Okotoot

forgot to tell you about Okotoot - the village we story at and have started spending nights...
so - we, Tom, Miriam and me - together with evangelist Joshua and Nabur who helps out with the chicks project, headed out there while the moon was full to once again story around the campfire and enjoy the rhythms of Karamoja. when we arrived, we found fewer people than normal - and those we found we nervous.
as the story came out - we realized the army had come to their village earlier in the day, searching for stolen cattle. they found  none, but they did find an AK-47 and a number of rounds. more than 20 men were rounded up, beaten and now are in jail.
pray for the women and children left behind who are confused and scared. pray for the misunderstandings to clear up and for the men to be released. its currently illegal to have guns in Karamoja, but since the army only found one in their search - its safe to say that the gun, whom the chairman owns, is for protection. people here are shook up, even Moru Anna of the chicks project got affected as the army threw down her granaries and broke all the eggs that have been laid this week.

Good news

From Jean on 7.7

Good evening, better news- we've been praying for the 6 shepherds who never came home after their 100 + cattle were stolen. Yesterday Valentina's 10yr old son Laki crawled home - WOW!!!!!. He was severely beaten especially scrawny legs left in the bush over 30kms away- he made it painfully home.
The joy mixed with overwhelming concern sprang from Valentina's face and voice and she relayed her good news.

Pray for healing inside and outside for the families affected. A sign of relief has settled here but there lingers sadness.

The other good news, after almost a year, we can finally come out of our tents, the roof is done! we will move our stuff in this weekend just in time.

meals

so, we're trying to get the roof finished before we leave for several weeks - and it's not the time of building, so people have been reluctant to bring the green sticks and sisal plants (for ropes) to do the work - and the roofers have . aaaahh . also lacked 'incentive' (for reasons entirely opaque to us) - so, there I was, early one morning, way out in the boondocks with a group of guys who were gathering the materials in the bush - I had skipped breakfast because I figured it would be a relatively short trip - it wasn't
- I wasn't in a position to help with the work, other than to load the stuff on the truck afterwards, so I sat there reading and taking notes for some team trainings - I noticed my alertness levels approximated a sine wave, which I attributed to blood sugar levels, when one of the guys walked past and commented on how tired they all were
- once again, I was reminded of how much work they do on so little resources - they hadn't eaten either - in fact, they typically don't eat but one or two small meals a day - one or more of those meals may be "nagwe," or, local beer (vitamin B or not, productivity Definitely goes down) - while I'm used to three meals a day, any one of which would likely serve them well as their 'one', and I tend to whine if I don't get them - go figure


- blessings
Tom

Please Pray

3.7.2011

This morning after prayers, I heard a new shepherd boy song, it was haunting and louder than normal. The boy was alone, leaning on his staff, surrounded by 30 some sheep and goats as he sang the new tune. I drew near to hear the words, then shrank as I realized he was retelling the story of yesterday's raid.
At least a 100 head of cattle were stolen in broad daylight, six shepherds have not come home. I made the mistake this morning of asking Valentina if anyone died. Never ask that. It's like asking a warrior or elder how many cows they have, or an American how much money they make. She quietly answered me that her son has not come home yet. Oh no...
I remember in the 90s when raids were rampant, when a man was killed in a raid, his buddies would carry his gun back to his first wife- not telling her that he had been killed, but just that he hadn't come back yet...
Six shepherds never came home yesterday. Pray for their families. Valentina's husband has gone out to chase the raiders- to follow the footprints. As has become the norm- the UPDF (Ugandan army) is also in pursuit. Pray for the families of the raiders, too- this can be a tough place- thanks for your support. J

Karamoja is still Karamoja

from Jean on the 2.7. 2011:
Another raid hit our Nabilatuk this afternoon.
Even though 95% of the guns are gone, the deep culture of raiding cattle continues...
Some 20 cows od Mama Sarah's were stolen, healer Nalem Rose lost at least a dozen, and Valentina who cares for our chicken projectlost more than 15, still others are following the footprints of the raiders.

  Pray for peace

Village visit

so we spent the night in Okutot last Monday - Jean wanted to check on the chickens and we wanted the experience and to do some storying in a bit of a different way - the chickens were fine and the storying was OK - not different, since, whenever we show up, there's automatically an "event," so we need to do this more often so it becomes more normal, less special - then, even if we have some large group "events," we can still have some small group (and more personal) times to converse
- I'm told there were about 300 people in the darkness around the fire - all I could see was the fire (and smoke, which always seems to follow you around - how does it KNOW to do that? And WHY?) and the front couple of rows - but the crowd seemed to enjoy themselves - Joshua led several songs and we talked about how The Father sent Jesus, His Son, on a raid into enemy territory to 'steal' people (believers) - but why? If the people then knew God, as Israel certainly did and as the Karamojong certainly believe that they do, why did Akuj-Papa do that at all? - so, I ended up telling the story of "the woman and the snake" (Gen 3) and the two trees ("of Life" and "of the knowledge of good and evil") and the curses that still remain for God (alone) to remove and how Eve's name means "mother of all the living (people)" - thus, we must be "born again," out of the family of the curse and into the family of God/blessing
- good times were had by all - the crowd was very responsive and they were willing to stay late and had to be sent home - and the 'chairman' (Local Council 1, like an elected chief) served us good food, lots of 'butter' and milk and sorghum - he even teased me about eating cows blood - I didn't exactly say "hhhhmmmmm-boy-yeah! BRING IT ON!" but grinned real big and said I would eat it (thank goodness it never appeared) - we hope to do it again just before we leave in a week

Numbers

I can now count up to 9 - that means I'm dumber than every American
pre-school child who watches Sesame Street (just call me "DOCTOR Idiot" -
you know, every village needs an idiot, most around here have at least one
crazy person; apparently I'm the idiot for several villages; hopefully, I'm
not the crazy guy for any of them - most of "those guys" walk around naked
and mumbling and there's Just Not Enough Sunscreen In This WORLD for me to
do THAT!)
- OK, to be fair, I used to be able to count to "googolplex" in English
(not a multi-screen cinema for the internet . yet) - but, I can only count
to 9 in Ng'Karamojong (still can't figure out why I can't remember "10," but
I can't) - Ipe (eepay), ngare, ngiuni, ngomwan, ngikan (and then "5+1, 5+2,
5+3, etc to 10; then, 10+1 up to 10+5; then, it's 10+5+1, 10+5+2 - very few
of these guys have ever been to school but they gotta be freaking genius'
just to count their fingers and toes)
- but, when you think about it, what do they have to count, anyway? Cows?
Nah, they don't count their cows, they name them - each and every last one
of them, and they remember the names - no counting involved - it's like
saying I know 150 people versus I know Jim, Betty, Frank, Joe-Bob, Louie,
Pascal, etc - so, I'm from Texas, where we not only have a lot of cows (for
beef), but we also count them and we eat them ("Beef, It's what's for
dinner" and lunch - and high tea and breakfast, too, if  you're lucky!) -
so, this is just a little off-center for me - Jean's from Wisconsin where
they also have a lot of cows (mostly for milking) but until recently, even
if they count them, they still know them individually, so it's not quite so
jarring for her
- maybe that's why they don't eat them very often (only when they're really
hungry or the cow is too sick to carry on any longer) - it would be like
eating Uncle Louie (whom I never liked anyway, but he's mostly skin and
bones), not that they wouldn't eat the bovine version of Uncle Louie (or
just bleed him a little each quarter) but they'd really hate to do it - and
this is what's called "culture learning" (or dinner, as the case may be)