Stopping in town to take advantage of the Standard Bank ATM machine, as usual I was nearly accosted by vendors selling newspapers, cellular pre-paid "top-up" cards, fruit and more. But it was two young girls that really ushered in my Ugandan indoctrination. Both carrying woven bamboo baskets atop their heads and about 10 years old, on we chatted briefly on the roadside by the ATM.
"Where you from," the less shy girl asked, with her head neatly shaved and shining with small beads of sweat; so delicately innocent in the late afternoon sun. "Where are you going?" Before I could answer the shy girl asked if I was hungry, pointing to the few tangerines in her basket. The girls told me they learned English in school and then the forward girl offered, "I want to be a lawyer."
"And I want to be president," the shy girl with an extra bout of confidence piped.
For perhaps first time in my journey through Latin America, Brazil and Africa have I sensed a desire to exceed and be someone in such young people. Often I've hypothesized a major problem with many impoverished people from cultures different than my own is the lack of perceived opportunity by its citizens. You're raised by a goat herder, you will be a goat herder and you will rear goat herders -- a perceived preordained existence with no other future.
Yet in the US and other westernized cultures we are instilled with the notion of achieving our potential and dreaming to be something. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" It's in our psyche but absent in those from so many other cultures. Yet on this dusty Ugandan street these two girls capture my heart and share their dreams with me. And it's not a ploy to sell tangerines. But I couldn't resist. I bought some fruit from each and shared it with an elderly woman walking down the street and with the boy selling newspapers who guided me to the turn off to Lake Bunyonyi.
