We have two families in our Masaka Branch. One family, Santos and Christine have three children. Two are in Primary with me. The smallest is walking but since we don’t have a nursery yet, he stays with his parents during the Sunday meetings. Brother Santos is the Executive Secretary for the Branch.
I think he is about 30, his wife maybe 25, both are small people. Santos is educated, can read and write and speaks Swahili and Luganda and English (out of necessity). He is a proud man, faithful, and takes his calling very seriously, but he is used to the Pentecostal preaching, so he tends to do the same when he teaches. (Something Elder Crayk is working on, and on, and on!) Christine is quite shy, and stays only for Sacrament then takes the baby home. His 6 yr. old daughter Kweera caught my eye the first day I saw her, she is darling, quiet, and eager to learn. Her 4 yr. old brother Buk (Book) is the most mischievous one I have in the class. He is darling, but I can’t keep him out of the bathroom (flush toilet, etc.) When the family arrives, they are all dressed very nicely. Santos always has on a three piece suit. I have just always assumed that they have more than most others at church.
Last night after scripture study, we asked Santos if we could take him home. (No one owns a car; they walk, or use the boda boda’s (sm. motorcycles) they hire like taxis. He accepted (gladly) and began to show us the way. After we drove a few miles, we turned off and wound our way, back into this little village area to his house. It is pitch black. The entire area has no electricity, no running water. And everyone is outside and on the streets because it’s brighter there than inside anyone’s house. The houses are attached cement storage units, each 10’ X 10’ room. Most don’t have doors, just a cloth covering the opening. No windows, it is seriously a small storage unit, but they are not built as storage units, they are built as houses. No bathrooms, they use the outdoors. No kitchen, they all cook outside on small wood fires. They had two white plastic chairs. Everything they own is stacked against one wall, then cover neatly. There was a grass mat right on the cement that the entire family of 5 sleeps on. It was no larger than 6’ long and 3’ wide.
When we got there, Buk was butt naked outside just going to take a bath in a dish pan (in the dirt). It’s Christine’s job to carry the water back from wherever, in 5 gallon Geri cans for everything they use it for, every day. As we visited, the children just played (happily) on the small cement floor. Kweera and her friend came into the house and greeted us formally, (by kneeling and bowing), this is the way all children are taught as to respect their elders. I doubt very few Muzungos had ever been in this area, because we seemed to surprise everyone around.
When we were leaving, Santos invited us back to have dinner another time. He said that he would cook us matooke (boiled bananas, used like our mashed potatoes would be) and mushrooms that he grows.
Obviously, this was a very, very humbling experience for us both. Keith and I keep asking ourselves how come, we were so blessed to be born in America AND born into our church!
All this time, I thought Santos and his family were some of the more fortunate members. Well, come to find out, they are. Christine doesn’t have to walk 5 miles to retrieve their water every day, and Santos has a security job at the hospital, which means he probably gets paid $200,000. Shillings a month, which is less than $100.00. The Santos family is happy and feels so blessed that the Elders came to their house and taught them the gospel, and that they were able to be baptized, and now they are working toward going to the temple to be sealed.
We haven’t had General Conference yet, it’s this Sat. and Sunday for us (the DVD’s just arrived from America & we drove to Kampala to pick them up) so, I can’t wait for them to hear about the new program just announced, that the church will finance a onetime trip to a temple. I know it will be the ultimate experience of their lifetime. I hope we can be there with them; it would truly be a blessed experience in our lifetime too.
