The Pearl of Africa

Uganda: The Pearl of Africa

I recently had the privilege of spending 10 days in Uganda with my friend Desire. By the end of the trip I knew my photos and reflections would be far too overwhelming for facebook and instead decided to dust off the blog and let those globally interested enough to click through and come on this grand journey with me. 

Desire Kazoora Barugahare is a friend, a fellow adoptive mom, a sister and a Choshen Farm Zambia board member. She has walked with our family through some of our most beautiful and our ugliest moments. When she asked me to come to Uganda and be a part of her processes of campaigning to be a member of Parliament for Mbarara District, I didn't hesitate to say yes. She could have asked me to donate a kidney and I would have said yes; but come hang out with my in my village of origin while I try and make a difference in the world? Easiest Yes ever. 

She asked me to come for two reasons. First, she knew I understood - and could cope - with the environment. She has stayed in our home in Zambia, walked our dirt roads and done village home visits with me in a language that she did not understand. I knew how to be foreign, I spoke a similar Bantu language and I could pee in a pit latrine. I would be low maintenance. She was correct. 

The second reason I was ideal is because I am white. I am actually cringing typing those words. I told Desire about my felt sense of colonial "ick" up front, and she explained patiently what my presence would mean to her rural people. I would help affirm that she was a leader with experience, with education, with international connections. And truth be told, my lack of melanin in a place where the vast majority of people have never seen a white person made our little traveling road show an instant attraction. I might as well have been a neon sight saying "Desire's here! Look at her! Look at her!" Again, I would give a kidney for this woman, so overcoming my post-colonial, white woman discomfort was a small enough hurdle. 

his face, lol - this is what i'm talking about.

Uganda is called The Pearl of Africa, but I spent a whole ten minutes in Mbarara before I decided 'Pearl' was too basic - Emerald? Diamond? I settled on Eden. Rolling hills of matoke - a plantain-cousin which serves as the area's staple food. Beautiful, generous people who will gather their last shilling to offer you bread and fresh cows milk. 

I tried so hard to take landscape photos that captured the majesty.

The rolling hills, the greenest green, the bluest sky.

Breathtaking.

Bemba people in Zambia do not keep cows. 

I had not had fresh milk in.... forever.

Full fat, fresher than fresh cows milk. 

I think I gained ten pounds.

Everyone other than me is thrilled by that.

 True hospitality.

Some of the sweetest hugs ever.

I was inhaling Eden, but we had work to do. Desire is running for Parliament on behalf of her home district because (and I cannot stress this enough) this district NEEDS her. Also God told her to. If that stretches your theology, I can't help you work through that in the span of a blog post, but as a missionary in Africa for nearly 20 years, this makes complete sense to me. 

no TV ads or public debates - just posters, everywhere

Desire explained that in recent months she has become aware of the sinister works of the devil in this campaigning season. Witchcraft loves, loves, loves the cocktail of animism, poverty, poor education, jealousy and competition - which is to say - some crazy sh*t has been going down. Candidate's children dropping dead just by walking under a certain door; mysterious poisons injected into otherwise normal looking water bottles; businesses collapsing after unidentified powder was sprinkled on the ground under the cover of darkness. I understand it's hard for the western mindset to make heads and tails of much of this, but Satan is neither as dumb nor as inactive as we think he is - he will use complete poppycock in ways that give the western mind an aneurism and it doesn't matter; because spiritual warfare hinges on bad faith and buy-in. If a person has no belief, security or assurance in the completed work of Jesus, and if, through cultural upbringing has been conditioned to buy into juju and charms and amulets - then satan doesn't have to work that hard to have his wicked fun with people. Which again - not to be redundant - but, this is why a district like Mbarara really needs a woman of faith - ie, Desire - in their corner. She gave me strict instructions not to ingest anything unapproved by her, to lock myself in my room at night and was adamant that I not go anywhere unattended. Deal. Just because I we know we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ doesn't mean people cannot be dangerous tools. Read the gospels. 

ministering in villages is spiritual warfare 101

again, I understood

Our daily agenda, though intentionally for the good of the campaign, felt more to me like normal ministry. We visited schools and churches, tended to the needy, prayed for the sick, held hands with those in need of care, spoke in churches, listened to those who needed to talk, loved people well. Christ with clothes on. This is what God's people are meant to be and do. 

In a different headspace though, the more I asked about the conditions of the region - what Government money was available, how taxation works, why poverty seems to have a death grip on the region - my academic brain went reeling. The money is there. The natural resources are there. The potential is there. The pipeline to get the money to the resources and develop the potential IS THERE. What is NOT there - at the top of the pipeline, that is, is integrity. People of power and influence toss a few shillings and some tacky t-shirts along with audaciously empty promises at people who are conditioned to not question authority and those "constituents" become putty in the hands of some truly disreputable humans who rise through the ranks while their people tank, and no one in the village has the understanding or gall to say, "Unacceptable."

People gain power with the most unethical methods and then get re-elected because their voting block is easily manipulated out of ignorance and desperation - plain and simple. Desire is doing what she is doing - throwing her hat in the ring - first because God told her to, and second because she just can't - in good conscience - stand it anymore. Desire has walked with us in life and ministry enough to know that what we started with was untouched bush and God graciously is building around us - through education, health, agriculture, economics, churches, prayer and mercy - a slice of earth that is just a little more representative of what "on earth as it is in heaven," is supposed to look like. 

The least of these. The Beloved. Worthy of so much more.

As we walked through dilapidated produce markets, homes held up by the most precarious mud, assessing form and function of basic community needs, children with no shoes and too-thin arms - Desire would look at me with a mix of frustration and righteous indignation and say, "Why not here - why not here." A rhetorical question, because we both know the answer. The region has been waiting for persons of power to put down the banner of self-advancement and to prioritize God's children, for His Name's sake. As of yet, they have not.  

the bearings on this hand pump will die in months

the academic and job opportunities for this girl are dismal, at best

Reed frames plus mud filling is a precariously weak home 

 

yes the land is beautiful, but there is zero industry

when booze is more accessible than clean water, what then?

and when there are no jobs to be had, drinking to forget is an

understandable - albeit depressing - coping mechanism

I have a degree in comparative politics from Cornell University that I should probably feed through the shredder because I honestly didn't believe I'd ever meet a person fighting for a seat at the table for genuinely pure and selfless reasons. I spent the better part of four years in the early 2000s analyzing independence movements, populist uprisings and systems of government enough to know that big 'P' Politics is (globally) broken to bits. Uganda's political history is more than sordid: Independence in '62, abolition of any form of constitution, the rise of Idi Amin, child soldiers, political assassinations, an AIDS epidemic and a "democratic" (in MAJOR quotations) election of current president Museveni, paints a picture of an unholy mess that I personally wouldn't want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Which is exactly why Jeremy and I do grassroots, local, non-political, Christian ministry. It's our niche. But I'm also a Bible teacher, and I can't deny that God does raise up his people for 'such a time as this,' and that sometimes involves putting His faithful ones in the halls of power. I can't deny that what I saw in Mbarara feels to me in that soul-gut-spirit place like this is something God is truly orchestrating.

posters on poles - God works in all manner of ways

I'm a foreigner and a missionary, so the two phrases I committed to memory were "uli lota" (how are you?) and "mukama asimwe" (God be praised). Note that "Vote for Desire" never came out of my mouth, because my prayer will only ever be, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done," and if that means God paving the way (which I believe He is doing) to place this woman of God in parliament, the that Biblical prayer is perfect for what my dear sister needs.

 

faith in politics is tricky, but in these circumstances, it feels right

The theology at play here is spot on. Matthew 9:36 talks specifically about how Jesus was moved to compassion because He saw that people were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Desire's heart is primed to serve and shepherd. It's her whole passion, she talked about it constantly, to me, to random people, everyone. Her love is palpable, and her concern for the harassed and helpless is so deep she will not rest.

oh these precious lambs

On our final day, we listened to a woman preach passionately from John 20 about why only a few women showed up at the tomb. She made the case that the male disciples hadn't gone because they genuinely weren't anticipating the resurrection. 

I wrote in ALL CAPS in my notebook - do not miss the miracle because you are too unbelieving to show up to the resurrection.

A mentor of mine once said, "You will spend the rest of your life learning just how radiant the resurrection has made you."

I think that's a huge part of this Kairos moment in this isolated place of South West Uganda. There is a certain spiritual, economic, academic, medical deadness, and Desire is just bold enough to show up at the tomb, fully expecting a resurrection.

Precious kids not in school are in need of a resurrection

the man selling hunks of goat meat is in need of a resurrection

the women whose simple pleasure of getting their hair re-plaited 

are in need of a resurrection (and no, I did not let them give me a weave)

the people who are burned out by the uphill battle for significant change 

are in need of a resurrection

Even the truly faithful - the ones living out the actual meaning of Malachi 3:10, bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse - are in need of a resurrection. I mean, pause a minute and fully take in the above scene with me. God's people are doing their bestest to honor him with what they have. They're out there bringing their tithe to the house of the Lord: bananas, millet, sugar cane, tomatoes, green beans, okra - LIVE CHICKENS AND LIVE GOATS - it's a full "Eye Spy with my little eye the craziest tithe ever" game. Watching the deacons wrangle four live goats and try to stop the half dozen chickens from pecking at the tomatoes had me in stitches. Bless them. These people are ripe for an encounter with resurrected Christ. 

The truth is we all are. Every day. For this our souls were made. And the choice is ours, whether or not we are willing to show up to the miracle, or just carry on with life like we do so often. I am not a prophet, and cannot predict what will happen on election day. But the gift of Uganda for those ten days was reigniting my prophetic imagination as to what God is willing to do when we take Him at his word, and with reckless abandon, do the very thing that God mostly does: Love.