Our visit with refugees from Northern Uganda ~ Day 4

A difficult and humbling day was ahead with Father Francis.

Another sunny warm day here. We started a little later than the past few days and had time for a half hour of yoga before we headed to Kampala to see where Father Francis does his parish work.

It was wonderful to see our old friend and difficult to visit his very, very poor community.  This place is a settlement of refugees from Northern Uganda. These families relocated to this area after fleeing their war-torn villages 25 years ago. Some of the people we met today are the grown children of the parents who relocated.

This has been the most humbling day we’ve ever experienced in this country.

I began to really understand what Mother Teresa meant when she spoke of the poorest of the poor. Thousands of people live in this community on the side of a hill with treacherous narrow walkways winding their way between falling down buildings made of brick, mud and sheet metal. Graves are everywhere right outside people doors and we learned there are only two latrines for the whole community. The runoff from these latrines flows downhill through the center of these tiny walkways. We toured the settlement being careful to step over these urine streams.

Open sewage running through the village.

Children in the refugee community

Children couldn’t stop stroking my arms. I think they were wondering if the white of my skin would come off or if there was something terribly wrong with me. I smiled and chatted with them, but inside I did feel wrong. How could this be?

Women working in the stone quarry. Many bring their children to work with them.

Women spend all day breaking rocks into tiny pieces to use in cement and, for each heavy gerry they can fill, they receive less than 10 cents. A hard day’s work pays little more than 2 dollars, and that is if you are fast and skilled and the rain doesn’t get in your way.

We spoke with the women guiding us through the pathways, about their lives. They have the biggest smiles, the loudest most contagious laughter and the most positive outlook on life. They told us stories of being forced to sleep outside by husbands that beat them. They told us about their many children and about how women are expected to find food each day. The men play mandala or poker in smoky huts while drinking the local distilled alcohol. They are not expected to support their families, and we were baffled as to why these amazing women accepted this. We have so much to learn here.

Ellie, Maureen & Phoebe with the community leaders

We talked to over 400 girls about menstruation and showed them our pads. We spoke to young mothers about reproductive health and charting their cycles to avoid more pregnancy, if possible. They were so grateful for this information which they did not have. We will make pads for all these girls and mothers though we could only pass out 40 today.

I’m hopeful that The MoonCatcher Project can help alleviate some of the hardship of this village.

Certainly, another humbling day.