Here are some of the children that I was in contact with while up in Guruguru in Amoro district and in Gulu. Pictures tells more than words!

Trip to Pader and Gulu

Wow what an awesome 11 days in Gulu and Pader, with lots of fun, challenges, impressions, hardship…… A new view of life and appreciation on what we have.

The whole trip started on the 10^th of May when 3 buses left from the home in different directions. They were all overloaded with people, they could take 29 passengers, and they had 35, 37 and 44 people. A bit squeezed, but we had a good time.

The bus I went with was the one to Pader, the children were singing praise songs along the way – but the most amazing thing was when we crossed the bridge into Pader district we saw the rainbow. The kids started shouting and got even louder when they saw the telephone tower in Rackoko. Their relatives were there to welcome them, and it was quite emotional. 4 of the kids had to spend the night with me – and early in the morning they came to me saying that they wanted to go home. And within a short time, their relatives came….

During the few days I was in Rackoko, my time was spent with the children who live there – some of the kids live quite far away so I wasn’t able to visit them in their homes. Some of the children and I walked the IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camp to find the huts for the other ones and see their previous living condition. I had to keep my tears back a few times, cuz it was quite something. One of the boys got emotional when he saw me coming to visit, so I asked what was wrong. Got him close to me, held my hand around him and showed him some love. And after a while he said, we only eat 2 times a day – and we don’t have soap for bathing or for washing. I went straight to the “store” and bought them a bar of soap.

Then I went to Gulu to visit some of the children that live in the IDP camp there. My transport over to Gulu was what they call a bus, but it’s a pickup. Like you can see it was overloaded, but seemed that there always was room for one more – that is typical for Africa. The trip went well, and we only got one flat tire. The road that we used was opened officially in November 2006, because the LRA (Lord’s Resistant Army) the rebels used to ambush people/vehicles there all the time.

After a quick shower, the trip went to visit the children in the IDP camp and that camp was quite different from the one in Pader. Many people from this camp in Gulu have moved back to their villages – so many of the huts were empty.

The next day I went with 2 of the mama’s that works here in Kasozi, to visit her mother. The journey took up far into the bush – with an amazing scenery. They had told me that there was a big mountain there that there had been some fighting on in 1911 and that people had lived there. So we wanted to climb it, and see what it looked like. It was quite the climb, where we at times had to get on both hands and knees to get up the cliff. But the view from there was amazing and it was worth all the emotions that we went through. Sweat, fear, happiness….

The plan was to stay for 1 night, but then there was no diesel in Gulu town so they had to wait in line… meaning that we had to stay another night there. Guruguru is a place quite far from the rest of civilization, and the marked was empty. There was nothing to be found, most of the people had peanuts and a sort of beans. So it was difficult for them to do trading with their goods. We brought food to Jaja (which means grandmother) and ate of that – and left what was left. They got up early in the morning 5 to start digging in their garden, and they would come back early afternoon b4 the sun got to hot. Hard working people, living in hard conditions – yet they shared the little food they had. I was yet amazed over their hospitality. We slept 2 adults, 4 teens, and 4 children in one hut with a diameter of 4 meters….LOL no need for a blanket. Quite the experience, yet I found myself thinking that it could have been worse… knowing that the conditions we were in were hard. Yet there are people other places in the world that has it worse than what we experienced there. Some of the children that came with us said “this is hard”, they have seen that life is different for other people.

Then it was time to take the trip back to Kasozi village, I had to go back to Pader to pick the children there – so we left Gulu at 6:30 and drove 2 hours to Rackoko to pick the children there. It was a long drive but it went very well. The kids were happy to be back home, and to see their friends again. It took us 12,5 hours to get here. Tired and exhausted – but with a gratitude to God that all had gone well that He had kept us all safe on the road.

We got power and holiday trip for the children

We have electricity. It has been a long wait, and it seems a bit surreal still. We were told that it would get here last year, but that obviously didn’t happen….. and now it’s a fact. The poles came first, after laying on the ground for a while… It takes longer here in Africa – and that has for sure been a fact coming to electricity.
First thing first, I had to charge my phone…which was a huge thing cuz now we don’t have to go anywhere to do that. And then secondly charging the music….=)

What is more beautiful than sitting in your room, watching the children play outside in the rain – and then see the promise of God showing up on the sky. The rainbow has been showing up here a lot lately. Something which I do believe, is God reminding us of His promises to us as his children. There has been some stuff going on here at the home, which has not been good for anybody. Witch craft and such, but those things have now been cleaned out and we see that the children have more freedom. Difficult to explain – but it’s very visible. Praise the Lord for all the things that he has done.

The 2 last weeks before the end of first term at school, the pre-school started. Are they not a beautiful bunch of children? They didn’t quite know what to do or where to strand the first day, but it didn’t take them very long to figure out things. The children can be heard from my room, when they are repeating after the teacher….A..B..C… and their 1…2…3… What an awesome things that we are able to see happening here at Kasozi Village.

On Saturday we left Kasozi village at 8 am to take the children back to see their relatives. Some have been counting days for the last week or so. The big news was told when Duncan (whom is the founder of Uganda Orphans Fund) told the children that they all were going back to visit their relatives. They jumped of joy, and screamed of happiness. And since that day they have been counting the days until the day of departure.

Like I’ve written before, I do have the privilege to go with some of the children back to visit their relatives. In the beginning I was supposed to go with the children to Gulu, which is up north in Uganda. But then the plans got changed, I left for Pader (which also is in the north), Rackoko for the first leg of the trip. Then I’m going to take public over to Gulu, which might be an interesting thing to do. Cuz up there the busses are not the most common vehicle, it might be a truck or something… I’ll let you know.

The trip went well, and the joy in the bus when they saw the phone tower in Rackoko was amazing. They were singing worship songs and it was very powerful. Most of the kids were met by their relatives on Saturday evening, only 4 of them stayed with me until the next day. But then their relatives also came. It was a time with lots of emotions, amazing. I’m visiting the children and their relatives in the IDP camp here in Rackoko, it’s awesome to be able to do that.

Please do remember us in your prayers during this time. The children are used to pray 2 times a day at the home, and some of their relatives are non believers. We pray that God will protect them and help the them to be witnesses to their relatives.