Walking

By Peggy Cox

Today I stayed behind in Gulu while the rest of the team went on a tour of Murchison Falls National Park. FoDU’s national director, Jonathan Ssebambulide escorted me on a walking tour of Gulu. First we went to the Ugandan Red Cross where I was able to donate blood once again. We then headed into the “downtown” area of Gulu where we walked through a very large market, the largest I’ve visited in Uganda. You could buy everything from smoked fish to deep fried White Ants; tomatoes and onions; more varieties of fresh peas than I could identify; backpacks and electronics; prepackaged spaghetti and elbow macaroni; gently used leather shoes with fresh coats of black shoe polish and what every person in Uganda needs, a t-shirt with Daytona Beach emblazoned across the front. (Thank you, Goodwill Industries.)

I have been blessed to visit Uganda five times now, but this was my first time to walk to my destination like the average Ugandan has to and to experience a little of what their everyday life is like. I am even more impressed by these humble and strong people.

Today I walked a little over six miles in their shoes. For me, today was a one day adventure and cherished time spent with a dear friend. For children like Kevan, the student we met yesterday at Pageya Primary School, it is a distance they have to walk each school day, if they want an education. Let me briefly tell you about Kevan. She is a beautiful, healthy, 14 year old young lady. She seemed to be taller than your average 14 year old girl, but I’m a smidge over 5 feet tall, so most people seem tall to me. Kevan walks approximately three miles each way to school. Some days her brother, who she lives with, has the 2,000 Shillings (75¢) for her to take a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) either to or from school, but not both ways. She usually walks 6 miles round trip each day, just to get an education.

Pretty amazing, huh? It gets better, or worse, I guess I should say. Kevan is an amputee and has a prosthetic leg. She stepped on a land mine and lost her lower left leg at the knee. She was only 6 years old. She walks three miles to school and three miles back home again, on a prosthetic leg, just for an education that is not guaranteed beyond the 7th grade. Now then, pretty amazing, huh?