Life has felt kind of rough the last few days. Christi has hardly slept the past week, and we’re not sure why. Maybe its because its been hot, and the power has been in and out and when its out, fans go off and the heat is worse. Or the noise - we have a rooster in the yard, that seems to have day / night confusion and crows through the night a few nights a week (so now I know firsthand that its a fallacy that roosters only crow at the crack of dawn).
Food has also been kind of tough. The power goes out and everything in the fridge goes bad, so we pretty much have to shop for the day each day. And late last week, the tank with the gas for the stove and oven ran out. There have been some riots in town which have slowed down deliveries of all sorts of supplies, and the gas for these canisters was one of them. So, we either went out to eat, ate PB&J, or grilled out on a small charcoal grill.
One other challenge is transportation. We’re very fortunate that Roxanne has a car- which is a great, mid 1990s Land Rover, literally made for the pothole-ridden Ugandan roads. We were just talking about how much more convenient it would be to have access to another car so Christi and I could have some more flexibility, when Roxanne pulled out of the driveway and one of the rods that connect the wheel to the axle broke, yielding the car un-drivable.
So, its been a rough few days.... Or, has it?
As I was washing our lunch dishes in cold water (no dishwasher, of course - although after three weeks of being here I just found out there is a hot water button on the wall!!), I was thinking through all these things. Then, it struck me how ridiculous my perspective about these “unfortunate circumstances” was.
The fact is, the vast majority of people in this country don’t have power (or fans or refrigerators or stoves). Or a private room in a house. Or even a nice comfortable bed. Or running water. Indoor plumbing. A car. Access to clean drinking water. The list goes on and on and on.
I’ve always wondered how true the statistic is that half of the world's population lives on less than $2 a day. It just didn’t seem realistic to me. But now it does. Right now, there are three ladies outside our door (with their three babies) who are thrilled to have the opportunity that Roxanne’s ministry has given them to earn 3,000 ugandan shillings per day (about $1.25). This is a great alternative for them to their previous existence walking around all day in the hot sun (with children clothed to their back) carrying shelves on their heads and, in the best case, selling 2-3 per day (for a profit of about 40c per shelf). The statistics are real. And the realities are shocking.
So, the next time one of my conveniences (here in Uganda or especially back in the states) malfunctions, I can only hope and pray to not lose sight of the valuable perspective our visit has provided.
