Students learn about hardships in Africa

Two high school students recently learned the hard way about extreme poverty in Third World countries after volunteering in Africa.

Josh Schott, a senior at Whitefish High School, and Brett Harrison, a senior at Flathead High School, left for Uganda shortly after school ended here in June. They spent three weeks working for Children's Sure House, a Ugandan organization Schott learned about by searching the Internet.

Schott has a history of activism. Last year, he established local chapters of the Young Democrats of America and Students Anti-Genocide Coalition, also known as STAND.

Besides organizing a free showing of the movie "Darfur Now," Schott helped draft a bill that would prohibit Montana from investing in companies that do business in Sudan. Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, carried the bill, but it was tabled in the House Appropriations Committee.

Schott, who plans to attend college next year and obtain a master's in international relations, said he wants to work toward peace and conflict resolution, possibly with an agency like the United Nations. But first, he wanted some hands-on experience.

"Last fall, I decided I wanted to travel to a war-torn country in Africa, or a country in recovery," Schott said.

Harrison, who was only 17 at the time, heard about Schott's plans and said he wanted to go along. Both were familiar with Uganda's notorious history of civil war and harsh dictators, but they were inspired to volunteer. In addition to $2,000 in travel costs, they paid the volunteer organization $1,000 for food and other costs.

Martin Mpanga, the director of Children's Sure House, met the two at the Entebbe airport. After a few days in Kampala, they traveled to Owangei, a village in northern Uganda where they lived in a mud hut with a thatched roof.

The village had no electricity, and water came from a crude hand pump. Children's Sure House provided Schott and Harrison with bottled water and a generator for an electric light. Villagers provided them with food.

Both went right to work in a two-room schoolhouse — Harrison taught second grade, and Schott taught kindergarten and first grade.

"The first day, they stuck us in a class room and told us to teach math," Harrison said. "The students didn't speak English, but after two and a half hours, I learned that math was a universal language. We did pretty well."

Schott and Harrison used their own money to purchase clay bricks, mortar and metal sheeting to build a new toilet facility, and they planted fruit and shade trees that Mpanga brought to Owangei.

While visiting local families at their homes, Schott and Harrison learned about the problems facing rural Ugandans.

"One man had two wives and eight children," Schott said. "He was concerned about the lack of birth control — he had so many children and couldn't afford to feed them."

Health care was also an issue. With no cars available, the nearest hospital was a day's travel away.

"This man wanted us to build them a hospital," Schott said. "I told him we didn't have the means to do that and offered to work on other projects."

As they prepared to leave, the man presented the two with a chicken.

"We told him they needed it more than we did," Schott said. "But we took it back to our homestead and gave it to the people we were staying with."

It was no coincidence they had chicken for dinner that night, Schott noted.

AIDS and HIV awareness signs were everywhere, the two said. The signs warned about cross-generational sex and promiscuity and encouraged use of condoms.

"About 60 percent of the people in one district we visited reportedly had AIDS," Schott said.

The overwhelming poverty and the scope of the difficulties was not lost on the two. Harrison described what happened to the 80 pounds of shoes and clothing they brought with them for the villagers.

"What we thought would help wasn't what they needed. The shoes were never used, the clothes were never worn, the toothbrushes ended up in the garbage," Harrison said. "What they wanted was soccer balls."

The biggest needs of the rural Ugandans are clean water and health care — Schott and Harrison recalled seeing their first polio victims in Uganda. Food shortages, however, were not visible, they noted.

Whereas Schott and Harrison acknowledge their volunteering didn't make a big dent in the lives of the rural Ugandans, they felt a personal accomplishment.

"It inspired me to help more," Schott said. "Given my talents, I couldn't do more — I don't know how to build. What we did was bring them inspiration."

"It was overwhelming," Harrison said. "We could help one village build a new school, but then there's another village, and another, each needing a school."

The two continue to stay in contact with Children's Sure House via e-mail. They also recommend the experience to others.

"Maybe we were a little young to be doing this," Schott said.