16 Things That Happen When Volunteering Abroad

Always wanted to contribute to society, make a difference? Or just live in an exotic country and meet interesting people? Here's a list of things that will most likely happen on your internship abroad, which you might want to consider before starting your endeavor to save the Third World.

Bring it on, world! 

1)  The infamous culture shock. You guys do what?

No matter how silly it sounds, you better adapt or die. Chances are, there is no good explanation for everything, so don't waste your time looking for it. Most likely there are equally weird customs in your home country, you're just so used to them you don't even notice. 

2) The first day at work. This never gets better does it?

After your first day you will probably have mixed up your colleagues names and insulted at least a handful. Don't worry, it gets better!

3)  The horror after your first visit to the bathroom.

 

Privacy is overrated...

4) Your job description does not match what you're expected to do at work.

 

How hard can it be to get this one right?

5) The local food. Being adventurous and trying out the cockroach stew, or busting your budget by getting a sald?

 

Simple equation: Street food= upset stomach.

6) The constant traffic jam. 

 

Isn't rush hour supposed to be confined to the morning and evening? And why is everyone moving in slow motion?!

7) Overtime.

 

A 9-5 job suddenly seems tempting after your second weekend in a row organizing an event with limited turnout.

8) Dead time.

Why is there no in-between?

9) When it's two hours till lunch break and you've already finished your lunch.

 

Is there a Starbucks nearby?

10) Walking alone at night and creepy guys call at you

 

Please don't follow me, please don't follow me...

11) The language barrier.  Sometimes this seems to be impenetrable, and you really start to wonder if you speak the same langauage or even come from the same universe.

No, that is not what I meant, but whatever...

12) The moment you finally realize what your NGO actually does. 

 

Vision, schmission. Why couldn't anyone just told me that we work with poor people?

13) The climate. And oh, the humidity...

I'm never complaining about the weather again.

14) The homesickness.

This is something you never really can shake off, but you learn to live with it.

15) The feeling when your return date starts approaching.

Because you've already marked your calendar, obvi.

16) When you've finally settled down and made some really good friends...

 ... it's time to leave!

But it's okay, because you know there are more interesting places and cool people around the world, just waiting to be discovered.

 So you hit repeat.

First meeting with Africa - Expectations vs. Reality

 As of this writing, I have survived my very first two weeks in Africa - Kampala, the capitol of Uganda, to be more specific (for those of us lacking in geography skills). Before arriving, I had heard two things about Uganda: 1) The former military dictator Idi Amin, and (2) Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army. Now, I've also learned that Uganda is very religious and on the same note very homophombic. (This is probably the time to mention that this blog is meant to be slightly satirical/cyncial/critical - however you want to put it - , and not necessarily politically correct, so no need to be offended!). With a few generalizations and stereotypes in hand, I'll walk you through my first encounter with the African culture, enjoy!  

 One of the first things that come to my mind when thinking back on the past two weeks - which have been very hectic, as always when you move to a new place - are all the prejudices we carry with us in the back of our head when meeting new people, and trying to fit in.

As most people know (maybe with the exception of one Karen Smith), Africa was colonized by the Europeans, and thus English is widely spoken in East-African countries (e.g. Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania), in addition to the many local languages, of course. English is the offical language in Uganda along with Swahili, though Luganda is the native language of most Ugandans, and most people don't actually speak Swahili (just to complicate things further). The level of English obviously varies depending on where you are and who you're speaking with, whereas people in the cities are more prone to speak better English than people in the rural villages.

Back to the point: One of the first couple of days I experienced and episode that illustrates our preconceived notions in meetings with new people. We were a group of people haggling over the fare for the boda-boda (a motorbike taxi - one of the local means of transportation), when my friend asks one of the Ugandans in the group to explain something to the boda driver in Luganda. The boda driver, seemingly a bit offended, retorts: "I can understand what you're saying". Despite my friend's embarrassment, this was of course a minor incident with no harm done other than creating an awkward situation, nevertheless it shows that the expectations we have to other people might not always coincide with the reality. We assumed the boda driver's level of English was lower than it actually was, just as we have many other assumptions about people or cultures we have never been exposed to.

So, now we've (hopefully) settled African is not a language - although you can get a long way with Swahili -, and that everyone in Africa does not, in fact, speak Swedish (Regina George).  However, that is only half the truth, because although Ugandans do speak English, they have some peculiar phrases that any American or British person would struggle to understand at first. Here's a list of what I've picked up so far:

1) "Me, I... ", meaning something along the lines of "Personally, I...", but used on a daily basis. Ex. "Me, I want coffee".

2) "First, you come" (keep your mind out of the gutter for this one), meaning something like "Yes, I'll help you, but please come over here first".

3) "You sure?" (preferrably pronounced as the word "shore"), just meaning "really?". This one caused some confusion in the beginning, when I tried to convince some Ugandans that yes, I was indeed sure that Norway has a lot of snow right now (how could they not believe me??).

4) "Eh", this is an expression which literally can mean 50 different thing, depending on your intonation. "Eh!" can mean "watch it!", or "eh?", meaning "what?", or "eh...", which is more like "huh...".

5) "Yesterday, but one". This one is my favorite, so I'll let you guess what it means. Any suggestions?


That's it for now! Stay tuned for more insightful and thought-provoking posts...

Why we need locks on our windows in Uganda