And one more from Billings...

is in Karamoja now. Or going to be soon; I assume she arrived safely in Entebbe this morning (last night for us). My friend Amy went to Uganda on a missions trip a couple summers again, doing construction for an aids orphan group near Jinja. She's really interested in medical missions, though, so she's been wanting to go Karamoja and work with Kris in the clinic. She took all her finals a week early just so she could have an extra week of Christmas vacation to spend there! Anyway, I've been very excited that she gets to go. She traveled there by herself, too, which I admire a lot. (She just graduated from high school this spring.)

Actually, I guess Amy will be in Kampala for a few days at least. Kris and Craig brought two of the schoolboys there for surgery - Onyang had surgery on his knee, which has literally been bent out of shape (by polio?) although he can still play soccer amazingly well with it, and Lokwan, who had cancer maybe a couple years ago, and whose hip bones were basically rotting away from the chemo. Two of the other boys (Lokwi and Emmy) came to take care of them in the hospital. Of course, they also all got to enjoy the treats of a big city, including ice cream and pizza. Neither tastes entirely American at the Garden City mall, but they are pretty darn tasty just the same!

Does it seem weird to anyone that spears are still readily available in Karamoja? It just struck me today, as I was thinking about whether or not to use spears as curtain rods somewhere in my (future) house, that I just took spears and such as pretty ordinary. Now chickens being carried upside down or hanging from the back of bicycles always seemed funny in both senses of the word...