No day will pass by without seeing the sun

Us after the field

Buon Giorno, Grüß Gott, Osuzotya from the italo-austrian-Ugandan group.

We would like to focus in todays blog post on the differences and difficulties in intercultural group work. Before coming to Uganda we were taught about challenges in intercultural group work, about language barriers and different mentalities.

To be able to do so, we will give you a brief introduction on our team members.

Moses, 30, from Arua in Northern Uganda, working as an accountant for an NGO and studying Finance at MUBS.

Gloria, 26, from Arua in Northern Uganda, working as lecturer at Makerer University Business School in Statistics and studying Economics.

Massimiliano, 26, from Modena, Italy, working as Pizzarista and studying Business and Development Studies.

Johannes, 25, from Nenzing, Austria, volunteering at BetterNow and studying Business and Development Studies.

Well, what were the biggest challenges after 10 days of working in a multicultural team?

Skin color – as „Muzungos“ Massimiliano and Johannes are definitely attracting attention on the market and interviews get interrupted by marriage proposals and attempts to kidnapping.

Speed – while the Austrian way of walking is pretty fast, the Ugandan speed is more comparable to a snail about to fall asleep. Even finding a middle-way is almost impossible.

Language barrier – working with Ugandans not able to communicate with local Ugandans due to different languages in North and Central Uganda, but also missing English skills on Italian-side are a challenge we have to overcome.

But life in this amazing country, with amazing ever-smiling people and not a single day without the sun smiling down on us and giving us severe sunburns, would be almost boring without those little challenges making work in the field fun.

Moses in the Field