Family-The Kazibwes

While in the field one day, we were visiting a lady’s house.  Here’s how the conversation went.

Deo:  “She is not around.”

Summer:  “Whose house is it?”

Deo:  “Margaret Kazibwe.”

Amy:  “Your mom?”

Deo (very casually): “Yeah.”

There we are, just wandering around the place where Deo grew up for 5 to 10 minutes, and Deo doesn’t even mention anything.  We had a very similar experience with Deo’s father and brother.  We met up with him, and we were talking to him for about 10 minutes, when we realized they had the same last name, and we asked him if they were relatives.  Deo once again responds with a casual “Yeah.”  No big deal. 

I was shocked by all of this, so I asked Deo what the deal was.  He says here in Uganda, you do not see your family much.  You only do things with them when there are community events.  Even though his family all lives pretty near, he rarely sees them.  I thought that was rather strange. 

We did get the opportunity to go over to the Kazibwe’s for lunch one day.  Margaret prepared us a delicious Ugandan feast of matooke, g-nuts, beef, Irish potatoes, and pineapple.  It was cool to go to the place where Deo grew up, and spend a little bit of time with his mom, dad, and brother.  (His sister is in high school at a boarding school, so she is not around.)  There was a surprisingly low amount of interaction.  So yeah, family relations are quite different here.