Ugandan compliments

We’ve been here quite a while now and we have learned a lot about the culture that we never learned while we were in our little protected “bubble” on our two previous trips. I’m certainly not suggesting that the “building team bubble” is a bad thing- it is necessary! If I had been exposed to some of this stuff on my first trip, there wouldn’t have been a second trip! God slowly gives you little bits more and allows your eyes to see things, as you are ready.
Many of the ways that Ugandans phrase things is much different than the way we phrase things. I believe I have blogged before that our children told me I no longer speak English, I now speak Uganglish (Ugandan English).
One example of a phrase is that Ugandans do not “pick up” or “drop off” someone or something. When you arrive in the country they will “pick” you at the airport and when you leave, they will “drop” you. Both of us now use these phrases without even thinking about it.
There is one phrase here that has caused many international volunteers to cry! When a Ugandan says, “You are fat”, they mean that you look healthy, you don’t look malnourished. Of course, that is not the way that we take it! Most Ugandans are very honest though and if you need to lose weight, they will tell you, but that is not the same thing as calling you fat.
When Canadians see a large group of something, we would say, “There are lots of those.” Ugandans say, “They are many”. Without realizing it, this has become my default when I speak. Of course, my son pointed it out and corrected me many times during his recent stay!
My favourite “Ugandan phrase a Canadian could take the wrong way” came just the other day. I mentioned that we had one of Greg’s team over for supper on Tuesday. The plan was to have chicken, but there was none at the store (and I wasn’t about to buy a live one!) so we had pork chops instead. Albert thoroughly enjoyed the meal and thanked me for it several times. The following day, he once again told Greg how good the food was and added, “You wouldn’t find food like this on the street.” I laughed so hard when Greg told me about how Albert had paid me this compliment.
You see, in Uganda, you can buy a lot of food “on the street” from vendors who sell a lot of different things. For many, especially single males, this seems to be their major food source- it is readily available and inexpensive. In the morning chapatti is cooked up on grills all over the city. Rolex (fried egg cooked with peppers, onions, etc and rolled in chapatti) is a favourite of many. As the day goes on, chicken and corn on the cob are grilled at all sorts of roadside grills. Sugar cane and fruit that is already peeled and cut is available everywhere. The street really is a smorgasbord and I have just given you a small sample of the fare that is available.
So when Albert says, “You wouldn’t find anything like that on the street”, it is indeed a compliment. Warning to all of you in Canada, when we are back home and I invite you over for supper, I will not consider that phrase to be a compliment there!