Courage

Today I went to Kiyembe in downtown Kampala to look for some fabric, zips, lining and other bits for my project and had an enlightening time.

Kiyembe is the area to go to for any kind of quality textiles or sewing paraphernalia at cheap prices. It’s also extremely busy and can be tiring, especially in the 30 degree weather we’ve been having. After half an hour of wandering round and being told to sit on wooden stools while people brought me items such as foam padding and cotton wool in the hope that it might be ‘felt’ I gave up and bought this lovely traditional Ugandan cloth. I want to line my Kindle cases with felt but it looks as though no one has it or knows what it is here, or perhaps it just has a different name.

On my way down to Kiyembe I had passed an older looking woman sitting on the roadside begging for money. She had mutated fingers and toes. Some of you will know that I’ve started to think about how I could empower adults with physical disabilities and I knew that I wanted to talk to this lady when I saw her. I chickened out of talking to her on the way down the hill but on the way back up clutching my new fabric I asked God for courage and for Him to remind me of useful Luganda phrases so that I might be able to find a little bit out about the woman.

It transpired that she was from the north of Uganda – an Acholi woman who spoke Luo. There are estimated to be around 40 languages spoken in Uganda so it shouldn’t have been a total surprise to me. Luganda is spoken only in Kampala and surrounds and is the most useful language for me living here. The lady knew a little Luganda and we managed to have a stilted conversation about where she lives and I discovered that she is a grandmother but I couldn’t get much further.

En-couraged by this small but largely unsuccessful encounter I turned the corner and decided to speak to a young girl sitting on the pavement with a money plate in front of her. This girl, Sarah, also spoke Luo but unlike the last lady she didn’t know any English or Luganda. She was from Lira. Sarah had a problem with her legs and used crutches. She couldn't understand anything I was saying to her so she beckoned for a lady to come over and translate. Left is a picture of my wonderful translator Pasiss (sp?) for the next 10 minutes, who, it turned out loves Jesus passionately and was so excited to help me.

It emerged that Sarah was actually 7 months pregnant and had been stuck in Kampala after her belongings had been stolen – all she wanted was money to get back to Lira and her family.

People’s situations are never simple here, and while I may want to help them, my kind of help is not always what they are looking for, and it’s good to recognise that. But having tested the waters today I feel that I have got over a fear of approaching people and am hoping to go out next week with a translator to find more people and see if they would be able and interested in learning to sew.