Heading back

Not me, but Kris and Craig. They're leaving tomorrow. The weather report says to expect snow and a high of 28 degrees - not great traveling weather, especially when you have international flights! But hopefully they'll make it out of here okay and have no extra layovers...

Kris says she is not looking forward to the trip. Neither would I be. It's fun till about halfway to London, when dinner has been eaten and you've watched a movie and now are ready to be in bed. And the trip is just about 1/3 of the way over with. I think of that travel time with dread usually. But then whenever I go to the airport here and am not traveling myself, I want really badly to be going somewhere, especially to Karamoja. My memory is pretty fickle. (Or maybe it's just that getting to your destination is worth it!)

(Product) Red

Sorry for the complete lack of posting in a while. I'll try to post something Karamoja-ish tomorrow. For now, have you seen Gap's new line of clothes? Check out (Gap) Red - half the profits go to a fund to help African women and children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Photo album

moja06

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures to a picassa photo album, if you want to check them out. They're mostly never-been-posted ones.

"Markete Day"

I'm going through old Karamoja pictures this morning, and found this one of the colorful Namalu market. (In Ugandan English an "a" (as in "up") sound is added at the end of Market Day.)

Tomorrow the Eldeens are giving a presentation at church, complete with many pictures...but that's for junior high kids and up, so I'm going to teach the younger kids. Aiyaiyai. Thankfully, I got several volunteers to help out. Amy is even going to teach a Kiswahili song, and I printed out coloring sheets with a verse in Karamojong: "Tomina akuj ekapolon kon ka ekonitau a daadang," or "love the Lord your God with all your heart..." We're going to sit on mats and even get "biscuits" for snacks, so I think it will be a fun way to learn more about Africa (which I, for one, didn't know much about as a kid, and still don't know enough about) and how God is working in other parts of the world. 

Village Kids

village kids

I noticed several girls in the village this day had gray ash-looking stuff smeared all over them. There appeared to be no mourning going on (the only explanation for it that I could think of), but I recently read - I think in Emma's War - about children being rubbed with ash to keep off the mosquitoes. I wonder if that was the case here?

101 Ways to Use a Jerrican

The Minnesota Twins had an amazing end to the regular season and are two games into the postseason, so I've been thinking about not much else besides baseball lately. (Pastor Al can tell who won all the last World Series in, oh, the last 20 years or so. But he and his family are big-time Yankees fans. It's funny to be in Karamoja and see Yankees t-shirts and hats.) Anyway, that's my excuse for not blogging and hopefully will continue to be so past Friday...

But about the jerricans (or jerry cans?) - these plastic containers hold everything from oil to water to sorghum. They also double nicely as drums - or speakers, as in this restaurant in Nakapiripirit. The sound quality wasn't so great, but you could tell it was music anyway. :) The same restaurant had a jerrican with a faucet-type spout so diners could wash their hands. Very nice.