EVERETT — When college junior Lindsey Potter headed for Uganda with her class in January, she thought of it as an unfamiliar place far away from home.
By the time she left a month later, she realized that Uganda had changed the way she saw the world.
Potter, 21, of Everett, studies economics and math at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. She had more than a few destinations to pick from for this special class abroad. She felt drawn to Uganda.
The east African country, slightly smaller than Oregon, is home to about 32 million people.
She arrived in the capital, Kampala, expecting to find wild animals and desert — classic images of Africa. The world she found turned out to be much like her own, and also unlike what she expected.
Traffic was bustling on the streets of Kampala. People were rushing in and out of movie theaters. The apartment she was renting had wireless Internet. Her stereotypes fell, one by one.
Potter was taking a business class in Uganda. She wasn’t comfortable with the instructor’s ideas about business and decided to switch to a group that was focusing on social responsibility.
“The idea of exploiting this amazing society by profiting off their resources left me heartbroken,” she said.
Instead, she made friends and learned about people’s struggles with AIDS. The people she met were happy despite their hardships. Those lessons went far beyond any class curriculum, Potter said.
Her experience in Uganda drove her passion for international economics. It also inspired her to try to educate people about the world.
Some things really were different in Uganda, like the way people experience time, she said.
“Here, you have so many things to do. But when you are there, everything is just so relaxed,” Potter said. “Ugandan time is definitely a different experience.”
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
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