The Political Inquirer

After the descriptions of ‘the real struggles of the Average American’ and the not-so-average American, it’s time to end the trilogy by bringing into consideration on ‘non-American averages’ 

Here are three real stories of pretty average non-Americans, though unusual in that they start out somewhat below-average and move to somewhat above average.  Through them, hopefully one will learn just how petty the ‘real struggles of the average American’ really are.

The first is about a young girl; member of a family of a fishmonger father and a mother tending a small amount of crops.  Six children.  Their family income averages about $10 per month and, while every day is a struggle and full of hard work, they are getting by.  Then a series of hard luck events: The young girl loses the use of her legs due to polio; a few years later, a long illness drained the tiny finances of the family and took the life of one of the boys; Droughts destroyed the few crops 6 times in 7 years; the father grew disheartened, then ill and died.  The mother struggled on, leaning on religious faith when nothing else was there.  Then the oldest son came down with a high fever and, though he survived, was left essentially insane.  Finally, it was more than she could handle and she made the difficult decision to turn her handicapped daughter over to an orphanage; she now longer could feed them all.

But the spirit of the young girl could not be denied; she did well in early school when allowed to attend (the donated wheelchair often preventing it) and learned to use her voice both in song and speech well.  She was well on the way, through perseverance, to a more ‘average’ life despite many setbacks when a visitor asked to speak to her a few minutes on camera.

The second is about a young girl whose mother served as a village teacher and her father was maintained a small herd of cows.  This very average family was destroyed very abruptly with the insanity of the Rwandan genocide.  A village elder- one long trusted by the family- had them dragged from their home, had the parents butchered with machetes before the children.  The Hutus then went down the line killing the children; the little girl had a spear stuck in her head and she fell motionless.  However, the little girl did not die.  When she revived, she joined other survivors of the village massacre (mostly small children) in their flight from their homeland.  For three weeks, they trekked to the border, scrounging for any food and drinking from streams that tasted of blood the entire way.  More were lost on the way, but the little girl managed to get out alive, entering a refugee camp for a couple of years until she was placed in an orphanage.  A few years later, at the school that her musical talent was being developed in, a visitor was struggling to see his laptop screen from which he was recording a performance.  The young orphan girl moved in behind him and held up a notebook to shade the screen for the stranger.

The third was about a beautiful young woman who caught the eye of an older, fairly wealthy man (making him very average for the overall world).  The young naïve woman allowed herself to be seduced, and the man reciprocated by placing the poor girl in most popular high school in the area.  However, she soon became pregnant and was forced to leave school.  Her benefactor did end up marrying the young woman, but shortly after the girl baby was born, It was discovered tha the couple both had AIDS (though the infant did not).  He went quickly, dying in 18 months, and the young mother was forced to move in with her sister in a tiny shack in the urban slums.  The young mother slowly succumbed to the disease over several years, the young daughter watching as her mother became bed-ridden and dependent on hard-to-come-by IVs.  Finally, upon her passing, the orphaned girl was sent to an orphanage, as the aunt feared she too would have AIDs (but did not).  The experience hardened the young girl with determination and a competitive streak; at the orphanage, she excelled in her studies, including the male-dominated areas of math and science. Then, one day, a friend of hers asked her to come talk to a visitor at the orphanage, a visitor with a background in the sciences.

The story of these three young ladies continue, all of them having below average starts to live- even by global standards.  The vast majority in their situations sink into the anonymity of the poverty-stricken masses or give into death.  A very few rise through their determination, only to be eventually beaten down again by the lack of basic social and technical infrastructures that Americans take for granted.  Then there are the lucky ones who catch a bit of a break; like these three at the end point of each story.  Two have gained the help that brings them to the average global income of around $3,000 per year (which they use for college), the third gaining it within the year from government funds due to her academic excellence.  Three young ladies, now are approaching the average, by being phenomenally above average in character, talent and determination.

  Winnifred Nazziwa             Sandra Karigirwa                   Irene Birungi             

And, as I am personally familiar and involved in all three of these stories and hear less whining from any 20 Ugandan orphans than I do a single ‘average American’, the readership here might now have some understanding of my contempt for the types of complaints that are the norm in this country. 

I sometimes to give in to the same kind of American whining myself.  But all I need to do is think about kids like these and all those who haven’t made it nearly this far and I quickly STFU!