Ups and Downs

I love living in Uganda. I love the people, sights and sounds, and the type of work I am able to do in such an environment. Just walking down the road I see the strength of a woman as she endures simultaneously carrying her child on her back, walking the goats, and balancing a hoe on her head as she trudges her way to the garden. As I wait for the boat to take me to Kikondo, a man washes his motorbike. No doubt it will be filthy again after one ride, but he diligently scrubs every little bit of it, taking longer than the hour I am there. There is such intelligence, perseverance and social awareness in Uganda. I think that’s why foreigners love it and see the potential for Uganda to be such a great nation. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?!

But then you see the other side too. A beggar lady holds out her hand to you for money and cries her child is sick. It’s very touching, but she’s definitely not the first hand held out for aid. You then see her week after week, having used the funds for alcohol not medicine. A bit further down the road, a man with a wife and kids harasses you to marry him and take him to your country. He’s not even drunk. The police officer pulls over your kamonye (public bus) and demands a bribe. Instead of fighting the system of corruption, the driver decides it isn’t worth his while and pays.  Not just one driver – all of them. Every day. If I were to write a book – it would have to be a book because there are so many facets to the issue – I’d call handout dependency and corruption the disease of society.  Riots continue across the country because of dissatisfaction with the government and the economic situation.

Ecclesiastes 7:7

Extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

People need hope and they need character. They need to believe that things can be different; that they can be the difference. It’s so hard, but it’s true. There are so many situations to kill hope. Like our friend’s widow friend who saved her money for months to buy a cow, just to have it stolen by the local leader’s son. There was nothing she could do. Months of saving and planning gone like that. How do you tell someone like that to try saving again? I always took the Proverb that a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again (Proverbs 24:16) to mean that the righteous man messed up but then kept pursuing God and goodness. It is that in part, which is also right and commendable; but it’s also about keeping going when others are the cause of your fall. Will we use it as an excuse to give up on hope and character, or be strong and get on up again? And again? And again?

That’s why it’s vital we focus on the one. One person at a time can be given hope, can have character change (and will likely inspire us to character change too!), and can see a difference in their life. Every person we love, admire and appreciate had some unknown person put into their life. We can be the vital unknown person too. When we get the chance to impact the bigger setting too, go for it. Like ISA with this battle of justice against the police corruption of hiding files, taking bribes from the accused, and re-locating those police who wouldn’t take bribes. That’s all before the court case. Surely it is a time of much needed prayer for our nations. Pray for Uganda to reach its potential – I can see it right before me. Prayer doesn’t always come naturally; we must choose to make it a priority.

Joel 2:15-17

 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Let me share an update about Bill. Bill was one of the sickle cell anaemia victims we cared for at CARE4Kids. I and the other staff spent many nights massaging his cramped muscles and taking him to the hospital for blood transfusions. He is no longer in CARE4Kids because it turned out he had a lot more family than we were told – his extreme illness needed constant care that should be by family. I was already told his dad was working up in South Sudan and there was an uncle who sometimes visited. Then we found out there were actually a lot of relatives around. I found out just last month, when I visited Bill in hospital, that his mum is alive and working in Kampala. Frustrating for me – what rejection for Bill! Bill is now in Mulago hospital, the big government hospital in Kampala. His foot turned black and never recovered since his last convulsions. It had to be amputated. A 13 year old boy with an amputated foot. It’s devastating. My wonderful mother encouraged me, and in turn I can encourage Bill, with a story about a Sir Arthur Pearson who loved reading, then lost his sight. He learned what little understanding and acceptance blind people received from society and so, in 1915, established a charity to help World War I victims who had lost their sight to learn how to be functional and self-sufficient. I have a bag full of books, puzzles and colouring activities that I bought cheaply and was given by Sandy and Rob (from their clearing out ready to leave at the end of next month) to cheer Bill up and keep him mentally active. Even some classics like Winnie the Pooh and Snoopy.

The Kikondo bathing rooms opened this week. It was so much fun doing promotion day on Monday. We offered free showers all day, 59 people came. It would have been the first shower (as opposed to basin bath) for most if not all of them. I was doing the ladies side. It was like a high school changing room, full of giggling and happy chatter. Everyone came out beaming and high-fiving us. We’re only charging 300/= (13 cents) including a piece of soap, so hopefully it gains popularity. Yesterday 12 people came, which I thought was pretty good for the first paying day. There’s still some resistance to paying for water. The residents thought other communities we work in get the water for free, which is not true. We’re not the only ones facing the challenge of people wanting free water. Mulago hospital owes the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) billions of shillings. At least at someone’s home they can just turn the water off, but to do that for a government hospital would be an ethical challenge. Yet now NWSC doesn’t have funds to further their pipelines, and much of the country is waiting for a water service. Dax was on the microphone Monday, for the promotion. Dax is a technician and a serious worker. He talked for hours! It was hilarious. Between the ladies chatting and Dax promoting I was entertained very well.

 He had this story about the Water Keys that users buy to access the water through the Water Unit: “as I was coming to Kikondo the other day, I was waiting for the boat to leave. A man was there, ever so sick. He was so sick he couldn’t tell us who he was, where he was from, or where he was going. We didn’t know what to do! Then we saw it. Around his neck as a necklace was... a Water Key. Then we realised – he’s from Kikondo. No other community has such a system! No other community uses Water Keys! The Water Key identified and saved this man. You, Kikondo, have a unique water system. Come and buy a Key at promotional price today!” He’d also put together a CD of gospel music to do the promotion to (clearly he’d planned to control the microphone, lol). He’d sing along for a bit, then a line would come along about being cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and Dax would throw in: “be cleansed by the blood of Jesus – be cleansed in our bathing rooms”. It reminded me of my brother, Jeremy, who can take a joke I got no response to and he’ll have people rolling on the floor. It’s alright, Bryan and I think each other are funny.

Well, I’d better leave you all to your days. Have a think about social strengths and weaknesses in your community, and see what can be done to bring out individual and collective potential.

Love Emily

Exodus 33:15-18

Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

General Update

River Nile on the morning of our beautiful night away last month

My dear family and friends,

Happy leap-day! It has been a good month now since I last wrote. How is everyone? Here in Uganda we are busy and well. Here are some highlights from the past month:

The TradeWater project in Kikondo is now up and running, and Betty has taken to the role of Water Agent very well. Staff from Malawi and Kenya came to Uganda for a week’s TradeWater training. I really enjoyed that week, being able to meet them, finding out how their programs work in comparison to ours, and I got to run a good portion of the trainings. I like training and the people interaction. WMU staff are now busy going about assessing new project sites to implement the next few TradeWater projects. My role in that is to give the staff forms to fill out, then write up and analyse the data when they bring the forms back to the office – as my dear friend Emma Jeffrey said, it’s just as well I listened in maths class.  Fortunately, we received a new major donor so we can continue with the next phase of projects.

Random kid tells Bryan to get in the boat - he did

I found a friend, now I want a pet one

Voula and Colleen came out for the ISA case, which has now been postponed until July 2^nd. Please extend your prayers for the protection of the CARE4Kids staff, children and property. On a positive note, the teenage girls have been transferred to Ps Hudson and Mercy’s children’s home. This is a good move for the girls, as they will be able to go to good schools, be involved in an active and mature church, and be in a home with more children their age. Hudson and Mercy are like parents to the orphans in that home, as much as they can be, so I’m very grateful for their heart to take on more children in need of youth-specific counsel and stability. 

Lapuche, Fausta’s middle child, has started pre-school. Lapuche is so excited; she’d been begging to go to school. Fausta says she comes home every afternoon and shows off all the ticks she’s received in her homework book. Bryan and I would have given Fausta more work so she could feel like she earned and budgeted the money for her own kid’s fees, but as we don’t own property and there are only 2 of us we opted for using money from some of our supporters (thank you!) to cover the costs. I’m going to go and visit the family on Sunday. I’ll get to meet Fausta’s sister and her 2 girls who are temporarily (temporary can be a long time by the way) staying with them.

The sails are made from posho bags

A change in the wind is ahead for Bryan and I, socially. Our dear, dear friends Joe and Melissa leave on Monday 5^th March. We, along with Steve and Kelly, are going to miss them so much. It’s good they’re going back, because their tailoring project ‘Tukula’ (‘we grow’) has grown and they will be able to run it from the US side. Plus, Joe would like to have a regular US job and further his studies. Their tailors will miss them a lot too, because it’s such an intimate business, but at least the work will continue. Job security is a big fear in Uganda, and the ladies thought that when Joe and Melissa left it would mean the end of their work too. Fortunately, it’s the opposite because sales are increasing. All of the tailors sell their products in Uganda as well as through Tukula to the US, so it’s a well set-up project. They’re the ones who made my bridesmaids’ dresses, and rescued the ones made by the other tailor, lol. Thank you Esther and co!

On top of that, our pre-marital counsellors and Bible study group hosts (Bryan is the facilitator since the New Year) are leaving April 31^st. Rob and Sandy have been in Jinja for 12 years, so it’s going to be quite a change for many people. Fortunately, they have fostered a non-dependency approach to their ministry. They preach in the villages with story-style (for a largely illiterate and oral learning people) Bible messages, which they then teach the Christians to pass on. We do our Bible studies in the same style, which helps us communicate in a culturally appropriate way, and it’s fun and different. The Christians elect their own pastor and place to meet. The ministry is not material based, but about Jesus and life change through specifics addresses on loving God and one another. When individuals change, so does a community. They will have furlough in the US, which was coming up anyway, and then go somewhere else in Africa below the sub-Saharan. It’s a sudden change, but I honestly believe it’s going to be a great move for the family and for the people who will receive them.  

Women collecting safe water in the rain in Mpanga from the dedicated tap operator. God bless them!

Prayer requests:

-          Please keep praying for the communities in which we work to use the teachings given them and to know that change is in their hands. People can do so much more when they realise they have potential! That goes for all of us.

-          Pray for these friends of ours that they will make smooth transitions out and see what they’re supposed to do and where they should live in their new countries of residence.

-          For Bryan, myself and the other Water Missions Uganda staff to have the energy and focus to serve others and work hard no matter what the task or how long the day.

Thank you for you care, thank you for your interest in others’ lives.

Love Emily

Beautiful kids from Mpanga peer into the camera