"Homo sum humani- a me nihil alienum puto."

Maya Angelou made an observation in her travels that has been made by most everyone who's ever set foot outside their hometown, especially those who have experienced cultures "drastically different" than their own. But even as I typed "drastically different", the point of this entry was driven home again in my heart and the point is this: we're in the same boat.

Prima fascie, the residents of the Country Club Plaza and Bushenyi, Uganda couldn't be more different.

But wait.

In the last 24 hours, I've seen a Ugandan wearing a University of Michigan t-shirt, heard a Dolly Parton song on the radio, and met a 3 year old baby in a village named "Barack Obama", after a famous world leader who was sworn into office on his birthday (no joke).

Those are silly examples, but truly, in getting to know people here, esp the KCRC staff that we've been moving around with, I've realized that the way people joke and tease each other, argue, teach, work together, etc, is more or less the same.

The. Same.

I speak 3 words of Runyankole and have literally spent hours in the last week listening to these people speak that language (not usually having enough time to translate every conversation), and although I don't know the precise words, I get what they're trying to communicate much of the time. There is a mysterious connection between human beings that is familiar to anyone who has sat across from someone from a different culture.

I mean it. And many of you know what I'm talking about. There's a twinkle that comes into someone's eyes after they tease a friend and look to the group for an expected chuckle, whether you're from Russia, Raymore, or Rwanda. Laughter, flirtation, empathy, sorrow- Every language has vocabulary words for these, but they register on the same emotional wavelength for everyone.

I hope, from the bottom of my omutima that you come to grasp that a driver from Kabwohe is not so different than a omushaho omweegi from America.

"In my work what I try to say is that as human beings we are more alike than we are unalike." -M.A.

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