Mama Chippa's youngest son, Achilla Benjamin or Chillun (?)

kids and ecoto (echoto), if that's the word for mud...

African hunger

I just read this article about hunger in Africa. Fifty years ago, Africa was self-sustaining through agriculture. Now, not just because of drought but war and corruption and AIDS/HIV, 27 African countries have a hunger crisis.

Very sobering stuff.

Jinja schoolkids

Here's some really good b&w photos of schoolkids in Jinja (the city at the mouth of the Nile) that someone else took, but they remind me a lot of some of the kids in Karamoja. For some reason this week I have been missing the kids a lot - Lokwii, Loru, Aleper (Joyce's son who taught me the word for "mud"), and many others. I just want to know how they're doing. Guess I should ask my friends who were just there, huh? I also want to hang out with them, but that's not so doable right now...

I'm missing the Tricarico and Wright kids, too - Rachel with her many interesting good and otherwise qualities (that's not in a mean sense; she reminds me so much of myself at 13, only she's much better, I think), even teaching science to Mary and Kips and Josh, which was the hardest subject I had. (Five and six year olds do okay with hands-on stuff, but they do have short attention spans! :) )

I'm ready for spring here, and I bet Karamoja is ready for the rainy season... (we both have a couple more months to wait)

Museveni and meningitis

Uganda's elections are coming up soon, sometime next month - I was Googling it but got distracted. I've actually been praying quite a bit about this (well, quite a bit for me, which doesn't mean I think of it every day)...having just seen a movie about Rwanda in 1994, it's a little scary to think what could happen. Only I really don't believe anything too catastrophic will happen, even if Museveni loses.

Here's some stats I found from the last election, five years ago:
President: 12 march 2001
------------------------------------------------------
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni - National Resistance Movement 69.3%
Kizza Besigye 27.8%

(Thanks to electionworld for the info)

That's not too close, is it? But we'll see about this year.

In Karamoja news, thinks aren't sounding good with this meningitis epidemic that's going around. The main hospital around Nakaale, Tekora, has apparently screwed up worse than usual, and not been reporting the cases or taking care of them in a very timely manner. Katie just posted this today:

So far there have been 145 cases, but thankfully only 11 deaths. Josephine (one of our pharmacists) daughter is slowly recovering from it, but her nephew (and joyces nephew too) is still in the hospital in a coma. Joyce is having a rough time........ she is fearing for her nephew's life and fearing that her children will get this disease.

Josephine's daughter Munyes is such a tiny little girl anyway - she was sick a lot as a baby - I can't imagine how hard this must be on them.

In better news, my friend Chrissie is getting ready to return to Karamoja for a year. I'm quite excited for her.

Another Uganda blog

I came across this a week or so ago, and keep forgetting to share it. Megan in Uganda is the blog of an American college student staying in Kampala. Good stuff.

Sometimes in April

I just watched Sometimes in April this week, a new movie about the Rwanda genocide. My sisters thought watching that after having already seen Hotel Rwanda was somewhat gratuitous, but I got it because it was a somewhat different angle. Like Hotel Rwanda, the story focused on a family; the father was a Hutu in the army, but his wife was a Tutsi, so basically they were all in danger. His brother is a radio announcer, making broadcasts every day in support of the genocide. The film goes back and forth between Rwanda in 2004 and in 1994, when the radio announcer brother is about to be tried before a war crimes tribunal.

That was one of the most terrible parts of the movie, actually; if the people hadn't been told all day, every day, that they should kill the "cockroaches," the Tutsis, would so many have taken machetes to their neighbors? The other terrible thing, which of course we all know now, is that America (along with other western nations) did absolutely nothing to protect the people of Rwanda. If Americans weren't in danger, there was no real problem. One of the bureaucrats, who'd been fighting for greater involvement, asked at the end, "If they weren't Africans, would we have helped?" It's a scary thing to think about, and I don't know the answer. But I'm guessing to most people, Rwanda just seemed so impossibly far away. What could anyone do? (So often I think that way about things - abortion, for example.)

Anyway, the movie was actually much more graphic than HR was, which was good in a documentary sort of way, but somehow not as effective for breaking your heart. I felt almost sick 20 minutes into HR, and there hadn't really been any violence, on screen. It was emotionally traumatic; Sometimes in April covered so much that you feel a little numb to the end. That said, I think both of these are movies worth watching, not enjoyable by any means, but a lot to think about. SiA really gets into the hows and whys of genocide, and the struggle of recovery after something like that. The ending did seem to be without much resolution, but maybe I was just missing something.

The most moving part of SiA was when a group of schoolgirls refused to separate into Hutu and Tutsi; they refused to give their identities, knowing what would probably happen. They were machine-gunned down for it. Hate forgets all its supposed loyalties in the face of resistance, I guess.

In sickness and in health

No, this post has nothing to do with weddings. It's a story that I don't like to tell, really, but it's ones of the memories that stuck with me most.

June 10, 2004
On Tuesday Martha and I went to the village as usual, but there wasn't really anyone around. Josephine & Rose showed up after a little while - they had been to see some of the women, and said no one was going to show up. J. also mentioned that one woman had a very sick baby, and some of its symptoms sounded like tetanus. So we prayed with the people who were there - the half-naked boy with orangish hair (from protein deficiency) who's always there and is such a friendly kid, one old lady, some of Joyce's kids, and also one of the blind peanut-shellers (a man). And then we went to see this baby.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone as sick as this baby. Its face was pale and it looked utterly worn out.

Martha and Josephine told the baby's mother that she really must take him to the clinic - they would not refuse to help there, even though she had no money. So this woman tied the baby onto her back and we all, Josephin and Rose included, set out.
On the way, Rose and I talked a bit and she told me about her two babies before Tony who died. I really pray this one she's pregnant with now will live. [It didn't, but this year Loduk Robert was born.]

Anyway, we got to the clinic and Sagal David got the baby on an IV. [I wanted really badly to watch him try to save the baby's life, but I had to go sit down before my knees buckled. At the time I thought I was just hot and tired, but now unfortunately i think I couldn't handle watching a needle go into a baby's head.]
It turns out the baby had malaria and had gone untreated for over seven days. He was severly dehydrated from vomiting. This child was literally dying (praise God for Sagal, nurses, and medicine, though), and his mother had no idea what to do - Martha said she's one of those who knows how to dig gardens and grind posho, but she doesn't know how to ask for help when her child is dying of malaria. Thankfully, Josephine is a good neighbor.

June 13
Rose told us today after church that the baby we took to the clinic died. Probably he would have died anyway, but getting moved down the road to Tekora for care didn't help. Martha says it's been a hard decision whether or not to have in-patient care here.

*****
There still isn't in-patient care, as far as I know. Please pray for the clinic, Akisyon A Yesu (Mercy of Jesus?), if you think of it: they treat sometimes more than a 100 patients a day during the rainy season, and it's a struggle to get all the medicine and sometimes even the good staff that they need. Here's also a request that Pastor Albert shared recently:

Another note for prayer. There have been a number of cases of meningitis in recent weeks, with six leading to death. We don't want to contribute to the risk of the village kids, so we are suspending children's ministries for the time being. All the members of the Mission have been vaccinated, but would appreciate the added protection of your prayers.

Elizabeth is the only person I know pretty well who works at the clinic (besides Kris, of course). She went in on a Sunday once to give me a malaria test, which was really a nice thing for her to do. Most of the Wrights and half a dozen other short-time visitors came along to watch - exciting times. But Elizabeth let me look at my own parasites under the microscope, which is somehow cool. Elizabeth really deserves her own post; maybe that will be next.

May 23
Karamojong is hard language - my tongue trips constantly over all the vowels - but I'm starting to get some of it. And once you start getting the hang of it, singing in Karamojong is really cool. I have the "Amina amina amina" song stuck in my head now ("Amina amina amina/epol amina/Kristo erai amina..."), which means a lot more since Martha told me it's saying that if I speak w/ the tongues of men and angels but have not love... (well, it might not say that exactly, but it's based on that passage in 1 Cor.).

May 25
On Friday night one of the ascaris (Richard) came to the door and told Martha that the enemies were here. He was all ready to shoot to kill if anyone so much as came near, I think, which was a little disturbing for Martha to have to deal with. She told him very firmly that he will NOT shoot. [Bob was in Kampala.] The bullets from an AK can travel a kilometer - easily as far as Josephine and Richard's house. Anyway, I spent the night. Rachel, Anna, and I had a slumber party and stayed up for a good couple hours in the dark, telling jokes and stories. It was really was a fun time.

Last night I slept over there, too, since we finished watching The Two Towers at ten, and Bob's truck was still hooked up to the trailed (the van is up on blocks, needing springs). Of course I could've walked home with Richard, but it is sort of nice to be able to just stay over there. I really appreciate them letting me do that.

In the village

More excerpts from the 2004 trip:

May 11
"Well," as Wesley said, "That was an adventure." After my science class with Mary & Kipsy this afternoon, Martha stopped by for me and we went to the village. It's perhaps half a mile away (maybe less). Anyway, you enter through an opening in the thorn wall, and there are dirt paths winding around between groups of houses. We didn't pass the corral [actually, there aren't cows in this ere], but there was a garden.

Usually Martha does a Bible study/literacy class at Josephine's, but today we started in an open hut-thing of Rose's. It begin to rain pretty hard, so we hurried through the mud to Josephine's house. I sat on a mattress next to Josephine, baby Munyes, and Joyce's littlest girl. There were a couple of old ladies there, and a few younger ones, plus children going back and forth. Martha told the story of Moses, from his birth to when God spoke to him through the burning bush. Afterwards it started raining hard again, so we hung out at J's. It was actually very nice. Then, because the mud is so bad, Joyce loaned me her mud boots (very big, sturdy, and dry!) and Josephine loaned Martha some thorn-proof sandals. Josephine, barefoot, led us on the best track along the path till we came out of the really muddy parts. She and Joyce really were kind to us! (Next time, instead of being dumb mzungus, we'll wear boots and raincoats no matter what. ;) )


friends at Rose's

Later, my intital reactions: I sat down on the mat in the hut and talked a little bit to Rose's father, while Martha went to see where Josephine was. That was fine. But it started to smell when the ladies begin coming, and there were so many flies (I've always hated flies), and I don't speak Karimojong. I just wasn't particularly comfortable.

Christ is comfort, though, and he was there. As Martha prayed (and Josephine translated), the flies lost their importance and I didn't want to be concerned by the "ills" anymore. It does make a difference in attitude to call out to God and remember that he is there with me even in a stuck in really the middle of nowhere...only it's not nowhere, though his grace.

June 1st
For some reason, after the initial discomfort of that first time, I have loved being in the village. Smells and flies can be annoying, but the old ladies and kids are starting to take on familiar faces, and I love being with Josephine and Rose. Today, for the last couple songs, there was Josephine with Munyes, Rose with Tony, and Joyce with Matthew, all together.

And then there's this boy who's always there: he just has this ragged shirt (button-up type) and is always carrying around his toy, a stick with a wheel attached to the end. I don't know his name; I need to ask Martha. Anyway, he's always very friendly. Today it was just him and me and the old women for a few minutes, and I wanted to talk to this kid but was stopped by not knowing any Karamojong. I decided to draw in the dirt, and that worked pretty well to entertain us both. I drew Rose's house and the little thatch granary next it, and the boy grinned and pointed, "oh yeah, you're drawing that." So it was fun. Man, I need to work on picking up more Karamojong, though!

[The next summer when I went back, this kid still had ragged clothes but had changed so much. He was still friendly and smiling, only more so, and he knew some English. One day he and some younger kids came by the schoolhouse with flowers, I think for Amy, but she wasn't there. So they gave them to me, and this boy knew my name; I was obviously Amanda, not Amy. That blew me away, because I hadn't seen him for a year...although he probably knew all about what I'd been up to since I got back, through the "hinternet". It was rather exciting to recognize him and realize that he's doing better than when I saw him last.]

village girls

Of frogs

I was searching for science photos at work today, and came across lots of kids holding big, fat frogs. They reminded me of Bob Wright; he learned how to rub a frog's belly so that it would relax and just lay on its back in his hand. One night we (Wrights, Proctors, and I) were eating at the Landmark Inn in Mbale, and the kitchen was running a little behind schedule. So while we sat outside in the yard in the twilight, Bob caught a frog and sat there calming it down and holding it for a good half hour while Phil smoked his pipe and we slapped at mosquitoes.


This is not a frog, but what we found in the empty milk jar at Bob & Martha's one morning

That was in 2004. This last summer, Nolan brought in his workboots after lunch one day, and to my surprise dumped out three frogs...

Good times!

Church Universal

Several weeks ago I introduced my own short-term African mission experience. Today's sermon on the "one holy catholic and apostolic church" inspired me to continue my story. Unlike Amanda, my Africa sojourn didn't involve very much relationship-building with the native people of Nampula. We interacted with them, especially the children who would watch us work, but our main mission was to do construction and free up Dr. Woodrow to continue working with the people. I think it was an effective use of resources - after all, he lived there building relationships, and he spoke the language. Even so, I wish I had been able to make Mozambican friends as Amanda has made Karimojong ones.

Some of the most special times we had, though, were worshipping in African churches. I think we visited a total of five different churches; they were all different, but they all left me in awe at how universal our God and gospel is. My favorite worship service was at a little tiny church made of bamboo poles and mud. As we drove up in our big truck, all of the church members stood outside singing and clapping to greet us. They had hung pink flowers from the ceiling as a special touch. The men sat on low benches on the right side of the room, and we women and the children sat on the ground on the left side. Everyone knelt for prayer. The zeal of these people was evident, especially in their singing. Several members (male and female) stood in the front with drums and tambourines and led the music. They used lots of call and response, and the distinct African harmony. I can remember sitting there wishing I had a tape recorder, because it was so beautiful!

They celebrated the Lord's Supper while we were there -- it was a little awkward for us, because they passed a communal cup (and frankly, we didn't know what was in it...it wasn't wine!). I don't think any of us drank out of it, but we were indeed feasting at the Lord's table with them anyway. They were a warm and gracious arm of the body of Christ.

At another Nampula church I learned a lesson that has never left me. The worship leader stopped the congregation in the middle of a hymn and said, "Stop. You are not singing with all your heart to your King. Start again and sing to Him!" That bold word, so unthinkable in a western worship service, became the theme of my mission team. As we dug foundations in the rock hard earth, we would remind each other, "Do this with your whole heart-- you are pick-axing for the King!" And I have tried to apply that lesson to many other areas of my life since.

Africa news

Well, not all news, but articles. First, what's been going in Karamoja: They're cracking down on illegal weapons, for real. Fifty-eight Karamojong men have been jailed for being caught walking around with guns. I'll refrain from commenting on this one...

I just read this at Worldmag.com: a great story about investing in Africa on a small level. A 23-year old went over with an organization called Hope International to the DR Congo and set up a loan strategy; basically finding people with very small business who needed a loan (of, say, $40) to really get going. It sounds like it worked really well. For $50,000 in Africa you can help a lot of people! I just think this is the coolest thing.

But it's also interesting because all the loans have been carefully monitored and they've been repaid on time. In Karamoja, Bob's been frustrated with how often loans don't get repaid...people just having little intention of returning money, much less with interest. So I'm curious how this organization sets things up, and if it would work in K'moja.

First Impressions

(I think Pride and Prejudice was going to be called that originally.) Anyway, I was just looking through my 2004 trip journal, reading about my first few days in Uganda. It was far more interesting than anything I wrote this last year; partly because it was the first time? Everything was new, including traveling halfway around the world by myself, and meeting a bunch of people who spoke little English and sometimes wore very little clothes. There was kind of an awe at everything in the adventure; "innocence" is too strong a word (esp. because I found out all the bad things as quickly as the good things), but there was something that I'm sorry my later journalling lacked. (Although I only wrote sporadically in 2005, even though Andrea told me to write every day. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you! :) )

Anyway, here are some of my first impressions, abridged because then, as now, I use too many what? Parentheses!

6 May ~Leaving Kampala ~
We just passed a "Shop Dot Com"! There is everything under the sun to be seen right (and I mean right) off the main roads. Turkeys, shops, people camping out on sacks in the sort of spaded-up ground, corn growing sort of wherever.

After leaving the ARA [hotel] we stopped at a meat market, notable because of Mary's comments about the dummy in front ("That man won't talk," she said, and when I said maybe he was frozen, "If he was frozen, he'd fall over") and the storks on the roof.

The countryside is beautiful, but I think Karamoja will actually be nicer. More Billingsish as far as scenery and less jungle-fever seeming.

Anna apparently gets carsick, so Martha told her she shouldn't be reading; she could just sit and think nice thoughts. :) Rachel is telling her about a new Redwall book.

May 7
For the last half hour there's been a constant sound of voices and what sounds like about 50 kids whooping it up, along w/ some turkeys (or else the strangest-sounding chickens I ever heard) [a rooster?]...Anyway, it's really fun to be right in the middle of things.

...

Oh, today I met Lokwii, a boy Dad met when he came 3 years ago. [This was also the day I met Margaret, honestly one of the nicest people ever. I thought so at the time, too; "she welcomed me and was just very, very kind." Margaret is one of the only Karamojong women who hugged people then, although now most of the women who work for the mission do. Maybe it's a cultural thing, like husband and wife not holding hands in public and women not whistling. To be honest, I don't think many of the Karamojong are affectionate - theirs is not a lifestyle that breeds much open affection, even for children and spouse. But of course there are exceptions to that!]

May 8
I'm going to take my second shower here this morning; I think that'll help wake me up! I just want to be a tad more awake first, before I experience the shock of it. [taking morning showers didn't last long - it's much more reasonable to wash up at the end of the day and go to bed clean at least.]

...

This morning I met some of the other people, incl. the Wrights' donkey herder, Losike Michael. He and Locharo Amos wrote their names out in the dirt for me, which was very helpful. Then Martha and the kids and I went for a hike up one of the hills. It was really beautiful; there's volcanic rock & vegetation - lots of wildflowers - all over the hillside, and you can see green Karamojong fields and land streching out all around, with mountains or more wooded hills in the distance. Rachel and Anna were picking flowers, so we stopped lots.

-------

Okay, enough for one post. Maybe if I'm still on this kick over the weekend, I'll write more then. If so, here's what's coming up: my first afternoon in the village, malaria, and Mbale.

Ejok nooi

After weeks of having nothing to say, now I'm thinking of too many things. So expect all the updates at once. Still haven't heard from Martha or Kris, but I haven't emailed them much lately. So maybe there will be real, genuine 'moja news soon. (Although Katie keeps me pretty well up on what's happening!)

The other day I fulfilled a childhood dream of watching TV in my room...or rather, watching a movie on the laptop in bed. It was practically a holiday still, so that's my excuse. Watching movies on laptops will probably always remind me of Uganda: watching movies with the Wrights on Bob's laptop, watching movies with Nolan and Amy. I guess the Ts really have a TV. So does Segal, who's the head nurse and Chippa's daddy. Or maybe it wasn't a TV, just a projector, but he did have a VCR/DVD player and some nights the side porch would be crowded with movie watchers, watching Nigerian films or other stuff, like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. There's nothing quite like hearing "Bless Yore Beautiful Hide" out your screen window and the laughter of a group of Karamojong thoroughly getting a kick out of a movie like that! :) I guess you don't have to have a great grasp of English to get the storyline.

I'm really enjoying my Bono book; there's a lot to process there. He's involved w/ an organization called DATA - Debt, Aids, Trade, and Africa. Anyway, one of the things I like is how Bono is hopeful without being overly optimistic. Yes, there's a lot of problems, but there IS hope for Africa. Sadly, the continent has slipped downhill in this decade. Bono doesn't really address the whole issue of very corrupt governments. But it does make me think; what would happen if more people started acting like neighbors to Africa? Could "stupid poverty," like child deaths for lack of cheap immunizations, etc, be more or less ended in our lifetime? That's something that I don't think Christians should be too skeptical of, because our God is a big, worlwide God and we should be concerned about people of every tongue, tribe, and nation. It's just trying to figure out how... In the meantime, keep praying and buying free trade coffee!