options

I have joined a "Cheza" class, which is African Zumba. Every Wednesday a few of us muzungu teachers assemble in the cafeteria; we clumsily dance, sweating to keep up with the Ugandan instructor, trying to ignore the fact that we are occasionally being gawked at [laughed at?] by Ugandan staff and sometimes students. [That's the worst -- to have a middle school student say the next day, "Miss, I saw you in the cafeteria dancing!"]

It's a good work-out, and it is a lot of fun.

A few weeks ago I was walking back from Cheza class and started walking alongside Godfrey, one of the local janitorial staff. We started talking and he began asking me about Cheza class and, more generally, muzungu interest in exercise.

"Back home in Canada," I said, "many people want to be skinny, skinny, skinny. Sometimes that is not healthy. But here -- what is it like here, Godfrey? I heard that in Uganda fat is good."

He thought for a moment. "In Uganda here, fat is good. Skinny can also be good. Here, there are options."

Options! That's a nice way to put it!

In downtown Kampala, there is a billboard with a shining, plump African woman smiling and eating fried chicken. The caption reads, "For chicks with big thighs."

Back home, such a slogan would never help you sell fried chicken! And such a woman -- healthy, but "overweight" by North American standards -- would probably never be found on a billboard, especially portrayed in an attractive light.

Here, there are options!