Day 2: The Children

Sorry it has taken me so long to write about the second day of my trip. Yes i know right now I'm on day five! its crazy to believe we had been here for five days. any who the internet has been bad and thats why i have not blogged lately. So the second day. this day was all about the children. The  children of uganda have stolen my heart. So what we really did do today was go to see an entrepreneur. His name was patrick. we met him at his hotel. this hotel was an amazing five star hotel. You could tell he was a story teller. He enjoyed talking about his childhood and how he became successful. He also talked to us about Uganda's business world. Most of this talk was over my head since I'm not a business major... but i enjoyed afterwards talking to the employees and hearing about there job working under patrick. Next we went to the Martyrs shrine. This was a very interesting experience and i felt a bit uncomfortable being jewish during this visit. The shrine is in memory of the first Ugandan Christians who were killed by the Ugandan king at the time. The MUB students told us how they visit this sight every year on martyrs day. They go real emotional when we talked about it and visited the shrine. The highlight of this visit was going down to see what they consider “holy water”. At this pond there was a little boy. He looked to be about four. He was so cute. I waved to him and he came over. We took pictures with him and danced to the music that was playing. He was in love with the boys on our trip. He thought they were the coolest people ever. You could tell by the boys clothing and family that was near by that he was from a poor family. Yet you would have never have known it by his personality. He was rich in personality, smile and joy. He seem to have no worries in the world! He enjoyed trying on the boy’s sunglasses. He looked sad when he had to give them back. I remembered I had my NFTY sunglasses in my bag and put them on his head. His face lit up! He danced around with them. I got up to leave and he took them off his face and handed them to me. I put them back on his face to symbolize he got to keep them. He gave me a high five and dance some more. He was so excited! He made my day! When we went back to MUB I was able to get pictures with the junior soccer team. One of the girls looked so shock when I reached out my hand. She kept looking at my skin calling me mazungu. The next place we visited. Yes we did a lot in one day. Was the farm. This farm was in a village away from the city (kampala). When we first pulled up to the farm there were three little children playing on a blacket with there mother and grandmother. The MUB students asked to hold the children. After a while Rita (a MUB) student asked if I wanted to hold the baby. I was delighted. This little girls name was praise. She was adorable. Just sucking her thumb the whole time. She didn’t cry. Her older brother was at the age of stranger anxiety and didn’t want to be held. But myself and the other education major (mary) got to hold the twins praise and prince. (see pictures on fb!) praise was a sweetie!!! After holding praise and getting a tour of the dairy farm we went to the dean of MUBs for dinner. His house was past the farm and was gorgeous. He built it himself. His family prepared a wonderful meal for us. We were able to try Jack fruit (which I loved) and other fresh amazing fruits. This night was a great bonding experience. We played games with the MUB students and the deans children. We taught them American hand games and name games. I found out during this time that people in Uganda do not sit on the ground. I sat down on the ground not on a  blanket or chair and they all looked at me like I was crazy. They explained that no one sits on the ground. Religion was brought up during the night and one of the MUB students david commented on my earings. He asked if I spoke jewish. I told him yes I spoke Hebrew. He then asked me what religion I was. I told him I was jewish. He was amazed. I never thought of them as separate things. I always associated the language and religion together. He wanted to learn Hebrew words so I taught him the basics. The night was a blast! We stayed at the house very late!

day 1: Muyemba, Matooke, Muzungu

Today was our first official day in Kampala. It was great to be able to see the country in daylight. We woke up bright and early to meet the MUB students. On the way to their campus we saw the city in full swing. Everyone was busy at work or on their way. Ugandan driving is well… interesting. Very fast. Very crazy. No one follows the traffic laws. You have boda bodas (motorcycles) weaving in and out of traffic. No one uses a cross walk or a bike lane. After we survived our ride we met the friends who will be touring with us for the next three weeks. It was lots of fun getting to know one another while laughing and comparing stories. Everyone was very friendly. However the students were a lot more soft spoken than I expected. Next they gave us a tour of their campus. MUB has a whole different feel than most college campuses in the united states. Everything is outside. The students were having their finals so we couldn’t see a classroom. However from the outside window they looked basic and crowded. One aspect of the campus I found interesting is the block (building) that is guarded by barbwire and a wall. When I asked Ezira what was inside this building he told me that exam papers and answer keys were in there. It was guarded so no one could cheat. The dorms were also different if I were to compare them to drake’s dorms. They were about half the size but had four beds in it. The building was pretty run down. However for the students it didn’t matter. Many of them worked very hard to get to college and education is extremely important. Thus the living arrangements don’t seem to be as big of a deal to the students. I could be wrong. But that was my impression. After we had our tour we went to exchange our money for Ugandan money. Thank goodness there were accounting majors there because I no clue on the math on converting the money. Especially since a 2  fifty dollar billss has a different exchange rate than 1 hundred bill. After walking out of the exchange were we on an adventure to Owino market. This market is in the heart of downtown kampala. There is no good store to compare the market to. For those of you who have been to Israel it is like the market where everyone one goes shopping for Shabbat combined with the shops in the different cordors of the old city. However it was to a big extreme. It was crowded and hot. Everyone and everything was EVERYWHERE. I kid you not! One thing I should mention that I have noticed in Uganda is there is no effective trash system. Everyone just throws trash into heaps on the side of the road or the middle of the side walk. Thus the trash made the space even more crowded. I don’t think anything in the market would be considered safe or sanitary in terms of US standards. Meat was covered with flys on one cart. While next to it a another vendor had a huge pile of lettuce and she was laying on half of them. Then next to that is someone making peanut butter and on the other side of that someone is selling shoes or clothes or paper to write on or Muyemba (mangos). There are huge piles of everything. And lots of venders are selling the same items. They want to bargain with you. They especially were fascinated by us. We were greeted with everyone’s eyes on us. They called us Muzungu. This in translation means “white person”. Every corner we turned they were shouting Muzungu Muzungu Muzungu. come buy this. Let me show you this Muzungu. Or they would try to grab your arm. Thank the lord we had the students and advisors with us or else it would have been a very scary situation. The vendors would also call us, American, sister, ask us to marry them, they ask us how we were, one even called me jeniffer while walking after me. The market deff brought a culture shock to everyone. We were all exchanging stories when we came back about what happen. Oh and I should mention about photography. I was only able to take a limited number of photos because I had to protect my stuff so it wouldn’t get stolen and if I tried to take pictures of people they would try to talk me into buying stuff. They would all run up to us saying “picture me picture me”. Thus I took pictures from a far. Or held my camera down low and hoped I got a good shot. I think the thing that surprised me the most was the children. There were children everywhere. They were helping sell stuff, running around with no shoes or mother in site, or even babies with there mothers. Some of these children were old enough to be in school. And thus it makes me wonder why were they there and not in school? The MUB students didn’t seem to be shocked by this aspect. Going back to discussing the market with all my classmates was interesting. It seemed like we were bashing the place. Yes it was not clean and safe to our standards but that is there way of shopping. That is there way of life. Its not bad its just different. Yes there would be ways to improve it to make it cleaner and more sustainable but at the same that would be putting our American lens on the situation. Overall it was an eye opening experience to say the least. Tomorrow we meet with patric bitature and then go to the  and farm. Oh and by the way the weather hasn’t been to terribly hot! Knock on wood. Have a great day =) ill post later! oh i was also able to try the matooke a famous dish made from bananas. it kind tastes like squash has the consistence of over cooked mashed potatoes. it was actually really good! 

~Dori 

The pearl of Africa, UGANDA

So this is my first post for my trip to Uganda. I right now just finished packing and cant wait to be in country! i have been counting the days till this trip even before i was admitted into drake. Ever seen middle school i have wanted to go to Africa. I remember going around the class telling "if you could go anywhere in the world where would it be" or "what is your dream job". I would answer i want to go to Africa, or I want to teach in the peace corp. in Africa. My class mates would look at me like i had 5 heads. Africa? is she crazy? They wanted to go to paris or hawaii or spain or disney world. This still has not changed. Teachers, Parents, and friends still have the same look of shock when i first tell them I'm going to spend three weeks in Uganda studying abroad. However, i really don't care what they think. Yes i know I'm not going to a five star hotel, or best reviewed restaurant but that stuff doesn't matter! The experience, memories, and lessons i will discover when i am in Uganda is more than i can ever wish for. I  want to get away from the "suburbs" and have this hope to be life changing experience.


Anywho, my professors have prepared me, i have packed my bags, have enough medication to cure an army, yet i still don't know what truly awaits me. I have a vision in my head of how Uganda will be but who knows if that is what will be there waiting for me. What ever the experience that awaits me in Uganda I am so excited for it! I cant wait to explore, teach, and learn while I'm there!
I just wanted to give a shout out to all my family and  friends back home and from drake. Don't worry i will be safe and i will stay away from the HIPPO!!!( don't worry me and alyssa will use our crime fighting skills if we see one!)  haha and i will take tonssss of pictures! (oh heather i still have the directions from your dad about how to take great safari pics!) so get ready for a Uganda slide show when i come back =) and kevin and allisa Don't worry i will tell nalah and simba Baylee saids "I love you" she is the cutest girl ever!
I will write again when i have time in country. Till then i hope you all enjoy reading this blog. Please ignore any spelling errors or grammar mistakes. I hope everyone has a wonderful day!
I pray i get to Uganda safely and have a safe and healthy trip.
See you all soon =) <3


oh one last thing i thought i would leave you this inspirational message about my trip to come from my friend Molee. Molee was one of the Ugandan students that visited Drake in the winter:


"yah bless yourself to a whole new experience new


 people in different colors, new food, bad roads, having 


fun and dancing all night, greenery, new every thing


 though not good infrastructure as that back home.


 welcome to Africa where we live in full colors, living 


each day as it comes and having fun despite all our


 problems. welcome to the pearl of Africa, Uganda."~Molee 

The Big Bang

This week we watched crash. This movie utimitatly shows how people are affected when we act ethnocentric and are not sociological mindful.  We CRASH! When the movie finished its hard to remember that this only happened in  a time span of 2 days in only one city. Yet this movie can be applied to almost any setting and time. Because unfortunately "the crash" is still happening. At the youth group event i went to this weekend the theme was bullying. We talked about how to prevent it and stop it. Like our soc class everyone could recall when they were the bystander, the bully, and the victim.  One thing that they stressed is if we go home and share this knowledge about bullying that it would have a ripple effect and ulitmalty help to end bullying. However i disagree with this. I think as we talked about before that we are trained to assume things about people and stereotype. We get these ideas from the media, text books, family members and friends.  At Onward House i saw how a  6th graders science homework displays that. That it only showed white male scientist getting credit for the theories. When however there were others all over the world discovering the same things.  Also when we watched the video with the experiment of the dolls we saw how badly the media affects the self confidence of young boys and girls of color. When the girl was asked to tell which doll was the "bad doll" she pointed to the black doll. When asked then to say which doll looked most like her she struggled.  She knew she didn't look like the white doll but didn't want to be considered bad.  The stereotypes we create affect these children to adults who are watched while shopping just because they are of color.  So can we really end bullying? because to me it looks like society and the media bully. They train our minds to think these things.  So will one weekend at a youth group retreat end bullying? no. We have seen "the crash" from the time of the Romans where if you were not roman you were seen inferior. Now it is based on pigmentation of skin and religion. In thirty from now it might be based off something different but these stereotypes and discrimination which plays hand in hand with bullying. So maybe one youth group event can't end bullying across the world but hopefully it helped us "as jewish teens" to become more sociological mindful and less ethnocentric.

"Different Classes But All The Same Students: Humans"

This week we talked a lot about social class and got to see video’s and clips of people living (or trying to live) in different social classes.  There are 5 things when we focus on when we talk about social class. Those are power. Wealth. Income. Prestige. Education. Each social class different levels of each.  We took a look at the 30 days episode where Morgan and Alex left “ THEIR ordinary life” and walked a mile in someone else’s shoes.  They found out very quickly that these shoes cause “blisters” stress and can tear the “feet” relationships apart. It was a very eye opening experience for them and the viewers. However I still feel that they didn’t accomplish the real goal. Yes they lived the physical life of being on minimum wage. But did they really experience it emotionally? How about psychologically? Can you feel the thoughts and feelings of someone in a different life style by walking in their shoes for 30 days? I don’t think so. I mean this is just my opinion but I don’t think it is possible to do that transformation. We have to remember they only walked a mile. Not a 1000 miles. It was more like a mile marathon. Because they knew in the back of their head once 30 days are over they can go back to “THEIR” normal lifestyle.  They could use credit cards and go out to dinner without worrying about the money.  Once they crossed the finish line they were free to live the lifestyle they want. They had that motivation in the back of their heads when they faced the cold the bugs and the work.  However this is not true for a personal living a minimum wage lifestyle. There is no finish line in sight. They live paycheck to paycheck every single day till if they are fortunate enough to make more money and live a different life style. However them accomplishing that is unfortunately very very slim.

Nickel and Dimed was another similar scenario.  It was very interesting seeing others who she interacted with and learning parts of their stories. Like the other maids there. It was shocking that most of them couldn’t afford a lunch to replenish the calories they lost doing strenuous acts.  Also unlike her they all had families to support.  They couldn’t even put together enough money to make 2 dollars. I find this shocking. We take these people for granted.  Those who do so strenuous tasks for such little. It made me extremely mad when the women who owned the house didn’t leave them water or was very rude. This made me think back to trips with my grandparents. Whenever we were at a hotel my grandpa would tape 5 dollars to the  bathroom mirror with a note saying “thank you! I hope you have a good day!”. I never thought till now how much those people probably appreciated something that I think of as so simple as 5 dollars.

Another thing I found intriguing was the idea of a “culture of poverty” and a “culture of wealth”.  When our teacher gave us the example of how in a school in New York a group of students got frustrated with a books ending and acted out because of it.  The teacher talked to one of the students about this behavior was not ok if he wanted to go back to the mainstream schools. And he responded with something like “so I have to sit and do nothing in order to go back school”? and when thinking about this he is right. The “culture of wealth” teaches us that in school we need to do just that.  Even if we are passionate about something like a book. We still need to be this “proper” way.   Yet when teachers get mad at us for not being enthusiastic about books or class maybe it’s not our fault? but the it’s because of this “culture of wealth” and different social classes that gives us these ideas. Who knows?

No matter how we look at the different social classes and how they are formed we have to keep one thing in mind. No matter how much or how little separates these classes we are all humans. So the next time you see some one that may not live exactly how you do it doesn’t mean you should respond/act differently towards them. You need to treat them like a human.  Also we need to remember that even if social classes exist in this world that not everyone who “fits in” a social class means they represent everyone in that class. Not everyone in the working poor are the same. Just like not everyone in the upper class are the same.  We need to focus on the individual person.

It Only Takes 5 Minutes to Give A Smile

Deviance is when we go against societies norms. Positive deviance is when you “break” a social norm in a positive way. When you do an act of positive deviance you are helping others. An act of Positive deviance doesn’t have to a huge thing. It is the simple things that you do that others wouldn’t. When you do these simple things you help bring a smile to someone’s face it can even help change a person’s day.  Diaz response to the mugger in the subway was just one example of positive social deviance.  When a person usually gets mugged they are so worried about their own possessions and safety they forget to think about “why would this person do this to me?” Diaz went against the norm and thought just that. Instead of trying to punish the crime he changed a person’s life.  He realized if this boy was so desperate to mug someone that he needed more than just money. And Diaz gave him that. He offered the boy his coat but ultimately gave him you could say love and respect that the boy probably isn’t use to receiving.  Diaz didn’t have to do this. He could have conformed to society and called the police on the boy but that wouldn’t solve the problem of this boy. By sitting down and talking with him and trying to teach the boy to be nice to everyone and to give up his weapon Diaz got to the roots of the problem. This story shows how taking the time to offer a simple object such as a coat can alter a young man’s life. 

The first act of positive deviance or (random act of kindness) I “committed” was with my friend. We both go downtown to tutor thru give.  We decided to bring the other tutors doughnuts for the bus ride down there.  We didn’t have to do this. No one told us to bring food let alone food for the everyone to have some.  It also can be considered an RAK because it got the reaction that a positive deviance usually does.  That is gratitude and happiness.  We didn’t change the world with our doughnuts but we were able to change the expressions on the tutor’s faces.  Everyone was excited and smiling and thanked us when we offered them the doughnuts. It was also great to see our teacher’s reaction and that she appreciated our RAK. Some you could see were in I guess you could say “shock” that we brought enough for the whole bus.  The “shock” factor also usually occurs to the people receiving the RAK. They aren’t expecting people to break the norms to benefit them.  It made me feel “warm and fuzzy” inside knowing that doing something that cost me not that much could help make someone happy for that moment.  Seeing the tutor’s reactions just made me want to continue to do small and big RAK more frequently.  The second random act of kindness I did didn’t cost money only time but it was “time well spent”.  I decided to give my uncle who lives in Texas a call.  I haven’t talked to him in over a year. We don’t “see eye to eye” and have a very distant relationship. I didn’t have to call him. I could have continued this strain relationship like many do in their lives. I didn’t expect him to answer his phone but when he did I was very glad.  He seemed shocked that I called and asked why I called. I told him I just wanted to say hi and see how he was doing. He told me it was great to hear my voice and he really appreciated me calling.  He even said he was thinking of visiting my family soon.  Before we ended the call he told me that me calling him made his day and that he was so glad I called.  You never know how 5 mins. Can affect someone’s life.  If we take 5 mins. Out of our day each day to do something out of the ordinary for someone you’ll be amazed by the recipients responses. But you will also be in shock how amazing it can make you feel. You feel that you did something right even though it defies society.  As cheesy as it sounds it makes you feel warm inside and happy and excited.  It makes you feel that even though you are one person you can make a difference in a life.  

I feel that in our society today many things I see as norms can be seen by other’s as acts of positive deviance. Like holding the door open for someone or thanking someone for holding the door open for me or telling the sedexo workers thank you for cleaning my lunch table.  We are all taught when we are younger to say please and thank you and use good manners. But how come today we don’t see that  once “common courtesy”  as much? Students half the time don’t thank the lunch room staff or even their teacher’s for their hard work. Some have even regressed father to pushing to get in front of someone while walking through a door.  Maybe we need a manners 101 class at SHS? Or just maybe by taking 5 mins. to do a positive deviance act for someone that someone will do the same.

There are Only Two Kinds of People in This World.

Social deviance is any action, idea, thought that breaks or violates social norms. Social deviance are not inherited by genetics but rather created socially. They are socially constructed based on people, places, and ideas.  In the reading The Saints and the Roughnecks by William J. Chambliss we see negative social deviance at its finest.  The community classifies many of the teen boys in either the saints or the rough necks.  Both groups broke the laws. They drank and said demeaning things against women. They also tired/did skip classes.  However how people reacted to them was very different.  They based their judgments on the teen’s economic standing.  The saints were middle class had nice cars,  clothes. Yet the rough necks were lower class , didn’t dress “proper” or have “good manners”.  The society put them into groups of good vs. bad. They were then treated based on this perception. Just like we treat spit with a negative connotation and think it is gross. That is what the community did to the rough necks they saw no hope and that all rough necks were bad. Unlike saliva which people will see as scientific and not stray from it. The community did not stray away from the saints. They tried to “help” them and gave the benefit of the doubt like you would give to the word saliva but never  did they give the benefit to the rough necks just like today we never would think twice about spit it is always seen as “bad or disgusting”.   Yet we can look at these two groups in a whole different way. In the movie “my name is khan” Khan’s mother tell him“  "There are only two kinds of people in this world. Good people who do good deeds. And bad people who do bad. That's the only difference in human beings. There's no other difference." Here we could look at the groups as just humans. No rough necks or saints. Just teenage boys. And since they were not doing “good deeds” they can be seen as “bad”. But never according to khan’s wise words would people be seen as rich or poor, middle class, good looking, black, white. This way of thinking gets rid of any negative social deviance.  It makes us clear our minds of any preconceived thoughts on people based on Social deviances. When you look at life this way you don’t  create stereotypes. You think just because a person is “......” they will act or speak or think like “.......”.  You base people by their actions not by family backgrounds, religions, or race. If only the whole world could think like this. We would have more love and less hate.