Perspective from a Volunteer in Uganda

by Jennifer Ostrowski, CARITAS For Children Intern

Last week I was invited on a two-hour boat ride across Lake Victoria in Eastern Uganda that is very much like the boat rides I have taken on Lake Superior near my hometown in northern Wisconsin. The cool breeze, the gentle churning of the waves, the mist whisked up by the motor, the endless blue water stretching to the horizon - they are all the same.

Approaching the Lake Victoria island of Mawuma.

The fishing boats bobbing in the bay.

But, in comparison to my hometown, the island of Mawuma where I disembarked with a small group led by Father John Bosco, who hoped to say Mass at the distant outpost, seemed like a different world. Neatly shingled roofs and carefully trimmed lawns were replaced with low reed ceilings and rough, rocky clearings. Goats, cows, and children milled around among the squat little houses, the roofs of which rose only a bit higher than my shoulders. As I stood taking in the grayness of the houses, the torn clothes of the children, and the weather-beaten fishing boats bobbing in the bay, the trim little blue house where I grew up with carpeted floors and glass windows seemed as far away as the moon.

Children among the tiny, reed-roofed homes.

I was caught up in the foreignness of the place when I met a small boy in a ragged yellow t-shirt. As I taught him a simple clapping game, he began counting - in English. In a cheerful little voice, he chirped out the numbers - one, two, three, four - all the way to thirty. Listening to this young boy on a far-flung island speak to me in my native language, I was poignantly reminded that while places like Uganda often seem far removed from our worlds in the United States, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere, they are, in fact, one and the same.

Fr. John Bosco says Mass at this community church every six months. His regular position is as the Nkokonjeru Parish priest.

We - American university students like myself, small boys like the one in the yellow t-shirt, and all the rest of us - live in just one world, and I think that there is something very beautiful, but also a little disheartening, about that. At times, it is disheartening because the devastating poverty of small, reed-roofed houses exists simultaneously with the tremendous prosperity of two car garages and four year degrees. More importantly, however, I believe that our coexistence is beautiful, because of the way it connects us and enables us to help others - through child sponsorship programs, mission trips, donations of time and money, awareness campaigns, and so on - no matter where we are in the world.

Click here to read about Fr. John Bosco's ministry in his own words.

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