When we turn on a tap in our
homes we take it for granted that water will come out and that when we want a
shower or bath we will have plenty of hot water. This is not the case in many parts of the
world including rural Uganda. In our
hotel we were blessed to have running cold water (as we did when we lived in
Guyana) but on the morning of our anniversary we woke up to no water at all and
had to have a wash with face wipes!
Very few homes there have
running water to the house. Some people collect
water in containers when it rains. Some go
to bore holes in the villages and in the early morning and evening we saw
trails of children walking to the bore holes carrying yellow water containers
to collect water for their families before or after school or struggling to
push bikes laden with several water containers.
Some, if they have no bore hole, have to find wells or rivers.
The day we arrived in
Wobulenzi the heavens opened and it rained heavily and solidly for several
hours. Lazarus said it was a sign of
God’s blessing as it had been dry for a long time prior to that. It also rained the day we visited the village
of Sempa and the people there were also very grateful. We complain about rain here in the UK but out
in Uganda water means life. Without the
rains the crops fail and the people go hungry.
Also, the water sources become dry and empty and the lack of water can
cause illness and disease to spread. We
had an amazing answer to prayer when we visited Masaka. They asked us to pray for their land as they
had had no rain for over three months and with the relentless hot sunshine the
crops were not growing and people’s water supplies were running low. We all prayed over the land and asked God to
bless it and their crops and to send rain.
We heard the next day that the rain had started the very next morning at
5am and had rained non stop until the evening!
We were so thankful and amazed and everyone joyfully gave thanks to God
for his goodness.
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| Torrential rain on our arrival. |
In the village of Sempa we
discovered that there is no running water and not even a bore hole for water
and Lazarus told us that the people have to climb up a hill to a well to
collect water. We asked if we could walk
with him to the well so that we could get an idea of how far it was. We climbed the hill in hot sunshine and from
my phone counting steps found that it was a 1 ½ km climb to the well. When we saw the well we couldn’t believe that
it was the only source of water for 6000 people – it was a small hole with
water coming from underground and it was quite shallow and muddy so very
difficult to get any clean water from it.
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| Beginning the climb up to the water hole. |
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| Passing los of banana trees! |
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| We met a young girl coming down the hill carrying a small amount of water. |
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| The village was like going back in time. |
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| Climbing onwards and upwards. |
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| A coffee tree! |
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| Shockingly THIS is the water source for a village of 6000 people. |
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| Walking back down the hill to the village - about a mile away - it was a long slog for us and we weren't carrying heavy water containers. |
It is unbelievable that in
this century there are still so many people in the world without access to
clean water and we pondered this as we clambered back down the hill, imagining
what it would be like walking down carrying water containers we were reminded
once again about how easy we have life in the UK.
Lazarus wants to build a bore hole for the
village to get clean water from deep underground and we learned it will cost
about £5000 to do that and we have a written quote for it. I am sure that with help we can
assist with that over the coming year. The
Methodist charity ‘All We Can’ have as their harvest appeal the theme of
‘Making a splash’ and are seeking to raise money for bore holes in Uganda so if
this challenges you please contact them and make a donation or order some
Harvest resources for your church or school. http://www.allwecan.org.uk/service-materials/harvest
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