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"

ahem

Okay, considering that my last post was a rather impassioned reflection on an incredibly full past few days, I figured that I ought to give a quick, objective explanation of exactly what it is that I'm doing here in the countryside of Adak.

Out of the hundreds of impoverished villages in Gulu district, Touch the World Uganda has, for one reason or another, settled in the village of Adak - making its home among the people it desires to serve. Here, we are constructing a health center (the only one around), a vocational school, and a well for clean water. However, we are still not fully in touch with the strengths and needs of this community. And how can we rebuild a war-torn village without working together with its inhabitants? Thus, TTWU has given me the task of LEARNING about the community and BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS with village dwellers.

For the first few days, I traveled around on bicycle - sometimes alone, sometimes with local guides - using a GPS (courtesy Adam Boe) to construct a rudimentary map of the bush surrounding the village. Now, I have partnered up with a local village leader, Alfred, to visit as many families as I can within 5km of Adak. These visits serve many purposes. Of course, they are the introductions necessary in partnering with locals. Additionally, we are using the visits to create a rough population survey of our area of ministry. Finally, we are conducting friendly, informal surveys to get a general idea of the assets of the community - livestock, skills, capital, land, cash crops, etc. In the future, we plan on working together to capitalize on these strengths to rebuild the area.

Right now, we are only focusing on the strengths of the villagers - for their whole lives, their weaknesses have been shoved in their faces by USAID, WFP, the UN, and even World Vision. The climb out of poverty to empowerment and liberation relies more upon the maximization of strengths than on the temporary alleviation of problems. Of course, we are noting their problems as well, but always with the mindset of using the blessings God has given them to fix them.

Where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

I write to you now as one who is exhausted. It seems I have lived a year since I wrote last.

The past two weeks have been perhaps the most stretching weeks in my entire life. Not necessarily the most “life-changing,” or “eye-opening” – but the most stretching. Physically, in the past ten days I have bicycled nearly two hundred kilometers around the small village of Adak – on trails that hardly deserve the name, small lines of dirt snaking through the long grass of the bush; through villages and compounds; across creeks and swamps; over enormous columns of marching safari ants; past huts, goats, and empty lands. It is impossible to summarize the experience – I can only give you glimpses.

I have seen enormous fields of rice and tobacco; I have seen children squirming in agony from preventable tetanus infection.

I have seen buildings steadily rising out of the bush; I have seen bullet-scarred homes disintegrate in the mud and rain.

I have seen the delighted grins of children coming to meet a visitor; I have seen the utter fear in children who had never before seen a white person.

I have met people who generously presented me with their best chickens; I have met people who pleaded with me for a pittance of money with which to buy alcohol.

I have gone days eating nothing but cassava and beans; I have stuffed myself on choice roast pork and goat.

I have praised the LORD for his awesome Creation; I have cried out angrily to God for the horrendous evils He allows.

I have partaken in the blessed fellowship of communal living; I have felt the bitter division of clashing beliefs.

I have enjoyed the challenge of learning a new language; I have been driven to anger over the frustrations of miscommunications.

I have heard joyful shouts of worship; I have heard the mournful wail of screaming children.

I have blessed Africa; I have cursed her.

I have bargained with a teenage interpreter. I have slaughtered a chicken. I have questioned a drunken village president. I have prayed over sick children. I have been pained from eating bad meat. I have cleaned latrines. I have ridden on a motorcycle with two other people, 50lbs of supplies, and a puppy.

I have been led through the countryside by a local pastor – countryside so beautiful and lush that one wonders how a war could ever have been fought there. That same pastor showed me the home where he was abducted by armed rebels; where he was allowed to rest with other child soldiers and slaves; where everyone but he was slaughtered in cold blood; where government soldiers would hide the bodies of villagers they killed; where the LRA would ambush cars along the road.

I met Denise, an HIV+ woman who struggles to care for 15 children – her own, her co-wife’s, and orphans – by herself, while her husband lives 23 kilometers away with the other wife.

I met Nancy, a child of about 8, who carries a festering, multiple-year-old burn upon her forehead – a burn which has been treated (poorly) and refuses to heal, a burn that may very well carry a death-sentence.

I have learned to say “no.”

In my travels through the bush, countless people have brought their problems to me in hopes that I, a mono, a powerful white American man, might solve them. They have asked me for mosquito nets, new wells, closer schools, medications, school fees, food, plant seeds, farm equipment, animal medicines, alcohol, clothing, shoes, agricultural training, jobs, tool repair.

I said no to every single one. I helped no one. And every single “no” was a pain in my side, just as it was in theirs. Every time I uttered the word, it drove the nails of despair deeper into my soul, deeper into my cross.

I turned away all requests with a lengthy and somewhat guilt-ridden explanation that help would eventually come. I had nothing to give but my time and my ears. And even if I were to give, it would not free them from their poverty – it would merely perpetuate the aid-addiction that cripples this region. For, though they saw me as a redeemer, I was and am not.

“Justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, but behold, darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men, we grope like those who have no eyes… All of us growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.” – Isaiah 59:9-11

The whole business of mapping, counting, and surveying the land of Gulu becomes suddenly meaningless when the beauty of the place peels back to reveal the deep injustice and suffering that lies below.

I thank God and the TTWU GUTS team for reminding me of the lights in the darkness, the glimmers of a coming Kingdom.

I thank them for reminding me of Rose, an ancient widow who has nothing, but lives in utter joy, praising God perpetually, giving us – the richest people she had ever met – one of her few chickens.

I thank them for reminding me of the construction of the Touch the World Health Clinic, which steadily proceeds day by day.

I thank them for reminding me of all the individuals in Adak who are dedicated to rebuilding their homes.

And I thank God for his weakness, the weakness of Christ - which I now share - a weakness that will be revealed as glorious beyond all compare.

After all, the greatest of goods are always revealed in the greatest of suffering…

"Horrendous evils can be overcome only by the goodness of God" – Marilyn Adams

The Bicycle Rediscovered... among other things

Arghghgh!!!! Dear friends and family, I am so sorry that I have neglected updating you over the past few weeks. It might sound like a lame excuse, but, quite frankly, I have been extremely busy over the past few weeks.

Quite a lot has happened since the college team left back in June. Nate, my fellow intern and I have been teaching and leading discipleship groups at the orphanage (SMK) outside Kampala. While mentoring the children has been an incredibly rewarding experience, there are many frustrations inherent to our work at SMK. These kids, who have next to nothing in life, poor family environments, and little prospects for the future, are being further handicapped by a poor, meager education. SMK, like most Ugandan schools, teaches purely by means of rote memorization and repetition. Thus, the children study an overwhelming amount of facts, figures, and definitions - without understanding or comprehending their significance! Nate and I have been trying to remedy this mode of teaching with many direct questions and problem-solving exercises... but it is difficult to affect such change in such a short span of time. Teaching Social Studies has been especially interesting... and frustrating. The curriculum that I was assigned to teach deals with Ugandan ethnic groups - a touchy subject, to say the least! The children have very deep seated mistrust and prejudice towards other groups, and it can cause problems at school (which has a rather diverse student body). I can only pray that I was able to deconstruct some of the extensive stereotypes and jealousies.

About 2 weeks ago, Nate and I went on a weekend excursion to Rwanda to visit the Cyimbili Coffee plantation - which is partly supported by Jacksonville Chapel's "Hope for a Thousand Hills" ministry. What an incredible experience! When ever I get the time (and good internet connection) I will post some of the breathtaking pictures from the region - full of terraced hills, towering volcanoes, incredibly hazardous roads, and deep blue lakes! The coffee was great - the community was greater! [The buses, on the other hand, were not so great...]

As I write this, I am in an internet cafe in Gulu town, Northern Uganda. I will be staying up here in Gulu, living in the village of Adak, for another month. In a few days, Nate will be joining me, along with the TTW GUTS summer team. I am loving village life, and I am finally working on the project which I have so long anticipated - mapping and surveying the Adak countryside! Touring the countryside on bicycle, consulting with the many villagers I meet, I am using GPS to make a map of this "mapless" countryside. In the days to come, I will partner with translators and local friends to survey and interview the many households in the area... in the hope that their ideas and words might teach us how to rebuild the community together! More Details to follow!

1 Month in...

Greetings and Blessings to all my American friends! As hard as it is for me to believe, I have already been in Uganda for an entire month! I apologize for not writing sooner - things have been pretty busy here. For the past few weeks, I have been serving alongside a team of four college-aged individuals from NJ and PA. Living, laughing, and learning together, we strove to live out the Kingdom of God here in Uganda, all while asking how to live out the Kingdom in our everyday lives.

For the first two weeks, we worked at St. Mary-Kevin's Primary School and Orphanage, leading discipleship groups, teaching classes, tutoring, and building relationships with students. Some highlights for me included:

• being taught Luganda (a Ugandan language) by twelve-year-olds
• telling a group of students the story of Les Miserables - my favorite book!!
• giving kids a crash-course lesson in world geography
• teaching Bible Class, Social Studies, and English
• in true Ugandan fashion, eating an enormous live locust
• not getting an eye infection (there was an epidemic at the orphanage)
• playing football (soccer) with the boys - and contemplating the World Cup

Of course, there were plenty of challenges as well. A few members of the college team came down with illnesses. Teaching also proved to be quite difficult, as well. Ugandan schoolchildren are taught solely through rote memorization, so they do not have very sophisticated critical thinking skills. Thus, we had a hard time communicating abstract concepts (like future-tense verbs, sin, and time). Perhaps the most frustrating moment for me was when, at the end of a lesson on Creation and the Fall, I asked the students why sin entered the world, and one kid answered, "Jesus!" Still, progress is being made, and I look forward to more teaching in the weeks to come.

The last week with the College team was spent in the Northern Ugandan district of Gulu - a region that is just starting to recover from over two decades of civil war. We worked and stayed in the remote village of Adak - a former IDP (refugee) camp - where we aided in the construction of Touch the World's health clinic - the only medical provider within an hour's drive. Working alongside former child soldiers and victims of unspeakable horror was an incredible experience. Some highlights for me in Adak were:

• Living in huts!
• Helping to chop down a big tree
• listening to Acholi fables around the campfire
• helping slaughter and consume a delicious goat
• helping collect and devour delicious flying termites
• eating cassava and beans every single day...
• watching the incredible African sunrise every morning
  
• getting lost on the road and accidentally driving to Sudan
• chasing off packs of wild dogs
• listening to the World Cup with other villagers
• and more!

In a few weeks, I will be returning to Adak, where I'll stay for nearly a month, assisting other visiting teams, and conducting a poverty assessment survey in the surrounding African bush.

Today, the college team left us (sadly), and the internship "proper" has begun! For the next month, alongside my fellow intern Nate Dorka, I will be teaching in the orphanage by day, and studying missional living by night! Hopefully, I will be able to post more frequent updates in the near future - about my activities and the insights I am gaining.