Meeting with Friends...Old and New

It’s Tuesday night in Uganda and we arrived around midnight Sunday/ early Monday morning. Our 32 hour adventure from the US to Brussels to Bujumbura, Burundi was like the reality show the “Amazing Race” except there wasn’t a large cash prize at the end of our journey. There was sheer elation as we started with 6 pieces of luggage and arrived in Uganda with 6 pieces of luggage. Our first day and night was filled with no power (reason the blog is so delayed) and cold showers. Welcome to Uganda! Despite some of those small inconveniences we were both thrilled to be back on the ground in Uganda. In an odd sense I felt as if I was coming home. 

On Monday we spent the day with Moses, director of Bweya Children’s Home (BCH). He took us to a small village called Makukuba. This is a remote village way off the beaten path. Just a few statistics about Makukuba.....they have an 85% illiteracy rate especially among children, the nearest school is very far and it is quite dangerous for kids to travel by foot to school. The teachers that they do have are not trained and in a lot of cases are school drop outs themselves. The 4500 people in this community have no clean water source and no electricity. They share their watering hole with the animals. And if all that is not bad enough it is a headquarters for witchcraft so child sacrifice is rampant. We visited Makukuba because Moses has a great passion for these people and he wanted us to see a cross section of the many levels of poverty that exist. It made Bweya seem much further along in development despite the lack of infrastructure that one might assume at first glance. It was a great day of walking a new land and realizing there is so much work to be done here in Africa. The people and community of Bweya are our priority now but we are in great hopes of being able to replicate our work in Bweya to other locations in the future. 

We were invited to have lunch at the home of Moses and his family. It is quite an honor for an “outsider” to be invited into an Ugandan’s home to share a meal. Moses and his wife Naomi were so hospitable and our lunch was delicious. It was quite possibly the only meal that this family will get for the day. The lunches that are served here remind me of our long ago Sunday lunches that families shared. Every meal that is served in Uganda is a time of joy and celebration as you get the sense that they realize how fortunate they are for the meal presented. It is fun to watch them eat and enjoy! After lunch we were able to begin a dialogue with Moses regarding the potentials of partnership to facilitate community development.

This morning we had the privilege of meeting with World Vision and to learn more about their ministry and how they identify a village in “need.” Our hopes were to initiate conversation surrounding a future potential partnership. At the very least to get a glimpse of how such a large international organization functions at the local level.

Following that meeting we visited BCH (Bweya Childrens Home) and engaged in a meeting with Moses, his staff, MaryLee Bolitho and Abbey Ssentongo. It was great to be in a room with people who were in harmony about the future of Bweya. There was a lot of conversation about the needs of community development and how serving the entire community provides a more effective way of stopping the growth of homeless children. Our goal is to serve the family as a whole unit. Families in Uganda may look like a traditional US family or it may be children living with grandparents or aunt/uncles. The end result is ekissa wants the family to stay intact within their own homes. While there are thousands of orphans in Uganda, many children are simply cast out of their homes due to an inability to care for them. This seems cruel but they feel they are giving their children something greater than they can provide if they are dropped off at an orphanage. At least then they receive some type of education and at least one meal a day. During the remainder of our time we will be discussing some strategic ways to do this.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with UORF (Ugandan Orphan Relief Fund) as we have just entered into partnership with them. We will keep you updated on our progress.

Please continue to pray for wisdom, health and safety. Sarah drank milk today in tea that we were served and apparently the unpasteurized milk didn’t suit her stomach. Ugh! Little did I know that the cow I was staring out the window at was the one providing this milk for our tea. No wonder she (Elsie the cow) was glaring at us!! Days in Uganda are filled with adventure and excitement, but we love it! Will post again soon!

Love to all-Sarah and Debbie