A rain drop, clock hand and an appeal for help

This post was written by Jamie Attard, a Long-Term United Planet volunteer in Uganda.

Lightning forks across the skyline, illuminating an array of fine eggshell cracks in the dark clouds above.  Thunder follows, wind stirs, the rain commences its sudden downpour, and underneath it all you find me, without an umbrella.  I have found myself in this situation a number of times the past few months, trying to make as much sense of the surroundings as of the situation.

Lightning, bright light, an explosion of fireworks underneath my eyelids.  I open my eyes and find myself ankle deep in a large puddle, rubbish floating on the surface, a soccer ball at my feet.  I am playing football with the teachers and pupils of a local orphanage where I teach half a day each week.  There is rubbish everywhere, the scattered loose stones have grazed my hands and knees thanks to the wires and tires strewn across the small makeshift pitch.  We are playing in front of the four classrooms that make up the orphanage, constructed of wood likely salvaged from the Titanic, the array of holes and gaps providing the primary source of ventilation and lighting for the students.  This is an orphanage where students use razor blades to sharpen their pencils, where writing materials consists of rationed half pieces of paper and a text book must be shared by an entire class.  It is raining so heavily the ball can’t be kicked, instead feet drag the ball feebly through the puddles.  But all this doesn’t matter, the score is 9-8, my team is losing.  An interception and goal levels the score, then a cross from me to a ten-year old teammate results in the winning goal.  Momentary elation!  My lingering thought, how could children learn in this environment?

Lightning, white flash, a vision of a red sea appears through my eyelids.  I open my eyes and find myself on a muddy slope, a brown calf loudly baying at me.  The calf does not like the rain, it is however tied to a stump and unable to get adequate shelter under the neighboring tree.  I am on an extended weekend break, visiting a work mate’s family in a village outside of Kampala.  The family is very warm and welcoming, arranging for their rooster to be killed for our dinner, even though meat is a rarity enjoyed but once a month for them.  The home consists of a few small buildings, parts still with dirt floor, although now with glass windows thanks to our delivered gift!  There is no electricity or running water, a generator is at hand though to power a small television.  The surrounding land is very lush and beautiful, and you only need to take a few steps to collect a diverse range of fruits and vegetables from the large garden.  Quite a picturesque and peaceful site.  As I left the village I could only wonder, how do people live without so many of the advancements of the last hundred years projected on televisions, newspapers and magazines each day?

Lightning, a thousand glittering diamonds, birthday sparklers burning under my eyelids.  I open my eyes and find myself in front of Murchison Bay Prison, one of the largest and oldest correctional facilities in Uganda.  Murchison Bay Prison contains the main referral hospital for the entire Ugandan prison system and we are about to conduct a needs assessment as part of a five year HIV/AIDS counseling and management training proposal.  We are ushered inside a prison with approximately one thousand inmates all dressed in yellow and black stripes, a hive of worker bees busily making honey in atonement for their past.  On the whole, and excluding the toilets, I had to admit that the prison looked well maintained and the prisoners in good condition.  It was only thirty years ago after all that the Ugandan prisons were heavily overcrowded, run down and used as a political tool to imprison government dissenters.  We conduct two focus groups for sixty inmates where I help to dispel fears and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, while in turn devising the best long term educational program for them.  Our five year training proposal has been submitted to the relevant Ugandan Prison Authorities and is currently awaiting authorization.  The question though that still resonates in my mind, what had each inmate done to be in there?

I think it is due time that I get out of the rain, or at least start carrying an umbrella.  Fortunately today is a bright and warm day, no threatening storm in site.  I am writing this to you on what should be my last day in Uganda.  Time has flown and six months have concluded.  My intention from here was to travel for a little bit across Africa before heading back to America to start my masters program.  Instead I have found myself losing all interest in traveling for leisure and have decided my time would be better spent helping people here for as long as I could.  So until the end of August, when my academic year starts, I have arranged to stay in Kampala, still on a volunteer basis, with the hope that a little more time will make the difference.

I have enjoyed seeing the positive changes transform people here.  I have led a number of proposals and in the last few weeks we won and delivered on one of them.  Three of the four classrooms have now been fully constructed, although they are still without glass windows.  Yesterday the welding and cutting business operating in the giant red freight crate in the school yard was finally evicted!  Also, today a new edition of our educational program brochures were published and we shortly will be launching our website.  But these are small steps and there is still so much that is needed.

Many of you have asked how you could help support the project here.  The following is a link to allow you to make a tax deductible contribution: https://www.unitedplanet.org/donate.  Please detail my name in the donor section so that your contributions could be directed to my project.  There is honestly so much we could use the funding for, such as to finish the classroom construction, provide more text books, improve the computer resources, get a better printer, the list is long…but any contribution, no matter the size, would be valued.  If you know of friends that could help contribute, please share this with them.