This country has been through its share of war and cruelty but we continue to meet amazing people who volunteer their time and energy in support of rebuilding Uganda. Many of these people are university graduates who want to help their countrymen. They invest their time and energy into orphanages like God’s Grace Orphanage. Today Bree and her crew built a vegetable garden to provide a more varied and nutritious diet. You can read her blog for more details. One can never forget the efforts of Maria, Prosper and Gilbert in helping this orphanage operate. Once the garden is in, a chicken coop is next.
Other people like Pastor George in Gulu have an amazingly broad vision of how to get people back functioning in their villages. These were people moved to IDP camps during the war but the government now wants them to return to their villages. Pastor George feels that the people need to be educated and thus need schools, in addition to water and medical facilities. In other words, he wants to re-establish small communities around Gulu. So far he has started four of these. We visited one and it is great to see the kids going to school and crops growing. Of course there is a long way to go but these kinds of people make it work.
While in Gulu two volunteers worked with us. Andrew and Cris were great help in moving resources around. Andrew also excelled at making sure we never got into trouble! Again this is an example of the efforts Ugandans are making for their own people. I truly feel that with their investment in their own country that there is a bright future for this country.
I also want to mention how friendly the people are. We are continuously greeted with big smiles, a hand shake and a hello. How often does that happen in Canada?
Kathy