monkey: business

We’re sitting at the airport…. I’ve changed into my travelling clothes, comfy trousers and trainers. The skirts will be packed away until another trip to Uganda. Our brains are bursting – we’ve learnt so much about the projects here. We’ve seen both terrible situations and lives turned around, met some awesome people, and spent time with our Ugandan friends and family.

The last two days we’ve been at the Uganda Global Care Training Conference with all the Centre managers and Paul, UK Head of Operations. What an incredibly talented, visionary, hard-working, and kind, bunch of people they are.

 I hate saying goodbye – who knows when we’ll be back, and we can’t exactly pop over if we want to see each other!

The conference was at a Christian Training Centre.  

The whole event had similarities with a UK Christian leaders’ conference. The rooms were basic but pleasant, the grounds peaceful and attractive, meals were communal affairs, there was too much food, including snacks during breaks, we worked very hard.

The differences included monkeys in the garden, cold showers, the food itself (e.g. matooke…boiled, mashed plantains [green bananas], and goat stew), hot milk for cups of tea, mosquito nets, huge millipedes, and gorgeous flowers and trees.

It was an oasis outside the hectic noise and madness of Kampala. Travelling to the airport, it was a jolt to be back amongst crazy roadside markets, gangs of motorbike boda boys, a poor slum area, an accident, and barefoot people at the side of the Kampala to Entebbe expressway. (Expressway is a joke – the speed limit is 30K/hr!).

I’m finding it quite hard to write tonight. I don’t want to trivialise or patronise. I don’t want my reflection to be about me, but about the work we’ve seen, the way the staff here lay down their lives for vulnerable children.

It was a privilege to work with them at the conference and see their passion and concern. They achieve so much with so little. They’re not afraid to acknowledge mistakes, and learn from them. They want to see children lifted out of extreme poverty, and families able to support themselves.

They want to find sustainable solutions to generate income from within Uganda so they don’t have to be so dependent on UK donors –  in some areas, sponsor numbers have reduced significantly.

We need to review our own contributions – not just monetary.  We need to remember the faces of the sets of twins and how children’s lives can be changed. Marginalised and isolated children given love and hope. Hungry children being fed.  Uneducated children going to school, completing vocational training, being self-sufficient. I suspect there’ll be more blogs over the coming weeks as we digest our experiences.  Two things I’m certain of – Uganda and her people still hold a part of my heart, and this time I have to remember for longer.