Stubborn Days and Big Miracles - Part 1

Stubborn Days

On a recent journey home from a local hospital where we had spent the day waiting and experiencing third world medicine I still couldnt believe quite how different things are here and how much they continue to take me by surprise. During the drive home I began thinking how after nearly a year living here I still sometimes sit down at the end of the day shocked/upset/confused and often just simply baffled by just how very different two cultures can be from one another.

Let me give you just a few examples of some of the cultural differences that I have noticed in just the last two weeks that still take me aback;

- Last week on a boda drive home from a hospital we passed a mob of men holding tree branches and thrashing them to the ground. It was quite scary watching them chanting, shouting and bashing the leaves and branches on the floor and I couldn't quite see what it was they were looking at in the middle of their group, I was presuming it was a fight. When my boda trip had finished I felt relived to be out of the noise and uncertainty in the mood/purpose of the group. Feeling safe again I asked the driver what was happening. He explained that Male circumcision (carried out here when the boy turns into a teenager) is a huge part of culture and tradition in the area we were in. A teenage boy had run away because he didn't want to be circumcised. He was later on found and  held/tied down so the circumcision could be carried out. However, he had been found in the town centre so the group of men who had been searching for him began to circumcise him on the pavement in the middle of the street and that's when we drove past on the bikes. I honestly couldn't believe that it was just happening in the street in the middle of the town and spent a long time on the remainder of my journey home thinking about the trauma that boy will have gone through.

- In the past I have been walking through the taxi park holding one of our babies when somebody takes the baby from my arms. In my mind I panic and automatically think that they are taking the baby from me but culturally thay just want to help or to hold the baby. It's a very different concept to get used to coming from the West where we wouldn't let a stranger hold our child and are constantly teaching children about 'stranger danger'!

- Recently on a bus journey back to Jinja a man got on at one of the bus stops and then began selling medication throughout the journey. He stood in the aisle and told everyone about each drug he was selling 'i.e; "this antibiotic will help you if you get a bad flu or a dry cough". He then would wander up and down the bus as people brought a few tablets of whatever it was that he was selling. He did this with a number of antibiotics and some other items. Again I was shocked and frustrated at this culture in its mis-use of important drugs and the lack of education people have around the use of medication.

- This morning we found out about 3 children in the local village who had died last night in a house fire. The father had left the hut to go to the store leaving the children sleeping. On his return he found the hut on fire. The neighbours had heard the children's scream but initially thought they were just being disciplined so hadn't gone straight to the hut until it was too late. The children were buried the same day and there will be no investigations into the cause of the fire (which is thought to be from a candle falling over) and possibly no thoughts or actions as to how this could be prevented in other huts in the village in the future.

- Last week I rode into Jinja with one of the families here at GSF. In town they stopped at the skip to empty their trash. We sat in shock as 3 street boys rushed over jumped into the skip and literally started fist fighting each other over the items of rubbish in the carrier bag. 

- During a recent medical emergency at GSF we rushed an unconscious man to the local hospital. After running into the ward and placing him on the bed I stood back in horror as.....nothing happened. I asked for some assistance and was told that the doctor was coming. A nurse then came into the room to take the mans temperature but there appeared to be no sense of urgency to treat the man immediately. I suggested to the nurse that we lay him on his side as he was struggling to breathe. When the doctor did come in he said that there were too many people in the room taking the air which was why the man was struggling for oxygen. I walked away upset thinking how different this situation would be if the man had been rushed into an Emergency Department in England.

These are just a handful of examples as to why I still find it so difficult living in another culture. I find watching life go on here as an observer so hard, raw and sometimes so merciless. Obviously I have just mentioned a few 'hard to swallow' moments and of course there are many, many moments I see things here where I think, "Wow, this culture does it so right!" and I often think about what a better place England could be if we were more like those here in Uganda. The things I have just shared with you are just to show you that even after a year living here I still struggle and sit down at the end of a 'stubborn day' (as a difficult day would be called here) trying to work it all out. 


One of the lessons I guess that I have learnt after my time here is that no-matter how hard I try I just can't figure it all out. Life, death, pain, joy, hope, suffering, poverty......these are just a few of the things that I will never fully understand. I don't understand... 
Why life is just so hard here?
Why I am so rich but the ones I treat have so little? 
Why even though the beautiful people I have spent this year with experience much suffering and have so little they can be so joyful and so full of hope.? 
Why 3 small children should die in a terrible accident but others are given life? 


All I can do at the end of a 'stubborn' day here is to give my worries, fears, and lack of understanding to my God. He is Sovereign over all and despite my human failings and lack of faith on some days I know that He is in control. He is the one in who these people I have talked about also go to when they are having hard days. He is where they find their love, hope and strength for each day....and where I have to remember to go when I don't understand why. I have to remember that He is the One who who is holding me and is my strength through stubborn days despite my human weaknesses.

Psalm 73 v 23-26 

"Yet I am always with you;

you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel, 

and afterwards you will take me into glory. 

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever".