It’s All About Perspective

Today in the market I met a twenty-four-year-old guy named Morghan.  He works six days a week.  Each day he must walk twenty minutes from his village to get to the market where he rents a shop.  The shop sells second-hand jeans that have been shipped up from Kampala, the country's capital.  After stopping by Morghan’s shop to see if I could find any good deals on clothing, I struck up a conversation with him.  We eventually began to talk about finances.  I will give the readers a run-down of our conversation.

On the topic of finances, Morghan told me that it cost 10,000 Ugandan shillings per month to rent his shop.  This day in particular he made 130 shillings.  Morghan said some days he can earn more money, sometimes close to several thousand shillings but this is extremely rare.  His average monthly income from just the shop is around 50,000 shillings.  Now let’s do some math.  The exchange rate is around 2,500 shillings to $1 USD.  This means that his shop rent is $5 per month and he earns around $20 per month.  That should give you some perspective on the purchasing power parity when you consider that his entire month’s rent is the equivalent of a Burger King Whopper (fries and drink not included).  I find this incredibly interesting.  It is interesting not from a negative view that Ugandans are impoverished, but from a negative view that Americans are rich.  Generally, we (myself included) don’t have a perspective on the reality of life, and because of this, we lack a true sense of value for the things we do have, which are more than likely luxuries to begin with.  Everything in Uganda has value.  Nothing is taken for granted, and I love it.  I want to immerse myself to see and truly live out this reality.

Morghan and I continued to talk, but the rest of the conversation is for another blog.  I plan on continuing to follow-up with Morghan so we can become better friends.  Remember it’s all about perspective.  You never know how you will affect someone or how they will affect you.  Please continue to follow our blog as we tell you about our adventures and our new perspectives.