UGANDA –
We headed about 4 miles into the mountains (on foot) to an area where nomads travel to dig for gold. They stay there for several weeks at a time, and live on very little food. The temperature is very hot here, and this is very hard work – the miners earn roughly (on average) 25 cents for a whole day’s work. There is gold in Uganda, which is being mined commercially in other (secured) areas. Here, the locals dig blindly without proper tools or modern technology, and the gold they are able to find amounts to the equivalent of about 10 grains of sand. It is then sold to a foreign buyer who is set up in the nearby town. This region is very impoverished, so theft can be a problem, and things can become violent very quickly. My heart went out to these people surviving desperately on the edge of the Earth.
“…but He knows the way that I take: when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)
