One roof down and one to go

Today we went back into Karamoja and the rains have begun. I think its for real this time. So much so that my tent didn't stand a chance. Don't get me, wrong the tent i have is great but it was never intended to be used for 6 months straight. It sounds funny when I say that i live in a tent in Africa. Anyhow I came back today to find my tents center pole collapsed, so once again it was time for repair and the magic fix for everything is binding wire. Give me some bamboo, some papyrus mats, and I'll make just about anything. So the tent is fixed for now. I think this time now all the poles have been messed up. Another thing we did today was bring up one roof upside down on the back of a truck. It was quite a challege to lift the roof over a fence even with ten guys. Once we reached home the next challenge arose cause the road was not big enough for the roof to pass without tilting. We got what seemed like most of the idlers in town to carry the roof. So one roof down and one to go.

It is here!

After so long, the Karamojong now, finally, have a complete bible in their own language. It was a joint effort with the two churches; Catholic and Church of Uganda (Anglican) and they were busy working on it even when I first arrived in Karamoja back in 13 years ago. How amazing, how wonderful, how right. Of course, very few people know how to read and those that do – read only English. Pray that this will be a great tool for us to story and share the gospel more effectively and that it would encourage more Karamojong to learn how to read

hospital visit

Mary has been helping us with fetching water for about 5 months now. She lives a few doors away with her 2 children; the oldest, 7yr old Lokul Grace, has epilepsy. Two days ago during a seizure she fell into Mary’s cooking fire scorching the inside of her right thigh. When I reached our local hospital yesterday morning, a few people greeted me and asked about nurse Michelle, a future teammate that spent a week working in the wards with them, then I went to pray with Grace. She was sleeping as I looked at the angry, oozing 3rd degree burn, the size of a dinner plate, the center dotted with rabbit fur remnants – a local medicine used for burns. The hospital had no other treatment applied, just some meds for pain and epilepsy with a light antibiotic. After praying for comfort, healing and wisdom for the doctors I went home to see what supplies. A team from Our Father’s House (Chili, Wi) had just brought some non-adhering bandages and catheters that I grabbed together with the last of my ‘burn crème’ from a Dutch friend. I returned to the hospital after the staff had wheeled her into the theatre – I was anxious when I found her bed empty, but other patients guided me to find Grace’s worried mother just emerging from the prep area where she held Grace’s hand as she went under injectable anaesthesia. She urged me to go inside and talk to the doctors, and it’s a good thing I did. They were excited about the new supplies and had never seen many of the donated items and had me demonstrate how to use them. Mary just came over to update me this morning around 7am – Grace is doing well and wants to go home! We’ll do another bandage change tomorrow and meanwhile the hospital is trying different seizure meds to help control it better. Pray for wisdom. Pray also for Sofia, another patient that I’ve been visiting that seems to currently be starving herself. She has HIV/AIDS – a growing problem that was virtually non-existent in Karamoja a few years ago.
Thank goodness there’s a cow vet around to train local medical staff, thank God that these supplies arrived just in time to help Grace

A picture is worth a thousand words

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” That’s a proverb. In fact, that’s a proverb about proverbs. A timeless truth is embedded in a simple, punchy, memorable declaration that calls for immediate assent (and can stimulate endless engaging debate). “A stitch in time saves nine.” “Many hands make light work.” “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” “Bad company corrupts good character.” “A man will reap what he sows.” Each of these comes from a single, familiar (to traditional societies, less so for modern urban settings), everyday context but speaks to many contexts.
A context, in this sense, is a cultural context often represented (or representable) in narrative. Thus, a proverb is the distillation of a lifetime of stories, the observation of many lived narratives captured in a single such story applicable to any one’s story. Stories (including history, tradition, fables, myths and riddles), and discussions about them, and songs, dramas and dance for them, and proverbs summarizing them, are the typical non-school, non-literate way for individuals and communities to remember. Not only to store important truths but to use them.

Tom signing in

- “I’m out of everything and I need to go to the grocery store – but I can only remember about three things on my mental list – and when I get there, I’ll have forgotten those and remembered a different three things (the ones that are sweet or fat or both) – Oh! Wait! I know how to read and write!” – problem solved
- “I just heard the greatest quote! And I really want to remember it – it could really change my life - but I’ve got all those grocery lists and “to do” lists to remember. Oh, what will I do?! – Wait! I’ve been to school and I know how to read and write!” – another problem solved by literacy
- “I owe about six people a dozen things – and come to think of it, those rat finks owe me something too! Now, how to remember all those niggling details so my family doesn’t starve … Oh, yeah! I know how to read and write (and so do those rat finks that owe me money!) and we can all sit down and go over our “written documents” (If I don’t show them to a lawyer first)!” – yes, another problem solved by that form of public memory: literacy! Hoo-rah!
- But what do you do if you don’t have those abilities …