Exit stage right

I’m at Entebbe international airport right now. I’m looking around to take in all that I still can to remember this place and this trip by. I see the billboards for Nile beer, Uganda Telecom, Celtel, all of which were so alien just 2 weeks ago at this very location, but have now become a part of life. People say that time flies when you’re having fun, but my time in Uganda seemed like a lifetime by itself. This may have been because this place is so different from anything I have ever experienced, and in experiencing it all, I may have physically stretched out time. On the other hand, a more plausible explanation would be the fact that “African time” is the only time slower than Indian Standard Time. Everything happens at its own pace and that’s how it shall be forever. On the Bus back to Kampala from the Nile river on Sunday, I had spoken to Alex about how much I was going to miss this place once we left because of the things it has taught me and exposed to me. The biggest lesson it seems is that technology eats out our insides. All these people live without technology and most in poverty, but they enjoy life more than any one of us could possibly think of doing. Why put off what we really want to do till retirement when we can’t even enjoy those things to the fullest. On the flip side, one can’t help to think that this “living in the moment” is what brings about most of their problems. On their own, Ugandans would be the happiest people on the earth, but they also have to deal with the outside world; a world that has a watch tied to every limb and the mind of a machine. Competing with this lifestyle is not fitting for a Ugandan. It is scary for me as an outsider to see how they live their lives without a safety net. Almost no one plans for the future, and for this reason hardly have any savings at all. In my entire time in Uganda, I never saw a car that had enough fuel to go more than the presently required distance. If the destination was 10 kilometers away, the driver would add 1 liter of fuel to a previously empty tank. Not that buying more fuel all at once would get you any discount, but it would save you time later. A Ugandan would not think this way though. He would only take the bare minimum so as to not have to sit at the petrol pump for that extra one minute. It is a life of bliss they live on the edge. I admire them for this, but I also see that as a BGOE member, most of the advice that has been dished out has been to plan for the future. So it is then a case of mutual admiration, where they admire our planning and we admire their spontaneity. Maybe the answer lies in between the two worlds. What would be perfect would be to live your life and enjoy it to the fullest while ensuring your child gets the same future your parents have given you, if not better. That is it. I am going to now proceed to the airplane, and only hope that I get the opportunity to come back to this part of the world again. Keep living, and keep seeing the same sun set over a different horizon.