By Garrett Hatch

Contributor 

I hope everyone has had a smooth enough transition from summer into your new school routine.  I would like to share with you some reflections I’ve had since my trip to Uganda, Africa this summer.

You might be thinking, “Wow, he went to Africa!” or, “Why should I even care enough to read this?” Either way, I promise it won’t be a waste of your  time.  I went to Uganda with a team of 13 college-aged friends who all had the desire to do more than just work all summer; they wanted to make a difference.  I can confidently tell you that they each did just that through our work with Operation Uganda.

Our journey started by traveling 11 hours in a small, four-wheel drive bus to the far northern part of Uganda, where the grass was green, the ground was usually muddy and the people were beautiful.  On the way, we passed many children, young kids on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, eagerly running alongside the bus waving at us- the Mzungu or “white people” as they called us. They each had the brightest smiles you can imagine, yet were barefoot and wearing the only pair of clothes they had.  It was quite an experience, and made me really think about what is important in life.

Here in beautiful, sunny San Marcos we can easily take our education for granted. It’s expected for most of us to get a college degree after high school.  But after being in Uganda with the 400 kids in the village we visited, I will never take my education for granted again.

Education is one of the greatest shortcomings of rural Uganda. It is supposed to be free for the kids, but it costs them money to buy uniforms, and they are also often required to pay a small fee to take their exams, which enable them to graduate to the next grade level in primary school. Although these costs may only be a few dollars, many villages like the one we were in have no money at all. They live by trading and bartering for their necessities.  This is where Operation Uganda comes in. They work to build schoolhouses and find local teachers that make education possible for the multitude of children growing up in these rural villages.  Where we were, the closest public primary school was about a five to six-hour walk away.

One major misconception is the idea that building school rooms in Africa can be made for an extremely cheap price. For the school building we are working on right now, the cost is about 35,000 US dollars, which seems expensive, but makes sense when you realize that supplies and labor must be brought in from over a seven-hour drive away. Because of this, Operation Uganda has a heart to involve the local community in the construction of schools. They strive to have locals provide a good portion of the bricks, and use day laborers from the community to help boost the local economy.

Operation Uganda is an Australian-founded and run organization that has multiple locations throughout Uganda, and plans on impacting as many kids as possible.  They currently get people from Australia to support the students in their schools for 45 US dollars a month, but sadly there are still many unsponsored children.

My team that went was the first ever American team to volunteer with Operation Uganda, and we have each decided to sponsor a kid we met there.  Now I would like to challenge you to do the same. Maybe you don’t have 45 extra dollars to spend a month, but I bet if you partnered with a friend you could make it happen. Please go to operationuganda.org and sponsor a child today! Also, check them out on Facebook at Operation Uganda.