KaramojAmanda

When milk costs $6 USD

2008-09-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of eating dinner with Victor, a pastor from Zimbabwe who is in the US for a few weeks, last night (as well as spending more time with him today). We know from the news that things there have been very bad economically there, but how do you wrap your mind around 13 million percent inflation rate?

As someone who loves to go to the grocery store, this has really struck home with me. Americans are dealing with the effects of too many choices, of option overload. In Zimbabwe, you go to the grocery store hoping the almost-empty shelves will have a few staples like rice, mealie meal (maize flour), oil, sugar, and perhaps - if you are fortunate - some greens. In large part because of economic policies and poorly-planned land redistribution, the "bread basket of Southern Africa" (with an incredible amount of arable land and perfect weather) cannot produce enough now to make ends meet - hence the 95% unemployment in an agrarian culture. With the inflation rate, it is often not worth while for the mills to grind up the flour, leading to shortages even of mealie meal.

For those who can afford it (and naturally that would not include Zimbabwe's many, many orphans - the highest orphan population in the world), groceries can be bought in Botswana or South Africa, where currency can be converted to the more stable rand or US dollar. But even so, by the time the deal is done, milk might cost you $6.

Aid organizations seem to be significantly hampered working there, but in some cases the local church is giving even out of its poverty. Victor says there have been stories of white people in old folks' homes starving; worse for old black people, who have no resources at all. His church has started creating meal packets to ensure these elderly people get fed. There are many more ministries like this going on within his own small church; what others are doing, I don't know. But it gives some hope that although I personally can't do anything at the moment but pray for better things for Zimbabwe and provide some monetary support (through my church here) to their work, there are people there who are giving generously of all that have, not not just time and resources. They have faith, as Victor encouraged us this morning to have, that God has promised them an eternal inheritance that will not spoil or fade or be affected by inflation - and that he is keeping them for that inheritance; we have the unswerving commitment of Jesus himself, so we can serve him without fear even in times of great physical and emotional suffering.

"I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

j is for jerricans

2008-08-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

When not carrying oil or water, they make good speakers...

i is for illness

2008-07-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is an easy one. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes apparently like the taste of my blood. (Actually, they like the taste of everyone's blood, except Pastor Al's.) My favorite malaria memory is Bob laughing when he heard that I got malaria for the first time...eight days after I arrived. It was nice proof that you really can get malaria from Kampala - it's not just a rural disease!

(Oddly enough, I was always faithful about taking my anti-malarial drugs. I tend to be a little too lackadaisical about taking medicine sometimes.)

My first experience with how deadly malaria is was soon after I got to Karamoja. Martha and I were hanging out in one of the villages, and started talking to a woman whose baby was very ill; his skin was pale and i got a cold feeling up and down my spine as I looked at him - he really looked like he was dying. Martha told the woman to bring him to the clinic right away and she, Martha, would pay. So instead of having a Bible study as we'd planned, another woman (Joyce?) and this woman and her baby and Martha and I all trooped back through the hot sun. Martha got the van and gave everyone a ride down to the clinic.

Segal David, the head medical officer, was on duty and immediately went to work. He had the mother (really just a young girl) use a razor blade to shave off a patch of the baby's hair so he could insert an IV.

I wanted very much to watch Segal save this baby's life, but when he was getting out the needle I had to go sit down on a bench with my head on my knees...apparently I am not cut out for watching medical procedures. At least when they involve small children. The IV was inserted successfully, though, and the baby started getting some fluids to counteract his severe dehydration.

That was on the greatest things I've ever seen, I think: the gift of medicine at work. I know the story didn't have a happy ending; the poor mother had waited too long, there was nothing that could be done, and a few days later this baby died. It makes me very grateful, though, for the work of the clinic and for the probably hundreds of lives they've saved since opening in 2001 or 2002.

H is for Harper Lee

2008-04-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

As if just being in Karamoja again wasn't enough, in 2005 I also got to lead a literature class on one of my favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird. Katie, Em, and Rachel kindly put up with my first real attempt at teaching lit. and I, at least, had fun! The best part was hearing the other girls' impressions of characters that I'd always thought of very differently. I remember best our discussion of Mr Dolphus Raymond, who sipped Coke from a paper sack and thus "perpetrated fraud against himself" (since everyone assumed it was whiskey); we were all amused and touched by his kindness to Scout, Jem, and Dill.

(Today is Harper Lee's birthday, by the way.)

What G Is For...

2008-02-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

As usual, there are lots of choices: germs, guns, girls, grins...they could all be fitting. But I saw this picture tonight, while I was looking through hundreds of old K'moja photos, and knew it had to be posted.

The Gecko in the Glass

This little guy thought flies were getting a little boring, so he climbed down into the empty milk glass (milk for tea has to be made every day from Nido powder and water) and tried it out. Unfortunately, getting out of the sink is never as easy as getting in....

(This is a re-posting, as for some reason the original picture stopped displaying.)

F Is for Friendship

2008-01-27T12:36:00.000-08:00

No surprises here, I hope. I've thought occasionally about why I felt connected so quickly in Karamoja, in spite of just as quickly finding out that life there was not all a piece of cake. And the best answer that I can come up with is that I was blessed with friends there right away. The Wrights were so welcoming; it wasn't many days before I was hanging out at their house all the time, picking books off their shelves to read, drinking up their peptobismal, borrowing one of Martha's Penn State sweatshirts (I was underprepared for fevers), walking out to the village with them, doing "mathletics" with Bobby, having sleepovers (there's a great pic of of the four girls and I, Rachel and I on beds on the floor, all reading books). They were so gracious to me; thanks, guys!

There are several other friends I made on that first trip who I've gotten to know better on subsequent trips and would very much love to see again. Rose, who washes dishes more cheerfully than anyone I've ever met, shared with me how many children she'd lost over the years, either as infants of because of miscarriages. She was pregnant at the time, but that baby died, too. I can only imagine how hard that must have been; in Billings, I grieved over it. But the next year was she pregnant again, and in 2006 baby Bob (Loduk Robert?) was born. And is now a healthy two-year-old, I think.... Anyway, I love Rose, with her usual greeting of "Hi, guys!" She patiently told me the typical Karamojong greetings again and again and again until finally I sort of got it - and then she and Joyce and the others were always encouraging when I tried out my lame Karamojong on them. :)

There are others I've mentioned before or should have mentioned - Lokwii and Emmy and Joyce Margaret and Elizabeth and, in a different way, Mamachipa. Also many other friends from later trips - Amy and the Tricaricos, and, which is very fun, Chrissie and the Eldeens from my own hometown. I'm so thankful for how kind and friendly they've all been to me!

Here's a picture of another friend. Unfortunately, I have no idea what his name is. But I met him in 2004, where we both sat in a hut waiting for Rose to come, and drew pictures in the dirt for each other. He was there the next two summers and once came down to the schoolhouse with some other village kids and gave me flowers. (I think they were originally meant for Amy, but when she wasn't there, he said my name. I was too flattered, completely. :)

Good times.

E Is for Eating

2008-01-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

I just got a good internet connection at home last week, thus the sudden flood of blog posts...

I never tried the tasty flies which are a Karamojong delicacy, never eaten grasshoppers. But Karamoja has expanded my taste in other ways. In 2004, I ate at an Indian restaurant for the first time (in Mbale). I love Indian food now. (Unfortunately, no Indian restaurants here. It's up to me to cook.) I almost got to try Ethopian food in Kampala, too. I drank Italian beer for the first time in Kampala, though. And at the Tricaricos' house, I tried veal for the first time. It was very good; I'm almost over my horror at eating baby calf now. And at Martha's house, I learned to make bread...and discover it was pretty fun.

I did try more traditional foods, though. The clinic staff and construction guys get rice and beans (and usually cabbage and occasionally matoke) every day for lunch. This has led to some quarreling because where formerly all they would have expected for lunch is perhaps some posho, now they would like a bit extra oil in their beans, please, and more salt, and... But such is human nature. Anyway, except when I was sick, I always really liked the rice and beans and especially the cabbage. Joyce once showed me how to cook the cabbage, but my attempt to cook it at home failed to duplicate it. Anyway, I've been assured that if I ate rice and beans every day for longer than a month or two, I would get tired of them. (But I'm naturaly inclined to like them; red beans and rice used to be a treat when I lived in Louisiana.)

I also tried posho, at this restaurant in Nakapiripirit. And it was good. It was legendary in my family because my dad had told me about it - a kind of porridge without much flavor. But cooked this way, it's somehow tasty. Basically smooth polenta with a lot of salt, good for dipping in beans.

All this is inspiring me to cook rice and beans, but it probably just won't taste the same....

D is for...

2008-01-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

so many things: dancing, danger, diahreating (as they call it in Uganda), dowry...

I'm going with Darkness, though. In connection with Karamoja, a U2 line just came to mind, and I'm always glad for an excuse to quote them:

Run from the darkness in the night...

The sun sets early in Uganda, year round. (I suppose because of its nearness to the Equator.) Thus, you get used to it being pitch-dark after dinner, even in the middle of summer. On a clear night if you go out and look up, you can see more stars than I thought possible to see. On a night of full moon, you might get to go to a dance. Or go on a cattle raid...I've never figured out if dark nights are preferred for raiding or not. Unfortunately, far too many nights are good for raiding.

If going to Karamoja, I recommend a good flashlight. I had a pitiful one the last time i went, with a beam so feeble that I had to point it no more than a foot ahead of me, and stare very hard at the ground, hoping I wouldn't step on a snake. Once I was keeping my eyes so fixed at the ground that I headed off in the wrong direction, and looked up to find myself about twenty feet to the right of where i was headed. The night watchmen were quite entertained by that. Karamojong don't lose their way easily.

Sausage Trees

2008-01-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

While reading Blue Shoes & Happiness on my lunch break, I discovered that sausage trees (see this previous post exist in Bostwana, too! They're known as Moporoto, which sounds a bit Karamojongish. You can find out more about the Botswana variety here, if you feel botanically inclined.

Mary and Kipsy used to draw faces on the sausage fruit and make them into dolls; I'm not sure what their Karamojong friends do with them.

Lokwii

2007-12-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to my friend Lokwii, who got married a couple months ago. He's the first person in Nakaale to decide that as a Christian he wanted to actually make vows to his wife, not just pay cows for her and take her (or just take her) as the usual practice is. It takes a lot of guts to do that! Anyway, I'm very happy for him and his bride, Helen.

He's 18 now; this picture was taken in May of 2004.

C is for Chipa

2007-11-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

Craig and Kris came over the other night, and somehow the subject of movies came up. I was laughing over what used to be popular on the back-porch theater (one of the old clinic officers had a projector and showed movies quite often) - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I will never, ever forget hearing "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" from the porch one night, accompanied by much laughter from the audience. Kris told me that was Chipa's favorite movie. It was one of my favorites, too, when I was her age....

I didn't see Chipa last year, because her family had moved, but she's central to many memories from my first two visits to Karamoja. In 2004, she must have been about six, and one of her favorite games was to sit outside the screened window and call "Amanda! Ejoka?" To which I would replay "ejoknooi." And then she would giggle and start all over. I learned my greetings very well that way, though!

Chipa's mother, Joyce (also known as Mamachippa) became my friend in 2005, when she took off one of her bronze bracelets and put it on my arm. She was drunk at the time (in the early afternoon), but I decided to take her seriously and reciprocrated with a gift of sugar and a visit the next day, which was one of the nicest visits I've had. Anyway, she joined us temporarily for singing at Bible study at her neighbor's house - and she sang very loudly, much to the children's amusement - but then grew agitated and whispered anxiously that she should leave. Amy and the others were doing a good job teaching her children, she said, and thanked us. All I could think is, "They want you."

When I got back, the kids were hanging around as usual. I gave all Mamachipa's big hugs; and looking Chipa in the eyes, felt she knew exactly why. She's silly like any little girl, and she's very stubborn, like her mama. She's also far older in knowledge than any little girl should be, yet I hope she's hanging in there and hasn't lost hope. Chipa, I pray many good things are yet to come for you.

B is for Breakfast

2007-10-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

My first real memory of Uganda is breakfasting at the ARA in Kampala. I had a nice chat with Martha while eating toast with butter and jam, tea with milk and sugar, and some odd-tasting cantalope. The cantalope tasted funny for good reason...it was actually papaya. Some color, totally different texture and taste. I enjoyed it the next time, once I learned it wasn't supposed to be a melon!

We never ate butter and jelly together on toast in my family, so it wasn't until that day that I discovered how wonderful they are together. Have a glass of passionfruit juice with that, and it's pretty much the perfect way to start off the day.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was destined to drink a lot of tea with milk and sugar. Once you start, it's kind of addicting. Who wants that black stuff when it can be sweet and creamy? I go through phases still of "needing" something else to go with my tea.

A is for Africa

2007-09-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Andrea is blogging through the alphabet and has invited her fellow bloggers to join her. I didn't think I would, but then a "B" post came to me, so I better get started.

Have you seen the book A Is for Africa, a children's alphabet picture book? There was a copy at the house where I was staying in Karamoja, back in 2004, along with other odds and ends of books that people had donated. One of my favorite "small" memories is of a rainy afternoon there when I had malaria. I was sitting on the couch reading, too tired to do much else, and Joyce, who had stayed to mop the floor (a daily job during the rainy season) got stranded by a rainstorm and sat down to read, too. She read A Is for Africa with careful absorption.

Since being Uganda, the world's gotten bigger - or is it smaller? - for me. Almost anything about Africa in general is enough to make me take some interest, to think, to listen to the news, to want to be involved even in a small way. There's not always good news, but then you hear amazing stories of survival and hope, too. I suppose any place is like that once you begin to take an interest in people there; I just happen to have been blessed with an African experience. And so the first thing that comes to mind for "A" is Africa...

Ejoka

2007-09-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, but in that time I've a) bought a house, which is a whole story in itself and b) visited with the Wrights, who were passing through. That was too fun, completely - I only wish they could've stayed longer!

About the house: its previous owners had some ties to Africa, judging by the decorations they had. I fell in love with it for many reasons, but that was just the icing on the cake. Now I need to figure out where I'm going to put my two Karimojong spears, stool, and similar items.

While I haven't been posting about Karamoja, I've been reading about it. Check out Caked in Red Clay, the blog of a Canadian journalist living in Kampala and writing occasionally about K'moja. He's had lots of interesting experiences so far, and writes about them like a good journalist.

Posing

2007-08-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

From the Economist

2007-08-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

They're making a movie of The No. 1 Ladies' Detectives Agency; it's the first movie filmed entirely in Botswana, which is cool. I like my own version of Mma Ramotswe, but I'm sure I'll be going to the movie if it's released in theaters here. (It's going on British TV first, apparently.)

I also learned something new about Southern Sudan, which is made up mostly of Christians and animists; it has its own government and is expected to be a separate country by 2011. And it's got close relations with its nearest neighbor, of course (Uganda). There's a lot been going on there. This is the incentive I need to finish Emma's War and start reading more of the news.

This isn't Africa news and it's not from The Economist, but tonight I've been watching a PBS documentary on Stax Records, a soul record company in the 60s and 70s. It's got a fascinating history, as well as a lot of good music. When Stax started, segregration was still practiced if not legal, but a black man and a white man shared the same office and telephone, and were of equal status. It was the character (and the talent) that mattered, as one of them said in the documentary.

I've got some "new" music to find on iTunes now....

Washing Clothes, Karamojong Style

2007-07-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

Washing clothes by hand is a skill most Karamojong women seem to have. It's one I'd like to have, but washing clothes in a plastic basin isn't as easy as it might look. You have to scrub hard to get the dirt out, and I'm a lazy American. I did try washing my own clothes a few times last year, letting them soak while I went off to teach Mary and Kipsy. But Joyce inevitably got to them before me, scrubbing and rinsing and hanging them on the line by the time I got back. She had no trust in my laundry abilities (with good reason), but I think she also did it out of kindness, and not (just?) because of mzungu status reasons, either...

Thanks, Joyce. :)

PS - The girl in the photo is one Amy hired to do her laundry; she's not Joyce.

Rain

2007-06-29T23:22:00.001-07:00

I just got an email from Kris. She says the first bean harvest is starting, and it looks like it will be a pretty good one!

Blood Diamond

2007-06-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I do something I very rarely do except on weekends - stay up till 1 AM watching a movie. Blood Diamond was one of those movies I wasn't going to watch, but then the preview won me over. Now having seen it, it was worth only getting 5 1/2 hours of sleep for. For a quick summary before the movie spoilers start, the plot revolves around Solomon Vandy, who is kidnapped by rebels and forced to work in a diamond mine - where he finds a huge diamond, the ticket for freedom for his family. He hides it just as the government sweeps in and captures him and the rebels, one of whom saw him with the diamond. Long story short, a South African diamond smuggler, Danny Archer, find out about the diamond and persuades Solomon that he'll help him find his family...and the diamond. Along they way they meet up with a journalist who wants to get the story out of Archer about conflict diamonds (diamonds sold by rebels in order to buy weapons).

Maybe I just missed it, but I had NO idea where the action was taking place. Turns out it was Sierra Leone, during their civil war in the mid-90's. (Guess if I knew my African geography I'd have know that was next to Liberia, which was mentioned frequently.)

Okay, now on to what I thought about it. Blood Diamond is probably the best Hollywood movie I've seen about Africa; it didn't have s Western-centric feel that others do. It was especially interesting having a white South African and a black Sierra Leonan together, with their different experiences but same African roots. The only American character in the movie was the journalist, and she was dealing with the issues one might expect - there are atrocities happening here, but how can I write about it so it doesn't go in one ear and out the other back home? Shock value has no value anymore.

There was a lot of violence, but not as gory as I was expecting; consistently, it wasn't there for shock so much as realism. The part of the story that got to me most, actually, revolved around the violence. Watching the rebels coming in to the capital to burn and kill and loot made me think, "Mogadishu...this sort of thing is happening in Somalia right now." Pretty chilling thought. But the strongest part of the movie for me was how the rebels took Solomon's son (hoping to use him to get back the diamond) and did their best to teach him to hate his father and to be a killer...at the age of 11 or so. This very thing is going on in Northern Uganda, in the Sudan, in many other places (not just in Africa). Children are truly forced to be murderers. I've never seen or heard a better example of how this system works; that alone is worth watching Blood Diamond for, in all its unpleasant details.

Other tough issues the movie brought up: what is an African to think of violence in Africa, and where's God in all this? The end isn't overtly Christian by any means, but its nature is: there's redemption, peace, and hope in individual lives (even if they don't all have a "happy" ending) and that's the hope of nations being changed too someday, isn't it?

Anyway, good movie. Even the love story (which didn't take up too much of it) is good and doesn't interfere with the plot but rather works with it. It was a real story, not just something set in Africa.

Food

2007-06-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

I was craving beans, rice and cabbage tonight...as I was putting away leftover (and sadly beanless) rice, I could just see a bowl of beans and rice, with cabbage of course. I think I'd never get tired of eating it for lunch, but then I never ate it for more than 5 weeks, so it's a little hard to judge!

Kampala by Night

2007-06-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

It's a blurry picture (snapped from the car, or rather ambulence, window on the way back last year), but I like the flickering look. I think they were lamps set out so people could shop at night, but they give a sort of festive look to the street, like people are lighting sparklers or something.

Books

2007-05-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Wrights (Bob, Martha, and Rachel anyway) introduced me to many great books. I'm not usually very shy when it comes to books, and quickly felt comfortable enough to sit in their living room reading anything from Artemis Fowl to Seamus Heaney. Some of my best memories, though, are of me and various Wrights hanging out reading National Geographic, which they had almost a whole shelf of.

Here are just a few books I read in K'moja or as a result of being there.

Kids books (enjoyable for adults, too):

Artemis Fowl and Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident. I've read two more in the series since then.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett

Boy and Going Solo, funny and interesting autobiographical stories by Roald Dahl.

Other:

The Innocent Anthropologist by Nigel Barley, bought at Aristoc's in Kampala and finished on the Tube in London. One of the funniest books I've ever read. (Not a Hazardous Sport by Barley is also quite good.)

There were others, but those are the main ones.

And now I'm finally getting around to "It's a Jungle Out There!", which I bought a couple years ago. It's the often-hilarious adventures of life as a missionary kid in the jungles of Peru, living a lot like the Indian kids. I admire people who live in the jungle, because I have a great aversion to bugs crawling on me. Most of the nights when I couldn't sleep in Uganda were due to bugs crawling on me - or at least thinking they were. One ant crawling on my leg for 30 seconds would multiply to about 10 for the next half hour, at least in the signals my brain was getting. I don't think it was ever really that bad.

Chrissie also got me into some new books, like The Shakespeare Stealer series, when I was there last summer.

Good Times

2007-05-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

(and bad.)

I've been thinking more about Africa in general lately (as well as people suffering from AIDS worldwide), but that doesn't mean I've been forgetting about Karamoja! There's just not anything new I want to report. But after making some muffins with a recipe of Chrissie's tonight, I got out my 2005 journal and will post a couple excerpts...

May 1, 2005
Well, I arrived safe and sound in Entebbe (though sans luggage) to be picked up by Craig and Kris and Albert & Laurie Tricarico. We went shopping, got stuck in traffic in Kampala - it was the beginning of a school holiday, so tons of kids going home - and made it to Karamoja around suppertime. There's been lots of development in Nakaale, but it's still the same ol' Karamoja I know and love.

The schoolboys are all home on vacation, and today Emmy became a member of the congregation at Nakaale and we all celebrated by having communion together. It was very cool!

The kids seem to get a kick out of repeating my name, and Segal's daughter Chippa asks me at least once every time she sees me what my name is...

May 8
Yesterday morning Emily brought me a guava in bed. :) [I was sharing a room with the three Tricarico girls for the first couple weeks.] There's a guava tree out in the courtyard between the main house and the Eldeens'. Guavas, like passion fruit, are smaller than apples - I'm thinking apples here, which are little green ones from South Africa - so it must take a ton of them to make juice. But they're very good!

May 9
Kris just stopped in tp see Laurie and ended up talking to me. It's not been an easy day at the clinic. A man brought in his little kid - Kris said he was about 4 - who was sick from getting drunk on nagwai, the local beer. How did he get drunk? He was complaining of hunger so the family gave him enough beer to shut up. Apparently the father is very thankful the kid is alive, though; I think it's a good sign that he took him in at all. [It doesn't always happen.]

May 13
Tonight Josephine and her family are coming over to Amy's for tacos. I'm looking forward to it since I haven't really seen much of J. yet. On Tuesday when I went to the clinic for a malaria smear I got to see her daughter Munyes; she looks about the same, but a little taller and a little more hair, plus she's talking now. She took my hand and led me around the yard a couple of times.

Chocolate

2007-05-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

I read an article about chocolate in The Economist the other day. One company, Divine Chocolate, actually has shares owned by cocoa growers in Ghana, and has helped them succeed economically. Divine sounds like an effective model for companies who want to help make trade more fair for farmers in places like Africa.

And, having tried out some of their chocolate, I think they've been quite successful there, too!

Samosas

2007-04-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made samosas, fried pastries stuffed with anything from meat to potatoes and other vegetables. They're quite a bit of work to make, but worth the effort. My sister helped me out, which made it much more fun.

Samosas originated in India, I think, but you can buy them in the market in Uganda.

I used a mix of recipes, the filling from Taste of Uganda and the dough from an Indian cookbook.

For meat filling:
- 250g meat, minced (or about 1 cup of ground beef)
- 4 onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- a piece of fresh ginger
- 1 carrot
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- coriander leaves (I forgot about the coriander)
- 1 small green (or red) pepper
- 1 chopped green chilies (optional)
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 teaspoons salt

I like the way the recipe is written.

Brown the meat, cooking it with a little salt. Then...

Chop the onions and crush the garlic.
Chop the coriander and crush the ginger.
Grate the carrot, chop the green pepper.

(Cooking is so violent, yet poetic. ;-) )

Lightly fry the onions in the oil, then add the meat, salt, and curry. Cook for a few minutes, then add the coriander, ginger, and chilies.

Remove the meat from the fire and add the grated carrot and green pepper.

For the pastry:
- 2/3 cup flour (I recommend using a full cup, though)
- salt
- 3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
- 4 tablespoons water

Mix the flour and salt, then use your fingers to "rub" in the butter till it all has a crumby texture. Add the water, and mix with a fork until it has a doughy consistency. Then knead the dough for about five minutes, adding more flour if it's sticky. Let it sit for about five minutes, then pull a piece of dough off (about 1/8 of it) and roll it out into a circle. Cut in it half and shape the half into a cone, using water to make the edges stick together. Spoon the filling into the cone, then fold over the top and seal it in the same way, so you have a triangle shape. (If you follow the recipe, that is. My sister read it halfway through and made cute little samosas after that, instead of empanada-shaped ones.)

To fry them:
Fill a deep saucepan about 2-3 inches with oil and heat it till there are some bubbles and a piece of dough dropped in rises and browns in about 30 seconds. Add a couple samosas at a time and fry them for about 60-90 seconds on each side. They should be faintly golden brown.

They're very good hot, cold, plain, or with dipping sauce (like yogurt mixed with a little bit of tomato).

AIDS Scenarios

2007-04-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

The AIDS Crisis lists a lot of organization websites, which I've only just begin to skim the surface of. But there's a whole book online from UNAIDS about three possible global AIDS scenarios in 2025 which has lots of information about HIV/AIDS currently as well as factors that impact the spread -- or help prevent it. (It's over 200 pages, but worth taking a look at.)

On a Sunday...

2007-04-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

The Last King of Scotland

2007-04-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching The Last King of Scotland, about Idi Amin and his personal physician. I'm still feeling a bit sick from it, so perhaps it's not the best time to write a review, but it is certainly still fresh in my mind.

Note: This post contains lots of spoilers.

Basically, the protagonist, Dr Garrigan (okay, it's not that fresh - I can't remember his first name) moves from Scotland to Uganda right after med school, looking for adventure and perhaps to help a few people. He goes to an Amin rally in the countryside, gives him some slight medical assistance, and is invited to Kampala (the capital) to become Amin's physician. He likes Amin pretty well, like the rest of Uganda seems to, and Amin likes him and makes him his closest advisor. But then things begin to turn sour. Garrigan informs Amin that the Minister of Health (Amin's other main confidante) appears to be up to something fishy, and Amin should talk to him; the Minister of Health disappears. Garrigan realizes things are getting bad, and wants out, but Amin won't let him leave. (At the same time, Garrigan and one of Amin's wives are having an affair.) Garrigan goes to a British guy and is told if he wants help at this point, he needs to kill Amin.

Right after that, Amin's wife finds out she's pregnant (by Garrigan) and wants an abortion so Amin won't find out. But he does anyway, and has her body torn apart as an "example." Garrigan now has more reason to kill Amin, and gives him some "headache medicine" that will cure headaches for good. Before Amin takes it, though, they're interrupted by the hijacked flight that lands in Entebbe with Israeli hostages. While Garrigan is seeing to the hostages' needs, Amin's head of security takes the pills and gives them to a young soldier to test if they're poisoned. Garrigan, being a good doctor, rushes out to stop the kid from swallowing it. Of course that gives it all away. Amin has him strung up from the airport ceiling by hooks in his chest, and I really thought he died, but apparently it wasn't that bad (just incredibly gruesome). The Ugandan doctor Garrigan had been working with bandaged him up after the soldiers left, and told him to get out and tell the world what Amin was doing. All of the non-Israeli hostages were being let go, so Garrigan managed to slip in with them as they got on the plane, and just made it out of the country. The footage at the end is of a rejoicing Uganda after Amin is finally thrown out in 1979. (It was real footage, which was cool.)

So, long summary. I liked (can't really say enjoyed) some things about this movie: lots of African kids and countryside, the tying in historically with things like the Entebbe hijacking, and Garrigan's change from "just trying to have fun" to realizing the results of what he was doing and changing. I didn't like Garrigan for most of the movie, until he started to realize what a fix he was in - and one of his making. That's something I can sympathize with.

There was a lot of disturbing things in the movie, too, but not in the way Hotel Rwanda or Sometimes in April or movies like Schindler's List are disturbing. All but about a minute of the violence (when Garrigan finally found out what was going on around him) was directed at Amin's wife, who died a horrible death, and Garrigan. What has happening in the rest of the Uganda was mentioned in passing, but didn't really feel connected to the main story. And Amin didn't really seem evil; a bit crazy, but there wasn't any real hatred or cruelty until he suddenly starts doing incredibly gruesome things in revenge. It felt...I dunno, very Hollywood. That part of the movie just felt a bit inexplicable, based on what I'd seen of Amin up till then. It showed the innocent face that evil can wear for a while, I guess.

Perhaps this is just Ugandan partisanship on my part, but I felt it was almost racist (wrong word, but I can't think of anything better) to make a movie about Idi Amin and have the only real torture and violence be directed at a white man (and Amin's wife, who slept with the white man). I mean, if my parents or grandparents had been killed in the 70s and their bodies been left unburied, I probably wouldn't care very much what happened to Garrigan, who really shouldn't have been involved in the first place. But I guess that's just the story the moviemakers chose to portray, I shouldn't be faulting them for that. And it is an interesting story.

The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Do

2007-04-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

A friend loaned me The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Do several weeks ago, since one of the guest speakers at our church's missions conference was going to be Deborah Dortzbach, the co-author of the book. She's a director (the director?) for World Relief's AIDS program. The book is about how we, each of us, need to face the reality of the AIDS epidemic that's sweeping the world, and begin to reach out and do something. It's taken me far too long to start, partly because I've been busy and partly because getting myself to start a non-fiction book (even if it's something I'm really interested in) is like pulling teeth.

But it's going to be hard to put down now. I'm only taking a break to blog about, because it feels to pressing, the need is too immediate, to wait. Here are some quotes from the first two chapters that have struck home to me.

The total number of people living with HIV is nearly forty million and rising, double the number ten years ago. In 2005, 2.8 million people died of AIDS, half a million if them were children under fifteen. Nearly eight thousand people die each die as a result of the AIDS epidemic...By 2010, 25 million children will have been orphaned by AIDS.
And all this in spite of the fact that in the past twenty-five years more resources of time, skill and brainpower have been spent on AIDS than on any other illness in history. In that short time, HIV has spread to every country in the world...

The book has lots of real-life stories of people facing AIDS, whether dealing with their own sickness or that of a family member - or just helping someone who needs another person there to help them.

My name is Nsengiyumva Fidele. I am forty-eight years old, and I have five children. I learned I was HIV positive in July of 2002. I was full of fear and sorrow. After two weeks I made the decision to start an HIV/AIDS program in my church to help those who are not HIV positive to protect themselves, and to help those who are positive to deal with it well. I went to the leaders of the Friends Church. They told me that they had been praying about this for some time, but they didn't have anyone who could start this ministry. The church leaders and I saw that this was now the Lord's will.
After going to the second training [with Word Relief], I found that I could do nothing but tell my story to others in my church. I wanted my story to help stop the stigma and shame that was common in many churches. I also wanted people to protect themselves from AIDS. I continued sharing my story openly in many other places in the country, and now we have many different associations for people living with AIDS.
The purpose I now have is to help church leaders who are HIV positive to be open about it, because they are good vehicles of hope to the community. I now have hope...
For me, living with AIDS is the path through which God has chosen to use me. It's true, in my blood there is the AIDS virus, but there is also the blood of Jesus. I trust and do not doubt that Jesus' blood in me has more power than that of the AIDS virus. So I am not defeated by this virus. I stand firmly on God's word from Psalms 118:17, "I will not die but live [eternally], and proclaim what the Lord has done."

Hanging out

2007-04-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

I just found this picture again the other day (from 2004) and am posting it because it's got some of my favorite people in it: Joyce and Rose (and Martha, who's hand is on the left there). This was after a women's Bible study at Rose's, which also gathered kids, the old, and the blind, none of whom had been drinking too much ngawe (beer). It was a good way to get introduced to people in the village.

Ugandan Flag

2007-04-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

For the last year or so, I've been thinking the Ugandan flag has a rooster on it.

Then last Saturday night, as I was talking about Uganda to some kids at Rocky's missions conference, one of them commented on the "chicken" on the flag. Suddenly it clicked, and I remembered that Uganda's national bird is a crested crane. Much more noble of a bird to be on a flag!

Butterflies

2007-04-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

It's finally spring here, and reminding me somehow of Karamoja. Yesterday the sun was shining, but there were mud muddles everywhere, which as I was looking out my office window I saw attracted one lone white butterfly.

In Uganda during the rainy season, driving down a dirt road sometimes you can see dozens of little yellow butterflies gathered around a mud puddle, sipping up that, uh, sweet nectar. It's very pretty, though, when the vehicle goes by and they all fly off. Someone mentioned once that it would make a good ad for one of the cell phone companies there (whichever one uses yellow in their ads -- I don't remember now).

There are more dignified butterflies, too. Black ones with white spots in Kampala, and brilliant multi-colored ones like this in the Wrights' backyard in Karamoja.

Picture of the Moon

2007-04-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Taken by Kipsy (age 5 at the time) in Kampala.

Tropical

2007-04-04T20:51:00.000-07:00

Money

2007-03-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

A friend is loaning me a fascinating book called African Friends and Money Matters, written by an anthropologist writing about socio-economic system differences between Africans and Westerners.

In the chapter I'm reading now, the author (David Maranz) talks about the importance of gift-giving to friends in African culture. One thing I found particularly interesting is that in many African cultures, "compliments are frequently given indirectly in the form of requests for gifts or loans and are often formulated as questions" - so when someone asks for your shirt, they won't really be offended if you come up with an excuse why you can't give it to them. Hearing that was a relief, because I had to do this frequently in Karamoja! It makes me realize that in addition to begging (which is epidemic in K'moja), there could be other things going on, especially among people I would consider friends or acquaintances.

But this is the part that really sounded familiar:

There is a reasonable explanation for compliments not being made directly except between friends of mutual confidence...Traditionally there was much fear of evil tongue, evil eye, or evil touch. So, for example, it was taboo to tell parents that their child was pretty...In these belief systems, saying something complimentary can be a disguise for wishing evil on a person.

The women I met in Karamoja were always gracious, but if a Westerner tried to tell one her new baby, for instance, was beautiful, there would be disclaiming. That was actually one of the first bits of etiquette I learned, besides greeting: be careful about complimenting people about their children!

David's take on why so many people ask for what seem like crazy things, like "will you take me to America?" makes sense. And again, it's good to think deeper than what it sounds like on the surface to someone from a Western culture; not everyone is an opportunist in the sense that they're trying to advantage of you...

The foreigner in Africa frequently is asked for favors from strangers or near strangers that seem to be a mix of request, an indirectly expressed compliment, and deep desire that the asker does not expect will be granted...[e.g.] "Can you help me get to America?" Or, "Will you teach me English?" Certainly the asker would like to have these requests filled, but when the foreigner being addressed is almost a total stranger, he knows it is very unlikely. I understand these requests to be conversational openers, attempts to establish a friendly relationship, expressions of admiration for the thing requested, and verbalization of the recognition that the person being addressed has access to resources, position, and power.

Of course this makes me want to visit Uganda again and test out my newfound knowledge! :)

2007-03-09T17:21:00.000-08:00

Tia in front of the main house.

Poor Tia!

2007-03-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

Kris just wrote a blog post about having to put down one of the dogs, Tia ("tye-a"), a Rhodesian Ridgeback. It's quite sad; for all his size and legendary ferociousness (when he was younger and his brother Tuskar was alive), he was really just a big baby. Other than half knocking me over whenever he bumped into me, Tia was a nice dog to have around.

I don't have any good close-up pictures to share, so you'll to make due with this one and one from a distance. Too bad you can't see his sad eyes!

Tia suffered frequently from mango worms, which would burrow into his skin and irritate the heck out of him. I've tried to pop them out with Chrissie, Katie, and Amy, but he always could tell what we were about to do and run away before we could sit on him. Pastor Dave is the only one Tia would ever let de-worm him.

Sorry if that's too much information. :)

Day Trip

2007-02-23T19:30:00.000-08:00

A while ago I told about the day trip Amy, Martha, Chrissie, and I took with the guys up to Nakapiripirit. It was a Saturday, and we decided it would fun to get out and see the sights. We hung out at the Resort, still under construction but nice and spacious and empty, and then wandered down to the market where there were no good deals but we did get to see an exciting parade in honor of the new LC's swearing in. Then some of us went to eat in one of the local restaurants - not in the wooden building where most of the men were sitting, but a covered area next door, where one of the officials from Namalu also was seated. Afterward I stopped at a shop that had shoes lined up on the porch, and found beaded sandals for about half the price they are in Kampala (only 10,000 shillings when you buy two more pairs - about $5), which was by far my best purchase on the whole trip. Then we rode home in the back of Bob's pickup...it's a very small truck, but somehow manages to fit welding gear, a generator, steel beams, etc. and more than half a dozen people. I sat very comfortably on a rolled up piece of rope. One of the schoolboys, who was working for Bob on his vacation, kept us entertained by making up geography. When we passed Tokora, I asked if that was the hospital where my dad had had stitches (when he came back in 2001), and Lokwii said yes...that was Nairobi. Altogether it was a very fun day getting to see more of Karamoja, and is in fact the only "sightseeing" I did last year, so in spite of not seeing any elephants or ostriches, it was still pretty nice.

Posho and Polenta

2007-02-23T17:48:00.000-08:00

I made polenta this week, and it reminds me very much of posho in texture, only grainier. The posho I had a restaurant in Nakapiripirit was actually tastier, without a cornmeal taste at all. (Well, perhaps that's because it wasn't made with corn; but sorghum is probably a very similar grain.) Hmm, the Karamojong and Italians have more in common than I thought...

School Days

2007-01-28T16:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture from science class with the four "middle kids" I was teaching in 2005. The coloring pages hung on a string in the back were Amy's clever idea for keeping Karamojong visitors occupied: they could color and see their pictures hung on display, and that would keep them from rifling through papers and interrupting every two minutes. Aleper and maybe one or two other kids did hang around for a science lesson or two; I think we were studying electricity at the time, which Aleper found very interesting. (Did you know you can make a bulb light up with just a battery and foil wire? You can also make a battery out of pennies and other stuff.) Aleper was supposed to be in school a couple miles away, but his mom didn't make him go and he apparently found this more interesting...

Very cool...

2007-01-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

I just watched this documentary trailer of schoolkids from Northern Uganda who made it to the finals in a country-wide school music competition. It's amazing (and humbling) to see how life is still good for kids who have been through a lot of suffering already.

2007-01-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Someplace sunny and warm...and with lots of smiling people to exchange "ejok noois" with. It's sounding very, very nice right now!

I've been missing Africa lately, which is just how it goes. But maybe I'll come up with some more interesting blog posts as I'm thinking more about it and remembering stories from the last couple years.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-22T20:19:00.000-08:00

Kris says it's hot in Karamoja, and Kampala is suffering from Christmas-overload (Santa is apparently very popular there), but she sounds glad to be spending another Christmas in Uganda. Laurie says they're planning to have a big dinner today or tomorrow with the clinic staff, which sounds like a fun way to kick off their Christmas celebrations. It reminds me that it shouldn't seem strange for people to be celebrating Christmas in Karamoja - Christmas was meant to be for all sorts of people, whether shepherds in the Middle East or goatherds in Eastern Africa:

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord....

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Fermented Fruit Salad

2006-12-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

Last year Katie and I were going to make a fruit salad. We'd just gotten a bunch of fresh fruit from Kampala...or at least, we thought it was fresh. Unfortunately, Pastor Al got delayed an extra day in Kampala after he'd bought it, so it sat for quite a while in a container in the hot sun on top of the van roof.

I cut into a watermelon and juice started fizzing out of it. "Is that supposed to happen?" Katie and I asked each other, a little worried. We cut it all the way open and realized the foaming was due to fermentation. Yum!

The pineapple was the same way. In the end, we had to give up on the fruit salad idea and haul out a bunch of rotten fruit, which we had to stand on a log on tiptoe to throw over the wire fence into the garbage heap.

Kids

2006-12-10T14:30:00.000-08:00

The older shepherd boy, on the right, had pretty effective sign language for asking me to take a picture. He'd hold an invisible camera up to his eye and "click" an invisible button with his finger.

2006-12-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

Tongues

2006-12-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Katie for this one; it's one of my favorite Karamoja pictures of all time. :) The girl in the plaid dress is Joyce's daughter Opie (Opee-ay)...I'm not sure who the others are, but they're cute!

2006-11-26T17:18:00.000-08:00

And one thing I'm thankful for about being back in the U.S....
You don't have to follow this rule:

"No toilet paper in the toilet, please!"

Thanksgiving

2006-11-25T07:06:00.000-08:00

I am truly thankful I got another opportunity to visit Karamoja this year! Now everyone seems to take it for granted that I'll be going back again. (2008! That's what I'm hoping for.)

The news from the Eldeens about the clinic is good. It sounds like the new staff truly cares for the people who come, rather than their own position or what they can get out of it. (The main hospital in Tekora doesn't like them, much, though. They are reluctant to take patients that the Nakaale clinic sends them; apparently they like to close early.) Perhaps someday their example will revolutionize medical care in Karamoja?

It's been a blessing having friends from Karamoja: I think of the schoolboys, especially Lokwii, who is somehow like a younger brother (but a taller one, like my real "little" brother), Elizabeth, and Joyce and Rose, who encouraged me a lot through their welcomingness and friendship (without an ulterior motive, such as an understandable "you assist me"). Thanks to Rose, and to Joyce's son Aleper, I know a lot more Karamojong that I would have otherwise. Which still is not saying much...

Some of my favorite memories of Karamoja are, in fact, of walking from the main house over to the Wrights' with Aleper, who was often just hanging out. It was a good, um, cultural experience in some ways. Once he had a tiny blue bird, with irridiscent feathers, that he'd captured and was keeping on a string. The poor thing was in a state of shock from being handled so much. But he was very proud of it, and I had to keep my mouth shut. Birds are something to be eaten...like rats...or sold to the mzungus, or in this case, played with.

I am thankful nooi for medicine! What could they do for malaria or amoebas 100 years ago, but try some herbal remedies or slaughter a chicken sacrifice? I don't think they had much success with either. Having experienced both sicknesses myself, it's a great thing to have modern medicine!

I'm still amazed how everything has worked out, and I enjoyed teaching the kids, and learned to like things like the odd smells in the village (minus the stronger booze and defecation smells). I don't think I'll ever try the innards of a goat, though. There are some things that are just too much, completely.

If nothing else, it would have been a good experience because of what Karamoja taught me about God - he cares about people, whether in a nice house in America or a mud hut in Africa; if you call on him there, he hears. Seeing the hope of women who have been through a lot more than me, and have had a lot more experience, was quite powerful.

Things just take time in Karamoja. I like the "slowly by slowly" lifestyle in many ways; there's less rush. It's hard if you want to see change - see men stop beating their wives, see women stop killing their babies by rolling on them when they're drunk. But ultimately that's a change in individual hearts and lives, not something that can be accomplished by cultural change. And it's already coming, "wadyo, wadyo."

New Post...

2006-11-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

at the Eldeen's blog. Sorry I haven't had much to say lately - but I've been thinking about Karamoja a lot, so maybe I can come up with something later...

Faith

2006-11-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

Kyalo and Elizabeth's daughter Faith, in a photo from this spring.

2006-11-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth in her lab.

2006-11-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

Baby Faith in 2004 with her Kenyan babysitter.

Eldeens' blog

2006-11-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

Kris and Craig have a blog now: www.eldeensinkaramoja.blogspot.com. Check out the last post about Faith's birthday celebration! Her parents are from Kenya, so it was a big celebration of the sort that you see less of in Karamoja (partly for the reason that there is no what? money in K'moja).

I like being the person they email blog entries to, since that way I'm sure to always get the latest news first. ;-)

2006-11-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

Having an oven that works is pretty nice.

And all you need is a stick and a crate of pop bottles to keep the door closed...

There's also no way to exactly regulate temperature, but you get kind of ballpark range and things turn out. I was always impressed whenever Chrissie made bread in it.

Heading back

2006-10-29T19:35:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-28T18:28:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

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"

2006-10-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Safe from theft (sort of)

2006-09-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

Abra

Karamoja is notorious for theiving, and not just of the cattle raiding sort. But one day I ran something over to the clinic for Martha, and had a nice chat there with Abra Joseph and Fiona about how in Karamoja you're safe from purse-snatchers, unlike in the cities, such as Mbale. People here only take stuff when you're not looking, but they won't cut your bag from your shoulder and run. I find that somehow consoling.

On this same visit, Elizabeth let me look through her microscope, which was fun. Not quite as exciting as looking at my own malaria smear, but anything under the microscope takes on an interesting quality.

Abra has twin daughters, Judith and Denise (named after Judy and Denise from Billings). Their little sister Mercy isn't nearly so shy...

souvenirs

2006-09-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

souvenirs

Last year I gave away one of my extra bracelets...this time I have some extra keychains. I got carried away bargaining in the craft market in Kampala, and ended up with three keychains when I only needed one. No one else here seems to want them, so if any of my blog readers would like one, you are welcome. They are genuine Ugandan imports (I hope) and quite sturdily made. They also have some nice shiny beads mixed up with the solid-colored ones, which make them look very "smart."

Not much news on the Ugandan end, but Craig and Kris will be back next week. I'm very excited about seeing them again (and I'm looking forward to seeing their pictures, too)!

Always Come for Fresh Meat

2006-09-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

Fresh

April 26, 2006

This morning I went to Namalu in the Land Rover ambulence, driven by Luka. Rachel, Kyalo, Anna, Josephine, Fiona, (the latter three are all Karamojong) and others from the clinic also came. Rach helped me pick out tomatoes, bananas, onions, what, what. Our bags quickly grew very heavy. I also got beads and a blanket, which are now 8000 shillings each; several vendors told me that they are costing 7500 from Mbale, so they're not making much profit! The market was very busy, partly because a lorry, parked by the side of the road, had two men in it. They had been shot on their way just that morning. There was a huge crowd around them.

On the drive, Rachel talked to Luka in a mix of Karamojong, English, and Arabic - she had just discovered he knew some Arabic, and so did she - and all the women in the back talked loudly and hilariously in Karamojong. It made me wish I knew more than a small smattering of the language, but sometimes I could laugh with them anyway because it was so funny that i felt like I understood the joke!

The meat stand in the picture is in Nakapiripirit - the one in Namalu is much bigger and better stocked, but not so attractively painted. And their marketing in Namalu is not so good. :)

Staying in the lines

2006-09-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Girl Coloring
Originally uploaded by alscalvin.

One of the funnest things about teaching the kids on Sunday mornings was how *good* they were at coloring. (And still are, I presume...) There was always a different mix of kids - I was surprised at how many very small children came, walking slowly or being carried by their big sisters, and then sometimes a half dozen mostly-naked shepherd boys would show up, and usually the kids of the clinic staff, who didn't seem to have much interaction with the village kids otherwise (perhaps because they live in better housing than the village, and not all of them are Karamojong?).

It was hard to focus on the kids sometimes while telling a story, because half the time I was talking to Lomo, both of us trying to find the right words to use ("excuse," as in make an excuse, isn't in Ngakarimojong vocubulary, I found out). But they were often patient listeners just the same, unless they started to quarrel, which did occasionally happen - littler siblings usually seemed to be the cause. And afterwards, they got to color.

A lot of these kids have had some small schooling, but probably more than half of them hadn't used crayons and paper before this. They got the hang of coloring quickly, though. In fact, I'm not sure when I've seen better coloring by such young kids! And they know which colors look good together - just like they have an excellent ear for rhythym?

I do wonder what they think of pictures of bearded men in flowing robes (like Abraham and Moses) - but then again, it's no more a stretch for them than for American kids, is it? But the concepts in the stories - God's promises to his people, to love them and forgive their sins at cost only to himself, even for the ones in Karamoja and Amerika - are the part that can cross cultural divisions. Sin and forgiveness are just as hard to come grips with here as there, but there's the same need to do so - and the same hope, in the end.

2006-09-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post the good news last night - the clinic is open again! I don't have any details, but Chrissie says all the staff (old and new) is happy to be doing something now. I imagine Kris is pretty thankful to have her job back, too.

Rainy Days

2006-09-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

akiru
Originally uploaded by alscalvin.

After weeks of being on fire (Billings has been gray with smoke all month), Montana is finally getting some rain. The mountains here won't ever look like this, but it will certainly be a relief to have some moisture.

These trees remind me of the Babar books I read over and over again as a kid. I kept half-expecting (or at least *hoping*) to see a giraffe poking his head around one! Sadly, all the wildlife I saw (besides some roaches and other miscellaneous bugs) was a toad and a very small deer (maybe too big and not cute enough to be a dik-dik?).

But rain and fields and mountains are pretty nice without any wildlife, too...

African WWII Vets

2006-09-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

BBC Africa has a slide show on African WWII vets - I'd never realized that Britain enlisted men from Tanzania and Zimbabwe to help fight Germany and Japan. Some of these men fought as far away as Burma, and only know are being recognized for it.

Oh, the mud

2006-09-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

When Amy and I went to Agirowas' place, where Bob was drilling a bore hole, we rode on her piki. (Cruising along a dirt road on the back of a motor bike is FUN!) The mud off the road was a little tricky to get through, though. I usually got off and walked through the mud - which sucks at the bottom of your Tevas like you're walking through thick glue - while Amy carefully made her way along the 30 feet of mud trail to where Bob's truck was parked. Somehow I was always pretty splattered with mud by the time we left again. Amy either had more experience avoiding mud on her clothes, or there's something about being Dutch that repels it! :)

Lodem Thomas and Bob drilling the bore hole

As you can see, mud boots are a good thing to have when you're drilling.

2006-09-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

A brief rant...

The International Criminal Court won't drop charges against LRA leaders, so the rebels won't agree to accept Uganda's amnesty. (How can they?) I don't actually know much about this, so it's not a very fair rant, but Uganda is the one who should be dealing with this problem, not any court that has Europeans or Americans in it!

Three Years

2006-09-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

Munyes, 2006

One of the funnest things about getting to make repeat trips is seeing the the same people again and getting to know them better. This is maybe not the best case to point to, since Munyes' mom, Josephine, and I were good friends the first two years, and this year I hardly saw her. As you can probably tell by the picture, Munyes didn't recognize me. But there were other people who I got to spend much more time with this summer. I guess that's the way it goes with most relationships, doesn't it? But it's very nice to see old friends, like Rose and Joyce, who are women I just like and respect more and more.)

2006-09-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

Munyes in 2005 - Sunday School under the tree

2006-09-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

Josephine and Baby Munyes in 2004

Books, Bob, and Martha

2006-08-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

Last week my sister and I went to a book discussion of Peace Like a River (a very good book, by the way). It's partly thanks to Martha that we were reading it. Judy (from Billings) went to Karamoja about four years ago and when her mom sent her Peace Like a River back in the states, she got a copy to Martha. Then I went and visited, and saw it on the bookshelf. Since Martha said it was a good book, I read it when I got back last year. And I told my friend Melodee about it, who passed it on to her sister-in-law, who told our pastor's wife about it. And she told everyone else; hence the book group....

That wasn't the only book Bob and Martha (and Rachel) got me hooked on, though. I've since bought Roald Dahl books (Boy was 2,000 shillings - about $1 - in a Kampala bookstore!), Nigel Barley (I finished The Innocent Anthropologist on the Tube in London in 2004), a Seamus Heaney collection, and more.

And now I'm reading Emma's War, recommended by Kris. Also Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik, which is made all the more enjoyable because I read the author's blog before she published her book. "One Woman's Solo Misadventure's Across Africa" is just too interesting to pass up! I'm not as brave as Marie, though - travling by myself is somehow stressful, although the Africa part was the easiest. (Of course, I've always been met at the airport....)

Sunshine

2006-08-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

The Okkens just got back to Uganda after a year-long furlough in the states. Since then Sunshine got malaria and something else, and for maybe the last week has been in the hospital in Kampala. This is about the worst reintrodruction you get to Uganda (short of dying). This is what Katie says:

Update on the Okkens: yesterday when Amy and Dad visited Mrs. Okken in the hospital she was supposed to be released today. She still so sick though and sore, that she has definitely not recovered completely. Her kids are terrified of her since she was full of IVs and stuff, so that's discouraging. Then last night Pastor Dave went to a cafe in Kampala to get Mrs. Okken something to eat other than hospital food. He didn't park for long, but long enough for thieves to break into his car and steal his suitcase and laptop and Mrs. Okken's wedding rings. Keep them in your prayers.

Bugs (Of the Pathogenic Sort)

2006-08-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

Malaria tests are fun!

I wasn't meaning to post anything like this, but looking through 2004 pictures for something at the clinic, I came across this and think it's too funny not to share.

The reason I wanted a clinic photo...Jake, who just got back from Africa last month, has been battling malaria. It recurred after he got back to the States, so that must be pretty tough. (Especially as school is starting up again.) Also, the clinic in Karamoja is really in need of prayer - right now it looks like it won't be opening again anytime soon, although God can certainly work things out differently. After looking into it, Kris found out they need to get certain certification, and they need to find a doctor and maybe some other things in order for that to happen. There's an American doctor who wants to go to there, but has two years of residency left.

But maybe there's someone in Uganda who, like Kyalo and Elizabeth (who willingly left their nicer home in Kenya to come to Karamoja and learn to care for the people there), has a heart for giving medical care to the Karamojong.

Traveling

2006-08-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

Please pray for some visitors who are coming to Karamoja in the next week - with all these travel restrictions now, it must not be very fun. Can you imagine arriving in Africa with no carry-on and then finding out that your luggage didn't make it?? (I recommend not flying Minneapolis-Chicago-London if you want your luggage to arrive with you, by the way.) So pray that their bags get there, too!

When I left in May, Bob and Rachel were going to take me to the airport on a Tuesday, but the disarmament in Tekora caused a change of plans. So Sunday night I frantically began packing (after 5 weeks a lot of stuff accrues...) and then watched a last few episodes of Lost and made a midnight snack with Rachel (who was spending the night, since she couldn't go to Kampala) and one of the Wrights' two visiting friends who was going to leave the next day, too.

We got dropped off in Mbale the next day, where we ate at the Mt Elgon hotel (good food, but we had to watch part of Jersey Girl and Dogtown while we waited). Then we got a ride to the capital in the CURE hospital ambulance, which was the first time I've ever ridden in one. (It was stuffed full of people - not sick - and luggage, and there wasn't much leg room, so the novelty wore off pretty fast. But still...) That night we ate pizza at an Italian outdoor restaurant and slept in a guest house where there were candles and matches beside each bed. Which was a good thing, because my room happened to not have electricity even though it was a night with power. :)

The next day one of the other visitors and I went shopping at the craft market and loaded up our suitcases even more with all kinds of fun stuff, including mzungu t-shirts. We also hung out with the Proctor family at the ARA, which was fun - I hadn't seen them at all on this trip but had stayed with them for a few days before. Then the Wrights' friends got dropped off and Charles, the director at CURE, and I got rooms at a luxurious hotel on the shore of Lake Victoria - although I would rather have done without the luxury, as it was rather a shock to pay almost 200,000 shillings ($100) for a hotel in Uganda, and that was with a CURE discount. Still, having hot water was nice!

So everything worked out well in spite of my being sure it would be awful having a change of plans like that. :-P Everything went extremely smoothly and according to plan with my overnight stay in London (which including seeing Les Miserable in the theater...although sadly I dozed through parts at the end). And then in Chicago there were weather delays. So I missed my flight in Minneapolis (another reason not to make an extra US stop, no matter how much cheaper!), and was, with jet-lag and all, a very disappointed girl. It's hard to come grips with the fact that I can't control everything, no matter how well I think I've planned things! But thankfully God doesn't have a plan B - this was in it all along, and it ended up being okay. I didn't make it home that night, but got on another flight into Bozeman that arrived at 11:30 pm (thanks to more weather delays). But at that point I didn't care anymore; I just was glad to be back in Montana. If you can't be in Uganda, that's the other great place to be. :)

The Best S'more

2006-08-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

A friend from America sent Rachel some marshmallows while I was there, which she generously shared with the rest of us girls at Bible study one night. We had a marshmallow roast over candles in Amy's banda. Amy warned us strictly not to set any on fire, but I think everyone did...there were several burning ones waved wildly to put them out, but nothing caught on fire, so it was all good. Rachel had never had s'mores before, so thanks to some leftover "biscuits" (cookies the closest you'll get to graham crackers in Uganda) and melted Reese's chocolate easter candy from Chrissie, we made some very tasty ones.

Updates

2006-08-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

The LRA has declared a ceasefire!

The clinic in Nakaale now has a clinic officer and new lab tech, although the two nurses they hired decided not to come to Karamoja after all. If you would, please pray that the clinic licence will be renewed without any hitches, and some nurses will be hired who really have a heart for working with the Karamojong (or are K'jong themselves!).

Peace Talks

2006-08-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

The peace talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA are continuing - so far not enough high-ranking men from the LRA have been willing to meet to come to a final agreement, although Joseph Kony himself came to one meeting. It really sounds like something could be worked out, if the International Criminal Court doesn't interfere (since they have warrants out for top LRA guys) and Uganda can grant amnesty. When you're fighting an army full of child soldiers, what else can you do? I think many Ugandans really would be able forgive, too.

Random Pictures

2006-07-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Pictures all have stories of their own - here a few short ones.

Girls in the village of Lomo Peter. The girl on the right has some of the most beautiful beadwork I've seen on someone under about 15.

2006-07-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Craig and another guy hard at work on the foundation of a new house. (Jake helped work on this when he was there; I'll try to post a picture soon, as they got lots more built since I was there.)

2006-07-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

Beans and posho in Nakapiripirit. You can use the posho to scoop up the beans. It was very tasty! Posho is finely-ground maize or sorgum flour, I think.

I had to take this picture for my friend Melodee - the middle girl's shirt says "It's all about baseball." This was at the hand-pump gas station outside of Nakapiripirit.

2006-07-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

The living room in the main house. The couch is the perfect place to sit and copy recipes from Woman's Day and O magazine if you're sick...

2006-07-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

Amy brought "Flat Stanley" to Agirowas' village. The kids enjoyed posing, if not quite sure why they were doing it. Amy even asked two warriors to pose, and they said yes! That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen, although I didn't laugh. Warriors are somehow scary. ;-) I bet the classroom in America who get these pictures are going to be quite excited!

2006-07-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Chrissie's new cat, Loru. The first day Chrissie had her, she stole dough while all the girls were making chapatis outside. A few days later, Kris' pregnant cat, Patches, chased Loru all the way up a tree. I haven't heard in a while how she's doing, but my guess is Loru is going to be quite a cat when she grows up.

Baby Bob

2006-07-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

Last year I posted about my friend Rose, who had a miscarriage just after I visited the first time. Praise God, she was pregnant during my second visit and I came back this time to a fat, healthy baby...who is clearly the cutest baby in Nakaale. :)

Loduk Robert, aka Baby Bob

kire ejok Akuj - truly God is good!

Update

2006-07-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

Apparently the peace talks aren't going very well yet...the government is fearing that if they agree to a ceasefire before other terms have been agreed to, the rebels will just use that to build up strength. Considering what this group has done in the past, I guess I'd be fearing too.

The news so often is bad; there really is no real hope without one who can change people's hearts and lives and bring lasting peace - with God as well as man...

Sausage Trees (A Karamoja Special)

2006-07-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

If you watch this video, you might notice a tree with some things dangling from it. There are quite a few of these trees around Nakaale, and they are distinctly weird-looking. As we were driving up for the first time, I asked Bob what was hanging from the trees. He told me with a straight face that they were sausages, hung out to cure (or whatever is done to sausages).
I really thought they were, too, until I realized Mary and Kips had dolls they'd made out of these "sausages." They're really almost like a giant potato in texture; very firm insides and dirty, tough skin on the outside. Definitely not sausages, though. They actually grow from the tree, suspended by vines that look an awful lot like rope.

Cool, huh?

Ejok

2006-07-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging, for those of you who check it regularly. I've been wanting to take up AmyLav's suggestion to post pictures/stories of Jake's visit - but I haven't really talked to him yet, and am lacking material to blog about. (This is sad. In Uganda, you don't just not see someone...I don't know if that makes sense, but everyone seems to be much more easily involved in each other's lives.) But hopefully I'll have something for you soon...

The LRA...

2006-07-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

is pretty big in the news right now; President Museveni is offering amnesty to the leaders. Peace talks start this week, I think. Please pray that they go well! The LRA has been wreaking havoc in northern Uganda for many years - perhaps this could be the beginning of the end.

I just read a story online in the New Vision, one of Uganda's main newspapers. It's about one of the wives of the rebel leader, speaking about her 11 years in captivity. I expected it to be like other stories I've read, where woman who have escaped speak out against what was done to them. The chilling thing about this story is that the young woman sticks up for her captor. She didn't even know about the things the LRA was doing until she came back to Uganda. He might have been good to her as she says (although does beating someone for letting another wife's babies cry sound good?), but on his authority thousands of children have been kidnapped and forced to kill even their own family members. It shows why the LRA has managed to stick around so long, though; fear and power speak to people in a scary way.

Very Tasty

2006-07-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

I got A Taste of Uganda for my birthday, imported direct from Kampala by Amazon.com! It has recipes that I'll never make, such as White Ant Relish or Grasshoppers I & II. (That reminds me of a little girl in one of the villages; she was carrying around a cup full of little winged ants, a tasty and probably nutritious (?) snack.) But it also has lots of rice and bean and pumpkin and sweet potato recipes that I'll make. And fried samosas and mandazis...mmm!

A guy from church just got back last week from a month in Karamoja. (People from Billings are ever going to Uganda!) It sounds like he had a good time, and Kris says he helped get a lot of work done. He brought back my beads that Lokwii had been stringing for me, which made me ridiculously happy. Also my Karamojong stool and recent pictures from Rachel, which was even better than the beads.

In Martha and Chrissie's last updates this week, they said they were starting a class in a few of the local schools, so hopefully that's going well.

Howah you?

2006-07-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

This isn't my video, but it is too cute, completely. (And very true to life!)

In the village

2006-07-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

May 13th

Yesterday we went to Kopetatum for Bible study, a whole truckload of us. It looked like a real African vehicle with 7-8 of us riding in the back. It was a fun ride although we got somehow besplatter with mud. I was even picking it out of my hair, and some of the kids tried to brush it off for me, giggling at the ecoto. There were more adults than usual, and a lot of teenage girls hanging around for the kids' story. There was a jerry can drum for the songs, so it was an enjoyable time. I'm discovering I like the dirty, smoky village smell quite a lot, so long as the ngagwe [beer]/defecation element isn't too strong.a

My favorite village picture!

(These pictures are from Loumo Peter's, not Kopetatum. But they somehow fit.)

Sunday, May 14th
This morning Emily woke me up at 6:40 so I could go to the early worship at Kopetatum with her. Rachel came along, too. We all rode in the back of the truck just for the fun of it. The morning was chilly already, but with the wind blowing against us on the road, I was COLD. We had to dodge a thorn tree when the back end fishtailed in a big mud puddle; all of us ended up thrown down on the truck bed.

The excitement didn't end there, because as Pastor was "aki-mobilizing," a woman started screaming and then we saw a small deer being chased toward the village. It veered off back the way it came, but a bunch of men and herd boys ran after it, armed with nothing more than a big stick. They were running fast but I suspect the deer got away.

Perhaps ten adults and a few more kids came for prayers. We sat on the ground; a few people crowded onto the small dead tree (hardly a log) that was handy. Al's sermon was on Simon the Sorcerer (in the book of Acts) and what the power of God truly is - to change hearts and lives.

Here's a not-G-rated picture from Loumo Peter's, but classic K'jong "toto" (mother), and the look on this woman's face gets to me very much.

Amina

2006-06-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

I'm reposting this, because originally the video was set to private, which meant no one else could watch it. Sorry for those who tried to view it earlier. It should work now.
*****

I hope Amy doesn't mind, but I'm posting a video of the kids in the village of Agirowas, learning the verse. Even after hearing it and trying to repeat it about 50 times, I still can't say it all. But for reference, amina is love, agogong is strength, Akuj is God, dadaang is all or everything...

Let It Rain...

2006-06-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

According to the latest news reports, Karamoja should expect a decent harvest!

Tuesday, May 9th
Today I nearly put "no akiru" as the subject of my email update, but it's just as well I wasn't too hasty - it did rain quite hard this afternoon. Having been without a hard rain for days, the sound of it on the roof was even nicer than usual.

I met Josephine's son Dennis today. [He was one of the schoolboys working during vacation to earn money.] I was going to bring the laundry in but looked at the clouds and couldn't decide on urgency, so I asked him (he was getting water from the faucet by the back door), expecting a simple answer. He told me I had some time - maybe 20 minutes. Then a bit later I head a "Hodi? Amanda" and he informed me that the rain was coming. He helped collect the laundry and then sure enough, just after I got inside, the rain started.

Wednesday
Finally we've got a really good, hard rain. Tonight it was coming down so hard that Amy, Chrissie, and I got very wet just running to the Wrights' van. It was perfect for taking a shower in, except too darn cold.

So today Martha and I did a little work on the Karamojong songbook, which she's been editing. Reading through it got a lot of different songs stuck in my head - the tune at least, if I don't know enough of the words.

Father Lorenzo stopped by this afternoon and was asked to dinner. He's an Italian, with an Italian accent and sense of humor. [We were talking about how a good harvest is something to look forward to, and yet then everyone just uses the sorghum to make beer and get drunk. But the beer actually has more nutrients in it than just plain sorghum. What to do? "Ah," sighed Father Lorenzo. "Philosophy."]

Rachel and I made stir fry for dinner. It was fun bouncing ideas off each other and talking about The Village as we chopped vegetables. Then this evening she taught me a card game called Idiot, which did make me feel stupid (it's tricky) but was very fun. I was glad to have a hang out day with her.

Bono

2006-06-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

On the way back, in Jinja I bought a copy of The East African - partly for a newspaper to read, but mostly because it had a picture of Bono, talking to some nurses in a hospital. He was gesturing, doing the big-picture Bono thing. I wonder what the people at the hospital thought? But it also seems Bono is real in how he deals with people; I think he wants to take some steps in their shoes, not just hand them a check. This doesn't all relate exactly to Karamoja, but the whole idea of Western aid and especially Western intervention has been on my mind. (I re-watched Hotel Rwanda last night with a friend. That'll get you thinking. What does our responsibility to our neightbor look like, when now the world is basically our neighbor?)

Anyway, Bono (the "biggest rock star in the world," lead singer for U2) has been passionate about Africa for much longer than I have, and even if I wouldn't agree with everything he says, he gives a lot to consider. I've got a lot of respect for him, and for aid organizations who are really serving people - not trying to enforce Western ideals of democracy, what, what, through their giving. (Unfortunately many NGOs are out of favor in Uganda right now because they were very vocal about not supporting Museveni when he ran for another term - it didn't seem democratic enough.)

Here are some quotes from Bono: in conversation with Michka Assayas:

There are lots of issues going on in Africa. It's complex. There's corruption, there are problems of their own making, but there are problems of our making for them, and then there're problems we could easily solve for them. [medicine for those with AIDS, for one thing.]

What is going on in Africa defies all concepts that we hold to be true: our concept of neighbor, our concept of civilization, our concept of equality, our concept of love...You can't have the benefits of globalization without some of the responsibilities.

It's a mind blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma...

Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to stay along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammand, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off the hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me a teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: 'I'm the Messiah.' I'm saying, "I am God incarnate.'" And the people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet...So what you're left with is either Christ was who He said He was - the Messiah - or a complete nutcase...The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched.

Ejoka nooi.

Of Bibles & Bore Holes 2

2006-06-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

I'm already discovering the good that come of keeping a journal. Today I was reading the list of things I bought last month in Namalu, and remembered that I bought a packet of curry powder for 100 shillings (about 5 cents). Unfortunately I think I forgot to pack it, but while searching through my backpack I found the little bag of raw g-nuts (peanuts) I'd bought at the Star Mart in Jinja, on the trip out. They might be completely stale by this time, but I'll roast them up and see...

Wednesday, April 26th

There has been much rain again. Craig is having a hard time getting the plowing finished, because it pours in the mid-afternoon and the ground is still soggy enough in the morning to get the tractor stuck.

Before the rain came, Amy and I went to the place where Bob and his right-hand man, Lodim Thomas, are working on a bore hole. She drove her piki, which was fun.

Agirowas' (sp?) village, where we went to tell the parable of the banquet also, is a large ere, and the only one I've ever seen with a real corral in the middle. Naturally it smelled stronger than the other villages I'd been to. I prayed sincerely that God would not let me be overpowered by the smells! He answered my prayer very quickly. So we went to the house of Locabokale's wife and about 10 kids gathered to hear the story. I took pictures, but it was somehow dark inside so probably there is no way to capture their smiles - amazing, happy smiles when many of them have orangish hair from malnutrition.

kids at the village of Agirowas

Amy had to be back for science class, so we made a dash through the rain and slick reddish mud. It was so slippery that it actually felt like skating as we went along. I'm glad neither of us fell! Kris had just been telling us at lunch how the rain brings out the parasite worms and amoebas. What to do?

Wednesday

Amy and I went to Agirowas' again. This time there was no rain so we sat outside on an old board next to a hut, and all the kids gathered around. Amy read the story of the Good Samaritan in Ngakarimojong from the Bible; I held the story book with pictures so they could see. She also taught them a verse complete with hand motions, which they enjoyed. ("'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Luke 10:27) They also liked posing for the camera, and I got a video clip of them saying the verse. Ejok nooi!

Friday

This morning Mary and Kipsy and I made bread for home ec., which meant a yummy lunch of bread and cheese. Then Amy and I went to Agirowas's and on the way back stopped at the church where some of the women were sorting greens after a day of weeding. Amy asked and was invited to tell the story again there, sitting on the dry dirt road in the shade, while the women worked and listened. They were mostly young; the one sitting across from me was mouthing the words of the storybook (the kind with big pictures and text written for kindergarteners), so I assume she's had some small schooling, although she didn't say anything aloud in English. She is the kind it would be good to have a literacy program for....

Raid Update

2006-06-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

Martha emailed me this morning. Here's what she says about the raid:

Oh, please pray for the people of Nakaale - I know you do already, but this was a tough week for them! There was the one of the biggest cattle raids ever around here, a few miles away up in the mountains behind Tokora. All the Nakaale people had their cows up in the hills, & the Pokot from eastern Uganda came & took them. A couple of warriors were killed (maybe 3?), a few injured, & a couple of shepherd boys are missing now. Our workers Lokoroi & Patrick came here in the middle of the night, while the shooting was still going on, & asked Bob to call the commander in Nakapirit. He did, & the comm. said he'd send troops, but we don't know what he did - in any case, the cows are all gone. One or two got loose & wandered home, but that's about it. People are devastated. It's like the stockmarket crash of '29. So we've visited & consoled a few. One man who was killed is from Joyce/Rose's home, the father of a little girl called Sunday, the nephew of one of our church members. They're feeling very lost, so we went & talked & prayed with them some. I was encouraged by another worker Loumo Peter's comment yesterday, though, that," well, they were only cows; I look around & see my children, we're OK, so it's really not so bad. Things will get better eventually."

I hope I'll have that attitude if I ever lose a large part of my possessions. But if the cattle don't get taken back, and there are no real retaliations against the Pekot, could this perhaps change things a bit, as far as asking for many cows for the bride price, etc.?

Weeders

2006-06-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

Tues. April 25th

Mary, Kipsy, and I did Bible class until 9 o'clock - they had a craft project putting the Old Testament books in order, and we were reading stories from their text book, and coloring pictures for Martha to use. Then Martha and I headed out into the field nearest the house, where Patrick [the weeding supervisor, who I'm guesing is around my age] had the weeders start.

Martha read the parable of the rich man's banquet (he invited his friends, but they all had some excuse; so he brought in the poor, the lame, the blind) using a Karamojong story book. Patrick translated when she needed assistance. I walked around holding the pictures so everyone got a look, which was a little tricky because there were about 50 people - mostly women but a few children - who wanted to see, and also I didn't understand what Martha was saying, so she had to tell me when to change pictures. It worked out well, though! Many of these are ones who don't come to church - there's no reason to if they're not believing in Christ, but how can they without hearing the gospel of God's grace?

As Martha and I were walking back, a women came running across the field and snatched her baby up while another woman hoed to death the snake had been just by this child. That was pretty scary. Martha says weeding is actually quite a dangerous job, because of the snakes.