Dinner with the AMO Students

Tonight we had the five AMO students over for dinner.

It was the first time they had ever been invited into the doctors compound. They are kind of the low people on the totem pole; they are partway through their training to become Assistant Medical Officers – which is sort of equivalent to physicians assistants in the US. They are here at KCMC away from their families – all of them are married and have children – and they live in a hostel here at the hospital without even a kitchen in it, so they take all their meals at the canteen. As one of them put it, “we live a triangular life. From hostel to ward to kitchen and back.”
The AMOs just now include three men: Honest Lyimo, Prudence Rwakaza, and Deusdedit Msabile, and two women: Mwanahamisi Mgawo and Mary Lewanga.

It seemed like it was a big thing for them to be invited to one of the doctor’s houses for dinner and we wanted it to be special for them, so we made a multiple course dinner which we promised would include American food, appetizers, and dessert, and gifts for each of them. Don and Forrest went to escort them from the KCMC campus over to our house all in a group so they arrived together.
We served Pringles chips (here they are called “Jackos”) and cheddar cheese with crackers and sodas. Then the power went out for a while, so we went inside before it got too dark, and lit the candles and had dinner: spaghetti and tomato sauce, scalloped potato casserole (which one gentleman passed up as “too American” for his taste), fried rice, sautéed zucchini, and salad.

Immediately they were very interested to ask questions about the United States, and they quizzed us about all kinds of things they had heard about America, and asked us what our initial impressions had been about Africa before arriving here.
They were very curious to know how Americans perceived President Obama, and wanted to know about American politics. Much of the conversation revolved around comparing everyday life in our two countries – Don ended up explaining credit cards, mortgages, the American pace of life, abundance, marriage and families. They had never seen a credit card, actually – and so Don passed his around and they all examined it closely, and they immediately understood how quickly someone could become entrapped once Don explained how they work.

The best part of the evening was a very frank discussion about race – their perception of whites (Muzungus), and wanting to know what we thought about blacks and whether our views were typical in America, with the conclusion by one of them that white people and black people really aren’t all that different. Issues of race here (and in many other places in Africa) are quite complex, as people deal with issues of postcolonial governance and development. We talked for a long time about Mugabe in Zimbabwe (whose methods they all soundly disapproved) and of Mandela in South Africa (whose methods they soundly praised).

Also, everyone could agree that what makes someone happy is not things, but people – friends and family. As we finished the evening with a plate of cookies and cups of Milo and chamomile tea, we felt very warmed by friendship and mutual respect.