Some Thoughts that are going around Bethan's brain!

Have you ever read the Beatitudes (Mt 5 or Lk 6) and thought “Oh dear, I am in the wrong category”?  I have been reading the book of Luke recently where chapter 6 verses 20 – 35 have been really challenging me.   “Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God”.  Well I’m not physically poor, especially not in comparison to my Ugandan friends.  You could interpret the meaning to be “blessed are you who are [spiritually] poor” and then we Westerners might have a leg to stand on!  The next verse is this: “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”  But I’m not hungry and I’m not sad so where does that leave me when it comes to the blessings and Kingdom of God?  In our weekly Bible study that we have with other Westerners at our home, we have been studying the book of James.  What I read there challenged me even further with recommendations that in order to follow Christ we need to “consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (1:2) or that we should be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger” (1:19).  Or even that “faith without deeds is dead” in 2:26!  So when I reached 4:9 “Grieve, mourn and wail.  Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom” I thought why on earth would I want to do that, and why is James telling me to do so?  The next verse, 4:10 says “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.”  That is exactly the type of topsy-turvy Gospel that the Beatitudes teaches so I went back to the passage I had been reading in Luke and decided that I am not a lost cause just because I am not sad or hungry.  Instead, if I put together James’ advice to “grieve, mourn and wail” and Jesus’ instruction that “blessed are you who weep” I may be on to something.  If I am perfectly happy and content but there are others in the world who are weeping and hungry, I should be coming alongside them in their sadness and hunger.  I should be putting myself in their position to empathise and help them.  If someone is hungry but I am not, I should be helping to feed them.  If someone is crying and I am perfectly happy I should be weeping with them in their sorrow.  If someone is humble and I am proud I should be humbling myself even lower than them to serve them.  By living in this way – a way the world tells us is a bit crazy! – God will lift me up and those blessings from the Beatitudes are suddenly a lot more attainable and make a lot more sense.

So why am I writing this blog post?  Well it’s mostly for my own benefit of working things out for myself by physically writing them!  But also, here in Uganda we come across a variety of needs and requests and if we look carefully in the Bible there is advice for everything, even though often it seems to be different to how we, as humans, want to deal with things.  For example when someone asks to borrow money Jesus tells us in Luke 6:35 to “lend to them without expecting to get anything back”.  That is not what we learn in our culture where we expect every penny within a certain time-frame, perhaps with interest.  When we put this piece of Jesus’ teaching together with the African culture where if you have more resources than someone else you are expected to share them without expecting anything back and without asking questions then we really have to go against our cultural grain!  So I’m sharing my small insight into these Biblical teachings because they challenge our decision making wherever we live and whatever or whoever we come across in life, but they also give clear instructions on how to live, which makes life easier really, rather than having to figure things out for ourselves!

Noeline's Creations - By Bethan

I first met 19 year old Noeline two years ago on the road as I was carrying Sam on my back.  She and her two school friends stopped and wanted to greet Sam, who willingly obliged by waving and giving high fives.  From that day on I have bumped into Noeline in town every couple of months or so and have kept a very loose friendship with her.  I found out that she had to leave school before completing her final year because of lack of school fees and a not altogether supportive home-life (she lived with her sister and her sister's husband as her mum stays in a village with Noeline's Uncle a few hours' drive away).  I also found out that she loves designing clothes and would love to be a tailor.  "Where do you live?" I asked.  "Acholi Quarter" she replied.  "Well it just so happens that there is one more tailoring course being offered for free there" I said and she applied.  I didn't see her for a while and then I heard some sad news: Noeline was pregnant.  She dropped out of the tailoring course because she was so ashamed.  I managed to find her in town and counsel her so that she re-joined the course and tried to catch up.  I also found out that she was living on her own in a rented room but she had no source of income and was behind in the rent.  No one was helping her beyond giving her the odd hundred shillings (2p - enough to buy a banana) here and there and she was really depressed.  I talked with Gareth and decided that this was one of those moments in life where we had to step up and go beyond what we would ordinarily do.  We knew that Noeline had potential in life and had felt a need to keep track of her since we met that random day two years ago.  We asked Noeline if she would like to come and live with us (we have a room adjacent to the house) and we would help her out with food if she wasn't eating and also pay for her medical fees for giving birth (normal birth costs up to £50 and C-sections can cost up to £100).  She is due to give birth around the same time as my sister-in-law so it's as though I am keeping up with new niece/nephew by following Noeline's progress!
So, as time has gone on, Noeline has become part of our family.  Sammy loves to go and knock for her and tell her all his tales (he can go on for hours about what stones should be used for or how a car should have a spare wheel!) and Jonah loves to have cuddles with her.  I have enjoyed sharing sewing expertise with her (I share my creative ideas then she teaches me technique to do them properly!) and together we have come up with a lot of new sewing ideas for her to sell both in town and back in the UK.  This is what this blog is for.  Her latest creations are children's sleeping bags for spring/summer and autumn, made from African material with a long zip up the front.  The bags are long and can be used up to age 3 if required!  The summer ones are a single piece of cotton and the autumn and spring ones are lined for extra warmth.  A summer bag is £6.50 and the autumn/spring bags are £9.00.  Jonah is modelling his for you in the following picture as an example.  You can choose a rough colour scheme and Noeline will try to match your choice with the vast array of colourful materials available here in Uganda.

 

Noeline also makes a variety of purses (£4.50) and is expanding to handbags (price depends on style) very soon.  Her purses have a zipped compartment for coins, pockets for notes and space for 9 credit cards and fold together with Velcro.  Choose your colour scheme and Noeline will try to match it.

Please email me or reply to this blog if you would like to buy something from Noeline.  We are coming back to the UK for a holiday on December 6th so I can bring things back and they can be posted in time for Christmas!



Rwanda with Music as Therapy - By Bethan

Last month I received an invitation to go to Kamembe in south-west Rwanda to offer advice to Music as Therapy International (a UK-based charity) who are considering starting a project very similar to the CBO I run in Gulu; Music for Peaceful Minds (see MPM blog musicforpeacefulminds.blogspot.com).  Gareth and I decided that we would drive down there en famille and stop on the way at a lake we have been longing to visit.  Lake Bunyoni is a tranquil, restful place where the water is clean enough for swimming and there are no crocs or hippos.  People move around on dug-out canoes and go from island to island going about their business of fishing or tourism or just going to school.  One of the islands used to be a leper colony and is now the lake’s primary and secondary school and one of the islands (only a few metres squared) used to be called ‘Punishment island’ where pregnant unmarried girls were sent with no way of getting food or shelter.  If they were ‘lucky’ they would be rescued by a man who didn’t have enough money to buy a wife in the usual way.

So we spent two days floating about on canoes and enjoying wearing trousers and jumpers because the weather was so beautifully cool.  Then we picked up my MPM art counsellor, Vince, from the border town of Kabale and carried on to Rwanda.  As we crossed the border it was as if order suddenly came out of nowhere.  The hills were sectioned with terracing and each crop had its own boundaried area in which to grow.  The roads were being built with hundreds of diggers that Sam was thrilled to watch and the roads became so windy that we began to get dizzy as we drove!  We drove through the capital, Kigali, and continued for what we thought would be a few hours to Kamembe.  Several hours later, just as it was getting dark and we had spent an interminable amount of time driving through the biggest forest we have ever seen, we arrived in Kamembe.  But the next day we saw beautiful Lake Kivu and ate dinner watching the sun setting over Congo and felt relaxed again.

I met with Nicky, Caroline and Jane from Music as Therapy International and the following day we presented a variety of themes at a family day for a special needs centre.  Some of the themes that we taught included how to interact and communicate with their disabled children, how to do certain music therapy techniques at home and at the school and to encourage the parents to continue to support their disabled children.  It was also hoped that these parents would inform other parents of disabled children of their rights and responsibilities and advocate for their children.

It was a fascinating two days in the Rwandan special needs schools where things seem to be more organised than in Uganda yet the following still happens: if you beat a cow drum children will start dancing!  We enjoyed learning the Rwandan tribal dance and playing games with the children and staff.  I was even able to use my Swahili with the staff because they are so close to the Congo border that many of them can speak it.

We dreaded the two-day mammoth car journey back home but it went much quicker this time, since we knew where we were going and knew the roads a little better.  We got caught up in a political rally on the way home and the motorbike drivers were doing acrobatics on their bikes. I held my breath wondering when the next pot-hole or hair-pin bend would make them fall to their deaths.  After an over-night stay in Kabale where we made the most of our last night of blankets we travelled back home to Kasese where everything was as it had been and life picked up from where it had left off a week ago!

Church Team visit from ST Andrew's Street Baptist Chrch, Cambridge

Last month we had a 2 week visit from a team of 5 from our home church in Cambridge.  The team was lead by Chris Shore, one of our Deacons who spent his early childhood in Uganda while his parents were missionaries, but had never returned since then!  We all had a good time together and they did some really useful work.  This article from the BMS website tells their story:

http://www.bmsworldmission.org/news-blogs/archive/cambridge-church-helps-ugandan-caf%C3%A9-get-online

Flood Recovery in Congo Quarter, more ebbs & flows:

If you’ve ever made a sandcastle on the beach and then tried to fill its moat you’ll know that sand does not retain water.  Indeed on a hot day the surface sand on a beach can drain and dry out between each tide.  For beach picnics and sunbathing this is great, but when the expanse of sand in question is covering farm plots 1,000 miles inland in western Uganda, it poses a problem.

If you read my “D-Day” blog article (6/6/13), you’ll know that I’m referring to the massive floods which devastated parts of Kasese in early May and the ensuing dilemmas about how best to help the community of Congo Quarter where the Nyamwamba river destroyed last season’s crops, turned about 1/3 of their farmland into re-routed river, and covered most of the rest of their land in sand, 1m deep in places.  Traditional African rain-fed agriculture is doomed to fail in sandy soil which drains faster than it rains.

After two months of research, consulting experts, thinking, praying, a bit of practical experimentation and another written proposal, I’m glad to be able to tell you that we’ve started a project that will help the 340 residents of Congo Quarter to re-plant their land this season and to get the best out of their sandy soil.  Part of this is about applying some of the improved farming methods with which BMS colleague Alex Vickers has achieved great success with farmers in Gulu, northern Uganda (see http://www.bmsworldmission.org/news-blogs/archive/dignity-dreams-and-development-uganda-food-project-success); notably crop selection, targeted digging, crop spacing, using natural fertilisers, and mulching.  However, the crux of this project is about turning a problem into an asset.  In this case the river Nyamwamba.  Although the river is responsible for so much agricultural destruction, it can also become a source of salvation by providing enough water to irrigate the sandy soil between rains .  Using rivers to irrigate crops is not new.  The success of the ancient Egyptians is probably attributable to their success in harnessing the waters of the Nile, but irrigation is not widespread in Uganda.  Moreover the geography of Congo Quarter makes it difficult to employ fixed irrigation:  farm plots are higher than the river, there are uneven slopes, any ditches would have to be lined to retain water, and the inherent instability of the braided weave river means that it could re-route itself again next season so any irrigation ditches or fixed pumps could be either completely flooded or left dry.  The solution had to be a pump which can lift water 2m from river to bank, push it 100m along a hose to peoples’ plots, be easily set up anywhere along the river bank and not require expensive fuel or non-existent electricity or working-animals to operate. 

Following helpful discussions on Skype with Richard Cansdale, a retired British water engineer who worked extensively with “Rower” pumps in Nigeria and Bangladesh in the 1970s and 80s, we then discovered a newer version of much the same design right here in East Africa; Kickstart’s “Moneymaker Hip Pump”, manufactured and used widely in Kenya and Tanzania and also sold in Uganda and Rwanda.  When combined with an exact list of 42 households in Congo Quarter and the size of plot available for them to farm, compiled by local leaders, this was enough to submit a project proposal to BMS.  I’d like to offer a big thank you to all of you who contributed to the BMS Disaster Relief Fund following our earlier posts about the Kasese Floods.  They come up trumps with a quick grant of £1,250 with which to deliver this project during this planting season, which has just started.  Then all I had to do was make 3 different measuring ropes for accurate crop spacing, purchase a large quantity of seeds of different types and weigh and subdivide them into ¼ acre bags, produce a training sheet and translate it into Swahili (a first for me) and get hold of, and test, the 6 pumps and hoses.  With assistance from the ever helpful Isaiah, we got these jobs done and went to Congo Quarter last Thursday to deliver the pumps and the training.

We delivered the training on the banks of the river with as much practical demonstration as possible.  Holes were dug to reveal the good soil beneath the sand in which to add manure and plant seeds, measuring ropes were used to space hole intervals, and grasses were used to demonstrate mulching.  We rigged up 2 hip pumps by the river, one with longer (100m) and one with shorter (50m) hoses so everyone could try using them.  Pr Alex translated for me and the elected Local Chairmen (LC1 & LC2) were very helpful in the practical demonstrations and dealing with questions and queries, so it was all going well with people amazed at the water pressure generated by simple hand pumps and their potential for irrigating their land.  Pr Alfonse was also with us and as we started to discuss moving from the training to the seed distribution a heated argument arose, mostly in Lukhongo, which I don’t understand.  I must confess that my immediate reaction was to wonder why Alfonse seemed to be provoking trouble during an amicable and successful day.  However, I’ve known Alfonse long enough to know that he’s rarely wrong, has an aptitude for sniffing out discrepancies of which I’m often blissfully unaware, and has the real Christian gift of advocating for the voiceless.  We agreed to postpone the seed distribution until the following week.

There seemed to be two threads to the argument:  One was over the fact that some people had already cleared their land ready for planting, as they had been requested to do by the LC1, while others hadn’t, probably waiting to see with their own eyes the project they’d heard about before committing their labour.  This was easily resolved.  Having seen the pumps in action they know for sure that we are “serious” – a big deal here in Uganda.  They then had a few days to get to work on their land.  The other issue is harder.  The list of names and dimensions of plots we were given was signed and stamped by the LC1, LC2 and LC3, who in Uganda’s highly decentralised system of government, are the locally-elected officials for Congo Quarter at sub-parish, parish and sub-county level.  It is difficult to get a document more official than that, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee its integrity.  One of the local landowners was “proving stubborn” about sharing some of his land with those who had lost their entire plots to the new riverbed as had been previously agreed, and another was alleging that the LC1 and LC2 had put “their people” on the list at the expense of other residents.  Land ownership is complex in Africa, highly politicised, and best not interfered with by white people who have a shameful track record regarding African land.  I had to trust that Pastor Alex and Isaiah could mediate between the local officials and their community members and to pray that God would ensure that a new list could be produced which was honest, accurate and endorsed by everyone involved. 

Thankfully I got the call last night that these issues had been resolved and so we headed back into Congo Quarter today with a big box of seeds for tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and okra, specially selected as locally popular and suitable for sandy soil.  It was wonderful to see a hive of activity with plots that had been cleared in the last few days and other people working hard at digging theirs.  It turned out that there was nothing quite as sinister as had been insinuated last week.  There was some confusion over plots that had been listed under the name of one spouse rather than the other, or accidentally under both names, and also over some plots that were held by people who reside outside Congo Quarter, but have always farmed there.  Suffice to say that it all got cleared up to everyone’s satisfaction and we distributed seeds to 28 households today with the promise to return for another 10 once they’ve prepared their land.

Prayer Requests:

1.      Give thanks for the BMS Disaster Relief Fund and all who contributed to it so that a swift grant was available to help the people in Congo Quarter who have suffered so much.

2.      Give thanks for the clever and affordable practical technologies such as “Kickstart’s” pumps and the chain of websites, conversations, and emails which lead me to them.

3.      Pray for wisdom, commitment and integrity for the local leaders and pastors who have the day-to-day responsibility for making this project work by ensuring equitable access to the pumps, encouraging farmers to use the methods we’ve suggested, and helping the elderly or sick to get their plots cleared and planted in time.

4.      Pray that this project will enable the people of Congo Quarter to regain their farming livelihoods and provide for their families, and that in doing so they fulfil Isaiah 12.3-4 (NIV):

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 
In that day you will say “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done and proclaim that his name is exalted."