When the Homily is about Immunology

Not here to sightsee

One of the nicer houses to be found on the road up toward Bombo

There is actually much to be seen here in Uganda and I will no doubt face some amount of rebuke for not taking advantage of this trip to see things like the origin of the Nile, the Gardens down in Entebbe, or to a Safari. But I believe I am going to walk away from this trip with so much more...something I value much more and, I suppose, I always have. Being with people. My housemates, my coworkers, the people at Church, the people who work here at the house, and even the everyday people around the streets and the hospital. Hopefully I come home with far more that the wealthy tourists who hide in their wealthy hotels (or houses like this one) and go about on their expensive Mzungo adventures.

I sense that people - maybe us Orthodox particularly - have a tendency to see an inherit spiritual value in poverty. It is true in some regards, but in and of itself it cannot make anyone holy...I'm not even sure it can of its own power push one towards holiness. For some, it seems, it pushes them towards more sin. Of course, poverty lowers one's expectations which is a very good thing, but I find that those expectations are about as quick to change as are pop culture fashion tastes. Hence, I think, the problem with shoveling money to poverty stricken areas (at home or abroad) solves little and really, this is pretty much all our politicians can offer. Once the money is gone, then what? Give more...and then what?

But poverty, as I said, does lower expectations whereas wealth raises them. Sometimes I think expectation is a sin itself...at the very least it teeters on the edge of sin in some ways. The poor, having so lived with death and suffering, truly know what it means to have a good day...whereas we wealthy require cute thoughtful emails, calenders, or a song to remind us what a good day REALLY means and even then it lasts a few minutes when we return to our slumber of worrying about the Cable bill or whatever.

Poverty doesn't make one holy...please, there is plenty of sin here. But poverty is certainly a richer soil in which holiness can grow. The Ugandan people are a very religious people and I have marveled at how prevalent religion is here. Even in the lab one can hear the employees freely listening to religious music at their desks and one can find announcements for prayer meetings along side the notice for a peer reviewed scientific journal club on the bulletin board. I definitely sense a radically different feeling in Uganda in regards to this, reminding me of how material and secular we have grown in America. Our religion...so precious and life changing to us...is expected to be hidden.

Poverty does - without question - do the following: it necessitates community. We in America hide behind our TV's, our computers, our comforts...we have - we think wrongly - precious little need for others...we have technology to rub our backs as we lather in our ever-pleasing sense of self-satisfaction. Ever notice how things change when something happens? Like 5 or 6 days without power and suddenly you start spending more time with neighbors and friends: even if it is to note over and over again how awful the predicament is? Suddenly you start checking on people, making sure they are okay. Suddenly you ask if they need anything, since you were running into town anyway? I think you know what I mean. In times when we need each other...well...we need each other...even if in reality we could have managed it alone, trouble of any sort leads us almost like instinct toward seeking community. Ultimately I expect that in our affluence we have settled for something utterly unnatural. Being alone.

People...each other...community...religion and love are all somethings people tend to yearn for and need. But when the perceived need reaches a point of notation amongst the collective consciousness of people it magically materializes.

I've seen enough of what poverty cruelly deals out here for me to ever opt to sing its praises. But, struggles do bring out the best and worse in people and in so doing maybe it also brings some clarity? We seem to wander about in a daze in America. Poverty is too heavy a price for such clarity. There must be and I believe there are alternatives.

Perhaps it begins with seeing a "vacation" or a trip as being more about interacting and communing with people than with seeing the sights? Maybe.