Time-travel through The Fountain(Head)

(Excerpt stoled from: Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. Signet: New York, 3rd ed. 1993. pp.139-140.)

“...The room had a skylight, but no windows...and no running water. She cooked her own meals in the kitchen of a numerous family on the floor below;...went to dime movies with girls of the neighborhood.
She wore frayed skirts and blouses...She scrubbed the floor of her room, she peeled potatoes, she bathed in a tin pan of cold water. She had never done these things before; she did them expertly.
...at the end of two weeks she returned to her penthouse apartment on the roof of a hotel over Central Park, and her articles on life in the slums appeared in the Banner...”
[The house] “has a sewer that gets clogged every other day and runs over, all through the courtyard”
“The family on the first floor do not bother to pay their rent, and the children cannot go to school for lack of clothes. The father has a charge account at a corner speak-easy...In the fourth floor front, the father of the family has not done a whole day’s work in his life, and does not intend to. There are nine children, supported by the local parish. There is a tenth one on its way.”

This passage provided a perfect example of what I have observed since my first trip to Tamale, Ghana. Many of the “backwards” and horrible conditions that Africa is so well known for bare a striking resemblance to the setting of my grandparent’s childhood. As I read this, my mind immediately turned to my experiences here in Uganda. I imagine that if this were to be me experiencing the slums in Uganda rather than Dominique Francon in the slums of 1920s New York, it would read something like this:

“...The room was lit by a doorframe which so poorly matched it’s holey partner it served only the purpose of its expected presence, but no windows...and no running water. She cooked her meals on the firewood stove of a numerous family a few houses down;...went to 200 Ug shilling (10 cents) movies with girls of the neighborhood.
She wore frayed skirts and blouses...She scrubbed the floor of her room, she peeled matooke, she bathed in a plastic tub of heated water. She had never done these things before; she did them with limited success.
...at the end of two weeks she returned to her three-story house in the highlands of Louisville, Kentucky, and her articles on life in the slums appeared on Blogspot.com...
The house is beside a sewer which gets clogged every time it rains and runs over, all through the neighborhood.
The family next door do not bother to pay their rent, and the children cannot go to school because they cannot afford school fees nor uniforms, or even the price to get their hair buzzed; required of all school-age children. The father spends the family income on bags of moonshine...In the fourth shack down the street, the father of the family has not done a whole day’s work in his life, and does not intend to. There are nine children. There is a tenth on its way.”

Some of these things I have actually experienced in my own homestay. Much I copied directly from the first passage. Hopefully the plagiarism will be forgiven on behalf of the point I am trying to make, which is that, though my grandmothers think I am traveling to the darkest place on earth, it’s almost as if I have merely traveled a few years back in time to experience the “good ol’ days.” (And if that won’t satisfy Ayn, then hopefully the citation will).

I want to be careful and not give the idea that Uganda is just America 90 years ago. In some ways this country is way farther advanced: TVs, Internet, cell phones, etc. The United States did not make it to the “development” (whatever way you want to interpret that term) it now enjoys after 48 years. Why are we surprised when Uganda doesn’t? Of course the two cases are not the same. History, culture, geography, and current world events must be taken into account along with so many other factors. In fact, the purpose of this comparison is not to suggest what lies in Uganda’s future. Instead, it is the hope of this author to allow for the reader to view Uganda’s poverty position as something which is not so foreign and distant from his/her own recent history.