BUYALA CHILDRENS SCHOOL
Yesterday morning Joseph told us we had a show at a school, so we cut our time with the babies short and prepared to leave. The headmaster of the Buyala Children's School drove us to a village 20 kilometers outside of Kampala, but to a setting that was also very remote. The school was down one of the red dirt roads that are so common here. The show was great, and afterwards the kids blessed us with two songs. During the last song, they called each of us up one at a time to do an African dance. Unfortunately, Rose got it all on video, too.
But that's not what sticks with me about this show at this school. After we were finished and packed up, I asked the headmaster how Christians in America could pray for his school. He said their current need was water. Right now, the maintenance guy takes his bicycle 1/4 to 1/2 a mile down the (dirty, bumpy, partially washed out) road with 20 liter cans and hauls water back from a swamp. He showed us the water source on our way back to Kampala, and they call it a stream, but I saw the papyrus and other plants growing throughout it. It's a swamp. Anyway, he hauls the water back to the school on his bike and they boil it. It kills the germs, but it's still dirty-we saw it ourselves. Their desire is for a large water tank that can collect water during the rainy season so they could have a source of water on site all year long. The cost for two would be $3000 US. That's all. $3000.
Sue has a friend back in Maine who has done several fund raising projects for fresh water, and she is already thinking of how she can get involved.
OUR SECOND SHOW
We had a second show at another outlying school later in the day. Actually, Sue and Rose stayed back because they had already planned to have tea with our Somali neighbors. So I went with Isaac, our faithful driver, and Pastor Phillip, whom I had just met. Again, we went to a remote village for a show at a Christian boarding school (I confess I forget the name). There are 300 children from remote areas who live at the school, and another 50 or so who walk to school each day. They range from about 6 to 13 years old.
When I arrived, I met the headmaster. We discussed where I should set up, and I told him my one real need was an electrical outlet. Embarrassed, he replied, "We have no electricity here." 350 kids, most of whom live on site much of the year, and no electricity! Yet they are giving the kids an education and three meals a day. They do not charge any tuition as the families in the area couldn't pay anything, and the whole school is run on donations and sponsorships as people in Europe and America, and sometimes Ugandans can give.
What needs to be made clear is, this is the best option for the kids. Even without electricity or running water (although this site did have a water tower as mentioned above) or flushing toilets, this was the only place in the area that people could send their kids free of charge to get an education. The alternative would be a life of subsistence farming at best, and a life of prostitution or other illegal activities, or even worse, a life that doesn't extend beyond childhood at all.
At home, state and local governments would shut these schools down before they ever opened, but the people at them are doing tremendous jobs, the kids are studying hard and learning and basic needs like food and housing are being met better for many of them than if they were anywhere else.
It is a different world.
PHILLIPS STORY
On the return trip from this second show, Pastor Phillip told me his story. He grew up in a northern village as a Muslim. When he was a child of about 12, he was 'recruited' to join the rebel forces to fight against Idi Amin and his regime. While still a boy soldier of 13, he heard the Gospel and became a follower of Jesus Christ. This caused estrangement from his family, so when the civil war ended, he moved to Kampala and lived at a church. Since then, his relationship with his family has been restored, and he has become a pastor in a predominantly Islamic neighborhood in Kampala.