challenges of third world development

so sorry its been so long since ive written. school has been crazy...this study abroad thing actually involves studying! one of my classes was canceled today so i have a precious amount of free time because i dont have anything due tomorrow. anyway...as i considered what to write i thought it would be appropriate to expand on some of things we all know to be true of africa. afican nations are largely considered part of the third world and a few of them qualify as developing nations. thus they bare the marks of poverty...disease; starvation; war; political instability; low education/literacy rates; lack of medical facilities, personnel and resources...and the list goes on. of course we all know the pictures on tv of the starving children dressed in dirty rags or wearing nothing at all. but being here in africa i have witnessed the reality of how difficult it is to correct these problems.

Ill start with jinja. a few weeks ago the imme group (the 12 of us in the intercultural ministry and missions emphasis) took a weekend trip to jinja. we met with a number of missionaries from the jinja area who work with the Basoga people (jinja is in the busoga district) and also to get a break from the strains of school and cultural transition. i dont really have a word to describe the weekend...i can explain it by saying that we were ripped from one reality to another very quickly. it would take up a lot of space to describe the whole weekend so ill keep it brief...on saturday we ate lunch at a cafe that catered to mzungu's....we were so exited to get american food! then immediately after lunch the missionaries took us to the hospital. this was the best medical facility in the busoga district...the best facility for about 2,000,000 people. i walked into ward four...the TB ward. at first i was frozen in the doorway. i saw a concrete room with metal beds and foam mattresses. thin lifelss bodies laid on the beds. it smelled of sickness. after i got over the initial shock i walked in a knelt down near a middle aged man named patrick. he said he had been there for weeks and recieved little attention. the hospital had run out of water the day before. i held his hand and looked into his watery eyes. i thought of all the things id heard about tb back home...how its such a terrible disease and highly contagious (highly contagious for those with a weak immune system). everything in me said that i should be afraid. that i shouldnt get too close. that i shouldnt touch him. that i shouldnt spend too much time in that room. and that broke my heart. these were the untouchables. their dignity had been stripped away because they had been labeled as such. but i knew that Jesus wouldnt be afraid of these people. he wasnt afraid to touch lepers. so i stayed...kneeling by his bed, my hand on his. contrary to what i had been taught, i wasnt the least bit afraid. in fact i wished that i could stay there all day. i cant descirbe what i felt while i was there. but i will say this: i saw only two nurses while i was there. often resources are scarce so only the sickest get treatment. there are not enought doctors to care for all the patients so the patients families have to stay at the hospital to care for them....the families sat outside, covering the lawn. ill leave out the rest of the trip for now so i can stick with the topic...

today my politics professor was explaining to us why the government here remains so corrupt. he said that even though the presidents have been terrible, the people are afraid to speak out. he said that nationalists are often thrown in prison and can stay there for two years, during which time they are tortured, until they get a trial. and that is if you actually make it to the trial date...many nationalist prisoners just 'disappear'. mesharch is a nationalist himself. but he says that he is afraid to speak out because if he is taken to prison there will be no one to support his family. "i am not ready to sacrifice myself. i fear for my family. perhaps when i am older [i will speak out against the government]...but there are things i want to do first [before i am imprisoned]".

today we also had a british missionary couple come speak to our class and discussed with us some of the difficulties of missionary work in uganda. ill just list some of the notes i took:
*the task of teaching and preaching is in the hands of the lay people. Pastors might have a certificate in theology, very few have a diploma and fewer still have a degree
*Translation into local languages might involve 2 people...a missionary and a local...translating from english, whereas english translations involved large numbers of scholars translating from the original greek and hebrew. Also, local languages are often limited in vocabulary (because they are generally oral languages and are not made into written languages until missionaries create a written form) making it difficult to translate the true message of scripture. Other complications arise when the language is tonal and no differences are evident in the written form. for example arre can mean either hand or head depending on the tone with which it is spoken. but in reading the written word no tone is indicated....so Christ could either be the head...or the hand...of the body.
*African culture is inherently spiritual...things do not just happen in africa...the are caused. but this creates problems in regard to personal responsibility. if everything is caused by external forces then people are unmotivated to be proactive. with malaria for example, people are not eager to use mosquito nets because if a person is destined to die of malaria they will die; if a person gets malaria they get it for a reason and a mosquito net will not prevent it. malaria is attributed as much to the direct work of satan as it is to mosquitoes.
*there is a shortage of doctors in africa. those being trained want to work in areas where they can be paid (large cities or outside of africa). rural areas cannot afford doctors so they go without. it is difficult to recruit local doctors because they want to capitalize on their education and are not willing to work in poor areas for little pay (30,000 shillings a month...about 19 us dollars). expatriate doctors can provide a quick fix but are not a sustainable solution.
*african churches, agencies and organizations are in desperate need of funds. but where will those funds come from? and how does one determine how to allocate them? western money is only a temporary solution...the ungandan church must be able to sustain their own ministry. but when you only make 30,000 shillings a month it is difficult to tithe 3,000 of that. and when you have limited funds you must choose between educating your pastors or investing in medical care.

as i listened to the missionaries and thought about what i had witnessed in jija i was overwhelmed at the complexity of the need in africa. these issues are the ones that mission agencies and development organizations are faced with...they are huge problems to which there is no easy solution. hearing about these struggles while i am in africa was a big reality check about the challenges of development work. maybe if you arent planning to be a development worker then these things dont phase you, but for me it was like a slap in the face. ok...this is super long so ill write more later...hopefully soon :)