Encountering the Soul of Uganda

Encountering the Soul of Uganda

Mother Teresa Project, Fr. Joseph Lugalambi, Coach Megan Becker

Father Joseph Lugalambi, AMU Ph.D. student and native of Uganda, was joined by women’s basketball head coach Megan Becker, for this ten-day trip as the students encountered some of the most shocking and crippling poverty, illness, and disability that any of them had ever seen.

From the moment they arrived at the MC compound and were swarmed by the children and others in the Sisters’ care, the O rphans of violence and AIDS; severely disabled, abandoned children and young adults; inmates of a maximum security prison; poverty stricken people living in the streets.

In June, eight Ave Maria University students loved and served people in such circumstances and more, side by side with Missionaries of Charity (MC’s) in Kampala, Uganda. Through their service and love to these needy and marginalized individuals, these students experienced the presence of Christ in unexpected ways, and came home changed by the experience. MTP, Fr. Joseph Lugalambi, Coach Megan Becker

students were confronted with the surprising yet beautiful combination of extreme poverty and joy that permeated the trip. The AMU team got to live among the poor they were serving, just as the MC’s do. They slept on short, narrow cots under mosquito netting, in which Becker, an even six feet tall, described feeling “crunched up.” The team took “showers” in concrete block rooms where the shower head was only there for looks; they fetched their own shower water from a cistern with a bucket, carried it to the shower room, and dipped water from their buckets with a pitcher to pour it over their heads.

The work day began with 7:00 Mass every morning, followed immediately by two hours of mopping floors and changing and hand-washing the bedding and clothes

“We’re supposed to be Jesus’ hands and feet, but in the long run, those children were Jesus to us. It was really beautiful to see that.”

for the young people, and distributing donated clothing and other items. Distribution was also a time to socialize and play with their new-found friends. Becker said that meeting those who came to receive the donated items was “heartbreaking” as “a lot of these people wrote down their phone numbers or email and gave it to me and told me, ‘You’re my last hope.’” In the midst of the hundreds of thronging people, one woman she spoke with stood out to her in particular. “She’s got a Master’s Degree, but she can’t get a job because she was raped and she has AIDS. She’s got five children and she’s on her own,” Becker said.

The AMU group also helped the Sisters distribute the Blessed Sacrament and teach catechism in the nearby impoverished neighborhoods, ministering to people in their homes. The week of service at the compound changed the team members. Initially they shied away from the children at the compound, put off by smells, by runny noses and slobber, and

the occasional toileting accident. But, by the middle of the week, as Becker tells it, there was a change and the students were “seeing the soul, they weren’t seeing the body anymore. We’re supposed to be Jesus’ hands and feet, but in the long run, those children were Jesus to us. It was really beautiful to see that.”

One day, some of the Ave missionaries travelled to a maximum security prison to visit the inmates. It is not easy for people to visit that part of the prison, and so the inmates rarely receive visitors or spiritual care. In fact they only receive the Blessed Sacrament two times a year. Father Joseph led part of the team into the prison where they had to go through seven check points, and even the bananas they brought had to be scanned through the metal detectors. During the praise portion of the service, Fr. Joseph heard over 200 confessions. He described the experience as hard, partly because of the prison policy of having a “prisoner count” every 45 minutes. “That was so challenging. Someone was in the middle of confessing their sins, and [the wardens] took them, saying ‘get out of here, it’s time to count,” he observed.

The team took one day off from their work and used it to visit Fr. Joseph’s family in his home village of Masaka. There they were received warmly with a traditional feast: a whole pig, chicken and beef steamed in big pots covered with banana leaves, plantains and potatoes. Many people from the village turned out to welcome their guests and to help with the feast. As Fr. Joseph explained, that is typical of his home country where if there is a guest or stranger, everyone turns out to meet, offer support and gifts, and help welcome the guests.

AMU junior Rebecca Borkowski found the Mother Teresa Project trip to Uganda to be a life-changer. “Uganda was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I thought I would see hopelessness among the people because they are in the worst conditions, but they had grit and a deep faith,” she said. “I think the key to

loving like the people we encountered is simplicity: having less, doing less, thinking of yourself less, and then there will be enough room for God and love.”

The trip to Uganda is one part of the broader Mother Teresa Project at AMU, the goal of which, as Project Director

Michael O’Donnell puts it, is for students, by serving side by side with the MC’s, to “experience the love Mother Teresa gave to the poorest of the poor and to give that same love to the people in their life.” This summer’s trip to Uganda certainly fulfilled that goal.