Gulu Cluster
We finisthed devotions about a half hour ago at the Gulu cluster of which Koro-Bobi is part of.
I will be going to Koro-Bobi on Monday and Tuesday. Today and tomorrow I will be visiting field sites with the Bunga Ponchitira ADP..Phoebe is the staff person who will be taking me around. The past week because of my schedule I have had very little access to a computer and therefore could not blog. I have a little time this morning so will try to catch you up on what has happened. On Saturday after the class that Fulukas taught was over, Concy invited me over to her house to meet her husband, Benson. I ended up spending the next seven hours with them. They were incredibly hospitable and gave me a gift for coming. Benson is a teacher at a school about four hours away, and so he lives in an apartment by the school during the week and then returns home for the weekend. This is a common practice here. Fulukas' wife and children live in Kampala, and he goes home every other week. In any case, we talked for hours, and then they served me a delicious meal of maize called pasho and some other dish made up of field green leaves that are crushed mixed with tomato and then cooked in eggs. It was quite good. It turns out that my guest house is only a short distance from their home, so they walked me home. On Sunday I attended the Watoto church in Gulu. Watoto means children, the church supports orphans. It used to be called the Kampala Pentecostal Church but has grown so much there are now about 8 churches in Uganda, four or five of which are in Kampala. This is the only one in Gulu. The children are one of their main ministries. If you remember, we were supposed to have some Watoto children sing at our church last year, but they caught the measles or chicken pox just before their performance and had to be quarantined. Afterwards I spent the afternoon with Fulukas at a restaurant where we talked for hours. They had Monday scheduled for me but they had forgotten that it was Women's Day, a national holiday. So I did some sightseeing with Fulukas and my driver, Francis. The first place we visited was the sight of the Acholi rebellion against the British in 1911. Taxation was the cause of it. The British couldn't subdue them by force, so they poisoned their watering holes. The Acholi then retreated to a set of caves on a hill.The British then ended up annihilating most of the warriors over a period of time. We went to the local chief of the area, and he sent an elderly man to be our guide. So we set off into the bush following him. I don't know about you, but when I think of bush in Africa I think "Snakes." "Poisonous snakes." No one seemed worried about snakes including the three little boys that accompanied us as well, so I followed along keeping my eyes peeled. I was especially concerned when the guide had to use his very stout bamboo cane to chop through the vegetation. But no one seemed worried about snakes, so I just followed along. When we came to the entrance of the caves, they took us in them as well. We must have spent three hours hiking. It was a great experience. What was especially helpful was that our guide knew the stories about the fight, It turns out that his father was a boy when the rebellion happened and watched part of it. After the caves we visited the site of the first fort/mission station in Uganda. Arab traitors set up a fort in 1854, and ended up not carrying through on their agreement and oppressing the people. When British explorer/missionary, Sir Russell Baker arrived in 1864 the people shared what was going on with the Arab traders. He told them he would come back with a force, and in 1872 he returned with Nubian soldiers and drove the Arabs away. He stayed a year and left the Nubians behind and not too long after that, they started oppressing the people. They Acholi eventually left the area in the late 1880's and returned in 1933. Our guide, the assistant chief was five years old when they returned. Again, he knew the stories and gave us a great tour. We hiked at least two hours at this site. On Tuesday I went to two field sites, primary schools where WV is assessing children for oppression/PTSD and involving them in 16 week group therapy. They were in the initial phases of this process, explaining to the children what will happen and assigning them their groups. We also distribued some sandals that some donor had paid for. The only problem was that most of the sizes they had were way too small for the older children. They were told to give them to a family member if they didn't fit. Yesterday I went to two more schools, one of th which they did what they call art therapy--the pictures who had been identified for depression were asked to draw pictures.When we first arrived we had to have separate those children who were drawing with those who didn't. There were 179 students in a small room. I couldn't believe how many were packed in to that space and can't imagine learning like that. The head teacher told us that this is their major problem--overcrowding. I am off to some more field sites and hopefully will be able to blog tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers.
