Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Compassion

Uganda Update #10: The Boy

The boy lies the way I love to - curled up on his side, head in the sunlight. But rather than a bed or a couch or even a carpeted floor (sometimes I love the floor), he is sleeping in the dirt. I turn the corner and he is there, mid-footpath between the low parking lot wall and busy city street. I will walk past him in less than ten steps. I slow down as I approach, checking for signs of breath or movement. What if he is dead? What do I do? Who would I call? Would anyone care? It is unclear to me if he is, in fact, alive, but I reassure myself that he must be and keep walking. This is the first time I have ventured out alone in Kampala – if you can call walking from one mall to another “venturing.”  City planning is not a Ugandan forte; the capitol has two malls, approximately 250 metres apart. Walk out of the Garden City parking lot, turn left, and there are three driveways before you reach the Oasis Mall entrance.  I step onto the patio at Cafe Javas. Do I seat mys...

Uganda Update #9: White Keds, Matoke and a Little Compassion

"Have you tried matoke?" he asks me. Uncle James  is hardly older than I am, but he was introduced as Uncle James, the donor relations manager for this Compassion project , so Uncle James he is.  "I had it yesterday! It is very good. I've never heard of matoke before; we don't have it in Canada." Matoke is Uganda's staple food. Plantain-like, it is cooked as a mash and served with sim-sim, a groundnut sauce. I have no idea what groundnuts are, but I enjoyed their purple hue on the pale yellow matoke. "What is your staple food in Canada?" he asks. Staple food in Canada? We have none - my staple food is whatever I decide I want it to be . I rarely eat the same meal two days in a row, let alone every day of my life. "I'm not sure... Maybe potatoes or rice?" Juliet sits quietly beside me, eating her tea-break bread. A wave of irrelevancy hits hard . I am embarrassed at the thought of my local Loblaws, the abundance and exce...