It's a Hard Knock Life

I have never done a blog before so I am not sure what you expect of me, but I find it rather boring to just report what I did that day. Also, with so many new things and little events that blog would be extremely long each day. Instead, I would rather write about certain things that really strike me here and make me think, or write about certain things that God is teaching me while I am here. I hope this ok with y'all.

Coming here, I am not sure what my exact expectations were, but it is a very different experience to be in Uganda as someone attempting to belong to the culture rather than coming to observe it. Last time I was here, it was normal and almost acceptable for me to be walking around with my camera, being loud and American but noy my camera has not left my bag, and I do my best to at least greet people in their own language. As difficult as that can be, especially because I love photography and there are five different languages in the town town I am in, it allows me to be privy to the less obvious reality of life here.

Sometimes, that reality is hard to view. I was not unaware of what was going on in Uganda, I was not blind to the fact that there are many problems in day-to-day life here, but I do not think I understood nor do I yet fully understand it, but I am learning a part of it each day. I could report to you back and forth the situation in Northern Uganda, but I never actually thought about the lives of the children elsewhere in the country, and although they are not being abducted, they live a harder life than I ever expected or imagined.

As I write this, my heart is heavy thinking of what I have learned of their lives in just a few days. When I think of being a kid, I think of the few years of your life when you can be pratically carefree and a time in you life when you are valued and nurtured. In America, the children are valued to a point that it is almost bad, where we treat them like they are eggshells and could be broken mentally or physically in an instant. Here, children are treated in most respects as nothing more than scum.

To be a child in Uganda is hard. Here in Tororo their day to day challenges are beyond my comprehension. I will give you the examples I have learned this week. Take for instance food; here the culture is that man eats first, and then the wife, and if there is some left over it is given to the children. Or the abuse kids face. HIV/AIDs, although ridden throughout the country, has such stigma with it that there is little understanding of the disease. The belief here, especially in the villages, is that if you have sex with a child you will either be cured of the disease, or it will prevent you from contracting the disease. So it follow thats many of these kids are sexually and physically abused by their parents, either out of wrath or that they simply do not understand HIV/AIDs. This kids also face huge challenges with education. The african culture is this: if you have money for school fees, but another need arises you do not save that money for school but use it meet the current need. Later if you have more money then you child will go to school for as long as you have money. Thus, having a steady flow of education is rare here. This means you can have children as old as fourteen in second grade!

The other huge problem that I encountered for the first time today is Glue. Many of the kids here, especially street children, are horribly addicted to Glue. Children as young as five can be living on the street begging so they can get their next fix of glue. They get so addicted to the stuff that even if they take street children and put them in school, they will run back to the street as soon as they can because the glue calls to them. My knowledge up to today was that this was an addiction that only street children really struggled with. But I was so wrong. Today in the middle of my lesson I noticed one girl kept putting her fingers to her nose and holding them there for a while. Not knowing how glue worked, I wasn't really concerned. But when we were leaving the church at the end of club, the missionary I am living with, Evy, noticed a can she was holding and called the girl out. Right in the middle of a bible lesson, in a church, this girl had a can of industrial glue and was just huffing away. We took the can from her, but it was so sad to see. Her eyes showed that she was both scared that she got caught and that she was longing after the can. Something as simple as glue can wreck a life here.

All this being said, there is hope. What is encouraging for me to see its that through the churches here, the view of children is being changed. Now they want to have children's programs, they want to have trained sunday school teachers. Through the church, they are realizing that not only are the children their future church, they are the future period. I only pray that this is not a slow influence on the culture.

Though difficult to see and learn all of this, the smiles and heart of the children teach me something too. I see in them that despite everything, you can find joy in all situations. And it spurs me on to love them and to teach them about a Father who truly loves them and longs to care for and comfort them.