Good Things 7-17-10

So I find the need to write about the good things that are happening here. My week has been full of adjusting plans, learning new information about the blasts, mourning, feeling emotionally drained, trying my best to be supportive and informative and calm, plus the normal business of helping take care of plans for 30 teachers at 10 different schools across Northern Uganda. I must say that I am first and foremost so thankful for the opportunity to serve here and second so thankful for Catherine because she is awesome, and third thankful for Karen and all the great teachers we have this year. With that I would like to share some stories of good things here in Northern Uganda, if you want the not good stuff read the news. (of course they will be in list form (: )
- Friday night on the way home from the conference Catherine and I decided to walk. It had been a long day it was overcast so it was nice and cool. We walked about half way home and realized it was going to start raining. We decided we would just walk in it, it was light and it felt so good. As we continued the rain got harder and harder. By the time we were on the final stretch home it was pouring and we were soaked. Of course we were a site because people here do not go out in the rain, plus we are munus. People kept calling to us to come inside but we would tell them we wanted to walk (amitta watta watta) then they would laugh so loud! We passed by a place where some of the teachers were waiting out the rain and they took these pics.

- That same night Jolly invited us (all the teacher exchange peeps) to her house to sit around a fire and talk with her dad, Norman. She lives about 20-30 minutes walking from our house but because it was so muddy from the rain and dark it took us more like 40 minutes but it was a nice adventure. When we finally arrived we all sat, women on the mat and men in chairs, around the fire. Norman talked to us about how this is the Acholi classroom and about some other traditions. He called his wife over and told us about how strong she is and how she is the reason his family is so great. She doesn’t speak English so he translated for her. It was this mystical moment. She was standing in the smoke with the stars as the background and it was breathtaking. Then Norman told us that she makes jewelry. He said she didn’t have many pieces but he wanted us to see them. He had three and we passed them around and then he gave one to Jenny (one of the teachers, he met her in the states), Catherine, and then me! It was such an honor!
- I got to go to Pabbo again! I went and did another round table and got to see all my friends there again. It was so good to see everyone and be so welcomed. We found out that Christine (one of the Pabbo teachers) named her baby after Trisha! So they took a pic together! It has been such an encouragement to go back there and actually be remembered and see that being there did make some kind of difference.
- Jenny knows sign language and the orphanage Catherine’s partner teacher runs has tons of deaf kids so she has been able to go and sign with them a lot. It is so cool because if she hadn’t been brought back from Pabbo to live in Gulu with us she would not have been able to go as many times.
- The teachers at Keyo and Catherine Sasser have started a girls empowerment group! They have met a few times and it sounds like the girls are really liking it. They have secret handshakes and I think they are going to do an activity where they write reasons why they are strong and valuable and then they are going to link them together into a chain. So cool!