Living in Kampala
About three and a half weeks ago I moved out of my host family and into a hostel right in the city, situated between a slum and the nation’s leading university- Makerere. Our program has split all over the country to work on their projects. I and 8 others (including Caleb) and living here and doing our research in the city.
In interest of the international donor community and my natural love and affinity towards Japan, I have been studying Japan’s role here in Uganda’s development. I was a bit concerned at the beginning and it took awhile to make contact with the people I needed to. But now I have been able to work closely and learn from JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency) which essentially serves as project manager for development projects being funded by the Japanese Government. Comparable to America’s USAID. The people at JICA have been so gracious, kind, and accommodating to me. I have gotten to meet with experts from Japan as well as officials in the various Ministry’s belonging to the Ugandan government. Japan takes a unique approach to aid different than many other international donors because the rarely give budgetary assistance. Instead, in an effort for sustainable development, to fight corruption, and to offer technical knowledge they work on the ground, hands on with all their projects. This ensures that the aid they are giving really is relevant.
Recognizing that I am likely much more interested in this than you, I will stop there. It has been a neat way to see my interest in politics and foreign policy combine with my heart for the developing world. Maybe a possible career? …I hope :)
Life is much slower here in Africa as I was warned and have now learned. Evenings are spent reading or playing cards and getting more sleep than I ever have in college. Even during the day when I don’t have meetings set up my days seem so much slower than the pace kept at school. I try and remind myself of the times I would have killed just to be able to sit a read a book. I get to do that now, but sometimes I feel like I am not ‘doing’ anything. I am learning that it is a gift just to ‘be’.
On the weekends we have gotten to do some travel, and this weekend I am going to the Sese Islands in Lake Victoria.... a little break from this not so strenuous life I am living. After this week we have just two weeks left for our research and then one final week in the program. Then it will be over and Caleb and I will have one last month in Uganda where we will spend some time traveling with friends, very enthusiastically host my Dad and Sarah who are coming for 10 days (yay yay!), and then hopefully spend the end of that month working at an orphanage! Oh my how fast the time has gone.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
a message from caleb
Caleb has been working with the Anglican Church during his research. He wrote this after one of his days visiting churches in Kampala.
Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting two different parishes. The first was St. Stephen’s in Kisugu. Kisugu is a very beautiful area of Kampala. The parish there is large. They have 3 different services, a variety of instruments, multiple beautiful buildings, and a large staff. They are currently building a two story, 3-bedroom house with a beautiful view of the city for their pastor to live in. In Ugandan terms, this house is a mansion. I went with a group of church workers from Kisugu to visit another church in nearby Kalerwe. Both churches are part of the Kampala diocese in the Anglican Church. Both are churches in the global body of Christ. Both serve the same God and have the same call. The church in Kalerwe however looks quite different from Kisugu.
Kalerwe is a slum. It is plagued by theft, prostitution, AIDs, poverty, and twice a year it is plagued by floods. Uganda has two rainy seasons every year. Prior to the most recent highway construction, the rains would come and would flow through Kalerwe and out into rivers and streams. However, just 5 years ago, the World Bank decided to build a highway in Kampala. The people in the slum warned the World Bank that the highway would block the rains from leaving the slum, causing floods. They begged the World Bank to put in a new drainage system to prevent flooding. The cost to build this drainage system was extremely small, and so the World Bank had no problem agreeing to this. However, the World Bank didn’t follow through on its promise: as a result, every 6 months the slum floods. The garbage heaps float around on the water. The water that flows down the hills into the slum can exceed 5 feet. People have to flee their homes. The houses, which are made of mud and some stone, start to fall apart. At the end of the flood season, houses have sunk multiple feet into the ground. These people have nowhere to go, no jobs, and no hope of improved lives.
I met Reverend Frederick, who is the priest at Kalerwe. He was overflowing with joy to the point of tears when I arrived with our group of five from Kisugu. He showed us the church. The church has sunk so that the windows, which may have been brilliant at one point, now function as the doors to the church. Despite the floods, the congregation continues to return to their beloved church. As soon as Rev. Frederick’s initial excitement subsides, he beings to tell us of his and the churches needs. He has tears in his eyes again as he says, “we are exhausted. I’m sorry to say it…but I am poor, needy.” He lists off the things stacked against the church, which fill several lines of my piece of paper. Reverend Frederick is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. He was assigned to the church in Kalerwe, and told that the church would take care of him. He was assigned to be poor. He was assigned to struggle to eat and to struggle to send his kids to school. If all pastors were to be assigned churches to preside over, Kalerwe would be at the bottom of the list. And if the last will really be first someday, Reverend Frederick won’t be far from the top.
As I leave the slum I’m frustrated. I’m frustrated that even in the church such injustices exist. I’m frustrated that Kalerwe’s sister church Kisugu is building a mansion. I’m frustrated by the structure that put Rev. Frederick in direct poverty. I’m frustrated that Willow Creek, Joel Osteen, and I claim to be in the same category as Kalerwe and Reverend Frederick: that all of us claim to be a part of the global church. I don’t deserve to be in any category that he is in. I am reminded that by some divine grace, Kalerwe is my church. Kalerwe is your church. If we really believe that we are a global body in Christ, then we have a responsibility to Reverend Frederick and to God. And if that responsibility is ours, then we have failed.
Solidarity. Everyone loves that word these days. I laugh a bit as I imagine pretending to have solidarity with Rev. Frederick from my comfort in western Michigan. But I want to end this letter with some words of hope, mainly for myself. I want to be able to leave Uganda and Kalerwe with some sort of closure. I want to know that I can return to Michigan and keep living. But that’s just not really an option. I am haunted by Reverend Frederick who puts my faith to shame every single week. And really, I’m haunted by Jesus, the person I claim to be Lord, who says time and again…die to yourself…pick up your cross…give everything away to the poor and follow me…put down your nets and follow me…blessed are the poor…I was hungry and you didn’t feed me…and the list goes on.
Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting two different parishes. The first was St. Stephen’s in Kisugu. Kisugu is a very beautiful area of Kampala. The parish there is large. They have 3 different services, a variety of instruments, multiple beautiful buildings, and a large staff. They are currently building a two story, 3-bedroom house with a beautiful view of the city for their pastor to live in. In Ugandan terms, this house is a mansion. I went with a group of church workers from Kisugu to visit another church in nearby Kalerwe. Both churches are part of the Kampala diocese in the Anglican Church. Both are churches in the global body of Christ. Both serve the same God and have the same call. The church in Kalerwe however looks quite different from Kisugu.
Kalerwe is a slum. It is plagued by theft, prostitution, AIDs, poverty, and twice a year it is plagued by floods. Uganda has two rainy seasons every year. Prior to the most recent highway construction, the rains would come and would flow through Kalerwe and out into rivers and streams. However, just 5 years ago, the World Bank decided to build a highway in Kampala. The people in the slum warned the World Bank that the highway would block the rains from leaving the slum, causing floods. They begged the World Bank to put in a new drainage system to prevent flooding. The cost to build this drainage system was extremely small, and so the World Bank had no problem agreeing to this. However, the World Bank didn’t follow through on its promise: as a result, every 6 months the slum floods. The garbage heaps float around on the water. The water that flows down the hills into the slum can exceed 5 feet. People have to flee their homes. The houses, which are made of mud and some stone, start to fall apart. At the end of the flood season, houses have sunk multiple feet into the ground. These people have nowhere to go, no jobs, and no hope of improved lives.
I met Reverend Frederick, who is the priest at Kalerwe. He was overflowing with joy to the point of tears when I arrived with our group of five from Kisugu. He showed us the church. The church has sunk so that the windows, which may have been brilliant at one point, now function as the doors to the church. Despite the floods, the congregation continues to return to their beloved church. As soon as Rev. Frederick’s initial excitement subsides, he beings to tell us of his and the churches needs. He has tears in his eyes again as he says, “we are exhausted. I’m sorry to say it…but I am poor, needy.” He lists off the things stacked against the church, which fill several lines of my piece of paper. Reverend Frederick is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. He was assigned to the church in Kalerwe, and told that the church would take care of him. He was assigned to be poor. He was assigned to struggle to eat and to struggle to send his kids to school. If all pastors were to be assigned churches to preside over, Kalerwe would be at the bottom of the list. And if the last will really be first someday, Reverend Frederick won’t be far from the top.
As I leave the slum I’m frustrated. I’m frustrated that even in the church such injustices exist. I’m frustrated that Kalerwe’s sister church Kisugu is building a mansion. I’m frustrated by the structure that put Rev. Frederick in direct poverty. I’m frustrated that Willow Creek, Joel Osteen, and I claim to be in the same category as Kalerwe and Reverend Frederick: that all of us claim to be a part of the global church. I don’t deserve to be in any category that he is in. I am reminded that by some divine grace, Kalerwe is my church. Kalerwe is your church. If we really believe that we are a global body in Christ, then we have a responsibility to Reverend Frederick and to God. And if that responsibility is ours, then we have failed.
Solidarity. Everyone loves that word these days. I laugh a bit as I imagine pretending to have solidarity with Rev. Frederick from my comfort in western Michigan. But I want to end this letter with some words of hope, mainly for myself. I want to be able to leave Uganda and Kalerwe with some sort of closure. I want to know that I can return to Michigan and keep living. But that’s just not really an option. I am haunted by Reverend Frederick who puts my faith to shame every single week. And really, I’m haunted by Jesus, the person I claim to be Lord, who says time and again…die to yourself…pick up your cross…give everything away to the poor and follow me…put down your nets and follow me…blessed are the poor…I was hungry and you didn’t feed me…and the list goes on.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
