Sharp Contrast

Uganda, like most Africa countries is an interesting place. It keeps you on your toes. Your senses are heightened by the sights, sounds and smells that you are continuously experiencing. A 5 minute car ride can provide more excitement than most people have ever had in their entire lives. You can come INCHES from hundreds of wrecks in a stretch of 2km. You can see 4 people on the back of moped. You can see 60 people in the back of an open truck. You will see child beggars carrying babies on their backs, people selling nearly anything you can imagine in your window at stops, traffic circles that boggle my mind and UN cars rushing by at what seems like 1000 mph.

Back to the title. Through a series of wild events we have made connections with some of the biggest players in this country. The kind of wealth that you would never know existed if someone didnt you to it. So, the other day Michael and I found ourselves meeting with arguably the most wealthy group in the country and one of the most well networked in all of Africa. We sat in a board room for an hour or so and talked with people who are pretty interested in what we're doing. This was probably the nicest office I have been in since I started coming to Uganda and we were talking with men who have serious business minds.

Three hours later we were on our way to Masindi and Michael and I look off to the side of the road at another serious business man. Only this business man isnt in quite as nice attire and instead of managing billions in oil he is managing a group of 15 cows. The peculiar thing was that he was working in only a pair of briefs...and I dont think it was casual day. This guys literally walks around smacking a cow in the ass with a switch all day in his tighty whities and he's clearly not embarrassed because he is walking one of the more major roads in UG.

It was funny because its just such drastic contrast. In three hours we went from the most prominent wealth in the country to a barely clothed man confined to a life of chasing cows. The truth is it wouldnt have taken three hours if we really wanted to see the contrast. It could have taken just minutes to be in the slums of a country where people have no hope of ever escaping the poverty that they were born into and will die in. These people literally have no way out. They live every day of their lives knowing that this is it for them. This is not like the US where more often times than not you have a way out if you work hard enough. Here, people work their entire lives - or they work to find work.

Seeing both the wealth and the poverty so clearly leaves me with little wonder why the violence explodes. I try to put myself in that same situation. If I knew I had no opportunity to grow, advance or succeed. If every meal, car ride, health concern, phone call was a cost you could not afford. If you watched the people around you dying, the population growing (2nd highest birth rate in the world) and becoming more crowded with more competition for scarce resources, poor sanitation and heat without access to clean water what would you do? THEN, if you watched the church, the government and the wealthy fall further into corruption that robs resources from the people that need it. If you watched the leadership manipulate the people to create greater wealth for themselves how would you feel? You would be filled with rage. You would be overcome with jealousy, envy, frustration and anger which with enough time becomes explosive. Most importantly, millions are living without hope of things every getting any better.

Crazy.

I hope this changes in my lifetime. I hope we see a new generation of leaders in Africa committed to God and their people. I hope that if the right leadership shows up the people will respond.