catholic
Providence Home, Nkokonjeru, Uganda
The Ugandan sky over Providence Home and Nkokonjeru
We all go through life wondering if our life has purpose and meaning. We always thought we had pretty purposeful lives but, after Uganda, we feel like we were nothing but a couple of slackers.
Uganda and its people were all we expected and didn’t expect. It’s a beautiful, friendly, spiritual, and wondrous place. It’s also a hard place, with very little infrastructure and an economic system that looks to be pretty dicey.
Our three week discernment was uniquely ours. In retrospect, we were moved by how Catholic it was, by the joy and love of the people we met, and by how Divine Providence played such a big part in our journey.
Before Uganda, I’d spend time at Mass, listening to homilies about the Holy Spirit, but never really feeling anything one way or the other. In Uganda, I can honestly say I felt as if the Holy Spirit was guiding, directing, and protecting us each and every step of the way.
It was quite a remarkable feeling.
We ended up visiting 14 different villages/cities, countless places, and hundreds of Ugandans and westerners (if you discount the day we spent at Namugongo on Martyrs Day with 2.5 million of our closest friends LOL). We looked in the faces of Ugandans and westerners, and were able to measure for ourselves the motives of those people through their actions.
We have a pretty good idea who is helping Uganda and its people, and who is trying to line their own pockets with so-called white money.
I’d be lying if I said we had zero doubts about what we were doing, and what we were talking about doing, before our trip. Many friends told us it would not be a crime to come back and decide to just stay put; that what we talked about doing was just too hard a task to consider.
But, post trip, our commitment is firm. As soon as possible, but probably early 2016, we’ll be relocating to Nkokonjeru and living at Providence Home with the Little Sisters of St Francis (LSSF) for an initial three-year period. We’ll initially be working with the children and elderly who reside at Providence Home.
There are currently 48 children at Providence, including 17 who are severely disabled and receive occupational therapy every day. There are also six elderly Ugandans who have no families and no other place to go.
While others in the Catholic Church talk about and preach about the importance of the sanctity of life, from conception to natural death, the LSSF live out that mission each and every day. If not for them, a good number of those in their care would be long dead.
But, at Providence Home, there is love and acceptance. We have never felt such love and joy, and can only hope to do what little we can to help the Little Sisters in their mission.
Sisters Elizabeth, Angeline, Regina, and Lydia at Providence Home.
Bonnie read to some of the occupational therapy students at Providence Home
Every evening at 6:00, the children say the Rosary, in Lugandan. Once we get moved in, we plan to lead the Rosary at least once a week, in English. One thing that bothered me is the children in wheelchairs were unable to get to the grotto for evening prayers, as it was just not handicapped accessible. If I would have had one more day, I was ready to recruit a few of the more able-bodied children, and shape the walkway so these beautiful children could fully participate.
God, and Uganda, is calling
Only about 24 hours before our departure from DFW, and one other thing comes to mind.
Over the past few weeks or so, numerous people have asked us what organization is supporting us, or if we’re being funded by the church, a foundation, a charity, or some philanthropic organization.
The short answer is nope. We have set up a Go Fund Me page, and have received some wonderful donations, and have also received some very gracious private donations of cash and other items.
But the bulk of the trip is being covered by what we’ve been able to save from our very meager (does that sound pathetic enough?) retirements, craft sales and, quite literally, selling off everything in our apartment.
And that’s okay. It’s what we want to do and, more importantly, we think it’s what God wants us to do.
We probably laugh about it every day, debating whether this really is what God wants us to do.
I guess we’re going to find out eh?
Reusable sanitary supplies for Ugandan girls
Reusable sanitary supplies for Ugandan girls is a project Bonnie found out about quite by accident.
“Millions of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa are disempowered by the simple biological process of menstruation. Affordable and hygienic sanitary protection is not available to girls in many areas. They resort to the use of unhygienic rags and cloths which puts them at the risk of infections. Many poorer girls either skip school when they have their periods or simply drop out completely.
A girl absent from school due to menstruation for four days of every 28 day cycle loses 13 learning days, the equivalent to two weeks of learning, every school term. A survey of menstruating girls in Uganda found that “the biggest numbers of school dropouts are girls because of inconveniences during their menstrual periods.”
Educated girls are more likely to become empowered women; they are more likely to take control of their lives, have economic security, and raise fewer and healthier children who will in turn be more likely to be educated themselves.”
Hopefully, we’ll be able to help in that respect. With the help of some of the women of our local Catholic Daughters of the Americas (CDA) we’ve prepared a number of kits, which we’ll be dropping off at various locations.
Typically, the kit would contain at least two pair of girl’s panties, but we could only afford a single pair this time around. Also included is a bar of soup, a reusable sanitary napkin, a baggie to aid in washing the soiled napkin and, this go round, instructions for making their own.
The St Peter the Apostle CDA chapter is taking on this project, and will be making sanitary napkins for other kits we’ll be putting together once we get back from our three-week discernment.
Another unexpected gift
What a wonderful surprise we had today!
We received a generous donation from our friend Timmie for the trip to Uganda.
Thank you so very much for this badly needed donation and the love that came with it.
We will be using 100% of the funds for educational toys, school supplies and basic over the counter Meds for ringworm and other common skin ailments we will encounter while there.
You are a blessing Timmie and will be with us on this trip in so many ways.
One big step down on our mission to Uganda
One more step down on our way to Uganda, and this is a big one.
Just now, the mail carrier delivered our Passports, Ugandan Visas, and International shot records.
Purchasing a Visa ($50) on arrival at Entebbe Airport was an option, but seemed a bit too dicey to take the chance, even with Delta Airlines telling me we could “probably” board our flight at DFW without Visas.
We tried unsuccessfully to find a nearby (Dallas or Fort Worth) Ugandan Consulate where we could get Visas and not have to entrust our American Passports to the U.S. Postal System (even though I’m a retiree) and to the Ugandan Embassy in Washington, DC.
So, with great trepidation, off went our Passports and shot records to DC.
I tracked our Express package to DC, waited the estimated three working days for our Visas to be processed in DC, and tracked them back to Texas.
BTW, for this trip, we opted not to get a rabies vaccine. A series of three shots is required, at $299 a pop, if you’ll be working in the bush and around animals. My Blue Cross Federal plan reportedly covers the cost 100% (at least that’s what the Walgreens pharmacist told us).
The U.S. State Department web site indicates “Travelers should also consider typhoid vaccination”, but we’re going to wait for that.
We did get the required Yellow Fever, through Walgreens with my insurance for a fraction of what the shots would have been had we got them from the County Health Department.
We also both updated our Tetanus, and got a very necessary prescription for Malaria, as well as an antibiotic “just in case” we come down with dysentery.
14 days and counting.
Answered prayers
I want to thank our friend Anna, for making a generous donation for our trip.
It was an answered prayer for sure, as we are not going with a group or being sponsored by the Church, so everything we do is out of pocket.
We will now be able to make up a number of reusable sanitary supply kits for girls, purchase blankets in Kampala for Providence Home, purchase play dough and Legos, and buy some soccer balls and pumps.
We’ll also be able to purchase a good quantity of tubes of Vaseline, Tinactin and Neosporin to leave with the various places we visit. Dry skin, head fungus and chiggers are reportedly ongoing issues, and the small tubes are being purchased on the advice of a friend who just returned after 18 months in Uganda.
Thank you so much Anna, for your gift for the children of Uganda.
-Bonnie
Time out for a brief mention of religion
Maybe a comment on religion.
We’re Catholic. We go to Mass regularly, and we volunteer in a variety of ways.
For Uganda, we’re taking 250 Rosaries to hand out, we have three letters of introduction from three Priest friends, we’ll be attending Mass in two Cathedrals and a church, and we’ll be attending the Martyrs Day celebration with a million or so of our closest Catholic friends.
But we are NOT going to Uganda to proselytize. We are going to see where and how we can help, with the intent of helping individuals, villages and orphanages become more self-sufficient. Feeding, clothing and educating those in need.
Many Ugandans, reportedly, have a deep-seated religious belief and a simple faith in God that sees them through the most difficult times.
According to the book, “Travel Smart, Uganda”, “Ugandans are generally tolerant, with different religions existing side by side. Some families have a Muslim branch and a Christian branch, depending on intermarriage, and it is not unusual for young people from the Catholic Church to attend more lively Pentecostal churches, without abandoning their Catholicism.”
Pentecostal, Mormon, Atheist, Jewish, Lutheran, Protestant, Muslim, or Catholic. If you’re happy, we’re happy.
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