04.20.20 More Handwashing Stations

Thanks to our donors, sponsors and well-wishers, the people of Musima and the surrounding areas have received a total of 30 handwashing stations. Our team on ground spend the whole of Sunday distributing the last batch of handwashing equipment and sensitizing people about coronavirus. We are grateful to God for using various people to support our vision by improving the quality of life in Uganda. The people are happy to receive the gifts and they promised to take care of them properly.

Meanwhile, the ministry of health has today discharged 10 more patients who recovered from coronavirus bringing the total of those who have fully recovered to 38. Only 17 active cases are under treatment and observation by health officials and none of them is in a critical condition. This has raised hopes of Uganda attaining success in fully having control over the spread of coronavirus. However, neighboring countries Kenya and Tanzania are continuing to see daily increases in the number of confirmed cases, something that poses an ever-growing threat of new infections.

We are 6 days into the lockdown that ends on 5th May and our hopes of getting the country back to business depend on whether new cases will be detected or not. Even if none is detected, which will be a great miracle, the entire country won’t be opened at once and recovery from this situation will take a while. People are running short of finances and food, while others are living on a single meal a day if at all they can afford it.

I was touched and at the same time impressed with our friend and partner, Patrick, whose household currently has 30 people! With students back home, Patrick is faced with a big challenge of feeding a large family up to a tune of 15kg of maize flour in a day. He said he had bought 900kg of maize flour three weeks back and now he hopes that the lockdown won’t be extended after the 5th of May.

What is interesting however is the work ethic of this village’s largest family. I read a notice that was pinned on the wall of their house yesterday. It was from the Speaker of the family alerting everyone about a family meeting the other day. I got to learn about the family’s leadership model that is an exact replica of a government. There’s a chief whip, speaker, Ministers of education, finance, welfare, agriculture, brickery (brick laying is one of the family’s main source of income), health, entertainment and sports, and others.

Each of these leaders has the mandate to ensure that their department is working to the family’s expectations. These young men and women lead and inspire their brothers and sisters to accomplish huge goals in a number of days. There’s no idleness and the amount of activity and work done per day is amazing. Bricks are made out of mud and burnt in a kiln, a process that may take a week or two depending on how many they are. This business is greatly hindered by rainfall so it may come to a halt since it rains every day now. Cultivation of maize and beans is also going on and the harvest will be in about 4 months from now.

This is the only way such a family can thrive without a monthly salary. It is a good way of developing leaders for the future as it instills in them skills of team management and accountability.

In such a time, it is important to find what to do because the Bible tells us that Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece (Proverbs 16:27 Living Bible–TLB).
Let’s utilize this time to do something, whether it is to build relationships or working on our farms.