Justin Tyvoll's Uganda Internship - 2010




The Mango Tree Blossom

The Mango Tree Blossom
Huts will be rebuilt, and compounds cleared... and the mango trees will blossom with fruits - Caroline Lamwaka

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A Day in the Life



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



A Day in the Life



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



Monday, August 2, 2010

Camp Adak, Signing Off

I have one week remaining in the village of Adak. Next Sunday, I will depart for a few days of debrief, then return to Kampala for wrap-up and the flight home. For all the joys of living here in the bush, I am surprised to say that I am starting to miss home. I miss my friends, my family, good conversations, college classes, and the woods and fields of my New Jersey home. I miss having the ability to hop into a car on a whim; I miss ice cream and pizza. I miss hunting, fishing, and camping with my parents. I even miss the wealth of resources and entertainment available on that great human marvel, the world wide web. I miss my dog.

Even so, I am not looking forward to my return. I am not looking forward to the shock of transition between two vastly different world systems - the village, and the American academy. I am not looking forward to the stresses, tensions, and responsibilities of the fast-paced American lifestyle. I am not looking forward to the moral ambiguity that surrounds so many choices and issues in political and intellectual life. I am not looking forward to worming my way through the temptations and snares of my culture.

After all, it is easy to seek justice when the horrors of injustice lie before your eyes... when the oppressed are cradled in your arms. It is easy to care for the poor when you live among them. It only becomes difficult when you confine yourself to a society that insulates itself again global poverty, that blinds itself to horrendous evils - a society that pretends Adak does not exist.

I return home to another three years at Cornell. What those years will bring, I cannot tell. They will certainly be challenging - and not just in the sense of academics. I am caught between my incessant need for intellectual stimulation and the nagging Christian calling of social justice. I am called to love God; I am called to love wisdom (philosophia) - which is, in a sense, God, theLogos - and I am called to love my neighbor. And I cannot choose between the two. Which book do I follow, Proverbs or the Epistle of James? Of course, I must follow both! But how? How does a student of philosophy and history pursue justice in the world? Some give money. Others work at homeless shelters. The Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff wrote a book. How will I use my calling to pursue justice?

Quite simply, I don't know. But I will wait on the LORD.

Ps. 27:14

Likes and Dislikes

As my time in Adak draws to a close, I have begun reflecting on my time here - the things I have learned, the memories I have gained, the decisions I've made... and, of course, the new questions I have!

What is poverty?
What land is more impoverished - the USA or Acholiland?
Do we have free will? (haha, okay, that's not a new question)
How do we wage war against war?
How do we promote shalom in a world of sin?

And, what I like and dislike...

What I like about Adak:

Seeing a brilliant night sky unpolluted by manmade lights

Riding my bicycle along quaint country trails

Enjoying the hospitality of loving friends and neighbors

All the crazy insect life!

Watching small animals grow into big ones

Learning a new language

The beauty of a rising African sun

Experiencing a vast, green countryside

Riding boda-bodas

Worshiping in fellowship with fervent believers

Living in direct connection to the land

What I don't like:

Cassava

Tribalism

Helplessly watching the incessant spread of disease

The lack of art, education, and intellectual stimuli

Slavery to land, climate, family, ignorance, and suspicion

The bizarre lack of wildlife

What I like about the USA:

FREEDOM! The freedom to move about, the freedom to learn, the freedom to achieve, the freedom to create, the freedom to change!

Modern and accessible health care

Innumerable careers

Written history

Mastery over nature - technology, innovation, agriculture, resource management, machines

A government that offers services and promotes order with little corruption (in comparison to Uganda, that is - hehehe)

What I don't like:

Patriotism

Self-centered culture

Pharisee Christianity

Pollution

Separation from the land

Safe living - life without risks

Digital distractions

The overwhelming lack of brotherly love


Friday, July 30, 2010

From Despair, to Disinterest, to... Hope



How quick our are hearts to accept the evil of the world!

Contaminated water. Malaria. Domestic abuse. Post traumatic stress disorder. Theft. Orphans. Widows. Alcohol abuse. Every day, everywhere. Every homestead, every person feels these evils. Yet, I find it astonishing and horrifying that these evils slowly and stealthily thread their way through my consciousness, establishing themselves as normalcy. When one first confronts such suffering, the pain cuts deep - deep to the heart. You cry out against the wrongness, the corruption of that which should be. But as one presses on, further into the corruption, one begins to accept the status quo - no matter how bad it is. When your 37th interviewee complains about having no money to send children to school, you calmly note the problem in a logbook, say that you're sorry, explain why you can't help, and pray for them - a prayer that has been refined about 50 times, become cold and routine through repetition.

The first widow you meet tells of her struggles, and you are brought to tears... the 20th widow's story is a few points of data in a notebook.

It becomes easier to say 'no.'

But it shouldn't. It should never be easy to see the brokenness of the world and shrug your shoulders. We should never be numb to evil. The pain should be there - every single time. The only thing worse than despair is the unfeeling of indifference.

Wolterstorff writes, "Suffering is the shout of 'No' by one's whole existence to that over which one suffers... And sometimes, when the cry is intense, there emerges a radiance which elsewhere seldom appears: a glow of courage of love, of insight of selflessness, of faith. In that radiance we see best what humanity was meant to be."

How does one walk the line - the line between despair and acceptance? For the Christian, that line is the only option - Hope. Hope lies between despair and disinterest. Or, rather, Hope lies beyond despair and disinterest. On the Via Dolorosa.

Odds and Ends

My trusty African bicycle (complete with faulty brakes and loose wheels)

Somebody was here...

One of our chickens caught this. We think it's a Cecilian (snake-lizard)

A nest of Kalang, aka Soldier Ants, Safari Ants, Siafu Ants. An incredible (and menacing) sight when they are on the march! Painful sting, too.

Yup, that's right. We feed our puppy goat's milk... and remove the middleman.


Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Scourge of War

This is the dead land

This is cactus land

Here the stone images

Are raised, here they receive

The supplication of a dead man’s hand

Under the twinkle of a fading star

- TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"