Tolle, lege!

I have been reading a number of fantastic books lately. In the Great Books course I'm teaching, we've been reading Augustine's Confessions and Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors. I've read the Confessions at least three times (that's what you get when you study ancient/medieval history in college). It  is an absolutely beautiful book; I can't recommend it enough. Surprisingly enough, my 13 year old student says he'd rather read Augustine than The Nine Tailors, which is a murder mystery novel! Sweet music to my ears!

In our women's Bible study we've been working through the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges. Talk about convicting! The book covers sins such as gossip, lack of self-control, irritability, selfishness, envy, discontentment, and anxiety. Every week we come to the study, announce the topic of the week - "All right, ladies, we're talking about judgmentalism!" -- and every week without fail we laugh uncomfortably, joke that "we've got this one covered, let's skip this week!" and then delve into some serious heart searching and goal-setting to overcome these rampant, subtle sins. This is a fantastic book for a group study (and there is a study guide available).

Other books I'm dawdling in at the moment: On Being a Missionary by Thomas Hale, Cords of Love, a story of pioneer missionaries to Ethiopia, Non Campus Mentis, a hilarious look at college students' take on the history of the world according to the ridiculous things that have been collected from exam books and papers from several universities, and GK Chesterton's Orthodoxy.

Most of all, though, like Augustine, we need to tolle lege  -- take up and read -- the Scriptures. I've been consistently reading my Bible every morning (using the Bible reading plan I mentioned a few posts back) but lately I've been checking Facebook and Gmail before I read. Yesterday in Bible study we talked about Lack of Self Control, and several of us admitted that we have a problem with spending more time on the computer in the morning than in the Word. So our commitment for this week is no internet before devotions (which I'm adding to my previous commitment of "no Bible, no breakfast"). Please pray for diligence in this. We need the spiritual strength gained from daily time in the Word in order to face the challenges of living in such a spiritually dark place (and so do all of you living in America!).

God bless you as you take up and read. May He open your eyes to see the beauty and grace that are found only in Christ, just as He opened the eyes of Augustine so many years ago in the garden and allowed the spiritual scales to fall from his eyes for the first time.

Emily

Day 1 (Again): In which I admit my failure.

I'm back. No excuses. I'm a lazy bum. That about sums it up. Let's try to get this blog rolling again.

I'm still aiming for 90 days of blogging. Since I totally failed, I'm starting over. Please keep me accountable!

I have some exciting news -- I'm hoping to return to Karamoja in September for another year, after a two month summer vacation in the good ol' US of A. My role here will be changing, as will my funding situation, but more on all those details later. You'll be seeing a Facebook page, a website, letters, YouTube videos and all kinds of fun media shindigs promoting the Karamoja station's newest project, a preschool literacy and numeracy program run by me, Martha and Erika, along with Karimojong staff. We'll also be expanding our current ministry to local public elementary schools. Lord willing, next year I'll be teaching one course to the missionary kids -- the Great Books (Omnibus) course with Jamie and Josh -- and I'll be spending the rest of my time teaching at our preschool, doing administrative work for the school, and visiting the local public schools on a regular basis to teach literacy, numeracy and Bible to grades 1-6 and to provide some training for the public school teachers.

This is all still in the works, and the details are still a bit fuzzy, but I've got the green light to go ahead and prepare for my return. I would be glad to answer any questions you have now about our plans for next year.

The other thing occupying a lot of brainwaves at the moment -- I'm getting amped up for the RP Mission team, which will be arriving about two months from now! I'll be ending this term in Karamoja as the mission team leader, and I'm looking forward to serving alongside five young ladies -- my dear friend Kathryn Paar, Stephanie Godlewski, Liz Neel, Rachel Dinkledine, and Stacy Muir. I am itching for them to arrive... but in the meantime I want to make sure I help prepare them as well as possible via email for all they're about to see and experience. We are going to have too much fun completely!

Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement. If I slack off on this blog again, please give me a swift kick in the backside and remind me to push through the writer's block and put fingertips to keyboard!
Alakara nooi (thank you very much)!

Emily

The Meat of the Goat

Tonight a bunch of us went over to Jim and Jenny's for dinner. They made an enchilada-type dish -- it was completely delicious -- and once we were all halfway through it and praising their cooking, Jim revealed that it was "the meat of the goat." I've had several goat dinners here. It's pretty good, mostly like beef; the taste is a bit different and I don't love it plain, but mixed with other things (especially taco seasoning) you don't even notice the difference.

Our friend Moses from the clinic and his two younger siblings joined us for dinner, then watched the movie The Avengers with us. It was quite a hit! They LOVED the Hulk, especially the part near the end where he's bashing Loki on the ground like a ragdoll. They kept showing close-ups of the Hulk screaming and flexing his muscles, and Moses would laugh and say bas!! Enough!! His younger sister, who's still in elementary school, spent much of the evening peaking out from behind a pillow, but she was obviously enjoying it just as much as her brothers. At one point we paused the film for a minute, and explained that America doesn't actually look like that (we don't all live in houses like Stark Towers) and we don't all have that technology in our homes.... funny what idea people must have of America when they've only seen the ritzy side of things in action movies.

We assured them that this first film made enough money that they'll surely make a second Avengers, and we'll be sure to watch it with these guys.

Another film we think they'll like is Cool Runnings... looking forward to the next movie night!

You know you're in Karamoja when...

... you are walking up to watch an edonga (jump/dance) at a wedding, and an old woman grabs your hand and speaks in completely unintelligible ngaKarimojong while dragging you, against your will, towards the circle.

Martha and I were at the wedding of two mzungu (white) friends who live and work as missionaries in another part of Karamoja -- they decided to have three ceremonies, a traditional Karimojong wedding, a wedding ritual that's part of the tradition of the Samburu tribe in Kenya (where Val used to work), and a traditional Western style Christian wedding. We arrived between weddings one and two, and as we were trying to find the location of the Kenyan ceremony, we got pulled towards the edonga. One woman dragged Martha towards the circle to jump. Martha jumped a few times and seemed to enjoy it.  I hung back; I did NOT want to jump (I've done it before, but I felt weird about it this time because there were no other young women jumping) but I also was losing sight of Martha so I kept inching closer; I didn't want to lose her.

Then the akimat (old woman) arrived, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. She grabbed my hand and started pulling me. I found Martha and pleaded with her, "please don't make me go in the circle!" Martha told the woman I was just a visitor and I was shy, but she didn't care. She kept pulling me up to the edge of the circle. At this point I knew there was no point resisting. There were basically no women jumping. If there had been I wouldn't have felt so weird about it.

The akimat was far to old to actually jump, so she just gripped my hand and swayed back and forth in time. Apparently I was just supposed to know when to jump (the men in the circle chant, and there are appropriate times when the women are supposed to jump, I guess to kind of emphasize what's just been said in the story.) If you don't understand Karimojong fluently and you don't know the story and the pattern, you're guaranteed to fail. When I've jumped before, I've always been holding the hand of a teenage girl who will squeeze my hand just before the right moment, so I'm prepared, and then she'll jump with me, show me how it's done. But the akimat wasn't really helping me out so I just tried to guess when to jump, and I was usually wrong. This caused no small amount of laughter from the people standing around me.

Then it got worse. Grandma decided this wasn't good enough. She pulled me INTO the circle (women don't go in the circle!) where a few men were jumping and chanting. There were at least 100 Karimojong watching, maybe more. I was so embarrassed. So now I have all the young warrior men with the feathers in their caps grinning at me while the akimat continues to try to force me to jump. She kept saying, "Iyeni iyong" -- "you know".. I kept saying, "Emam! Emam! Ngayeni ayong!" but she didn't care. This continued for a couple minutes, with the men about twenty feet away jumping, and me and the akimat standing awkwardly, sorta jumping/swaying/yelling at each other.

Well, this was becoming quite the show, so then the men who had been jumping stopped and went to the edge of the circle, so only the akimat and I were inside the circle. They kept chanting and I kept messing up the timing of the jumps. Finally I gave up and kept trying to pull away, but grandma had a strong grip and so she stood there swaying and I just stood still and refused to keep jumping, and laughed awkwardly at myself, and stared at all the young Karimojong women on the edge of the circle with pleading eyes -- please, get me out of this mess!! But they just stared back and grinned. Finally I said "temokin" -- finished -- quite firmly to the akimat, and we left.

I was mortified, of course, and so thankful that no one I knew was watching (besides Martha, but she was so bombarded by women who were amazed that she could speak ngaKarimojong that I don't think she knew what was going on!). I was kind of upset about it because it was completely embarrassing, but when I caught up with Leah at the ceremony she told me not to worry about it; just think about it in a positive way. Serious field cred. Not everyone can say they jumped with an akimat in the middle of a huge Karimojong edonga. And as horribly awkward as it was, it was strangely fun, too. But I can say that only in retrospect :)

Day 13: a wonderful kind of exhaustion

What a fun day! I'm completely wiped out, but in the best way possible.

The Tricarico family is back!!!

We had a welcome home dinner for them. The compound workers, especially Joyce and Lucy, were SO EXCITED to have them back, and were shocked to see how much Jamie and Josh grew during furlough. I could hear Pastor Al's laugh from the car before I could see him, which made me super happy immediately. I'm sure they're completely jetlagged, but they were good sports tonight and we had a great reunion.

I taught my usual schedule this morning, then had to empty out my fridge and scrub it clean -- it's being shifted to the visitor kitchen. I don't really need a fridge here in my little kitchen, I can just use the fridge Erika and Leah share in the Missionary Associate (MA) kitchen banda on the main compound. My kitchen/schoolroom feels so much bigger with the fridge and propane tank out of there!

Before lunch I did the reading  (from Jerry Bridges book Respectable Sins) for our women's Bible study, which meets in my banda at 3:30 on Thursday afternoons. I did a bit more school prep as well. Then I dashed off for rice and beans and headed down to the clinic with Erika to pick up the Kyalo kids for their afternoon school time. Poor James is sick, so only Faith and Stacey came today. The Tricaricos arrived just after we walked back from the clinic, so we greeted for a few minutes. Then Faith went off to class with Erika, and I took Stacey (4 years old) and Jacob Okken (5) to my banda to do some work with numbers -- addition with fun flash cards, and a dominoes game that involves lots of counting, which they LOVE.

Around 2:00, the two of them went to the Okkens house to play outside. I took a fifteen minute power nap, then went to the MA kitchen to start making a big batch of naan (Indian flatbread) for dinner. I left it to rise and went back to my banda for Bible study.

The field right behind us was burning (don't worry, we have a firebreak!) and the smoke and ash were so thick in the air that I had to close my door and windows during the study so we wouldn't get smoked out. It still smells smokey in here, six hours later.

As soon as Bible study was over at 4:30, I went back to work making naan. With Leah's help, I managed to finish just at 6:00. Naan is so delicious that it's totally worth the time and effort to make it (making it for 25 people is just a lot of work!). We had Indian food for dinner -- Indian is my FAVORITE now, we have it all the time because there are enough Indian people working in Uganda that the ingredients are easy to get.

After dinner we just chatted and enjoyed each other's company. It's so great having the T's back!

Tomorrow will be a very blogworthy day -- I'm going to a traditional Karimojong wedding in a place called Nakayot, a "Peace Village" about 1 1/2 hours from here. Martha, Jesse, Leah, Erika and I are going. I'll try to take lots of pictures -- I'm hoping they'll wear the real traditional clothing (leopard skins, feathers, leather skirts, etc).

Right now I have to prep to give some tests tomorrow, then SLEEP!

Hope you're all well, I'd love to hear from you ~Emily

Day 12: Getting Back to Normal...

....Meaning, the Tricaricos are coming back tomorrow! Once they're here we'll have the whole Mission here, intact, for at least a few months. I'm excited to be teaching Geography and Omnibus II to Jamie and Josh, and of course getting back into the barbeque and bocce Saturday night routine.

It'll be so great to have this place humming at full capacity again, and I'm ready to jump into Omnibus (a Great Books course). We're studying early church history and the medieval period, which I LOVE, so I'm super psyched about this. I'm not ashamed to admit that I read the Great Books for fun (I was working my way through Plato and the Greek tragedies when I was working as a nanny in Rochester), and I really love ancient/medieval history, so this is right up my alley. Last year I was a bit out of my comfort zone teaching modern literature and history, but I feel totally confident with the material we're going to be covering this semester. First off, The Church History by Eusebius. Epic.

Day 11: The B-I-B-L-E

The internet's being spotty and I'm not sure how long this connection will last, so I'll make this quick. I started a new Bible reading plan a couple weeks back that I LOVE, so I thought I'd share it with you. In the past I've avoided the read-in-multiple-places-every-day plans.... I always felt stressed out by them. Not sure why.

This plan (called Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading System -- sounds terrifying, I know!) has you reading one chapter from TEN different books everyday. I've never attempted anything like this -- but so far I'm loving it because it gives you the big picture of how all the different parts of Scripture fit together. You're not really "supposed to" write anything down as you go, but I've chosen to write down one key verse from each chapter, which I can later use as a guide for prayer. It's been fantastic. I highly recommend it. You can find an online PDF (which I was never able to open, but I stumbled upon this on someone else's website, where the basic contents of the PDF were shared, as far as I can tell). I found out about this through Tim Challies website.

So give it a try, see what you think, let me know.... or just stick it in your back pocket for when you need to try something different.

Day 10: Seriously Cheesy Music!

Today was a pretty great, average day. The Wright kids are currently studying the Age of Absolutism and we just read about the transition from baroque to classical music, so I busted out my Grove City College CivArts music and played them some Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven and Haydn. [This was decidedly NOT cheesy music.]

Then we had to leave my banda and go to the Wright's house to finish school, and the kids twisted my arm into letting them play Kenny G quietly in the background. There were no words and it wasn't distracting so I let them. Mary and Kipsy have acquired a serious love of cheesy 80s and 90s music (much of which I know from my childhood, so I love that they're into it! Such a blast to the past). The amount of Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, and Boys2Men pumping out of their boombox (YES, boombox) speakers is pretty much astounding. I absolutely love it. At one point Aaron Neville came on, and I totally remember his songs from when I was little... I went crazy with happiness and told them about the time we painted the upstairs of my old city house in Rochester and listened to Aaron Neville and Stevie Wonder the whole time. I recognize so many of the songs that I'll start singing along without realizing it, and we all bust a gut laughing.

Surprisingly enough, Ugandans apparently LOVE Celine Dion. As in, big tough Ugandan men totally dig her music. They play it everywhere, especially "My Heart Will Go On." Funny what parts of American pop culture filter down to us in East Africa! 

Day 9: Epol asimokok! Ito!

Last week, Rose taught me the ngaKarimojong word for spider, asimokok. "Big spider" is epol asimokok.

 Today I thought I'd share a picture, taken by Dr. Jim Knox, of a spider that's happily building a massive web just next to the pit latrines at the clinic. 

Jim knows I'm not exactly what you'd call a fan of spiders, and he kept nagging me to take a look at it. Finally one day I went over and took a glance... it's terrifying. It's huge. Thankfully every time I've walked by and looked at it it's been still.... if I ever see it moving I'll probably lose one of my nine lives. 

But in a way it's terribly beautiful as well. 

Days 7 & 8: Nakaale Primary School

The internet hasn't been cooperating with me for the past couple days (we're not exactly moving at Roadrunner speed here) and by the time anything was beginning to load, my computer battery gave up the ghost. Since we use solar power, I can't charge my computer at night, unless I want us to lose our lights till 8AM the next day (which is a bummer when you wake up with the sun like me and live in a dark hut).

So anyways, to make up for a couple missed days, let me try to post a few Nakaale Primary School pictures for you. During the school year, Martha Wright and I, along with the Wright kids and our translator Lokwii Paul (Omena) visit this school every Thursday morning to teach basic literacy, numeracy and a Bible story.

Day 6: Serve. Proclaim. Disciple.

All day I've had a flurry of emails talking about this summer's RP Mission team coming to Karamoja. I'm really looking forward to being the team leader and showing some new friends around this place I call home. We're still working out the details: the official dates the team will be here (we're aiming for a 6-week trip) and how many will be on the team. Sounds like we're pretty sure we have four already, possibly seven or eight.

I really enjoy leading mission teams. I've only done it twice (White Lake 2006 and 2012) -- both times were really challenging but rewarding experiences. I'd say this past summer I worked with the best mission team I've ever been on, and would rate it the best mission trip experience I've ever had. Our team really clicked, we had so much fun together, we encouraged each other, genuinely enjoyed each other's company, and were constantly pointing each other back to Christ. I was a few years older than most of my teammates -- I was 24, most of them were around 19 -- and many of my teammates had just made the switch from camper to counselor. It was so encouraging to see a new generation rising up to serve the church.

I like the "mother hen" aspect of being a team leader. I love showing people around, encouraging them, trying to keep spirits up, helping such an eclectic group of people not just get along for six weeks, but become friends and truly approach things as a team. I've still got a lot to learn; I made plenty of mistakes at White Lake. I decided from the start that I wanted to lead by example, so I worked hard, whether that meant gathering firewood, cooking, cleaning, planning lessons, or taking over cabins and activities. My teammates were wonderful and they jumped right in alongside me. But I got so exhausted, and then got the sickness that was going around camp; finally I had to go home a week early, which was devastating. But I learned a lot about myself through that experience, and I was so blessed to see my wonderful teammates stepping up to make sure things would keep running smoothly even without a team leader. I'm sad I missed that last week of camp, but I'm so thankful for the encouragement the Lord gave me as I watched my friends so willingly carry my load. And I learned that I can't do everything myself!

Leading a team in Karamoja will be quite different, but I'm excited for the challenge. It will be strange to have this place, which is normally so quiet, buzzing with visitors, but the enthusiasm, probing questions, and boundless energy that short-termers bring will be refreshing.

We're still looking for guys for the team to Karamoja this summer! The girls slots are already full, but we have room for 2-3 more guys.

And there's ALWAYS a need for counselors at White Lake Covenanter Camp in the Catskill Mountains of New York. I won't be working at White Lake this year (for the first time in 7 years!) but I'll be at Family Camp, fresh off the plane from Uganda. I couldn't recommend that team highly enough if you enjoy working with kids and teens.

Go to the RP Missions website to learn more about either of these trips (and lots of other trips across the US and around the world!).

Day 5: "So, why are you guys not freaking out right now?"

This week I've been on vacation while the Wright family went to Kenya to drop their daughter off at boarding school. Anna's in the 11th grade at Rift Valley Academy, a fantastic Christian school where missionary kids from all over Africa come to get a great high school education and enjoy the benefits of school - extracurriculars, broader course offerings, friends that aren't hours away -- that are hard if not impossible to come by when you live in the middle of nowhere.

The family said their goodbyes and had just left the school in Kijabe an hour before getting pulled over by the  Kenyan police. The same thing happened when I was travelling back from Kijabe with the Wrights a couple months ago. To be honest, it's a corrupt system, and the police are looking for bribes. Last time, Bob was charged with speeding, our van was impounded, and we had to sit in the police station for about an hour while Bob talked with the officials. The thing is, that old van can't speed. It starts vibrating violently at 80 kph (the speed limit), and their charges that we were driving over 100 kph are simply impossible.  

Today, however, Bob actually got arrested and put in a jail cell for a few hours, while the family had to wait in the station for him. I don't have all the details yet, but from what I understand they got pulled over between 8 and 9AM and were there till after lunchtime. Thankfully they let Bob go and didn't keep him overnight.

We were all buzzing about it at lunch here in Karamoja, but we weren't overly concerned. We stopped to pray for them. We trusted that God had the situation all under control, and we figured that Bob would at the most have to spend one night in jail. When we told our short term visitor Rebecca what had happened, her face was priceless. She couldn't believe how nonchalant we were. "So, why are you guys not freaking out right now?"

What can I say? TIA -- This Is Africa! Expect the unexpected. Flexibility is key. And all those other schnazzy mottos that sound so nice and easy till you're standing in a Kenyan jail cell on false charges. Yup. 

Day 4: Book Recommendation

Tonight, after our group dinner, Chris and Chloe Verdick, our college-break visitor Rebecca, and I had some really deep discussions about all kinds of difficult issues -- the death penalty, spanking, singles adopting, gay marriage, building relationships with unbelievers, the signs of true conversion, how believers deal with besetting sins, politics, alcoholism -- pretty much you name it, we covered it. Our discussions got heated at times, but it was good for us; iron sharpening iron. It's not easy having your thoughts on certain subjects stretched, but it's so beneficial to talk these things out with other believers.

I wanted to share one particular article which has to do with one topic we discussed at length: homosexuality, and what it looks like when a GLBT person comes to faith in Christ. I haven't yet read Rosaria Butterfield's book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert but it has been receiving great reviews, including this one by Carl Trueman. Rosaria was a radical feminist lesbian Queer Theory specialist and English professor at Syracuse University before becoming a Christian and marrying a Reformed Presbyterian pastor. I heard her speak at the Rose Point RP Church while I was in college, and I was so impressed and inspired by her story. This review is well worth a read, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the book (Kindle version!).

There's a lot we can learn from Rosaria about how to be loving to GLBT people we may meet at work, at school, in church.  According to Carl Trueman, every pastor should be required to read this book, especially the two chapters in which she describes with brutal honesty what she thought of Christians before she met the RP couple who would later lead her to Christ. I hope this book might be a blessing to some of you.

~Emily

Day 3: Girls' night under the stars!

Erika, Leah and I, along with our short term visitor Rebecca, are going to sleep on the Wright's roof tonight. The Wrights have a flat roof over Bob and Martha's office, with a wall all the way around and a good sturdy ladder (don't worry Mom, I won't roll off the roof!). When the Wrights are travelling and I'm looking after their house, Erika and I like to drag mattresses up there and sleep under the stars. However, when we slept up there a couple months ago the screeching bats were so loud I hardly slept at all, so tonight I'll be bringing a trusty pair of ear plugs! 

I wish you could see the African sky on a clear night. It's stunning. Last year Erika, Leah and I watched The Lion King on the roof -- the setting of the movie looks a LOT like Karamoja, and watching Simba look up at the stars was a bit surreal. I'm a firm believer that you're never too old for a Disney movie! 

It gets quite cold up there at night, so the cold air wakes us up early enough that we can watch the sunrise. I'll bring my camera and try to snap a couple pictures. Unfortunately the power lines they installed a year or two ago kinda ruin the view (which I wouldn't be too upset about, except that they don't actually work, and it may be years before the electricity is actually turned on!).

In the meantime, here a couple more pictures from recent months :)

Day Two: All the Single Ladies... Christmas Photo!

Left to right: Leah Hopp, village health instructor, me, and Erika Hopp, the Okken's teacher.

I didn't have true Ugandan Christmas clothes, so I put on the only red clothes I own. Chris and Chloe gave me my first ever I <3 NY t-shirt; they found it in an Mbale market, and it's actually clean and fits perfectly! I was amazed.
There's our Christmas tree: four cypress branches tied together. Leah bought the branches and Christmas lights in Kampala. We have a few Christmasy-colored Karimojong blankets and some ornaments and tinsel that Erika brought from America.
We had a wonderful Christmas! I hope you did, too.

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New Years Resolution: Day 1

I'm not one for resolutions, probably because I never succeed in keeping them. I can't remember the last time I bothered even making a resolution.

I read somewhere that it takes 14 days to form a habit. I did succeed in establishing one important habit this year (beginning in October) -- I wake up every morning around 6AM and read my Bible. My motto is "no Bible, no breakfast." Waking up early was really hard for me at first, but I forced myself to do it, and now it's no problem. I can see now why everyone says it's best to read your Bible in the morning, rather than haphazardly later in the day like I used to do.

Forming that habit has inspired me to try another challenge. My resolution is to blog every day for 90 days, no matter what (unless I come down with a horrible case of malaria, in which case I hope you'll excuse me!). I don't expect to blog daily after the 90 days are up, but I think this jump start will help. I'm going to take Sundays off, as a day of rest. The internet here in Karamoja may occassionally fail, but I think I'll be able to keep up with this pretty consistently if I make it a priority.

I haven't written on here in a while. To tell you the truth, after you've spent a certain amount of time in the same place overseas (I've spent almost 12 months in Karamoja since 2009), everyday life no longer seems blog-worthy. The things I do, day in and day out, are just the mundane routines of life -- baking bread, snotty babies trying to pull out my arm hair, killing cockroaches, pulling ticks off my legs, walking to the clinic, teaching Sunday school with a translator, dinner and games and movies with my fellow missionaries. I've fallen out of touch with people, because I can't imagine anyone would care to know about these little things. But I've been reminded that a lot of my friends and family don't really have a good idea of what constitutes "everyday life" on the African savannah, so my goal is to share a little snapshot with you every day.

For instance, today I walked up to the Wright's house with Caleb Okken, who's ten. He wanted to visit Jadu's kittens. We strolled up and saw Jadu munching on something bright green - a baby snake (I think it was a boomslang). You know you've been here for a while when you hardly flinch at such a sight! [I started writing a fun fact about baby snakes, but I don't want to terrify anyone... just rest assured that this is actually the first baby snake I've ever seen here, and I'm thankful for that!]

Speaking of Caleb, he's reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time, and he's getting REALLY into it. My brother, sister and I are total LOTR fans (books and movies), so I love all the intense questions Caleb throws at me. This afternoon he and his teacher, my friend and former hut-mate Erika Bulthuis, were having a little LOTR review time at the end of school, and they invited me to join them. Erika had a list of study guide questions that she couldn't answer, so she thought I might know. I'm not quite a walking encyclopedia (unlike some people I know) so I couldn't answer every burning question, but it was such fun to dig into the books with them. I'm hoping that from now on Erika, Caleb and I will read portions of The Silmarillion aloud every Wednesday when Caleb's school day is finished. He's not ready to read it on his own -- the names alone would slow him down too much, and the language is more difficult to understand --  but he's so eager to learn more that I think he'll enjoy delving into the history of Middle Earth with the two of us.

I spent most of the day lesson planning, and I made three loaves of bread. Now it's 5:00 -- where did the day go? My to-do list is insane right now. Funny how many tasks get put aside in the midst of the holiday craziness, and now they're staring me in the face. The holidays are over... time to get back to business. The Wrights are on their way to Kenya, driving Anna back to boarding school, so I'm on vacation until next Wednesday.

Much love to all my friends and family,
Ngakiru (Emily)

Mourn with those who mourn

Death has loomed over our community here in Nakaale for the past couple months. In late August, the week before I arrived, two people died: a young man named Luomo Gabriel, who suffered horribly before he died, and an old woman who was a relative of one of our translators (links are to the blog of a summer pastoral intern, David Landow). Now, in just the last two weeks, we've faced three more deaths. The wife of our employee Markson was beaten to death (Chris Verdick describes this in his blog). The son of the "Big Man" Mose Athio died last Sunday after years of alcoholism, and today the Mose's wife also died of alcohol-induced liver failure. The Mose has now lost five of his seven children and his wife.

Markson is not a believer, as far as we can tell - please pray for the death of his wife to be a spiritual wake-up call for him. Pray that we will know how to minister to him. The Mose is a believer who faithfully attends church despite his age and poor health. Please pray for him at this time as he mourns two family members. His wife died last night, and as of this morning he had not been told the news. His family requested that Pastor Dave Okken visit him and inform him of his wife's passing.

Martha told me this morning that the wife of Mose Athio, Nakiru, was a very strong, capable, beautiful woman. Soon after her marriage to Athio, she took to drinking heavily. Death is a horrible thing to face, regardless of the causes. But to hear of people dying of alcohol abuse, being beaten to death, being stabbed to death -- the circumstances are simply heartbreaking.

As missionaries, we're not here to wipe out Karimojong culture and "Americanize" these people. But we do hope to have a positive influence and change some aspects of the culture here, because they are so destructive. The amount of drunkenness here, and the violence that erupts from this drunkenness, is staggering. Lord, help us to be a light in this dark place.


~Emily

For all you prayer warriors...

We're now in Mbale, with plans to travel up to Karamoja on Monday. We've had a great time in the cities, enjoying civilization and spending time with loads of quality people, but I'm feeling ready to get back "home" to Nakaale. 

I'd really appreciate your prayers. Some doors are opening here for longer term work for me, and I need wisdom and prayer to know how to go forward. I want to stay in Karamoja! It seems like my dream job is right in front of me, but going down this road will mean at least two more years here in Uganda. I would love to spend the rest of my life here, but realistically I need to take things one year at a time. So please pray that I wouldn't rush into any decisions, but would be wise, patient, and responsible as I think about the road I'm headed down.

You can also pray for our Mission right now as we deal with some really discouraging trials in the Nakaale church, particularly with regards to church members taking second wives. In some cases the men who have taken second wives were men we'd hoped would step into church leadership roles eventually; they're now ineligible for church office. This has been a hard blow to our mission and we'd appreciate your prayers during this time. We know the Lord will raise up a people for Himself from among the Karimojong, but it's a long and bumpy road and right now it seems like there's little fruit for our labors. Please pray for the Karimojong church members - that they would have a sincere faith, that they would understand the life Christ calls them to as believers, and that they would not cave in to cultural pressures. We can't do these things for them. We're praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit to do his work among our brothers and sisters.

Thank you for standing alongside us as we struggle to bring the Gospel to this dark place. Your prayers and encouragement mean more than you know! God bless you all,

In Christ,

Emily

Around Town

I spent about three hours on Tuesday afternoon wandering around the town of Namalu with my students Mary and Kipsy Wright. Namalu is less than half an hour from our mission (if the roads are somehow ok) and we buy most of our produce and cooking staples (flour, oil, sugar, milk, etc) from the tiny grocery store and street side vendors. It's nice to just spend a couple hours wandering around with my two adopted little sisters. The Wright family moved to Uganda when Kipsy was only one year old, so these girls have grown up here. They speak ngaKarimojong, know how to bargain with sellers, and know this little town inside out.

We went to a stall where a man was selling necklaces and earrings. While the girls were picking out beads to make into necklaces, a very drunk man wandered up to us demanding money. We ignored him and told him no several times and he eventually staggered away. A crowd gradually grew around us. They didn't recognize me so they asked for my name, which is Nakiru Emily. Over the course of the afternoon my name spread around town and several people shouted it at me. Thanks for yelling at me; yes, I do know that's my name; no, I'm not going to marry you, drink beer with you or give you money!

We bought some tomatoes and twenty mandazi, which are like bite-size fried dough. Delicious. We walked over to the Noah's Ark Hotel, a brightly colored building with a covered veranda, and sat down to eat and talk.  I had a great chat with the girls about how much they're looking forward to going to boarding school next year, and lots of other things. They are such sweet girls and really encouraged me that as much as they can't wait to go away to a "real" school in Kenya, they're glad I'm here and that I'm part of the "family" while their two big sisters are away at school. We determined to make the most out of this year and have tons of fun together while we can.

We had been there for about half an hour when a large, older, respectable looking man came up to the veranda. A group of warrior-age young men had been hovering near the door of the hotel watching us and talking about us; we ignored them the whole time. This man walked up to the crowd of men and demanded to know why they had not given us chairs to sit in. "This is a disgrace! These are visitors!" We tried to explain to him that we were not patrons of the hotel. The men explained that we are not visitors, we are those of Nakaale. Mary and Kipsy told him that we are not visitors, we live here, and we chose to sit on the ground. Don't blame these men. He was smiling while he said it, but he was sincere -- you are our visitors, you are shaming us when you sit on the ground, you make us look like bad hosts, and you boys -- where are your manners? Get chairs for these ladies! Kipsy then blurted out, "We have buttocks for sitting!" which caused roars of laughter. Chuckling and shaking his head, the man walked away. No one brought us chairs. The young men greeted us, and one asked Mary to go to an edonga (dance) with him. He said that the next day he would come to Nakaale and that Bob, Mary's dad, should have a dance in his yard. Um, no thanks. We walked away. 

As we were heading back to meet Martha and Pastor Dave, an old man on a bicycle stopped to greet us. He was very nice. Just then the local crazy lady (sorry... not sure how else to put it) walked up to us shouting and demanding money. He said "her head is broken" and quickly rode away on his bike. We ignored her and kept walking; she's been known to snatch at purses.

The mzungu show is interesting when you're a short term visitor. It's exciting to have everyone waving and staring at you. It's kind of fun to be the center of attention. But those feelings are fleeting, and now I usually find it to be a nuisance. It's awkward to have people stalking you, pointing, yelling at you, constantly begging from you just because you're white. Young women have a particularly bad time of it -- we are constantly whistled at, offered cows for marriage, and receive many other unwelcome advances. But we stick together and we're perfectly safe. It's just uncomfortable. I've gotten fairly good at firmly saying "emam jik" (absolutely not) and walking away straight-faced when yelled at by men. 

Yet, despite the hassle, I love hanging out with my "little sisters" in the bustling metropolis of Namalu :)

Namatala

Today Martha and I went to visit JENGA, a Christian NGO here in Mbale. There we met a woman named Rose who took us to visit Namatala, an Mbale slum where at least a thousand (probably more?) Karimojong  live. It was a fascinating, eye-opening trip.

Many Karimojong go to the cities looking for work. Often married couples will split up, with one staying in Karamoja and one moving to Mbale; other times they'll send their kids away to the cities, and these Karimojong kids make up most of the street kid population in Mbale and Kampala. These transplanted people move into the slum of Namatala.

Truth is, although Namatala is one of the poorest areas in the city of Mbale, the people there are living much more comfortably than their families up north. Most have stone or brick homes or huts, rather than mud huts; the homes are pretty well spaced out, and they keep their living areas fairly neat. Of course, city life presents plenty of its own challenges, but from a basic quality of life standpoint they seem slightly better off. Still, it's a slum. Not an easy place to thrive... it would be very hard for any family in that slum to become prosperous enough to move into a better situation. Hard, but not impossible.

We met lots of lovely people who were thrilled when we greeted in ngaKarimojong and Martha struck up conversations. The kids literally PLASTERED themselves to me, which was sweet. I felt bad because one little girl was clearly sick and covered in sores. She was following me around, wouldn't let go of me, and when we sat down to talk to some women she just put her head face down in my lap for a long time and was breathing really hard. Her back and head were extremely hot; we told the ladies there, but no one seemed too eager to help her. I'm such a softy mzungu; my heart just melts over these kids. I didn't care that they were sneezing, licking, and rubbing their sore-infested faces all over my arms... I loved having them follow me around! But at one point Rose had to drive them all away because Namatala is so big, she was fearing that some of the children would become lost, and the parents would blame it on "those of Bob"!

We prayed with a few women, and then Rose took us to visit the Child of Hope school in the slum. The school is run by a man named Moses who has a wonderful vision for pulling these people out of poverty through education and small business grants in the slum. The school was absolutely beautiful! He took us to each of the four grades (Primary 1 - P4) and as we entered each classroom the children stood to welcome us:

"We wel-o-come you, visitors. This is Child of Hope Primary School. This class is Primary 4 and our teacher is Teacher Mike. We love learning and have hope." Then they would do a clapping routine before sitting down.

 Moses and Martha did introductions (I mostly waved and smiled). The children looked clean and happy, the classes were organized, with very nice paintings and alphabet/number charts on the walls, and the teachers seemed professional. Martha and I came away hopping with ideas and dreaming of all the possibilities for a Christian school in Nakaale....

Rose, who was showing us around, lives in Namatala. As Tiff, another JENGA worker, said, Rose is a hero. Her first husband was shot and killed by rebels in 1994. She moved away from the area where the rebels were (I'm assuming she was referring to the LRA) to Mbale and remarried. Her second husband at the time of their marriage could only see out of one eye. One day, their son was hit by a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) and knocked unconscious. Her husband demanded that the driver take the boy to the hospital and pay for him to be looked at, but the driver refused. Some time during the heated discussion her husband was hit in his good eye and it was destroyed; the doctors had to completely remove the eye. Now he is blind and can't work, although he can walk around and go to the market on his own. Rose works for JENGA and is the primary breadwinner. She has six children of her own, and has adopted 4 Karimojong kids and 5 other children into her family -- so she is living with and supporting a family of 17. She is very involved in the church located there in Namatala and kids all over the slum call her Auntie. What an example to all of us.