Roughing it

I’ve done some backpacking in the late fall/early winter of Michigan. We carried at least 40 pounds on our backs, had to pitch our tents deep within the dunes to stay out of the freezing wind, get water from the lake and filter it, gather enough fire wood in the day to keep the fire burning all night and generally really rough it. I loved it. 

One would think I would be prepared to “rough it” here in a village in Uganda. But I’m learning it is a very different kind of rough. I have no problem referring to living in the peace village as “roughing it” even though someone else will go get water for me and carry it on their head for a kilometer or two. Someone besides me will gather our firewood, food is even mostly prepared for us. (They made a very fine meal of a little rabbit that was killed for dinner last night.)  So why is it rough? We sleep on the ground in a grass thatched shelter. We bath by the light of the moon. We don’t have a table or chairs with backs. We smell like campfire smoke at the end of the day and use a lantern at night. Well, we could use a lantern if we can tolerate all of the bugs that swarm. But none of this really makes it rough in my mind. What is the difference? Dr. Val says (and I'm sure she is right because she always is! ) it is hard because it is frontier living.  But the frontier is of the mind. In the village it is the mental challenges that make it hard to cope. For me it is always being stared at, watched, scrutinized- ALL THE TIME. From 6 am to 10 pm. It is the language barrier. I have no idea why people are yelling, what they are saying when they are pointing at me. I'm here to do a job but I can't communicate!  There is a cultural barrier- for example the fear of violence all the time. Being grabbed, shoved, pushed or worse if I do or say something they don't like. They jump when they are happy and wear clothes that well, make me feel uncomfortable (mostly it is the lack of clothes actually.) So it is roughing it in one sense- challenges that leave me weary at the end of the day and seeking solitude in a community that has no idea what being alone means. And roughing it in another sense- the backpacking/national park sense. Fun for a long weekend or week but kind of hard over the long term. 

For me, I can still think of life in the village as camping. Because at the end of the time, however long it is, I pack up and head home. I can go back to a place where life is easier and more comfortable. More protected. Soroti has mental challenges too but they are not as intense and I have a retreat.  But I must keep in the front of my mind this is life for the people around me.  They aren’t camping and they are frontier living.  In the most physical sense. So I need to continue to think of it as “roughing it” with the regular reminder that it is life for them. Life is hard. But more than because they sleep in the dirt of the ground. They get sick from their water. Their diet doesn’t have enough vitamins. Human defecation is all over the ground and many of their children will die before they reach 5 years old.  I'm roughing it in one sense and they are in another.