aimee: [forever] a mzungu: 2007-09-30

CURRENT NEWS in uganda is major, major flooding in Northern and Eastern Uganda for the past two weeks. Thousands of people have been displaced from their homes, some cannot even retreat without airplanes or a boat. of some kind. Their farming has been wiped-out and destroyed, especially their cassava (an edible root) and ground nuts (which really are a family's diet). and their toilets have been flooded and are now overflowing. which means that disease is rampant and starvation is equally devastating. president museveni issued a state of emergency for those districts last week.

yesterday there was a "charity walk for the flood affected areas".
i went with some other students from ucu and it was awesome to be a part of something happening in uganda, IN uganda. we marched through the town and raised money to be sent to the districts that have an urgent need for assistance- all sectors need help: food, medical, counseling, etc. after we marched we sat and listened to MPs (members of parliment) and other "majesty's" address the problem and offer compassion and mercy. the president also spoke, which i didn't stay for. but i guess he quoted a tribal proverb that was like "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade," but in english it translated to "if your mother drowns, make soup from the water." strange. and he also said the problem was the bridges, and that not a lot of people died. he said if the bridges were better than it wouldn't have been such a problem. i don't know about him... anyways it was an eventful day in kampala.

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for me the day was eventful as well. :)
african time was of course present in our after eight departure instead of seven... i actually left to get my own matatu (taxi) with a couple girls. then when we got there we had to go through this metal detector. and they wouldn't let anyone bring a camera... which we ALL had pretty much brought. sweet. NOT! the police shooed us away and told us to bring them home... which is like an hour away. craziest thing is that our friend will tried to go through after with his camera and then realized that he still had it in his pocket. they asked him to show what he had and he realized he had lied and panicked. so he backed up and said he wasn't going through anymore... it was so suspicious!! they totally thought he had a gun or something which they were NOT okay with... i was like "will just show him the camera..." thankfully they left him go then. don't mess with the ugandan police, they all have ak47s!! :(

irony: after giving up our cameras to someone, we walked the streets which meant TONS of people never even saw a metal detector and the area where the dignitaries spoke could have easily had a USEFUL metal detector check... that's uganda for ya! :)

during the walk i met a really awesome mzungu (which literally means "white person") named tamara. she is working with micro-finance here in kampala with her husband (and she's a believer too). we exchanged numbers and she said i could possibly volunteer to survey families staying in a local IDP camp near kampala. i am SOOO excited. i wouldn't just be a consumer-tourist, but i could actually converse with the acholi people!! :) :) just this past week i have been asking what my purpose is here, and where i can get involved for uganda. thank you God for showing me a potential direction!

also i was thinking about swipe to save and hoping that maybe we can find a good organization to send aid to these flooded regions. it was overall a very purposed time and i felt excited to start thinking creatively how i can offer my time and energy to help uganda!! :)

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prayers:
.. the forecast has more rain coming, which means more flooding. pray for the people who may be displaced and for adequate aid to arrive to help their food and medical needs.
.. personal direction for where God wants to use me while i a here. And even plans for after I leave this semester.