Thursday.

Last Saturday after meeting with some friends I walked my normal route to catch a taxi home. It is a place in town that is heavily populated with mzungus (white people) because it is just down the road from the local mall, a place where you can find nice American food. There is a certain spot on the street where many people beg from. As a Westerner in Uganda I hear shouts requesting money almost daily but on this certain day I just couldn't walk by without stopping. A young lady holding a baby boy called out to me and after walking a few steps past them something in me forced me to stop. I went over to talk to this woman. Her name was Sarah. As they say here in Uganda, she is my namesake. She was in a wheelchair and she informed me that she was paralyzed from the waist down, which happened to her after an encounter with a witch doctor. Her baby is a sweet seven month old boy named Moses. We only talked a few minutes about where she stayed, how she was surviving, and if she had a church or organization supporting her. I left without giving her anything. It is a hard situation being here in a place with so much need. We tend to just want to hand out material goods, but in the long run this does absolutely nothing to help. She needs a job. A way to support herself and her son.

So, it's five days later and I still can't get Sarah and her son Moses out of my head. I decide on buying some rice, beans and baby food to take to her. My bank account is soon nearing $0 so spending $9 on her was harder than what it would have been before. But with some encouragement from the book "Kisses From Katie," I am reminded of the verse in Matthew 19 where Jesus tells the man "Go sell your possessions, give to the poor and come follow me." He didn't tell him to save any for himself, just to give. So, I went down to the shop bought a kilo of rice, a kilo of beans, than proceeded to the supermarket to buy some baby cereal for Moses. I hopped in a taxi praying that I would find Sarah to give her these few small items. Little did I know what God had in store for me. When I arrived to the spot that I had met Sarah before I couldn't spot her. Instead, I met two young street girls. I asked them if they knew where she was and one of them told me in her very broken English, "wait". While she was off to find Sarah I talked with the other girl who told me her name was Rachel and her friend was Sharon. They were twelve and thirteen years old, both coming from a single parent family, both sent by their unemployed mothers to beg on the street. Rachel and I talked for a few minutes, not so smoothly because her English was limited and so is my Luganda, smiling big smiles when neither of us could understand what the other was saying! Soon enough Sharon came back with Sarah, Moses, and John, who is  a boy of twelve years who lives on the streets with no family to claim him, and helps push Sarah's wheelchair as they both beg. Sarah accepted my small gift with big gratitude. We hang out and talk for a while as she tells me more about the life she has lived in her short nineteen years. She tells me she would like to work in a salon! A lady came around selling food for roughly $1 per plate, and I couldn't let her pass without asking my new friends Rachel and Sharon if they were hungry...of course they were. I bought two plates of food and I was happy to help fill their tummies. But, what happens when fifteen other street kids see that the mzungu has bought food? They flood the scene! So, with fifteen other hungry children around me what am I to do? I bought four more big plates of food and told them all to share. I spent a couple hours with these precious kids in their "home," the streets of Kampala. I than met a handsome, intelligent old man name Jock. He is bound to a wheelchair, since childhood, due to polio. He lost all four of his children to HIV/AIDS and is now left trying to support sixteen grandchildren. He was a successful man with a business degree who used to work for the government and even helped run a non-profit that was dedicated to teaching about the horrible disease that took his beloved children. When funds ran out and a job was nowhere to be found he was left with no option but that of begging on the streets. He told me how he would love to work, even if  it was just as a shoemaker. He longs to provide for his grandchildren and live his sunset years with dignity. What could I possibly do for all of these people? How could I send Sarah to vocational school to learn skills she needs to work in a salon? How can I help Jock provide for his family and allow him to live without the embarrassment of being a beggar? How can I send loads of kids to school, feed them, and get them the medical attention they deserve? In all honesty, I have no idea but by faith. It is too much for me but is not too much for HIM. I am not here to make their lives more American. They aren't asking for big houses or cute clothes...they just want a chance. And I think they deserve that. So for now I will do all I know how to do...give even when I don't have much to give, pray when my prayers seem insufficient, and love. 




If you want to help you can give online at :


http://www.indiegogo.com/Suubi-House-Uganda until July 4th or


Send a check to:
Kathy or Sarah Bowman
933 Grand Ave
Carlsbad, CA 92008


Thank you for your love and support!


With all my love,
Sarah Mae Bowman