Adventures in the Kingdom

I was going on a mission trip to Uganda, Africa. I was told we were going to be doing some home improvements for one of the poorer families. In my head I had First world visions of a spot of English DIY, a bit of fixing up, nothing major, I thought. Imagine my surprise when we arrive at this home and I see a simple brick house with rectangular holes for windows and a corrugated tin roof. The inside covered in dust and rubble, no furniture, no fixing up shelves. It was the only house for miles, surrounded by red soil and lush greenery full of the abundance of produce. Africa is indeed a poor country but they are blessed with the basics in order to survive.

The first thing I am told is that we needed to secure some scaffolding. Again, my brain ticking over in First world mode, scaffolding, I’m thinking. Oh, they mean the metal poles and platforms? Now picture my amusement when we are led into the nearby forest, dense with trees with tall, long, thin trunks. The red sun was streaming down through the branches, beating down on me. Eventually I understand what is to happen as I see one of the Ugandan team chopping some of these tree trunks down. His slim body working hard as I watch the chopping motion of his axe and see the tree trunks falling down one by one, as if in slow motion. The smell of his body odour drifting over to me. We would be using these for scaffolding, tied with simple rope. Later I would see the Ugandans scrambling up over it, no platforms, no hard hats, totally at peace in a world free of our first world rules and regulations. Health and Safety forgotten.

I looked at the trunks, I’m a strong girl, I thought, I can handle that. This day was full of surprises and this was no exception. As I placed the trunk on my shoulder, I was shocked at how heavy it was. I had a bruise on my shoulder the next day where I had laid the thing. I was starting to sweat in the oppressive heat, at the mere thought of carrying this heavy burden back to the house. I was positioned at the front and one of my team was to hold the trunk at the back. She is considerably shorter than me so can you guess what happened? Everyone was in hysterics as I hefted the trunk onto my shoulder and about to walk off when my team member was nearly lifted off the floor, her feet dangling in the air! Of course we had to re-arrange ourselves to compensate for the height difference and off we went back through the forest and back to the house.