Okay, I admit it. I am extremely skeptical of the Ugandan education system. I mean do you blame me? I was in the American system my whole life. (Public schooled, thank you very much.) I realize America is not the smartest nation educationally but there is something to be said for the quality of education available to us for free in America. Here it is sooooo different. You must pay for your education and a shoddy one at that. Teachers beat you regularly, the uniforms are horrible and the days are long. So when we thrust our children headlong into this culture and education system we obviously had some reservations.
Most evenings Aiden stays up an hour later than the other kids to work on his homework. (This is after a grueling 10 hour day of school!) I always read through his workbooks to see what his teachers comments are. Most of their comments are negative and unkind. I am constantly telling Aiden that he is in fact doing an amazing job. It is just not their culture to give a lot of compliments.
So many times I have laughed out loud at the things he is learning. Not the typical courses of study that our American kids are used to. For example: Name one danger of forests. Answer: They can hide rebels. I mean come on! Do any of our forests in America hide rebels? Okay maybe some in the backwoods of Montana where they found Ted the Uni-bomber. But still. It made me laugh. Tonight was no exception.
Here is word for word what his workbook said:
Taboos
A taboo is anything or an object believed to be evil in one’s culture.
Examples:
1. Do not sit on a grinding stone.
2. Do not sit at the door post.
3. Do not sit on cooking stones.
4. Do not sit on the mortal. (like a mortal and pestle?)
5. Do not marry anyone from your family.
I certainly hope some of you are laughing. I mean these are good rules to live by right? Don’t sit on anything dangerous or used to prepare food and above all….DON’T MARRY YOU SISTER! Even if you are from Kentucky. (That was a joke for our intern Obbie Todd from Kentucky…no offense to anyone but him!).
It got me thinking though and I wanted some feedback from my American friends. What do you think are the top five taboos in America? Not just where you live but in America in general. Do we even have any? Being such a permissive country I had to wonder. Anyway, fun to think about and please continue to pray for the kids! Should we ever come back to America I fear they will be a bit behind in the American culture!!!
So I have resigned myself to the fact that they are learning some weird things here. But I guess it’s good for a laugh at the end of a long day. And maybe these valuable lessons on what not to sit on will stay with Aiden his whole life and he’ll never have a run in with a cooking stone. (Or marry his sister!).
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
Top five American taboos? These are five biggies, though not necessarily the top ones. In no particular order, I'd say....
1) commenting on someone's race, ethnicity, beliefs, or economic background, especially in an unkind way, unless you know them very well (unless you do it behind their back. then it's ok. or, if you're bashing a Christian. that's ok, too.)
2) doing anything that is perceived as forcing your opinion on someone else
3) anything that violates our extremely high standards of cleanliness (like someone else's hands touching your food at a restaurant, or not bathing or washing your pants regularly...)
4) anything that requires us to wait one second longer than we think we should have to. For example, bad customer service. I agree with the post before this...it is not ok in the US to make someone wait.
5) basically, anything that infringes on our extremely long list of personal rights (like the right to complain about anything we want)
What do you think?