Update from Uganda – Rich Sambol

The pictures. Look at the pictures. The kids smiling, slapping hands. Constantly saying, “How are you?” Almost like an echo.

Spend five days with them. Hear them sing. See them dance.

The young ones are future students. The older ones are the students, the ones who will be role models for the youngest of the young.

These kids don’t have the swollen bellys you see on late-night television ads that ask for aid to a third-world African country.

These kids are happy. No, they don’t have much by Western standards. Actually, they don’t have much at all. No plumbing. No electricity.

John Paul School is far from the city.

The roads are unpaved and dusty. The land is flat. The dirt is red.

Shillings are scarce. So is water, for most a long walk away. But they have clean clothes.

They have pride. They sing of their country, Uganda. They sing of their school, John Paul.

They speak English. Their eyes are wide. They look into your soul. They wonder from where we have come. We wonder what their lives will be as adults.

They are eager. They are eager and they are hungry to learn.

First came the church. Then a call to America for a school. Paul and Nancy answered.

The partnership has made much progress.

While we were in Chelekura, ground was broken on a two-story building that soon will be a library and science center.

They have done so much. So much more needs to be done.

 

Rich Sambol