spectrum of experiences. Kaitlin Hodge ’12,
one of the first Global Stride Fellows, recently wrote about
her experience in Uganda and Rwanda. She will be among the
conference presenters, explaining how her experience relates
to the internship she is currently undertaking with Joanne
Corbin, associate professor of social work, assisting with
her analysis of the effects of armed conflict in Northern
Uganda.
By
Kaitlin Hodge ’12
On the top floor of a
particular hotel in Mbarara, Uganda, you will find one last
set of steps, about five of them in total, leading to a metal
door with an unbolted lock. Crawl through this door to the
roof—a small,
solid surface surrounded by tin, with billowing white sheets drying in the sunlight.
Stand there, and your eyes can
see for miles—the red-dirt streets of the town,
the men greeting each other from their doorsteps, and women
with their babies snuggled into their backs and their fruits
balanced on their heads. See the stream of traffic making
its way to and from the nearby Rwandan border—white van
taxis, “boda
boda” motorcycles and big trucks with wood sides and 20 people
standing in their beds. See the rolling hills, greener than
you have ever seen. Just beyond these hills you will find
the refugee camps, but for now just look, and watch as the
clock hits 7 and the sun slides behind the nearest hill,
lands unnoticed in the first mist of night.
The sun always
sets early on the equator.
I could not deny the poetry
of that moment atop the Hotel Classic halfway into my six-week
journey through Uganda and Rwanda last summer. I was there
as a student in the School for International Training’s (SIT)
Summer Program on Peace and Conflict Studies in the Lake
Victoria Basin, studying both Northern Uganda’s 20-year struggle
against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the 1994 Rwandan
genocide. I spent the summer as part of a group of 20-some
undergraduate students from across the U.S, traveling through
the heart of Africa.
In Uganda, I spent most of my
time in Gulu, the heart of the Acholi subregion and epicenter
of the Northern conflict. On most days, class consisted of
two or three lectures from local professors and professionals.
On other days, SIT arranged for small-group visits to local
NGOs, internal displacement camps and nearby resettled villages.
Kaitlin Hodge (on left) with her host family in Uganda. |
My Acholi host, Martin, was
the Speaker for the District Council and a member of the
opposition party. Martin was eager to discuss his first-hand
experiences, such as when he traveled to “the bush” to participate in the Southern
Sudan peace talks with the LRA, and he even brought me along
to his meetings with various local figures. But Martin was
not just a guide; he was my host-father, and his family never
failed to remind me that I was their new daughter (the Acholi
are extremely welcoming and take the term “host family” very
seriously).
I spent the evenings with my
family, learning to cook dinner, wash the laundry and negotiate
the market with my host-mom, Sue (known affectionately as
Mama Maureen), and playing with their breathtakingly adorable
daughter, Becky, who turned 3 during my visit and loved nothing
more than to dance all day. Finally there was Jillian, Martin’s
15-year-old niece and adopted daughter, who is a student
in secondary school and is also responsible for most of the
housework. It was Jillian who gave me my Acholi name, Aber,
which means beautiful.
Crossing the border into Rwanda,
the atmosphere almost instantly changes. Flat, sprawling
Uganda is replaced by Rwanda’s “land
of a thousand hills.” That is not the only difference. Whereas
Uganda’s national
government gives a sense of distant uncertainty to its population,
the strong presence of Rwanda’s government is evident. It
was in this context that I spent two weeks in Rwanda’s capital
city, Kigali, attending lectures on the genocide and post-conflict
reconciliation.
Through my Rwandan home stay,
I participated in activities such as Umuganda, which requires
every Rwandan to gather in their Oumadougou (neighborhood)
for community work. I also went on excursions to the genocide
memorials and to a “TIG camp” where convicted génocidaires were serving
parts of their sentences by building houses for returning
refugees.
While I truly wanted to believe
that Rwanda was a “new nation,” a flawless example of post-genocide
reconciliation, something about the model image was unnerving.
There was an eerie similarity between the government line
and the text of our lectures, and even my day-to-day conversations
while in Rwanda were full of superfluous praises of the Kagame
regime.
At Smith, my professors had
discussed accounts of censorship and political persecution
by the new Rwandan government. Even in neighboring Uganda,
I was able to meet with a group of Rwandan refugees fleeing
the post-genocide regime. Yet as long as I was within Rwanda’s borders there was no critical
mention of the subject.
As a consequence I was forced
to learn informally through my encounters, mostly from a
young man of my age who had been orphaned in the genocide.
Through his broken English with my broken French, he explained
how he had gone from witnessing his mother’s death to eventually
forgiving her killer. Forgiving does not necessarily equal
healing, however, and he still struggles to put his life
back together and find happiness without his family. Soft-spoken
and unsure as the young man was, our conversations were the
most genuine of my entire trip.
I left for Africa ready to
learn, ended up finding more questions than answers, and
returned to the States hoping to share my experiences. I
became frustrated, though, when most people seemed disinterested
in my studies. Rather, they wanted to know, “what did you
do to help?” as though that had to be my role. “Traveling” to
Africa was automatically equated to “volunteering” in Africa.
That is when I realized there are three prevailing images
of the African traveler: the mission worker, the safari tourist,
and the expatriate. I fit none of the above.
I could never limit
myself like a tourist or expat. The most valuable and enjoyable
moments of my travels were the ones spent with my host families
and the other people I met.
Africa is not to be
witnessed from a bubble. It is a vibrant culture to be
discovered and lived, and it was only through these interactions
that that little region in the heart of Africa wiggled its
way into my heart.
So if you ever find yourself
on that rooftop in Mbarara, take in the view, but don’t forget
to climb down to where the people yell out Karibu! (Welcome!),
and the red dust settles into your skin, impossible to ever
wash out. |
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Living
and Learning in the Heart of Africa
