Lessons learned - COG Uganda

Uganda YWAM Blog

(written a couple of days ago) The first couple of days of our Mzungo (white people) team's stay here in Uganda were filled with rest, getting to know each other, and doing a little touring around Jinja. Jinja is the 2nd largest city in Uganda and the water way just outside of town is known as the source of the Nile. So of course we had to have some Nile beer, brewed just off of the shores of the Nile. The landscape in Uganda is very fertile and the roads tend to be very well maintained, which is not like my experience during my previous trip to the Congo. After a couple days of adjusting and sorting bins of supplies for the kids and the camp, we meet our Ugandan counterparts and headed to the YWAM base in Bugembe, about 30 minutes drive outside of Jinja. The grounds is beautiful! The view from the main conference center is of two terraced open fields with a back drop of Lake Victoria. The first couple of nights we had a full moon, but now the moon has gone, leaving a million stars dotting the night sky.

The staff which we are working with are either soon to be University Freshman or are on their break from the Universities. It's been great to have their guidance and assistance with the kids who are between the ages of 14 and 19, except for one 6 year old boy from Lira, which is in the north of Uganda and is the area that has been so troubled by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). More about that later.

It's the end of the second day that the children have been here, which is great because they are opening up and having fun with each other and with us as camp assistants, but is also sad because it means that they only have a couple more days left in their stay here. We actually had a bit of a scare when this afternoon marked almost a full 36 hours without running water at our camp. We have been able to purchase water for drinking, but without running water for showers, cooking, and toilets, it is nearly impossible to run a camp of over 150 people. There was actually some discussion as to when we would decide that we had a to send the kids home because it would become too unsanitary.... I didn't think that it would come to that, but it certainly was a reminder to me that I won't get that much time to really spend with these kids and to use every moment to learn from them and to love them. Our leader, Jen, made a call to find out about the status of getting running water back in service and stated "We need running water for drinking, showers, and to flush the toilets.....these are basic needs.." Commenting on this later, Mary Ann with Children of Grace put this in perspective by reminding us that these are basic needs...... basic needs that are not being meet all over the country and at the homes of the children we were working with..... We take so much for granted.




There is a group of about 6 or 7 from Lira in the North of Uganda, where the LRA has terrorized the civilian population for over 20 years. Two boys who were in my group, Boniface and Jacob, are from Lira. Boniface is 15, but size wise looks more like 12 and Jacob is a small 6 year old and one of the cutest kids I've meet when he smiles, but carries himself like a little man... In the picture above, Boniface is the one on left and Jacob is the little kid bottom right. As I looked at Boniface and Jacob playing soccer the last day, waiting for the busses to arrive and take the campers home, I tried to picture them with machine guns and weapons in their hands, pulled from their families and taught to kill as part of the LRA.... It really broke my heart! The evil that resides in the hearts of men who can force kids into being soldiers is unfathomable to me, yet a reality that haunts the lives and thoughts of the kids from Norther Uganda. Boniface told me that he would like to ask his sponsor for a walkman. When I asked why, if he wanted to be a musician or music producer, etc. he replied. "I like to listen to music because it helps me forget about the bad things that happened in the past.." I don't know his complete story, except that his parents are dead and he has not been able to return to his home for years because of the violence in the area and danger of young boys being kidnapped.... I don't recount this story to be a downer about my experience here, because as whole I have learned a great deal and feel like I've been blessed with new friends here in Uganda, but my intention is meant more for the education of you the reader, and a reminder to all of us that we should be grateful for the lives we have as North American's, as privilaged people who have our basic needs taken care of..... and then some.

Internet access is slow, so I'll end with a couple memorable quotes from different people this week.

"If we loose an hour in the morning, we will spend all day looking for it" - Abraham (co-leader of the camp)

Emmanuel (Emma) (one of the campers in my small group) - "May I take your Plate?" Me - "no, that's O.K., I can get it" Laurence - "I know you can get it, but I would like to help you"

Help me. Humbling to say the least.....