Call me crazy, but before returning to Uganda this January, I was arguably more apprehensive about being immersed in a group of new white kids my own age than I was about being halfway around the world in a different culture and stressful setting. I had spent a month at the Nyakibale Hospital last June and knew that I would be returning to friendships formed with the people there, but this time I would be going on the trip with an entirely new group of students and knew that I would have to focus on establishing new friendships and working relationships with them. IECM (The Initiative to End Childhood Malnutrition) is a collaboration between Mass General Hospital and the Harvard Global Health Initiative. Therefore, the students on the trip are all students from Harvard; they had all met each other through IECM or knew each other from some other context. On that first day when we met at the airport they were all chattering excitedly about the trip , asking questions about family or friends, and catching up on events over break, while all I could do was learn names, think of ways to match them to faces, and introduce myself over and over. Fortunately, my twin sister Kristina, who is one of the coordinators of the program, did an amazing job of introducing me to everyone, but I was still apprehensive about being the odd one out.
Now, as we enter the last week here at Nyakibale, I realize how much the friendships that I have forged with this group of 14 have added to my experience in Uganda. Granted, for a non-Harvard student I now have a wealth of inside information that I will never really be able to use (I can tell you about HUPD, UHS, FOP, housing/blocking life, etc…) but maybe it’s the anthropologist in me that thrives on asking questions and wanting to know more about their college experiences, because I have loved learning about their lives! Marjorie and I , on our runs, have shared our outdoor trip experiences (Harvard’s counterpart to our COOT is FOP—Freshman Orientation Program), I’ve heard all about Maeve’s ingenious ways to obtain free essentials from Harvard Health Services, and have discussed thoughts and concerns with Natalie about the pressures and joys of collegiate athletics. The experiences we have shared here–sad and trying and amazing and profound—are hard to articulate but have undeniably deepened our friendships, and I would like to think that just as I have felt immersed in their lives, they likewise feel like they have become a part of mine. Although we have only spent three weeks together, I truly feel as though I could ask any of them for help or advice and would get an honest and open response.
With respect to my Ugandan friends, I couldn’t WAIT to see various members of the staff that Kristina and I had forged friendships with over the summer. When JB, one of the clinical officers, showed up at our house that first morning after our arrival, we were ecstatic and eager to catch up on the events of the past seven months, including the birth of his baby girl! Our friendships with two of the nursing students we had gotten to know in June, Christine and Mukasa, have deepened and become much more open, and we spent time discussing their plans for their lives after nursing school and their goals for the future. Every time we came across one of the nurses we had met last summer, we were happy to stop and catch up or say hi, feeling more and more at home and at ease in a country that, by all accounts should feel incredibly foreign for us.
With 4 days left, I am realizing how sad I will be to leave both my Ugandan friends and this great group of Harvard kids. As we finished our Ryunkore lesson from Mukasa and Christine last night, they told us that they would send us a letter in Ryunkore by e-mail that we would have to translate by the time we got home. Even though their access to Internet is sporadic, we know that the few Facebook posts or pictures we get from them will carry us through until we see each other again. As for the Harvard crew, we have already made plans to see each other when I am down in Boston and to have an IECM reunion, and everyone knows without saying, that this group will keep in touch. My memories of this trip will be vivid and intense and infused with the faces of my friends, from Uganda and from Harvard, who have taught me and shared with me and become my friends.
JB and baby, "Lynne"
