Living in a village - Part III
There are three types of new relationships in Uganda apart from those that I already ruled out.
Second hand relationships - adultery. No way.
Advantageous relationship - hm, let's phrase it like this: The other person has local experiences.
Lucky relationship - perfect match: seen, met, case closed.
The first one is no option. The remaining alternatives are no alternatives because the third one is highly unlikely. Which remains me to consider the second one. But is that first choice in a town like Kampala? At least it would fulfil the socio-cultural expectation that a man is supposed to have company. But it would indeed be advantageous. One faces medical risks, social risks and personal risk: STDs, rumours, exclusion from established social circles, disappointing experiences when it ends. Some people say: No risk, no fun... Really?
I am writing this because I ran into a former colleague of mine yesterday. She had been living here for quite some time and she is still very well known in this city. And from what people told me about her, I understand, why she still spends so much time in Uganda.
This small village and especially its expatriate community is full of rumours about anybody and anything, so I also heart stories about her. I prefer not to spread rumours and not to comment on it. I do listen to them and I may take them into account because they always have some trustworthy parts, i.e. they carry some facts - the challenge is to filter them out.
Me personally, I am very eager to be esteemed and I hate embarrassing situations. Therefore, I prefer being a dark horse/an unknown quantity (I do not know which translation fits best) rather than being a "celebrity" and thus automatically reason for rumours.
(I copied the previous sentences from an email, so some readers might recognise it, but since I wrote it I do not put quotation marks.)
So, the remaining option is the third, whose probability estimate is low, but not equal to zero ;-) Ah, yes, as a good economist, I excluded any combination of the three options, just to make the "model" easier... Apropos easier, my suitcases will be lighter than last time on my way back from Germany. I am not bringing sweets for anyone. At least there is no reason for it - yet ;-)
Second hand relationships - adultery. No way.
Advantageous relationship - hm, let's phrase it like this: The other person has local experiences.
Lucky relationship - perfect match: seen, met, case closed.
The first one is no option. The remaining alternatives are no alternatives because the third one is highly unlikely. Which remains me to consider the second one. But is that first choice in a town like Kampala? At least it would fulfil the socio-cultural expectation that a man is supposed to have company. But it would indeed be advantageous. One faces medical risks, social risks and personal risk: STDs, rumours, exclusion from established social circles, disappointing experiences when it ends. Some people say: No risk, no fun... Really?
I am writing this because I ran into a former colleague of mine yesterday. She had been living here for quite some time and she is still very well known in this city. And from what people told me about her, I understand, why she still spends so much time in Uganda.
This small village and especially its expatriate community is full of rumours about anybody and anything, so I also heart stories about her. I prefer not to spread rumours and not to comment on it. I do listen to them and I may take them into account because they always have some trustworthy parts, i.e. they carry some facts - the challenge is to filter them out.
Me personally, I am very eager to be esteemed and I hate embarrassing situations. Therefore, I prefer being a dark horse/an unknown quantity (I do not know which translation fits best) rather than being a "celebrity" and thus automatically reason for rumours.
(I copied the previous sentences from an email, so some readers might recognise it, but since I wrote it I do not put quotation marks.)
So, the remaining option is the third, whose probability estimate is low, but not equal to zero ;-) Ah, yes, as a good economist, I excluded any combination of the three options, just to make the "model" easier... Apropos easier, my suitcases will be lighter than last time on my way back from Germany. I am not bringing sweets for anyone. At least there is no reason for it - yet ;-)
posted by Torsten at 3:28 pm
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