The straw the broke the camel's back

Since the day we arrived in Uganda, it was clear that the locals had created a divide between them and the white people in our group.

Yep, this post is about race - I'll do my best not to offend anyone

Many people would stare at us as we walked down the street. While we were trying to get used to crossing the busy roads of Kampala, drivers would often pause to let us pass when they wouldn't give the time of day to any local person.

The second day we were in Kampala we requested a meeting with the opposition leader (the Ignatieff of Uganda) and we were granted with the opportunity that afternoon. Our friend Carol, who had been showing us around Kampala, told me that she was so happy that day because there's no way she would have ever had the chance to meet someone as high-profile as him.

There have been a couple times where we needed boda bodas (the main form of transportation in Uganda) and boda drivers would stop, attempt to kick off their passenger in order to allow us on. None of us have ever accepted those rides, no matter how much we may have wanted to.

Similar situations occur all the time. One day the guys went to play basketball at a school nearby. I went to take photos and because the school grounds are covered in dirt, one of the students went into the school and returned with a chair for me so that I didn't have to sit on the ground. There were adoring children everywhere and there wasn't a chance in the world that I was going to sit in the almighty chair and have the kids running circles around me at a lower level. They were shocked when I plopped a couple of small girls into the chair and opted for the ground.

One of the most upsetting instances though was when a few of us went to the clinic in town. We were all feeling sick so we went for malaria testing (the results are another story in itself). Because I was feeling so nauseous that day, I chose to ignore the fact that we bypassed all of the people in the waiting room. After seeing one "doctor" we had to wait in a hallway for the second "doctor" to take our blood.

As Amber and I waited, there was a woman that was clearly in immense pain. She was curled up in a ball, moaning, with tears streaming down her face. The doctor approached us and we pointed to the woman beside us and said that he should take her first. Instead he picked up the woman and put her into a dingy room to wait while we went in. I can only assume that he misunderstood us, thinking that we wanted the woman out of our sight.

I have been undecided on whether or not most of these acts of kindness were because the locals wanted to treat us well because we are guests to the country or because we are white. I kept telling myself that these were all random acts of kindness but it became very apparent last night that the locals have created a huge divide between themselves and us white folk. They have put us on a pedestal and surprisingly, it doesn't feel nice.

We went to a club called Sasha last night. We were having a wonderful time, taking back a couple drinks and dancing around for our last night out in Arua. Then, as is unfortunately expected at any bar, one guy started to grab at all of us girls. We were handling ourselves fine but all of a sudden it seemed like every guy in the bar started fighting. Our guys were being backed up by the new friends we made and a few skirmishes later, the sketchy guy was being dragged out of the club.

None of us really wanted to go home but I figured I'd go downstairs to check on everyone. Tensions were high as I reached the group of people that kicked out the bad dude. The worst part is, they literally kicked the guy out of the club. One of our new friends came back in and his shirt was covered in blood. Apparently they gave him a solid beating.

This made all of us feel very uncomfortable because we didn't intend for anyone to get hurt. I was ready to go back upstairs and start dancing until the bouncers told us that "no white people were allowed to leave the club."

That was the end of that for me. I was furious. I tried to leave but no one would let me "for my own protection". I wasn't concerned for my safety (although looking back, maybe I should have been) but it was very upsetting to think that some of the people we came with, Tk, Gillian and Jospeh, were able to leave the club if they wanted because they're black but we had to stay inside because we're white and we apparently needed protection.

Last night my frustration was mistaken for feeling like we were being oppressed but in fact, it's the complete opposite. It was an extreme case of the everyday attitudes the the locals have toward us.

I absolutely despise that we are treated better than everyone else because we're white. It's not even because we're guests or because we're foreigners but nine times out of ten, it's because we're white and it's that simple. It's impossible for me to get inside the heads of Ugandans but in my short time spent here, my humble guess would be that it's because white people have money and supposedly that means we have power over everything.

The whole thing makes me sick and has been the main source of my daily anger and frustrations. This is definitely a sensitive topic because it's rare when everyone wants to talk about race issues. I recognize that people go through worse things because of the colour of their skin and so this may not even be my place to speak about it but I have a public outlet to discuss these issues so here I am. If I can get this angry about receiving the positive effects of racial divides, I can only imagine how people feel that receive the negative effects of racism.

It upsets me the most that there are a lot of people in the world that still hold true to their racial divides (whatever they may be). I don't like being called Mundu or Mzungu (white foreigner) and I don't like that people give me special treatment because I'm white. I'm not saying that we need to turn a blind eye to the various races in the world but rather recognize that there are people in the world with different skin colour, culture, religions, etc. and accept them as all the same.

I'm sure that I'm guilty of treating people differently depending on who they are whether it's an unconscious decision or it's the result of a terrible joke but the only way I know how to deal with it from here on out is to talk about it.