Goodbye Lira

Hello everyone! Im so sorry I was not able to post a blog this last week in lira. It was so full of good things as we prepared to say goodbye to everyone we love here. I will write in detail more about it when I return to the states. But thank you so so so so much for all your prayers through out this journey. Your support and love for my team brought so much joy to my heart. Thank you all.

Amarwu ( I love you all)

Now we leave for Mbale, to the mountains in Eastern Uganda for a debrief. Then we fly to home on Friday.

Storms and Some Laundry

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WEll! Things have calmed down a bit here; health is on the rise, welcomed a new short term team, and we are now preparing for our last full week in Lira. We leave next tuesday for Eastern Uganda, to a place called Sipi Falls in Mbale district. Its a very beautiful mountain rage near Kenya and our team is going to have our debrief there. Im excited but not really ready to think about leaving Lira yet. Its a strange reality that we have only 9 days left in Lira with the COTN kids and staff. Then I land in LA on August 15th. Gah!

Anyways. Weve had some beautiful storms this past week. You know its going to come when the sky becomes an eerie haze and the gray settles in covering my favorite blue sky. The wind runs away quickly, off to gather the new dark clouds and then back to us in a mighty gust. The mosquitos vanish and you wonder where they have gone. And then the lightening shows off its brightest lights for all of Lira to see. Its fun.

This weekend I spend alot of time at the childrens home, helping them with their chores, taking pictures for COTN's website, killing chickens (well... i watched the kids do it at least haha), playing soccer, the usual. We have all developed such a bond with them and we have seen more and more of their funny and silly selves come out. At first they are very formal for the "visitors" and take some time to get them out of their shell. They also felt embarrassed to speak English at first, thinking they weren't very good at it. But alot of them are to hard on themselves, they speak pretty well. My little Prosesco always speaks Luo to me without fail and I rarely know what he is saying except for greetings and goodbyes. Its hilarious. So I find an older kid, usually Solomon or Samuel cause they are always close by and they tell me what he is asking or saying. Its fun.

So here we go. Last full week. Here is what weve got planned. Teaching and loving the kids at the village, visiting the hospital once or twice, preparing our fair well gifts for the children, celebrating Elena's birthday tomorrow, going to Jimmies (our driver/my ugandan father) village, finishing up interviews for COTNs DVD project, getting another uganda outfit made at the tailors, hanging out with the kids before dinner, and cooking a meal to appreciate the staff. Those are a few of the things that come to mind. Ill let you know how it goes. :)

Amen.

Good news! The village has understood what our intentions are for teaching the children and are not pulling their kids out of school to come to our “school”! Thank the Lord. So we have been teaching the kids who cant afford to go to school this week and it has been really good. Jill and I are teaching the kids who have been in Primary 1, Primary 2, and Primary 3. They are such a sweet group of kids who really want to learn the alphabet and how to read more. They are so eager and try really hard to soak it all in. I was determined today to find Odwongo Emmanuel, a boy I met last year at the village. I hardly know the boy, but every time I see him something in me wells up and I feel like picking him up telling him how much I love him. I probably would but he always carries his baby sister with him or on his back. Momma asked the kids where he was today and they said that he had gone to school again! I was bummed to not get to see his smiling face but so glad that he got to go back to school.

In the afternoon a couple teammates went to the clinic to get some blood tests (Elena found out that she has typhoid, so pray for her. She’s doing pretty well) while the rest of us went to the Lira Regional Hospital. We bought a box of soap bars on our way over from town, to hand out to patients in the wards as we also prayed with them. It was such a beautiful yet sorrowful experience. Beautiful because I was so overwhelmed by a sense of Gods love and hope for his dying children laying all around me and horrifying because I felt his pain as he watched those children die. But I couldn’t escape the smile inside myself, as much as I tried to say to myself “no be sad”, I couldn’t help but think about the love they will find as some of them clothes their eyes for good. Don’t get me wrong I was very sad but a tireless hope inside of me, kicking at the parts of me that only think of the present and not the future. Sometimes I think as humans we naturally want to be in a place of sadness and frustration with the world, especially when we are sitting next to death. It justifies our times unhappiness and it makes us feel like we are should have something better than this, that this world cannot be completed. So I have to remind myself that there is no need to stand proud and feel like I am justified in saying that there must be no Good here because these children starve and die. That proud heart will give no helping hand to the sick either. It is only a selfish whole to burry myself in. So I uprooted that prideful root, as strong as an oak sometimes, and I chopped down my head to take its bow and pray because that is all I have. I have the ability to feel a heart bigger mightier than mine that can heal and take home an eager soul. I have the ability to just sit there in the dark and weep with then, then get up to the next person and ask if they know they are loved. This is the power of a hope that never fades into the horizon, no matter how far I walk into the plains. It is always clear when I go to the darkest places where death brings its thickest mist and highest mountains in attempt to hide the Son from shinning as it rises and sets. Amen.

The COTN kids came to say goodbye to the short term team here. It was such a good time of dancing and celebrating. But I just cannot even think about leaving them right now and tonight obviously made me think about our team leaving in a exactly 2 weeks. I hoep that this last two weeks is a time when our team can just pour out love on these kids in our school, at COTN, and in the hospital. Amen.

I need to register my happiness

Hello all! Sorry it has taken a few days to update you all. It has been quite the week. So Ill try to fill you in on a bit of what is going on in my life.

Since I last wrote to you about the wedding there has been some changes to life here in Lira. The week after the wedding was a bit of a scattered week, as we prepared for Chris Clarks and Debbie’s arrival (the president of COTN and his wife). The COTN children preformed some beautiful traditional dances (one of my favorite things to see in Uganda). It was a good time of celebration as the staff and kids are so thankful for the work that Chris Clark has done in Uganda.

That same week I met a boy named Alex as we spent some time in a field inside the police barracks near our house. COTN brought out their speakers as well as their projector and screen to show some music videos and a film about the life of Jesus for the local kids and families. Its one of my favorite things to do here, sitting out under the magnificent stars in a grassy field surrounded by so many kids. But this time the night under the stars was really special. Alex was such a unique kid, with an incredible ability to speak and understand English. He was so eager to know more about my life in America and what brought me to Uganda. He was even more eager to just watch the film and learn more about Christ. His heart for truth was so incredible, its really hard to even put it in words on this blog. It can only be felt in that moment when it shows itself either through words or action or maybe both. But at a couple points during the film he looked at me (I could hardly see his face, half light by the movie projector) with such intense eyes, and told me how he wished he could understand more of Jesus’ parables. He felt like his lack education (he is only in primary 7, equivalent to junior high) kept him from knowing more about God. So I asked him what secondary school he wanted to go to and he told me that he probably wouldn’t get to go. At first Alex didn’t explain why he wouldn’t get to go and I wandered why. Usually, as white people, we get the very detailed story for financially hardships and life problems. But Alex said nothing more. There seemed to be no part of him that was looking for pitty or cash. It was refreshing to have a very genuine conversation with a Ugandan who really just wanted to be sincere and know me, not to just have an American “friend” that can maybe send money and all the other preconceived ideas of what white people are for in Africa. But I really wanted to know what the story was behind him not being able to go to secondary school, so I asked. He began to tell me a bit about his father dying and his mother taking care of many nieces and nephews, leaving hardly any money for him to continue his education. It was extremely frustrating to hear his somber voice describe these circumstances and even more maddening to know that he so strongly desired that education so that he could learn more about the world and most of all more about Christ. He must have seen only my tears as they filled my eyes in the dimly lit night.

I left that field praying if there was any way to help Alex that God would open my eyes to it. And He did. A few nights before I talked to Jerusha about the possibility of starting an education and mentoring fellowship that would empower young local leaders in Lira to pursue secondary and university level education alongside a mentorship program that provides priceless support in their ministries and careers. When we first talked about the possibility we were stired by a desire to see young leaders such as Alex, be lifted above the circumstances that hold them back from impacting their community. I felt a righteous anger against the spirit of poverty that has crushed the passions, the dreams, the life of to many young people here. A heart like that given to Alex can with out a doubt change the face of this nation. So I’m working on figuring out how to run this fellowship and how it would look on the ground. Im going to be working on that as I finish up the last few weeks here in Lira. Ill never forget Alex. Hopefully I will see him once more.

Now on to my birthday. I could not have imagined a better way to celebrate it. Our team just really needed a day to repair. To be brief, the program we started last week for kids that couldn’t afford school fees kind of backfired. Hundreds of kids poured in to the field but we soon realized that a large majority of them were already enrolled in schools and that their parents mistook our “school” for a legitimate new school. We even had nurses and teachers come apply for jobs. Haha! It was so insane. I really couldn’t believe that had happened, it felt surreal with so so many kids gathered around our chalk boards in the middle of a field. So we are going back to the village tomorrow to try it again after Pastor James explained to the community what we were trying to do. Please pray that we can communicate well that we are just trying to teach the kids that cant afford any education. I would sure love for this to work and not dismantle the local education system. Haha.

So we clearly needed a day to recover from several mishaps that seemed to us failures. Richelle (my co-leader) and I decided that we really just needed to serve our team on what happened to be my birthday. So in the morning we got up packed lunches and after morning devotions (full of singing, some preaching, praying and happy birthday songs and fruit baskets) we left for a field next to a Catholic Mission/Radio station. There we escaped to build our team up with words of encouragement and service. We ate and then Richelle and I washed our teams feet (We copied Jesus, nothing special). It was probably the best idea that God ever gave us. I feel like the love of God and his humble servants heart were the best things to fight the discouragement weighing our team down. WE spent about 4 hours sitting around after doing words of affirmation (basically each person just says something encouraging to each person). While we were sitting on our blanket a little angle named Nelson Mandela walked up to us bobbing his abnormally large head and fervently repeating munu. Im going to post a few pictures soon, so you will see his beautiful face. He was precious and brought such a gentle and innocent love to our little meeting. Sitting their calmly he ate his sandwhich we made him and held my hand and played with my munu tiene (white foot, he kept repeating that). He caught Thomas (one of our Ugandan staff siting with us) saying “I love you” and began to repeat that for quiet some time. One of the men at the mission told us that his medication was very expensive but that he was a blessing to the mission. Im guessing that he may not live for much longer and I am so thankful that I got to meet him before he leaves this earth. What a blessing and a lovely gift from God. See you in heaven Mandela Bean (his father was saying “Mandela, Come here” in luo, but we thought it was a nick name. haha).

At the end of the day I spend the evening with the COTN kids. Our team took a stroll over to their house (about 10 min. away) and did our weekly Bible study with them. On the way over God led me to Matthew 11:25-30, it’s the “Come All you Weary” passage (on of my favorites). I lead the group of older boys, Samuel, Solomon, Lameck, and Dennis and Scott leads the younger boys. Its another one of my favorite things to do here. Most of the time the boys bring more insight than I do. I love it. We talked about being weary and burdened in life. They talked of loosing their parents, fighting, having things stolen, and other hardships. But then they spoke of the ways that Christ has given them rest and how he has loved them all the while. Man, do those boys know how to praise Him. Opaka Rwot (Praise God). What a day it was. I will never forget it

Tonight we found a café in Lira owned and run by an American. I ate so much pizza and it was sooo good.

This week we are going to be visiting the hospital in Lira a few times. It will be hard I imagine to see so many ailing people, dying or waiting to die, and not be able to do a thing about it, except pray. But you know what, I am learning to see that that is certainly something to do, praying that is. I have seen the power of such intimate time and conversations with my God. The power to change my will (which is a miracle) and to reach down and change the natural all around. Prayer is not some secondary response to me as it has been many times at home, as a last resort when other options fail. It seems to be all I have, especially here in Uganda.

Here is something I stole from Jenny Velas’ blog (one of my teammates). We made a list the other day of hilarious quotes from Ugandans.

“These things probably don't make much sense but they bring such happiness when they are said! The English the Ugandans use is so precious. Here are some quotes:

"Why are the bugs disturbing our sisters?"--Edward

"No one knocks my muno!"--Dennis

"She is gassing."--Morris

"My God is a God of FIRE!"--Dennis

"What is the progee today?"--Dennis

"We have to rectify the player."--Lucio

"Supplement the Mitsubishi."--Lucio

"I look more beautiful when I comb my hair"--Dennis

"The reserve needs to give me back my cattle."--Jimmy

"That bastard ate all my animals!"--Jimmy

"Baba, I need to pick some suga."--Sam

"You first study and then you cross."--Dennis

"We do what? We feed the babies."--Nurse Andrew

"I think you are going to have diarrhea symptoms. Get in bed with a towel."--Vicky

"I need to register my happiness."--Lucio

A celebration of life

Seriously. You all are in need of an update on life here.

So much to say really. so give me another day i think. and ill have something nice and sweet for you to read.

love you.

A Ugandan Wedding

It’s a day of rest and man did we need it! Thirteen hour wedding celebration took it out of my team and I. But it was an experience that I will never forget. From the bridal party brigade honking all the way through town to the extremely random and not at all matching bridal party attire, the days events and atmosphere was a rainbow of African and American traditions. Each car in the brigade was decorated with interesting ribbons and bows (baby blue, yet another random color) and there were groups of bridesmaids wearing different types of dresses and each held pots or baskets of semi ripened fruits (vibrant lime green dresses and others rainforest themed red and green dresses). The handsome groomsman that we were wore nicely tailored “Italian” brown pinstriped suits.

The wedding ceremony was just as colorful as the outfits we were wearing and it was very long. After one of the pastors gave the final word the whole place took communion and we marched out to eat some grub. Then we returned for the reception with all the guests outside the church. There we ate more food and watched some beautiful traditional dances, listened to random people sing as gifts to the bride and groom and have a few laughs. Then it was off to the Lira hotel for the formal reception for the bridal party and a select number of guests, like the Ugandan equivalent of a governor, a Resident District Commissioner, of the Lira district. More food and laughs. That concluded our celebration and we said good bye to the bride and groom as they left for safari for their honeymoon.

It was a great time. I really enjoyed the random mix of cultures and I had a great time with the groomsman, getting to know them as many of them were living in other parts of Uganda working for organizations (many of them went to university with Eddie, the groom).

Oh and no first kiss on your wedding day. There really is no kissing in public outside of Kampala, its just not culturally acceptable. You rarely see couples or husband and wives holding hands. Funny enough though its very common to hold peoples hands as you greet and chat with them, but as friends and especially for same genders. Couples however do not hold hands in public outside the normal hand holding during conversation and greetings. Interesting.

celebrations

The air is light tonight and there is joyousness in the compound that is infectious. Tomorrow our good friend and COTN country director, Edward Olara, is marrying his lovely American fiancé, Kaitlin. I cant even imagine how many people are going to be there, Edward knows everyone in Lira. Seriously, I mean EVERYONE. He has made a name for himself as a famous gospel singer in Northern Uganda. He is quiet good at it too and loves to travel to villages to sing and share his story with people. You would love him. Anyways my team is really blessed because Edward asked us all to be the wedding party. Scott, and I are groomsman and the girls are all bridesmaids. The last thing I thought I would ever do in Uganda is buy an “Italian” made suit from Kampala (the capital city) and be in a wedding! I couldn’t be happier though to support Edward and Kaitlin in their joyous Ugandan wedding.

Today was the last day of counseling at Obile primary. It was worth every long drive there and back, every drained afternoon, every fighting prayer, to see these boys smile so wide and hear about their peaceful dreams. No more nightmares. No more haunted days. Awe.

As I write to you world, to my left Rose dances to a song in her language for a baby that is sick with malaria, while the others laugh about soccer matches and tomorrows celebrations. Jimmy, an incredible man who graciously drives EVERYONE EVERYWHERE, sits in front of me and laughs about how he is the master of all games. The funny thing is, he really is the master. Nearly every Muno that comes to Lira and teaches him a game, he beats them twice over the first time playing. You would love him.

I am surrounded by a swarm of mosquitos. Time to bust out some DEET.

Have a lovely day, or night or whatever time it is where you read this.