A Scent of Uganda

          For thirty-some hours I traveled over land and sea by air and land to reach Uganda, a southeastern African nation.  The stale air of our KLM Dutch airbus quickly gave way to the balmy Ugandan air filled with a peculiar scent as I exited onto the accommodation ladder.  By peculiar I do not mean a horrible stench; rather, it is a unique smell associated with the country.  If you have ever traveled to other countries, you might understand what I am talking about. Each country seems to have a unique scent associated with it that simply is that country.  Katie Davis described it this way in her book: “I took a deep breath of the air that smells what I can only describe as ‘Uganda’ and let it fill me with the joy of being in the place God has called me.”[1]

            Words might fail me if I try to describe the Ugandan scent to you, especially since we as humans have associated words with certain scents, fragrances, and odors.  For instance, you welcome the very pungent but sweet fragrance of a rose or the warm, buttery-chocolate aroma of chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven.  However, you very well might run away if you saw a skunk and caught a whiff of his ripe odor or feel queasy when you open a gallon of spoiled milk.  Rose, chocolate chip cookies, skunk and spoiled milk all, if you have smelled them, call to mind a scent associated with each of them, whether a pleasant or unpleasant smell.  So instead of attempting to describe it, you will simply have to travel to Uganda to discover the scent.

            However, I will describe a different Ugandan scent to you.  Uganda is known as the Pearl of Africa due to its lush countryside and multiple lakes spotted throughout the land.  Should you climb a mountain, a picturesque and panoramic beauty awaits you.  It is a proverbial sweet scent.  But now travel down into the marketplaces and alleyways of the cities and you will quickly discover a different scent.   One of the Ugandan men whom I met, Moses K., said that 46-49% of the country’s population is 14 years old and under!  It is a very young nation.  Out of this vast number of statistics, over one million children are orphans.  If they have relatives who desire to care for them, they are among the fortunate few; however, if they do not, which is the case for most, they will leave for the streets in hopes to escape the pain of broken homes. 

Broken homes.  Sigh.  They are quickly becoming the norm in Uganda (and the USA!) due to a recent war in the north and the AIDS epidemic that has ravished large regions of sub-Saharan Africa.  Sad to write, very sad, but I think necessary to do so:  I noticed an AIDS prevention billboard promoting safe sex, not abstinence, and perhaps even more sorrowful was the sponsor of this ad.  It was an organization from the USA.

What then is the answer to the plagues of poverty, the rise of broken homes, and the leftover orphans as a result?  The answer: “For we are the fragrant aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15).  Just as a rose is known by its sweet fragrant scent, so also are Christians known by their fragrant scent of Christ-likeness.  Thus when a person acknowledges our love or patience or self-control, they catch a whiff of the aroma of Christ Jesus in us.  It is when we as Christians live out of the glorious reality of Christ in us, that we love and give and serve and heal and speak and bring the good news of hope to a broken world, whether here in the States or abroad in Uganda.

 

And part of what the ministry Little Hands of Hope is all about is to be a means of promoting the aroma of Christ to the multiple orphans in a poverty-stricken land like Uganda. 

A View of Masaka in the Ugandan country-side

 

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[1] Davis, Katie.  Kisses from Katie.  (Howard Books: New York, 2011), 93.