Rakai work

Was really embarrassed to go to Rakai; I only could do 210 K (about $120) in work there and that involved paying to get most- but not all- shower room doors fixed for the boys. Pretty minor stuff. Was glad to see how much progress others had done on drainage and water retention, however. They really need an agricultural effort at Sabine; that place could not only feed itself (including chicken), but grow enough to help feed Kiwanga. It just has to be managed, the kids need to be trained and motivated.


I was left feeling worthless enough that one morning I tackled the last standing water in the compound; a big pothole at the entry to the area. Had wanted to use a wheelbarrow, but both they had were broken. So I ended up digging dirt out of a pile for that excavate for the septic tank and carrying it in a bucket up 100 yards to the pothole. Vincent Mujune, National Team leader of an AIDS outreach program called Reach the Youth, ended up pitching in on this mindless activity; when asked why by Rhita (a phenomenal young lady I’ll discuss later), I told her: ‘When you have money, you use that: when you have words and wisdom, you use that: when all else fails, you use your muscle to try to make the world a little bit better every day.” I told her to pass that on to the kids she was teaching: hopefully, the life lesson will end up being worth far more than the filled pothole.

Toward the end of the effort, Vincent pointed out that rock would stabilize the patch and we could get the young kids (who were out of school while the older ones practiced for a performance contest) to find them. I transmitted the need and within minutes, we were have to stop kids from ripping bricks out of the edging around trees. If we hadn’t got it stopped, the mob of kids would have torn down the school for rock to throw in the hole. My back pretty well gave out, but the hole was 75% filled by the time we quit, got cleaned up and got ready to go out to see the AIDS awareness program out in the country.