Hope

Yesterday I went to school. Today I went to prison. Who knows what tomorrow will bring!

We never really know what will come for us, but what I have come to see in Uganda, and in Kenya as well, is a hope that is really the source of energy for life here.
Life in prison here is about as hopeless as I can imagine. For starters, more than half (sometimes MUCH more) of the inmates are here on remand, awaiting a trial or even a chance to appear before a judge. Only a small portion of the prison populations actually been convicted. The wait can be very long – months, or even years. The conditions are basic, with very limited food, close accommodations, and not much chance for activity. Yet the men we visited today, like the women last week, were as joy-filled and hopeful as can be as we celebrated Mass together. There is a faith in God’s help that guides them toward better things and keeps their hope in a better future alive.

The hope for good and successful futures is also very strong among our students. We visited several schools yesterday and met aspiring doctors, lawyers, nurses, and even a pilot! The opportunity to study, through the kindness of St. Kizito Foundation benefactors, has given hundreds of young Ugandans a reason to hope and plan for a future.

In Kenya, I visited the second largest slum in Africa, Kibera Village, with Mama Margaret, an amazing women who operates Tenderfeet School. This new primary school, supported also by kind benefactors, provides some of the children of Kibera slum with a wonderful school to attend. Not only are they receiving good education, but they are bussed from their homes in Kibera to the school, where they are provided breakfast and lunch along with a very pleasant location including a playground, a very good water well, and crops grown to provide the meals. This is hope fulfilled!

I also have had the blessing of spending two days and one night visiting Kyasira Home of Hope, an orphanage on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda. This home, run by the Good Samaritan Sisters, houses and cares for about 50 children, orphans with little hope for even a good meal before being taken in by the Sisters. At Home of Hope, we toured the crop fields, where we saw rows and rows of dying pineapple plants and many diseased cassava plants. Lack of rain and good agricultural products have made it very difficult to provide food for the children.

In fact, in Uganda, the cost of grains, staples, and fish are climbing at an inflation ratepof 23.6% according to the news. Funds are short and food is hard to find. Schools are raising their fees to help cover the cost of food, and some are even closing early.

So it is not easy to hope. But hope prevails.

At Home of Hope, the children, even those who are very small, gather in the chapel in the evening to pray. They drop to their knees to pray the rosary, fighting for the chance to lead a decade. And even the smallest of voices is strong and sure. There is certainly hope alive here.

The children need so much. But it seems to be the mere presence of visitors that is to them the greatest gift. (Of course, the M&M’s don’t hurt!)

Then there is Ronald. Last year he was a vibrant young man of 15. Now, one year later, he is paralyzed from some unknown disease and remains in his dark room alone much of the time. Asked what he wanted, he said a wheelchair and the chance to learn a craft so he can support himself.

Hope does spring eternal for him – a wheelchair has been delivered, along with some drawing and art supplies, for a start. He now has reason to hope that a better life will come.

Hope here is not hope for a life on Easy Street. It is a realistic hope for a way forward, with enough to survive and live a good life. What is needed to hold on to that hope, can be found in the example of the story of Abraham and his barren wife, Sarah. That which seems so very impossible – for them the birth of a child – can be realized if we keep our faith and trust in God. But hope also demands that we do whatever we can to help ourselves and others.

If the childless Abraham and Sarah could have many, many descendants, imagine what is possible here in east central Africa!