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.”