Mzungu’s Take on Uganda

Adjusting to the local language has been difficult! Even though English is a national language and taught in schools, almost all locals communicate in their local, native language. For many that is Lugandan. However, each region or tribe has its own dialect. Therefore, it has been extremely hard to pick up on the language and some miscommunications have occurred. For example, we sometimes mispronounce locations when taking with the taxi drivers about where we want to go so it takes a while to get everyone on the same page! Luckily, we haven’t had any major mistakes when trying to use the local language. When we talk with the staff at Tunaweza they try to teach us some local words, but they always find our pronunciations very amusing!
Though we have tried to learn some of the local language, we have found it quite difficult. If I was staying longer I would definitely put in more time and effort to learning it. At House of Charity, the home for the elderly and disabled, many of the residents only speak the local language. This makes it very hard to communicate with them. Instead I usually just sit and listen to their stories, nodding like I can understand every single word. Additionally, I try to use body language, singing, and dancing to engage with them. If there was more time I would absolutely love to learn the language and be able to speak with them and truly understand their stories.
One word that none of us will ever forget is “Mzungu”. It is what the locals call white people. Technically, the term “Mzungu” means mover or one who moves around. Since it was the British or white people in Uganda’s history that moved around to colonize the area, the locals called them Mzungus. Throughout history the word has been passed down as the term for any white person. You may be thinking that it is rude to call people by the color of their skin, but that is not the intention behind using the word Mzungu. The term has simply been passed along. Even though we are no longer moving around and colonizing Uganda, we have a similar appearance to those that did.