We woke up in the hotel and had a relatively nice breakfast of eggs and delicious fruit. We ate on a balcony three stories up and when we looked over the edge we could only stare in silence. There below us was a sea of people... every bit of space was occupied with people walking, biking, driving, carrying, begging... and in the dingy back alleys hordes of people were cooking on open fires, loading, burning, ... It was a sight that we'd never seen before. Actually, I can't find the words to describe what we saw.
First on the agenda was to get some local currency. When we walked out the door, there were 3 or 4 people on the street sleeping under cardboard and garbage at the front door of our hotel. As we walked along we saw a couple of men with no legs begging for money. After we got our money, we loaded up our "matatoo" (15 person van) that was to bring us the 4 hour drive to the rural area of Bududa in eastern Uganda near the Kenyan border.
As we drove in Kampala past all the people I saw 2 more men without legs. One was begging and the other was busy delivering a package. He walked on his hands faster than most people were walking. He had acquired some thongs so he could grip the part that goes between your toes to keep the shoe on his hands as he shuffled along.
I had to wonder what I would do if I found myself with no legs in a country with no sort of social services to help me. We just don't see such things in Canada... but can you imagine? Nobody to look after you and no legs. No wheelchair. Nobody to bring you food. Probably no shelter. Can you imagine facing such a challenge? You think of the picayune issues that bother us in our lives and then think of that guy who found a small job delivering packages using thongs as shoes... It's just plain staggering. In the next few weeks I now know that I will see a lot more of this kind of resilient strength in the face of unfathomable hardship.
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