Torrential floods raged through 122 homes, link here to help, full story below.
Thursday we were awakened in the wee hours with the thundering sound of heavy rain on our corrugated metal roof. Before dawn, there were dozens of groups of people on the road, unusual in any time but particularly in this time of restriction and curfew, a buzz of talking and movement. I went out and talked to neighbours and heard the news: floods had hit us again, this time a flash flood of the Lamia River which descends from the Rwenzoris and forms part of our Congo border.
By full daylight Scott and I had driven the 8 km to the border to see what had happened, encountering literally more than a thousand people along the way. The absolute instinct of this culture is to gather towards loss, to move into the place of grief. Some of that is related to the interconnectedness of family-clan-tribe; it is not difficult for most to trace a line of relation to a person. Some is a spiritual drive to be on the side of the victim not the perpetrator. Some is human curiosity. And some is the fact that after 50 days of lockdown a remarkable number of people are willing to walk 8km to be together.
The video shows what we found Thursday morning. Our border river flows down from the Rwenzoris, and the mountains had heavy rainfall. Seasonal variations affected by the increased temperatures of the world, plus population growth with clearing and farming reaching higher elevations and lowland bogs or wetlands being filled . . .means that a massive rainfall on the mountains resulted in torrential river flows on the north-west side (us) and south-east side (Kasese). The Lamia river diverted upstream into two, and one branch flowed right through Busunga town. Unlike the December floods, this one was not a landslide on a steep slope (no destructive rocks tearing down houses), it was a raging river of mud and water sweeping through. Because of the area, 50% more homes than December were affected, but with less loss of life and structure. One UPDF soldier patrolling the border was swept away and drowned; we saw his body being carefully repatriated from the Congo side over the bridge. Others were missing, but I have not heard of more deaths. Miraculously people heard the water and moved their children to higher ground.
One reality of poverty is that property is often on ground level--not so many homes have storage in higher shelves and cabinets and attics. So a sweeping flood like this means that mattresses, sheets, clothes, dishes, papers, tools, keys, lamps, anything in the house was likely ruined or lost.
Five months ago we asked you readers to help 85 families in the landslide area, and you gave so generously we were able to bless them those in the epicenter with resettlement packages, then perform ongoing nutritional surveys and supplements for the displaced more broadly, and even contribute $17,000 towards the re-build of the destroyed clean water pipeline system. That effort truly communicated God's presence and care. On Thursday and Friday we once again mobilized Christ School graduates to register people whose homes were severely flooded. We have a list of 122 homes, 856 people. Our four young men went into each home and verified the damage and loss. Buying and distributing mattresses, sheets, rice, beans, oil, jerry cans, blankets . . basic survival items . . will be much more challenging in this era where we are not allowed to drive or gather. But we intend to make it work.
Uganda is suffering from multiple plagues at once. In the north, a once-in-fifty-year level of desert locusts has descended, devouring crops. In the Lake, an out-of-control proliferation of invasive vegetation has blocked the main power-generating dam, cutting down electricity. In the West, we are having massive rainfalls leading to flooding, plus the subsequent spike in deadly malaria and gastroenteritis. All in the context of the pandemic of coronavirus, which has locked us down to a small area, severely impacted the economy, and left us bracing for a wave of death.
This week in Promises in the Dark we read: "Hauerwas says, 'Historically, Christians provided not a 'solution' to the problem of evil but a community of care that made suffering possible to absorb.' . . .Maybe this community of care that makes suffering possible to absorb is, in fact, the emphatic presence of God's goodness."
Would you be part of that presence with us? LINK HERE TO DONATION PAGE .
By full daylight Scott and I had driven the 8 km to the border to see what had happened, encountering literally more than a thousand people along the way. The absolute instinct of this culture is to gather towards loss, to move into the place of grief. Some of that is related to the interconnectedness of family-clan-tribe; it is not difficult for most to trace a line of relation to a person. Some is a spiritual drive to be on the side of the victim not the perpetrator. Some is human curiosity. And some is the fact that after 50 days of lockdown a remarkable number of people are willing to walk 8km to be together.
The video shows what we found Thursday morning. Our border river flows down from the Rwenzoris, and the mountains had heavy rainfall. Seasonal variations affected by the increased temperatures of the world, plus population growth with clearing and farming reaching higher elevations and lowland bogs or wetlands being filled . . .means that a massive rainfall on the mountains resulted in torrential river flows on the north-west side (us) and south-east side (Kasese). The Lamia river diverted upstream into two, and one branch flowed right through Busunga town. Unlike the December floods, this one was not a landslide on a steep slope (no destructive rocks tearing down houses), it was a raging river of mud and water sweeping through. Because of the area, 50% more homes than December were affected, but with less loss of life and structure. One UPDF soldier patrolling the border was swept away and drowned; we saw his body being carefully repatriated from the Congo side over the bridge. Others were missing, but I have not heard of more deaths. Miraculously people heard the water and moved their children to higher ground.
One reality of poverty is that property is often on ground level--not so many homes have storage in higher shelves and cabinets and attics. So a sweeping flood like this means that mattresses, sheets, clothes, dishes, papers, tools, keys, lamps, anything in the house was likely ruined or lost.
Five months ago we asked you readers to help 85 families in the landslide area, and you gave so generously we were able to bless them those in the epicenter with resettlement packages, then perform ongoing nutritional surveys and supplements for the displaced more broadly, and even contribute $17,000 towards the re-build of the destroyed clean water pipeline system. That effort truly communicated God's presence and care. On Thursday and Friday we once again mobilized Christ School graduates to register people whose homes were severely flooded. We have a list of 122 homes, 856 people. Our four young men went into each home and verified the damage and loss. Buying and distributing mattresses, sheets, rice, beans, oil, jerry cans, blankets . . basic survival items . . will be much more challenging in this era where we are not allowed to drive or gather. But we intend to make it work.
Uganda is suffering from multiple plagues at once. In the north, a once-in-fifty-year level of desert locusts has descended, devouring crops. In the Lake, an out-of-control proliferation of invasive vegetation has blocked the main power-generating dam, cutting down electricity. In the West, we are having massive rainfalls leading to flooding, plus the subsequent spike in deadly malaria and gastroenteritis. All in the context of the pandemic of coronavirus, which has locked us down to a small area, severely impacted the economy, and left us bracing for a wave of death.
This week in Promises in the Dark we read: "Hauerwas says, 'Historically, Christians provided not a 'solution' to the problem of evil but a community of care that made suffering possible to absorb.' . . .Maybe this community of care that makes suffering possible to absorb is, in fact, the emphatic presence of God's goodness."
In fact, as we began 2020, we heard over and over that the prompt presence that we were able to show in December spoke volumes to the local community. Help was needed then, and it is needed again, and while there are massive gears that will eventually turn, you can help us be a quick first-response. There is so much right now that we can't even begin to fix, but perhaps this one thing we can do.
1 comment:
Lord...we do not know what to do but our eyes are on You... praying for you all. Also have brothers and sisters in Cuba with almost nothing to eat and no necessary medication and no known way to get help to them... Father show us the way for Your glory and our good.
So thankful for you...
Deborah
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