Adventures With Mark

It is a rainy afternoon as I type up my portion of our April newsletter. Not too long ago I was inspired for all of Calgary when I saw my team, the Flames represented all the way in Uganda. As I pulled up to an intersection and waited for one of Kampala’s three working traffic lights to change (an occasional luxury that comes and goes with the power cuts) I saw a young man selling carrots. I could not help but stare as he was wearing a Calgary Flames jersey. I am sure he had no idea about zombonies, ice and pucks, but it made my day. I was disappointed I did not have my camera, but enjoyed my few minutes before the light changed to green.
Sadly to say, my inspiration from this young gentlemen did nothing to help my team, the Big Red Machine, the Calgary Flames make it past the San Jose Sharks in the seventh game of there series. I thought that if they made it past the first round, they just may make it all the way to the finals… well, I guess there’s next year along with all those Oiler and Canuck fans.
As I thought about this teenager I saw selling carrots I realized that he was a good representation of the people in Uganda. Yes, the average age of Uganda’s 31 million people is 15.2 years. This is much lower than the global average age (around 28 years of age). In 2007 alone there were 1.3 million babies born in Uganda. If these numbers continue the country of Uganda will reach a staggering 93 million by 2050.With a current high unemployed work force Uganda will face more challenges as younger people find themselves trying to find work a few years down the road.
As I think about our work here I know we are trying to help build a better future in a small way in the years to come in Uganda. Life, by life we continue to try and mentor, train, and build young lives that will help mold and shape Uganda in a positive way in the future. It is our hope that these young lives we work with will bring ethics and a positive attitude with them into their communities, families and jobs. Yes, providing them with a good education is important, but only one piece to the puzzle. Sometimes it’s good for me to sit down and review our objective and look back at what that has actually looked like for this first term of the year. The term is just now over and I’m encouraged as I realize the students continue to improve their grades, and more importantly behavior incidents continue to decrease as lives and hearts are changing.
Even though my Calgary Flames are out this year, my heart continues to burn with the passion for many young lives here like the boy selling carrots in a jersey he knows probably nothing about. Whether we are in Uganda, Kenya, UK, Canada or the United States I trust that all of us would continue to make a difference where each one of us has been placed. Little by little we can all make a difference – let’s get out there and do just that.