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Seeking further studies in brick-laying and agricultureBy Jose Carlos Rodriguez, mccj“While you are trying to get to the moon, in Africa we are still trying to get to the village”, the late Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere once said in an international forum of rich countries, and I think, of this phrase often when I move to some remote villages of Kitgum district, in Northern Uganda, which can be reached after some hours of walking. Most of the year such places remain rather isolated because of non-existence roads and a very fragile bridge made of trees over a river that can be dangerous to cross. I know mothers who have lost their children because they could not make it to the nearest dispensary to get a simple treatment for malaria or diarrhoea.A single bore hole functions in a huge area inhabited by thousands of people, and were it not for the help provided by the catholic church Mission, every time it breaks down it would remain out of order for months. After more than thirteen years of insurgency, and despite many well-published programmes of rehabilitation and reconstruction, one does not see any tangible signs of development around such villages. To get a bit of cash, people have to rely almost exclusively on cotton, and the price has plummeted from 350 Uganda shillings in 1998 to 240 shillings in 2000. I have been around here for about nine years now, and if there is something that keeps me happy is the conviction that this is a place fit for Comboni Missionaries, where the poorest and most abandoned are found. If we were to leave this place, who would care for this people? I am totally serious when I say that, after having had such an experience, if I were a very young newly ordained priest, I would ask my superiors to send me for further studies…of building and agriculture. I certainly do all the ordinary pastoral work of celebrating the sacraments in the chapels, following the groups of catechumens, organising the retreats for the youths and so on, but the last two years, we the priests of Kitgum mission, have become increasingly involved in building schools and other social projects in some villages of our parish. In 1998 a year of famine and war in Acholiland – when we started, we asked the catholic relief services to take up this project. After a feasibility study, they answered that they could do something provided there was security, in places located no more than 15 km. from Kitgum town and on the main roads. We told them that such schools were already build and that we were interested in supporting the building of schools in remote and inaccessible areas. They were not interested in our approach, so we started doing it ourselves. Parents lay bricks and collect local material like sand and stones. We take the cement to one of our stations called Omiye-Anyima, 45 km. from the town, where we have a meeting hall and some stores. Two of the catechists keep the records and organise for the distribution of the bags, since at a times, we help with the building of three different schools at a time. Parents come and transport them by bicycle or on their shoulders. We also help them pay the skilled labour. After few months, a school block two or three classrooms is in place, and some of the 400 or 500 children can study in a decent place while parents meet again and decide to lay more bricks in view of a new block for the following year. I am always impressed by the sense of self achievement that they can get, bearing in mind that this schools have been built during times of intermittent insecurity. I know nothing about building, but as a priest I believe I can help people to be united, to have trust and to work together. We often comment that the circumstances people live in are inhumane, and that, if we have funds available, we are bound to do something so that their lives becomes a bit more humane. Take, for instance the issue of the dropping price of cotton which is a real injustice that cries out to heaven. We realised that in the mission of Omiya-Anyima we had a farm of about 300 ha of land, donated by the local Catholics living around the mission. For several years, we used much of the land for reforestation and grew our own seedlings of different kinds of trees. In fact, one of the conditions we put in place for helping parents to build a school is that they have to plant a number of trees to make up for the ones they use for burning bricks. Besides that, last year, we decided to call Action Contre la Faim, a very serious NGO I know, and they put in place some demonstration plots where farmers learn how to increase production by making ridges that stops the soil erosion and planting leuchenia trees, which enrich the soil with nitrogen. We also planted high value crops that people had never grown before, such as upland rice, beans and soya, with very encouraging results. For this year, we are already planning with the chapel councils to distribute seeds of rice to some groups of farmers, provided they prepare their fields with the ridges system. It is a way to provide an alternative to cotton. The church has always proclaimed that development – the new name of peace- should be taken to the place where people are, and not the other way round. I am learning that helping people to be united and work together for their own development is a way of evangelising. At the moment, we are still pushing on, despite insecurity, and if the rebels don't disturb us very much, I think we shall soon try to do a bridge over the river, so that people can have it easier getting to the village! Jose Carlos Rodriguez is a Comboni Missionary from Spain living in Uganda since 1991.
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