April 20th

So my parents were talking to some senior missionaries who had been serving in Congo and recently started a mission in Kampala with the welfare program. They said the part of Congo they were in was similar to Uganda geographically and culturally, with marked differences in the way they crossed financial barriers. The Congolese they met were able to solve their own problems and extremely self-reliant. The Uganda's, on the other hand, mostly just expected you to solve their issues for them. Cause of this discrepancy? They thought it was the effect of all of the Ugandan NGO's compared to the near absence of humanitarian aid in Congo. Now, I'm not saying that humanitarian aid is completely at fault for Uganda's problems, but isn't it interesting? All of these people involved in foreign aid, patting themselves on the back and getting warm fuzzies while HURTING millions of people in Africa. OK, sure some person somewhere got a water tank and someone else got free education. What about the thousands of life's guaranteed trials that those people are going to face the rest of their lives? Pretty soon "How can I help me," turns into "Who can I find to help me?"

Anyway, that was my next General Conference question.

Although I'll have to look over some notes, off the top of my head I can think a few lessons General conference taught me on these issues.

How about the "Do vs. Be" talk? That answered my question about Mzungu/Ugandan marriages. If you want people to become better, search for a principle they should change, rather than harp on their behavior. In other words, I am going to encourage the YSA rep (my buddy) to teach a lesson on righteous motives. You should love people because they are people, not because they could potentially solve a lifetime of financial problems. After all there is no "strings attached" to the love Christ has shown to each of us. I've also realized that my mom is in a better position to confront this problem at a one on one level because of the respect the Buganda have for people older than them. I also think that this issue is a great opportunity for the ward to show some self reliance as a whole. People know it's a problem, it just needs to be confronted. (I remember one talk about the love necessary to confront a relationship problem, I'll have to review that one) It might be better if I encourage YSA reps to work that out themselves, instead of trying to take everything under my jurisdiction.

About humanitarian aid: I'm still confused. I'm going to spend a lot more time studying that one out, probably for the rest of my life. However, I really loved a quote by Eyering, talked about the importance of working together to solve problems and the unity that develops from such an approach. I also loved when he said that service should lift all who are involved to greater heights (permanently, not just a temporary fix). The funny thing listening to my dad talk about this and then talking to Ugandans. Their views could be any more different.

I currently believe any humanitarian effort needs to be focused on either education or health, and most preferably the first one. What is desperately needed is an NGO to have career planning for 12-14 year olds. Ugandan have to choose their field of study by age 16, and many choose to shy away from science because it is too difficult. Guess where all the jobs are? In science.

I would love to see more Ugandan teenagers taught the whole "line apon line" principle of financial growth. These guys want to graduate and find a white collar job, without dabbling in the tedious/shameful work of farming. What you do is start by planting on an elderly family members land, promising to give him/her some of the profit. You save tirelessly to buy 10 chickens. Every 3-5 months your chickens reproduce and soon you can sell offspring to buy a few goats. Following the same procedure, you save to buy two cows. Selling their full grown calves, you are now able to buy a motorcycle, which you can then rent out for $4 a day. If all goes well with that, you could have 2 motorcyles in 6 months, doubling every 6 months thereafter. Then you can progress to buying cars and soon you own a business that is employing those same college grads desperately searching for jobs, paying them a fraction of your income. At that point you can live a life of luxury and even attend university if you get bored.

OR

You scrape together 3 million shillings ($1,250) for the cheapest secondary school and 8 million on an average university ($3,500), spend hours studying, successfully graduate, and then spend the next 5 years of your life in search of a solid job.

Dang that's a hard decision.

The problem is that when the British came they needed secretaries and assistants who knew English. People couldn't pay for school so the Brits decided to fund the university education of the best and the brightest. It was a huge honor to attend university with a secure job waiting for you on your graduation day. So when England pulled out, it's education system stayed, minus the subsidized fees/guaranteed job part. So you have a generation of Ugandans who hear the word "university" and immediately think prestige. That generation is the one dumping money into the exorbitant university fees of today's 20 year olds. They are the ones teaching their kids that if you get accepted to a university, continuing your education is a no brainer. And they are the people heaping praise on university graduates, while marginalizing the bricklayer or the farmer.

After talking about all of these problems with Andrew, I asked him what he was going to do after his mission. "I'm going to be a lawyer," he confidently replied.

I guess I never realized the America's extensive career counseling, which for me started when I was only 12.

So my mother and I were walking down to pay the electricity bill in town when we turned a corner to find crowds of people. The local police had imprisoned a popular Member of Parliament because she had participated in the transportation strike, walking to work. Andrew, who was walking with us, suddenly told us to go home. As we speed walked home we heard gun shots and stories of tear gas, looking down at the main road as people were sprinting away from the riot. You better believe my mom was scared. Our family is extremely blessed to live in a safe environment, away from threats of political stability. UCU campus would be one of the last places for a riot, and for that our family is extremely grateful.

Ok, I need to jet. Busy day tomorrow, with an even more busier weekend.