We do not dig deep; we have no curiosity

I was having a session recently with a group of 18 and 19-year-old young adults. I engaged them for about two hours on a spectrum of issues. I challenged them to share their dreams and aspirations and I asked them the simple question of “why” repeatedly. 
When one said they wanted to study mechanical engineering, I asked why. Then they said because they love machines and I asked again, why? Asking the ‘why behind the why,’ is a principle I often apply to myself and my children alike. 
There are many layers of wisdom and understanding in the ‘whys’ that form our decisions and actions. Sometimes I feel that as a people, we Ugandans, are not deep thinkers. We tend to deal with matters only at the surface level. We do not dig deep and we have no curiosity. Otherwise why would we as parents take our children to school in a bandwagon sort of way? 
Why would we be studying history and geography of our former colonisers rather than studying our own history? Why would we be so rich agriculturally and yet our people die of starvation? Why would our learning institutions be repeatedly spinning out graduates who cannot do anything for themselves? Why would our roads break down every time it is the rainy season? 
Why would we have leaders who drive on pavements and on the wrong side of the road because it suits them? Why would our laws be selective in the way they are applied? And we are raising children who do exactly like we do. They go about life in simply the same way they see their parents do. They are like robots on remote control tossed to and fro with every wind. They do not ask why, they don’t ponder and they carry no reflection. 
Because we do not ask why, we often are not able to get more out of the situations that we face, which consequently affects our life as a whole. Because we do not ask why, we go round and round in circles with little or no growth. 
When it rains we plant seed and when there is no rain we watch and hope it will rain again soon.
Our minds have not perceived that we can harvest the excess rain water and use it in the time when there is no rain. We do not contemplate. We do not ask why.  Why should we ask why, we ask. It is to no effect. We are used and comfortable with the familiar and cannot imagine any changes in the status quo. 
To think otherwise is unfamiliar, uncomfortable and unnecessary. Or so we think; because we don’t ask why.