Stories matter

Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity...when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.

-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I hope that this blog and hearing about my experience here has added to the single story that is all too often told about Africa, African countries, and Africans. Too often, Africa is only discussed through the lens of what the western world values. What we have, what they don't. What we value, what they don't seem to. This discourse doesn't do justice to the tight-knit communities and resilient invididuals that make up the places that I've been lucky enough to visit over the past 6 months. 

I'm home now and it's comforting to be back where things are so familiar. Being back near friends and family is great, but that doesn't mean leaving was easy. There are a lot of things I'll miss - the mangoes, the sense of calm people people seem to be able to maintain things are chaotic (i.e. everyday in traffic), and especially the team of people I worked with each day. I'm excited to take what I've learned to make a difference in a unique way. I might not have be able to articulate what that is just yet, but I'm all the more energized and confident that large-scale change is possible and needed in many places, including at home. 

I'lll leave you all with a quick read that chronicles author Jessica Alexander's personal journey through the complicated, complex, and chaotic world of international aid: Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid

She writes in her final chapter: "to focus on just the negative aspects of international aid work - of which there are many - and conclude that aid is a failure is not the solution. Our work in humanitarian settings matters, and to wait for broader social, political, and economic reforms to address the needs of the most vulnerable is not an option. Systemic change is only possible through an amalgamation of short-term/long-term, mocro/macro, national/subnational, policy/project investments...I stay with it because I believe in the purpose of aid: to alleviate suffering of people when they need help most."
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I walk away from my time in Uganda with similar sentiments. The work is important. Live are being saved. But, don't work because you're sympathetic to the suffering of others. Don't act (or donate) impulsively because it will make you feel better. Work alongside and with others. Stay accountable to donors, but more importantly your beneficiaries. Work because you want to think critically about what needs to change and commit to how that can be done.