It has been a great/social worky week! This could be the longest blog post of your life…so be prepared! So, for organization’s sake, it can be broken down into 6 parts:
1. Ndere
2. Street Kids
3. Witchcraft
4. Invisible Children
5. Amazima
6. Miscellaneous
1. Ndere—Sunday night we went to Ndere Dance Troupe in Kampala and it was SWEET! It’s pretty much a show that includes traditional dances and music from all over Uganda. I am still amazed at how they do it…especially the ridiculously fast butt shaking!
2. Street Kids—On Tuesday a couple of the Social Workers from my internship (Julius and Hudson) took Ashton and I to a place in Kampala to see where a lot of the street kids live. We went to a dirty river that went directly through Kampala, filled with trash and sewage, and found kids washing their clothes in the water. Hudson said that many of them even drink it because they don’t have other options. So we talked to 5 or 6 kids about their lives, why they were living there, issues they face, and so on. Some are living there because their parents either died, or chased them out. Others are there because their mothers lived on the streets, and once they were old enough they were forced to survive on their own. Others are there simply because they liked the idea of freedom, and ran away to Kampala (the New York of Uganda) for a life free from parental oppression. They always have to be on guard for the police, who will unexpectedly round them up and send them to a juvy center for a few months before letting them go. Some of the younger/smaller kids have to watch out for the older/bigger ones, because they will come and beat them up while they are trying to sleep. But one of the biggest issues Hudson told us they face: child sacrifice! What?! That totally shocked us…and is definitely one of the types of human trafficking the textbooks forgot to include! I guess what happens is businessmen will put orders in for a certain type of child, who is then either kidnapped from the streets of from a village, then the business men will sacrifice the child to appease a spirit. I guess that a lot of buildings around here have the heads of children in the foundations, and hands in the pillars…weird! Sometimes children will be taken to be sacrificed, but the spirit they are sacrificing to will sometimes reject the child, so then they will be left on the streets with no way to get home. At first I thought that there was no way this could actually be happening…but after talking to various other people, they told us it was true and widely known. Witchcraft is a much bigger deal here than I thought…but I’ll talk about that more in the next paragraph. Basically, this day was one of the most beneficial social work days I’ve had here. Julius and Hudson answered any questions we had, and I feel like I have a much better understanding of the role of social work in Uganda than ever before.
3. Witchcraft—It’s huge here! Apparently Mukono (where I live) is one of the most famous places in Uganda for its witchcraft…and has been on the news a lot lately for it. People will bewitch other people’s land so it won’t be sold, they will bewitch others into eating grass like cows, and cause others to go crazy. It’s pretty interesting stuff, and really easy to be critical about, but I honestly think it’s a very real thing! A missionary we know got an email this week about a certain hill in Mukono. It said that this hill was known for witchcraft, but now has a Christian school on it. This past week some crazy things have been happening, and it is said that as a boy was walking home one day, a snake stood up and spoke to him saying, “Never come back to this hill, you are not welcome. Bad things will happen if you come back!” Again, it’s easy to be critical of…but over half of the teachers and students have left because of it. It’s easy for us to say, “But we have to power of Christ, why should they be so scared?” But…if I were in that position, I think it would be pretty difficult to go back too! So all of that, on top of the child sacrifice thing, has been on my brain a ton this week, and has been the focus of a lot of my conversations. Spiritual warfare is not something that is ignored here as it is in America. I think that is why there are people on top of Monkey Hill every night, praying against the powers of darkness. They take this stuff seriously!
4. Invisible Children—Friday a bunch of us Social Work students went to the Invisible Children office in Kampala to talk to them about their program. The funny thing is we set up this meeting before the Kony 2012 video came out, so the timing was pretty good! The office in Kampala mostly deals with the scholarships it gives to students affected by the conflict in Northern Uganda. 200 and some kids are sponsored; some in secondary and some in University, and each has a mentor who checks up on them. We talked to one of the mentors, and it was really great to hear about the ministries of Invisible Children, and also his response to Kony 2012. I was pretty critical of it all before we went in, and am a little more supportive now, but still processing a lot of it. Many of the Ugandans are confused as to why we just decided to chase Kony now, when he is no longer in Uganda, and are suspicious of our intentions. They find it interesting that we are just getting involved now, after oil has been discovered. They say, “America rarely gets involved if there is nothing in it for them.” Invisible Children denies this, but who really knows! This isn’t very descriptive of all we talked about it…it’s a really really complex issue…but if you want to know more, let me know! I love to talk about it! We had to sign there guestbook before we left….I signed my name right under CNN News, and ABC News. I felt pretty special! =)
5. Amazima—This is the NGO started by Katie Davis, author of Kisses from Katie. For those of you who haven’t heard about her, look her up and learn her story…it’s worth it. Basically, she’s only 23, left everything she had in the U.S., and is an adoptive mom to 13 girls in Jinja. Anyways, today a few of us visited their weekly program for all the kids in their sponsorship program. It was beautiful! I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the kids were so happy, healthy, fun, and brilliant! Each of these kids also has a mentor who does home visits to check out their living standards, and make sure they are being well taken care of…which I think is definitely a good move. From what I saw, I think it’s a really great ministry, and think they are doing a lot of good in their communities. I also was able to talk to Katie, and all her girls…so it was so cool putting faces with all the names in her book!
6. Miscellaneous—A few of the stranger things that happened to me this week: well first of all, I met Bobi Wine, who is one of the top rappers in Uganda! I guess he used to be a street kid too, and is now one of the richest people in Kampala! He was driving by us in his black, gangster Escalade, and rolled down his window, shook hands with our driver, waved to Ashton and I, and drove off. Pretty cool! Other strange things: within a 3 day period I ate goat, cow intestines/stomach/other mysterious parts of a cow’s insides, and also some of the sketchiest beef I have ever seen. So all those things I studied up close in Anatomy last semester, I got to experience….microvili and all. Wednesday I had to run from an escaped cow (with horns) while playing with some kids…ohhh Africa. And finally, if you haven’t seen my Facebook statuses, there is a little brown mouse living in my room named Ben. I first found him when I was about to go to bed, heard something in the corner, and looked over to see it climbing up the curtain next to my head…lovely. He seems to be making himself at home and appears several times a day, and I’m thinking it’s time to do something about it…I knew I should have bought the sticky mouse trap that someone shoved in my face while driving through Kampala!!
That’s all the excitement in my life! Sorry it’s so long…and if you made it all the way through, thanks for sticking with it through all the details I’ve probably included! And for those wondering about all my grammatical errors…sorry, this is too long to proof read! =) Goodnight, and thanks for all your support and interest!!
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