Leaving home

 

I originally called this 'Going home'. But that reminded me of a song that I loved sometime in my teenage years, 'Leaving Home' by Jebediah. And then I thought about it. I'm not really sure whether I am leaving or going home. Maybe a little of both.

Victor Harbor on one hand contains a lifetime of memories, friends, experiences, family. It is the place where my parents built their first house, the house that I grew up in, the house that I go back to. I know people there. I went to school there. There are shops that have been there all my life. There is history. There is love.

Mbarara on the other is new. Unknown. I have made new friends here. But they don't really know me. And we don't always speak the same language. I have 'family' here. I have been welcomed into a home by people with big hearts. Accepted for who I am. But here I am also the odd one out. I stand out. I don't look like I fit in. I am stared at by small (and not so small) children as I walk down the street. And yet, despite the discomfort, I feel at home.

There is something about this place that draws me. And when I say 'this place', I kind of mean Uganda. Or maybe Africa. I'm yet to work that one out.

But whatever, I am excited to be going 'home'. I am excited to see my friends and family face to face, not just over Skype. I am excited to drive without it being an extreme measure of my faith. I am excited to play a real piano. I am excited to eat (here there could be so many things - should I list them? Okay here we go…) pizza from Beach House Café, Indian, my own Caesar salad, prosciutto, peaches from our tree at home, spicy food, a meal that involves almost no carbs, gelati, my gnocchi… okay let me stop there because it could go on forever and you could get the wrong impression. I have not missed those things but I will really appreciate them. I am excited to use a washing machine. I am excited to go to places that are familiar. I am excited that I will not stand out. I am excited that most people I talk to will have English as their first language. I am excited to just pop around to my friends places. I am excited.

In that, I will miss 'home'. I will miss living with so many people, especially kids. I will miss my new friends and building those relationships. I will miss the excitement of driving (seriously - driving over here has been a fun adventure). I will miss the challenge of being around people of different cultures, languages, customs and learning to fit in whether through adjusting my behaviour or attitude, engaging in dialogue about them or picking up a few new words. I will miss whole fried tilapia. I will miss beans and posho, and probably even matooke. I will miss the vibrancy of every celebration, whether church services, weddings or cd launches. I will miss the rain and the constancy of the weather. I will miss the beautiful sunrises.

The fact that I have the privilege of experiencing both of these lives is not lost on me. I can't begin to tell you how blessed I feel that I am part of people's lives here in Uganda and that I can come home to Australia and spend time with family and friends.

During High School when we went through all the career aptitude tests and writing goals and somehow trying to find a vision for your life when you are fifteen, I had no idea where my life was headed. I left Year Twelve with nothing, no plans, no dreams, no thought of what my future might hold. It was awful. I hated this constant fear that I lived with that I would never find what it is that I was 'meant' to do. Never find something that I was passionate about. That my biggest achievement would be the length of time I served as a check-out-chick. But somewhere, somehow, through the years, it seems as though however much I missed it at the time, there was a plan. Maybe not one that I was aware of, but this year I feel like a whole bunch of jigsaw pieces that seemed random up till now have fallen into place and a picture is starting to come into view. One of the reasons (there are plenty) that I love God is his faithfulness to me. There are so many experiences that I had even when I didn't know him and when I wasn't aware that there was a plan forming, that have shaped who I am today and have directly led me to where I am or have been instrumental in my life here in Uganda. And so, I leave with a sense that everything that I have experienced here, whether good or bad, will be formative and purposeful, even if I don't see it now.

My next six months are a bit of a blank slate before me. I'm not sure exactly what they will hold. I have a few things locked in, like going to visit some friends in the US for a month, helping out with various projects that HOPE will be involved with during that time and other stuff like that. But as to the day to day. I don't know what the getting up, going to work stuff will look like. So I guess I'll see how much of the picture is revealed as I go. All I know is that unlike the song says, life has been good to me. I am blessed beyond measure.

Can't really believe I'm saying this but my next blog will be written on Aussie soil. I've decided that I'll keep going with the blog, hopefully once I get 'home' I'll still have something to say.

Till then,

Blessings

bron

Something to believe for

I've talked a bit about Kakira now, in Widows and Orphans, Mary's Interview and last week in This is a Life. I have spent very little time in Kakira, several hours at most, and yet it rattles me maybe more than any other place I've been, probably second only to the refugee camps that I visited (also briefly) in Goma, DRC in 2008. It has a grip on my heart, even though I don't have a relationship with any of the kids and barely know our Australia HOPE International partners who work there.

Why?

Maybe because our help there is so limited. At all our other sites I have the privilege of seeing all that HOPE is doing and hearing the stories of triumph, stories of children who have been rescued from somewhere and been given a chance. Now I know that for Kakira we raise bits and pieces so that we can help provide school fees for a few, and I know that helping sixty kids go to school is not a small thing.

But…

If we built a school - which we could do for less than $50 000, that’s fifty thousand dollars (for ten classrooms, solid temporary structure) - we could help maybe four hundred kids. And then have the land and space to eventually build a boarding house for those who are total orphans and those who are living in abusive situations.

$50 000

A year's wage. Okay so not a year's wage in any year I've worked, but still a figure that for some represents your take home pay in a year. Could build a school. Obviously I'm not suggesting that anyone should try and live off of nothing and send all their wage to HOPE to build a school. Because who would want to live off of nothing? Certainly people here who live on little more than nothing don't want to live like that.

But raising $50 000, that's doable. That's fifty people donating $1000 each. That's your next computer upgrade. Or a year's worth of shopping. Or saving up for that car. Or going on that holiday. These are things we can afford. These are things that we choose to spend our money on. I'm not saying that we should not do these things. And it's our money that we have earned. It is our right to spend it how we like.

My trouble is that we tend to spend on ourselves, with not so much thought for others. And don't worry, I'm preaching to myself here. I know that in two weeks I'll be back in Australia, and the easy thing to do will be to spend money on myself, forgetting that every purchase I make to make my life more comfortable I am choosing my own desires in my abundance over using that money to help others in their lack.

I am not saying that we should not spend on ourselves. But let's not kid ourselves that we aren't.

I hope that’s not putting it too harshly. I hate the thought that I am trying to guilt anyone into giving to HOPE or other aid organisation.

So, bless you all heaps

bron

Let me finish with some excerpts from a couple of emails. One email is from our partner in Kakira to Bill Osborne, CEO, Australia HOPE International. The other is from Bill to me.

To set up the first email I should tell you that the orphans that are referred to are siblings (I think there were four) whose parents were killed in a car accident earlier this year. They are now living with a relative (who obviously does not want/ can't afford to care for them).

Dear dad,

I visited the orphans for the pastor who died in an accident with his

wife, I found when the orphans are selling pancakes. They told me

that, they don't give them food if they do not sell pancakes. They

also told me that, since i left, they don't allow them to go to school

because of doing work at home.

I pray that God may provide and we get a school in Kakira where we

can have these hurting orphans…

Your son,

Lulenti J.Ssali.

 

From Bill…

We would have to buy at least 1 acre for $7,000, or up to 5 which are available for $30,000. The LC1 (local council) has confirmed with Lulenti (apparently) that they will allow  temporary timber and pole structure because they are desperate to get help for these kids. We could build 10 rooms plus offices/store/staff room for around $3000 per room, so $35K or so would do it.

This really deserves a push and we could fill it with around 400 children...

...It is a heap of capital, but under $50,000 all up for 400 kids is pretty good.

Something to believe for.

This is a life.

This is how some people in this world live. Can you imagine? I have already posted this interview in full, this is just a portion. This is just one story, although it is not that, it is not a story, it is someone's life, and by the grace of God, it is not yours.

Mary

If we don't help these children at Kakira in fact what we can see if we don't help them totally then they are going on the streets, like girls can go and just sell themselves on the streets that everybody, every man who comes around they'll say "You're welcome." They sell their bodies because they have nowhere to get any future and the boys will end up on the streets. Most of them will end up thieves, taking marijuana and if they take it that will, they will end up on the streets and stealing people. But we just pray that we just help them.

Bill

When a young teenage girl sells their body how much do they charge? What money do they get for a man to abuse them?

Mary

Yeah, when they sell their bodies they are just given even a chapatti because of lack of food.

Bill

Just a little bit of bread...

Mary

Just chapatti, just a little thing and they end up sleeping with these boda boda (motorcycle taxi) men so long as he can give one hundred, two hundred shillings (0.08AUD) whereby she can get only something to taste.

Bill

So two hundred shillings is about five cents - that's all they get and they probably get STD's, they get AIDS.

Mary

They get AIDS. They get STD's. They get, they produce when they are very young girls and they end up also dropping, most of them after getting pregnant like that, they get their kids and they throw, she delivers like today she goes and throws the kid when he is still alive in the toilet and most of them in Uganda here just picked from toilets by somebody maybe when they hear somebody is just crying from there.

One day there was a lady who had a young girl and this girl got pregnant yet the mother was helpless and she convinced this girl and told her that can we please abort this kid and yet the womb was 7 months the child had already grown but because of lack of funds and lack of assistance she suggested that they can abort the kid. The girl tried to refuse but the mother could insist that we have to abort this kid. One day the kid was aborted, after abortion this kid refused to die. When he refused to die the mother suggested that they will arrest us lets get hold of this kid and throw it in the toilet.

They went and threw the kid in the toilet and God was still sustaining this child's life. After three days the kid was still alive in the toilet, just crying from there, then the third day that's when the girl, the owner of the kid went to the toilet she found when the kid was still alive and was crying. When she told the mother that the kid is still crying what the mother did, got a stick and went with it since the toilet was almost full she pushed this baby down the faeces until the baby passed away. It was very sad, very sad news but they were arrested.

Afterwards the mother was saying, "Now I have no husband, I only gave birth to this kid. We are suffering. I am affected with HIV AIDS. Anytime I am dying. I'm leaving this kid. This kid is also affected with HIV AIDS and she has given birth to another kid. Where to leave the kid? I was forced because of the situation to push that baby inside the toilet." So the situation is so hard and so hard and most of the time these kids who are left and dumped without parents they end up…

So, what can I say? In the face of such a life how can I respond? What can we do?

www.ahi.org.au

Determine that this year of 2012 you will help to bring hope to the hopeless. Whether the lonely old woman who lives down the road, the single dad who is struggling, the angry teenager whose music you hate or the small Ugandan child who just wants to go to school.

Meanwhile as you may notice, this week I changed the layout of my blog. You could say I became slightly obsessed wondering how much I should change it, what would work best etc. I was going to go the whole hog, after all it’s been the same for a year, I’m kind of getting sick of it. Then I realised what my blog was talking about and decided that in the big scheme of things, the colour of the background probably didn’t matter.

Blessings

bron