Gulu, Uganda

Over Easter weekend I had the opportunity to travel back to Uganda with Meghan, the short term missionary girl I am living with and another shorter termer from Torit, Kelly. I am not going to lie, it was nice to be in civilization again! We were able to eat fruits and fresh vegetables again, as well as yoguart and a little bit of meat. A couple nights we even got some running water from showers! But Gulu is an interesting town because, being in Northern Uganda, it too has suffered much from the war. The LRA is a Ugandan rebel army that also sweept through Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan raiding, pillaging, and looting many villages after the Arabs already went through the same villages. Consequently, driving into Gulu, the outskirts of the town along the road are full of IDP (internally displaced people) camps, where people have fled their villages during times of war to recieve military protection at these camps. But just from looking at these camps one can see poverty written all over. Huts are built close together since that land is not their own, and their source of food is from relief donations, not from farming and the people's own industrious labors. While we were in Gulu we got the opportunity to visit Invisible Children, which is an organization set up to help those children who were night travelers during the war, fleeing from their homes every night to avoid being abducted and forced into child soilders.

Although Ikotos is a beauitful little town, living here is not very different from camping. We go to the bore holes to fetch our own water, take bucket baths, hand wash our clothes, and go to the bathroom in a squatty potty. Not to mention all the critters Meghan and I sleep with every night. I cannot really say how many different insects and bugs we kill or find in our little tuukel. I used to have this terrifying fear of spiders, even though I have lived many years in Nigeria with plenty of spiders, but here in Sudan, I think I have learned to get over it because there are just too many to kill in a day! I try to kill them, but if they get away, I just shrug it off...there are much worse things that could be found like scorpions or snakes. But we dare not shut our tuukel door at night or else we might die from the heat!

Even as I write this now the weather is changing in Ikotos. The rainy season is coming and its a welcome relief to the normal heat. Although I dare say, after the rains it can feel quite cold when one is used to 100 degree weather or hotter! The days usually start out sunny and slightly humid, but my mid afternoon the clouds will roll in and either cause a trenchal downpour or just stir up so much dust and sand with the strong winds that threaten rain. Since rainy season isn't in full swing yet, pending clouds and strong winds don't always bring the rain.

The next two weeks are going to be extrememly busy for both Meghan and I. We found out after we got back from Gulu, that most of the teachers were leaving school two weeks early to help out with the cenus that is happing all over Sudan in the middle of April. Unfortunatly, this means that between the two of us, Job the headmaster of the school, and two other Ugandan teachers who are not affected by the cenus, we will have to take over all the classes for all the senior secondary grades. But not only will we have to teach these classes (from who knows where the teachers have left off!) but the second week is exam week, and although the teachers are expected to have written their exams already, Meghan and I will most likely have to type, print, administer, and grade all the classes that we are taking over. But such happenings at AIC Luther Secondary School is only a fraction of the disorganization at the school. But one positive thing the school does have going for it, is the headmaster Job. He is a Kenyan missionary in Ikotos and is a godly, righteous man to help mend some of the injustices at the school.

Prayer Requests
1. Pray for Meghan and I in the next two weeks as our duties at the school just tripled in weight!
2. Thank God for the relief of rainy season.
3. Pray for Luther Secondary School in Ikotos, that the school system here will improved and that good, reputable, godly teachers will come to the school.