Tugenda (let's go)

Dad, this one's for you. I'm sure you're very proud.

Last week's Sunday afternoon was one of extreme contrast. I went from eating lunch at an expensive restaurant with a bunch of stuck up snobs to visiting a hospital in Jinja to pray for the sick and injured. Let me explain. Two of our friends (the ones we met on the Murchison Falls trip) had a going away lunch before leaving to return to the states. I have nothing against Abbyand Maranda (our friends), but it took about 30 seconds for a few of their coworkers from the baby's home to really get under my skin. Seriously, I couldn't have been more upset by the way they treated they the Ugandan waiters. They were incredibly disrespectful and condescending. I was so ashamed to be eating at the same table with them that I was thankful when Zach and I had to leave early to meet some others from Calvary Chapel at the Jinja public hospital. It boggles my mind how people who are supposed to be "serving" others in other cultures can be so derogatory and treat them with such an attitude of superiority. It's a good reminder for me to serve with Christlike humility. Sometimes, you need an external visual, like when Nathan gave David a little parable about the rich man who stole the poor man's lamb.

Our next destination, the Jinja hospital, was not quite as hospitable, but the experience was much more rewarding. We met Laurence and Walter before we began meandering through the injury ward, stopping and praying with the patients one by one. Seeing the conditions of many of the patients there was a traumatic experience all by itself. The vast majority of the injured patients were victims of boba-boda accidents. Some had amputations, others gruesome scars and seeping wounds. I usually have difficulty stomaching such ghastly injuries, but somehow I managed to hang on to my $8 lunch. They all seemed appreciative of our visit. As we prayed together, I was encouraged that God was going to use our prayers one way or another.

I was shocked to discover that one of the victims of a boda-boda accident had been in the hospital for two weeks, but none of her relatives seemed to have any knowledge of her whereabouts. After our visit, Laurence lead us on a quest to locate and inform the girl's family. We took a matatu to a village just down the road from Jinja, wandered around for a while asking people if they could help us find the family we were looking for. After several unproductive conversations, we finally gave up the chase and returned to Jinja disappointed. (As I found out today, Laurence was able to go back and he actually made connections with the right people. Praise the Lord!)

As we parted, I struggled with the appropriate response to what I saw. The needs in the hospital were great. I'm not sure how all the medical bills are payed. It's a public hospital, but obviously there are insufficient funds to address all the diseases and injuries. Patients are dependent on their friends or family to bring them food to compensate for the limited amount which is supplied to them by the hospital. It's just an overwhelmingly needy situation, and it's certainly not the only lacking hospital in Uganda, or the rest of the world for that matter.

From Monday morning till Saturday evening, I was out at the project site. There was a lot of activity. Monday and Tuesday, Herman (a Ugandan civil engineer doing some consulting for us for the roadwork) and I were busy pegging roads and building locations. Me and the Total Station had a much better relationship than the previous week, and things went relatively smoothly (relative to how smoothly things go in Uganda, of course).
Herman, Bagaga, and I in an (empty) matatu on our way to Bukaleba

Other activities of the week included pegging the water supply pipeline, supervising the clearing and excavation for the new building site, preparing a maize milling building for use for construction material storage, and repairing a bunch of wheel barrels. Since fixing things happens to be one of the most fulfilling activities for me, I had a blast taking 7 wheel barrels that weren't fit for the dunghill and making 5 usable ones out of them. The only tools I had to work with were a hammer, hacksaw, pliers, and adjustable wrench, and the only parts were those coming from the 7 scrap wheel barrels and a roll of fencing wire. Given these additional challenges, getting 5 going again brought me great satisfaction.

The termite queen, uncovered during the the site excavation. Queens are the size of the other ants, but have a giant baby-producing factory attached to their body (the white part above, which is about the thickness of my thumb and about twice as long. Fried, these creatures are a rare delicacy. I may get the opportunity to try one if they uncover any more.