{"id":962,"date":"2015-02-21T13:35:25","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T18:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/?p=962"},"modified":"2015-02-22T15:57:11","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T20:57:11","slug":"uganda-little-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/2015\/02\/uganda-little-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda: Little Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

They look like little grown ups.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Ugandan children wear miniaturized versions of adult clothing, hold siblings in their arms, and stand proudly next to vegetable stands. I stare at them for hours as the van drives through Uganda, my forehead pressed against the window.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A little boy, about the height of two milk crates, reaches up to his older sister who has just put a lollipop in her mouth. The girl, about the height of a chair, gives her brother the lollipop without a fuss.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kids with huge, gaping smiles chase each other around produce stands and store fronts, running through the legs of adult society. Participating in a way that American children rarely do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many stores don\u2019t have lighting so people hang outside of them. A woman sits next to a bowl with ten organic tomatoes and two locally-grown pineapples to sell. Pesticide-free corn is spread on tarps on the ground. Free-range goats walk around. Young men in blue shirts run around selling hormone-free meat on sticks. Society thrives and pulses with the energy of a beehive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was only in Uganda for 8 days but ghosts of the little Ugandan children haunt me as I walk down the ascetic and uninhabited streets of Boston. I notice the well-finished sidewalks and baroquely designed buildings. I walk out of an event at the Microsoft NERD center with superfluous quantities of organic, pesticide-free, free-range, hormone-free Whole Foods platters and catch my breath.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A breeze is blowing from the Charles River. The sidewalk is empty and well paved. I wonder where all the people are. I wonder where the Ugandan kids are running now.<\/p>\n


\n

 <\/p>\n

Scenes from driving through Uganda<\/p>\n

http:\/\/youtu.be\/HIdrnFhtsd8<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a> \"Screen<\/a> \"Screen<\/a> \"Screen<\/a>From Uganda to the Microsoft NERD Center in just one day…<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

Photo above by Nicole Hennig<\/a>, flickr.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They look like little grown ups.   The Ugandan children wear miniaturized versions of adult clothing, hold siblings in their arms, and stand proudly next to vegetable stands. I stare at them for hours as the van drives through Uganda, my forehead pressed against the window.   A little boy, about the height of two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-21-at-1.22.37-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linacolucci.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}