I’m thirsty

 

Coming from Australia as I do, I can appreciate the need for water conservation. I remember in Primary School doing projects on how we could save water at home. We calculated the amount of water we could save if we didn't leave the tap running while we were brushing our teeth. After moving out of home I remember being paranoid about whether I was watering the 'lawn' on the 'right day' during one summer of water rationing. However I decided that it didn't really matter as for most of the summer it had not been watered at all hence 'lawn'.

I remember being told to not leave taps running, to have shorter showers, to not wash my car with a hose etc. I remember going to the barrage at Goolwa and being shocked at the level of the water (at the mouth of Australia's largest river system), I remember seeing images of jetties extending into dry land, I remember images of cattle and other livestock dying for lack of feed and water.

With these memories, images and a lifetime of water conservation education I have been shocked by the lack of water available in a country who has regularly had in the past two wet and two dry seasons a year (the last two years however have seen a change in this pattern and this is one of the factors contributing to current food shortages across the region). The famine that is currently gripping Somalia and the media is caused by the same drought as is gripping Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and other countries in the area, although in Somalia the conflict that rages is the major contributor to the size of the catastrophe.

one of the many media images from the current Somalian famine

There have been many things that also leave me bemused, coming from the background I do. For instance, guttering. Now I know that not every house in Australia has a rainwater tank. But at home we do. It's a pretty big one. And we also used to have a smaller tank that was used for drinking water. So our gutters have always been to collect water into the tanks. I never really thought about what those houses that don't have tanks need gutters for. Being here I think I've seen the reason. Because here it seems that the main reason for guttering is to keep water away from the foundation of the house and water collection is secondary. Maybe this is also true of Australia? However at home we were also connected to mains water which I was never worried about being off for days at a time. So here where being connected to piped water is a reality for the few it seems that the collection of rainwater would be all the more important to the many. Most houses don't have gutters let alone rainwater tanks. But I guess that is only feasible when you live in a house with a tin/tiled roof. Those who have a thatched roof don't even have the option. And it's only feasible if you have the money to spend. With the average household in developing countries using more than half of their income on food, one can understand why house improvements aren't high on the list of priorities. Comparatively, many of what we call developed countries spend around 10% of their pay on food. With food prices going high here in Uganda, you can imagine the impact this has on the poorest and most desperate families.

There are many NGO projects that provide water to communities through boreholes, wells, rainwater tanks and other means. Why? Because 1 out of every 8 people on the planet do not have access to safe water. I read somewhere that in one five minute shower someone uses more water than many of those in developing countries will use in a day. If you want to find facts yourself check out water.org or for a novel way of supporting water projects check out thankyou water, a uniquely Aussie enterprise.

At the moment we are very excited because we are installing rainwater tanks in 5 of our Australia HOPE International schools through Australian Government grants issued through the Australian High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya. This project will provide a more consistent water source that will allow improved hygiene and safe drinking water to be accessed. Both of which will improve attendance at school. We are yet to see whether the 10 000L tanks will last for the dry seasons which can last several months. But it is a start. Every improvement we make slowly lifts the standards at our schools and the quality of life for our students.

thankful students from Ebenezer and Trust HOPE Primary Schools

So this week as you shower, wash clothes, cook, clean and drink with your clean water remember to be thankful that you didn’t have to spend hours fetching it from a contaminated water source many kilometres away, that you didn’t have to boil it to use it, that it wont cause skin infections and that most likely you wont develop dysentery. I know I am.

some of the boys who live on site at Trust HOPE Primary School who will no longer have to fetch water thanks to the new tanks donated by the Australian Government

Be blessed

bron

Zzzzzzzzz……

 

As I sit here in a lack of sleep induced delirium and semi consciousness I am reminded that our bodies were designed, and I believe created, to work in a certain way. If I don't sleep I don't function well, as evidenced by the coma-like state I have to rouse myself out of to type another sentence. I'm tired because last night the music team from church came to the house for a night of worship through singing songs, prayer, eating together and hearing some teaching from the Bible. It was a lot of fun and an impacting night for me personally. Most people left at around 2:30/3ish and when they left a few of us started playing guitar, singing and continuing on while the rest slept on mats in various rooms of the house. The few of us who stayed up ended up pulling an all nighter. Hence the delirium and fog.

 

Half an hour later and I'm back, somehow. Admittedly I was doing an errand but as I was climbing the stairs to the office there was either an earthquake or I experienced the same symptoms that I get when I have jetlag.

I am telling you this for two reasons. The first being simply that some things that seem a good idea at the time, later seem not to be so. I have not decided yet which category this falls into. On one hand I had a great time, got to spend some time getting to know people better, sing with instruments that weren't amplified, worship my amazing God and sing with others who had awesome voices and who were willing to teach me some new guitar chords (very excited to have learnt a version of F that I don't need to bar - I can now play two different keys for most songs!). On the other hand, today I have been less than productive (and I have a feeling that I had a half hour nap at my desk). As I stare blankly into space unable to come up with a coherent thought to finish this point I have a feeling that this time maybe it would have been better to get at least a couple of hours sleep.

My other reason for telling you is that we ended up talking about schools in Uganda, or more correctly the guys regaled me with hilarious stories about their school life that highlighted some of the, shall we say, differences, that our schools systems display. Both of the guys went to boarding school for their secondary education. Here boarding school is not really for the elite rich nor the country kids. Here boarding is seen almost as a necessity to receiving good marks in school as the students are able to focus solely on their studies without having to deal with the issues that living at home brings. Students can be in boarding schools from the age of five.

The stories they were telling me generally involved a teacher handing out corporal punishment after a student had done something they weren't meant to/weren't doing something they were meant to. Or the stories involved them hiding from teachers for the above reasons. One story involved a fellow student hiding in a large garbage bag to try and escape a teacher. In another story several students were late for morning study and hiding in their beds. A student from another room came in and hid underneath the bottom bunk. Trouble was that the bottom bunk had no mattress on it and when the teacher came in a turned on the light he saw this student covering his face so that he couldn't be seen. Even after peeking out one eye and seeing the teacher he didn't register that there was no mattress. So the teacher called his name and the student uncovered his face to find the teacher staring at him through the slats in the bed. Meanwhile all those hiding in their beds are desperately trying not to laugh and eventually the teacher tells the student to just get out. I guess he felt sorry for him.

The guys were telling me that the first call for morning study (morning prep) is at 5am. Students will also study late into the night. They were telling me of a couple of students who for unknown reasons had to share a mattress, they would study and sleep in shifts every night. Even day schools have long hours. Students can be in class from 7:30am till 6pm. That's longer than a normal working day. And for students as young as eight. Students do exams at least once a term (there are three terms here in Uganda). Although depending on the school and age level of the kids there can be a beginning of term, mid-term and end of term exam. Some students have to be at school 7 days a week. And it's all so that kids can be pumped full of information so that they will have covered everything for the all important exams.

There are so many things about the schools over here that I find fascinating. Especially coming from a background working in our schools back home. Life is very different for a student here.

I was talking to another kid yesterday. Well not really a kid. An eighteen year old. Who is in P7 (equivalent of Year 7 back home - last year of Primary education). He was telling me about his life, how his mum died and how no one knows who his father is, how he spent some years on the streets here in Mbarara, was rescued and given some basic accommodation and food by Pastor Willy, decided to try his luck in Kampala (capital city), spent a year and a half on the streets there, came back to Mbarara and Pastor Willy who somehow found money to take him to school and put him in P4 at the age of 15.

Reading some stats for Uganda and found that while the Primary enrolment in schools is up past 70%, the number of students who make it to Secondary education is around 15% (according to the latest UN stats) and for Tertiary education it drops even lower to around 5%. Without looking it up I can almost guarantee that if you broke those figures down into rural and urban populations the figures for the rural sector would be even lower. I guess this is why building schools and providing education is a significant focus of what HOPE does. And why it is so important to go beyond the Primary education that we currently provide and go into Secondary education. We have started with our school in DRC and have plans for one near Kampala.

 

These projects and plans for future Senior Schools (and a university) are big and a task that to me seems quite daunting (luckily the decision making process has nothing to do with me). But then I imagine the difference that just one school could make (or two or three) and think how amazing it is that I am a part of HOPE and what it does. I see the kids who will graduate from our schools and attend our uni and think that there is nowhere in the world I would rather be.

 

So feel free to join us in planning for the future. If you are the praying type, pray for release of finances to HOPE to finish and expand our current schools and for the schools to come. Pray also for our ACFID application process that will allow us to try and access more funds through AUSAid. Feel free to also be part of what we do by donating to what HOPE is doing. Become a volunteer, at the moment we currently need someone to work in the office. Give Bill a ring and see if there is any other way that you can help out. Hold a fundraiser. Raise awareness about what HOPE does. Offer to sell HOPE cards and beads in your business/ place of work/ playgroup/ church etc.

Have a blessed week,

bron

Africa is...a country?

 

Or what do Africa, Maths and Justin Bieber have in common?

When I make the statement, "Africa is…", what immediately comes to mind? Do you think of children with torn clothes and distended stomachs playing in the dirt or carrying jerry cans of water on their head? Or do you think of lions and zebras and giraffes and going on safari? Or do you think of poverty, famine, disease and 'too hard'? Any of these? All of these? Something else? (Hopefully you don't think it's a country).

I only ask this question because I am guilty, along with many, of generalising 'Africa' to become an assortment of stereotypes that de-humanise and homogenise a continent full of diverse climates, populations and cultures. Even talking about one culture as though it describes every person in it reduces the individual to a 'type' rather than a fellow human being who has a story and history unique from every one else on the planet.

There's a saying that I've used many times to explain what I see as the eccentricities of the world around me at the moment. TIA or This Is Africa, also used in the movie 'Blood Diamond'. I stumbled across something the other day that got me thinking about how easily I, who am living here, lump all my experiences into 'Africa', while really my experiences of Africa are in actuality, very limited. And I've been convicted on this.

I found a blog called Africa is a Country and it talks about this issue and particularly how Africa is portrayed in Western media. In an age where information is so freely available the argument that you don't know much about Africa doesn't cut it. You have access to more information than there has ever been about Africa - all of Africa. The child living in a Ugandan village without electricity, a computer or possibly even a school - they have an excuse to know nothing except the world around them.

But maybe that's the problem. We have so much information available. We know about famines and drought and disease and poverty. We have seen skeletal figures lying in the dust. We have watched nature documentaries. We have seen cultural dancing. Listened to world music. Can't all of that sum up Africa?

Back in the day, I studied maths. I learnt formulas and equations. It got to a point where I didn't actually understand what I was doing but as long as I had the formulas and could apply them, I could solve a problem. And that's fine surely? Isn't that the point? To be able to solve the problem? But eventually I needed to be able to understand why the formula worked so that I could work out when to apply it (and that's when I got 56% on a maths exam and decided that maths and I - never being close friends to begin with - should go our separate ways).

Did you know?

Click here to find out some interesting facts

Hope you enjoyed that!

I guess it just goes to show that you can know a lot about someone or something but still not know or understand them/it. And our worldview tends to be based on the information we get. So if all you know about Africa is wars, famine, disease, poverty, animals - then that is what you will understand Africa to be. And that is why when coming to Uganda, I got accolades. I was brave, selfless, inspirational. Why? I am not living in a mud hut in a village. There is running water at home. There is electricity. And there is a flushing toilet (possibly the thing I value above all other 'comforts').

This is not to say that there are no people here who live in mud huts, cart water or use paraffin lamps. There are millions. But each one is different from the next in the same way that where I am based here in Mbarara volunteering for HOPE is a lot different than if I was based in Kibogo village and certainly different from any experience in any of the other countries here in East Africa, let alone the rest of the continent.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to say this week. Maybe I'm trying to point out that trying to contain Africa in one general statement, like 'the problems of Africa', is degrading in that it reduces all Africans to a 'problem'. Maybe I am trying to say that we should be educating ourselves about Africa in a way that we are exposed to many stories not just the ones that Western media portrays, so that we have a more balanced view of things. Maybe I am asking if the aid we give is just in response to the images we see and the associations we have of Africa - I heard of a potential sponsor to an aid organisation decline to sponsor because she saw a photo which had the girl being sponsored in a hospital and in the background of the photo a lady was talking on a mobile phone - the potential sponsors response was that if 'they' could afford mobile phones were 'they' really that poor after all? It would be easy to condemn her except that the world view that it comes from is one that many of us hold. It is easier to give aid to the cute black kid who 'looks' really needy, so if the photo doesn't show the right thing it's best to take another one. Maybe I am confused by the many messages about Africa there are out there. Maybe I have met too many people who shame me with their level of understanding of the world when I have been happy to live in a white Western bubble. Maybe I was seeing the need to do something without seeing the someone. And in the world I come from to not see someone is to not value them. Working with young people in high schools I was surrounded by students who lived in misery because they thought no one 'saw them'.

And I guess that the idea of lumping Africa together is to also lump all it's people together and that's where my earlier conviction comes in. Because if I start thinking like that then I am forgetting that the God who created me and called me is also the one who created each individual I come across. When I do something for one of the kids we help it is not Africa or Uganda or Kitookye village or Nakivale HOPE Nursery and Primary School that I am doing it for. It is Ritah, Kiiza, Caleb, Joshua, Alex, Dan, Denis….

So take this collection of thoughts and do what you will with it. Just some of the things that go round in my head. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts with you. I have a feeling this is not really coherently written. More of a ramble really. But from this distance I am not easily offended if you decide to stop listening to me, so feel free.

 

		My Africa VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Have a blessed week

bron