So I was wrong. There's one more Adak Update! Today I made an unexpected trip to town, and as I sit here waiting for GPS data to transfer, I feel compelled to share yesterday's adventures - a more or less typical day for me in Adak...
7:30AM - I stumble out of bed in an exhausted stupor
8:00AM - I join Nate, Adam, and the construction workers under the mango tree for morning prayer. The topic of discussion? Whether people can drink blood from slaughtered livestock. Compelling and rich.
9:00AM - My interpreter, Alfred, arrives late with a flat tire on his bicycle
9:30AM - Alfred and I leave for the morning to conduct interviews
9:45AM - I ask Alfred about a beaten-up sign that I had passed many times before. What are all those holes from? He laughs. "Bullets, man!"
10:00AM - We locate the farm of a very rich man who once had (supposedly) over a thousand cows - cows which were all taken by the government and the rebels
10:10AM - We meet a health worker in a nearby village. He has surprisingly good English, and we talk for awhile
10:30AM - We come across a boy running along the road - couldn't be more than eight or nine, with bare feet. Alfred stops him. What's wrong? The child tells us that his father has been beating him too much, so he ran away that morning. He had gone 15km since daybreak, and he had another 20km to go before he reached his mother's home in Gulu town. We wish him good luck, and keep on riding. What else could we do?
10:45AM - We conduct our first interview of the morning with a small family of about 13. No mosquito nets, no bicycle, no clean water, no good income. Strengths...? 2 goats.
10:15AM - Another interview
10:45AM - Long ride on a dirt track deep into the bush. We visit the home of a member of our church - an elderly widow. Her daughter is lame, and their old wheelchair has fallen apart. Nevertheless, her family is better off than some. She has cows! Mabe! She asks for assistance for her daughter's wheelchair. I refuse, and try to explain how we plan to help the community. Feeling horrible, I finish the interview and start to leave. Wait, says my interpreter. She wants to give you gwana (Cassava). So we go to her garden and pull up about 40lbs of the roots and load them onto my bicycle. Oh, the generosity of the poor!
12:00PM - We head back to camp
12:30PM - We arrive, eat our cassava and beans, and take shelter in the shade from the relentless sun
2:30PM - One of our goats gives birth
3:00PM - Pastor Inancio arrives with another goat that Nate, Adam, and I had purchased for a celebration with the workers. I am given the honor of slaughtering it.
3:30PM - Alfred head out for our evening rounds
3:45PM - We conduct an interview with an elderly couple living way back in the bush. I notice that a mountain - a rare sight - lies on their land. The man offers to lead us up it. I eagerly accept.
4:30PM - On our way up the mountain, we pass a complex of four or five deserted buildings. I am shocked to see such modern constructions rising out of the bush. "Do you see the costs of war, Justin?" Alfred asks? He explains that before the war, this was a trading center where local farmers sold their tobacco crops. Now these huge, expensive buildings, complete with concrete walls and aluminum roofs, lie crumbling among the tall grasses, dotted with bullet-holes.
5:00PM - We summit the mountain (hill, more precisely). I am told that it is called Onina - the highest point within 15km, at least. The panorama is breathtaking. As I look around, trying to get my bearings, our guide tells us how the mountain was his refuge in days past. During the war, he would sleep high up on the rocks, watching the surrounding dark plains for the lights of approaching LRA. It enabled him to watch undetected as the rebels plundered and killed.
6:00PM - Alfred and I return to camp and help prepare the fire for the goat roast
8:00PM - Goat Feast!
9:00PM - Cleanup
10:00PM - Wolterstorff reading
10:0? - Bed
On Mt. Onina
The old tobacco complex
On the way to dig cassava
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