to summarize...

Finally some internet...
Had a busy week... some highlights:
- made it all 4 days in the village and started up my P7 English class again - time to "mark" papers!
- when children in the village are asked about shapes, "egg", "sun", and "moon" - kinda fun responses... limbo with 4 year olds - also entertaining
- The tile is finally finished though the house repairs are not yet done.
- Expat exodus going into "tourist season" (lots of short-term people) has begun in Gulu
- Mango season is a delicious time of year
- I learned what tear gas smells like when the Secondary School Athletics competition ended in a riot (sore losers) at the stadium near my house
- visited my friend's school for most of the day and observed her teachers

- sad goodbyes to leaving friends

- bonfire "wang oo" Steph is back!

- I have chickens again - and the puppies want to eat them now now

- children sitting - yay dancing, playing in the rain, hot cocoa, and movie in a blanket fort... if only I had more energy!!!

- I'm not sick but am lacking too much energy to confidently say I'm well
- I learned to drive a motorcycle! :D

Back to School for Term 2!

Term 2 has begun!

All holidays must come to an end. I really needed the break but am ready to get back to work! The break helped rejuvenate me and give me a chance to start up fresh with ideas. The term is off to a slow start as it tends to be in Uganda but I expect to be crazy busy and tired before too long.

In other news:

The puppies are growing quick. I am so happy to have them around and glad they have each other to play with when I'm not there. We are breaking lots of cultural norms with how to care for a dog. The result is two nice dogs that people keep threatening to take. It's fun to watch people get won over and play with them.

My landlord decided to remodel my house a bit and buy tile. So exciting! You don't realize how much you appreciate flooring until you have bare, cracking concrete. The house is so much brighter and clean feeling! I also got new door-frames to tackle the termite problem. Needless to say my house is now a disaster covered in dust and bits of concrete. Time to clean and reorganize!

Do I want a masters? Turns out International Education and Development is a field of study...

REST!

Rest – Oh wow did I need it – and not just get out of Gulu but be refreshed and see that functional ideal projects are in fact possible. There are people who do things that are sustainable. There are Ugandans with a heart for what they do who can be trusted.

Lord Break my cynicism, teach me and guide me. Show me who to trust.

Spotlight on a Stepping Stone

This year is a stepping stone. To what? I don't know. This year is about following God to wherever He is taking me. It is about learning. It is about serving these kids with love. God has me on this journey to follow. He has work for me along the way. I am here because He wants me here. Sometimes time is the teacher. You may know about something but it is not until you get used to it that you can understand what is underneath. What am I being prepared for?

“Home” and the Nomad

It's amazing how something like a tree (I am a bit of a tree lover) can transport you home almost instantly. As I look out at the mountain lake, it is the pines and a few others that make this reminiscent of this idea we call home.

Home is an idea as much or more than a place. For some whose roots are deep in a location this is meaningless because Home could never be separated from the family friends and nostalgic familiarity of a singular (sometimes 2 nearby) place. Others find their roots tied to ancestral land and tribal links so that though they may transplant their bodies themselves, their roots always bound in another place they can always return to. Then there are those of us who pause when asked, “where are you from?”. Transplanted so many times you don't know which to choose - “The Potted Plant” - as my mom once insightfully described. Not moving as often as the traditional Nomad but even they at least have a region, origin, or route – Home is their colony – those they travel with, perhaps go back to and the trail along the way.

This is the modern Nomad. Roots are neatly tucked in the favorite Burks, pack, or perhaps a tangled mess kept in the Heart. It runs through the veins. It is in the silence, the heartbeat, the place for sitting at the end of the day, the cup of tea, the next mountain, home is you, home is many, home is few, home is none. Home is Earth. Home is no longer a binding but rather a choice. Home is here. Home is in the familiar. Home is that hill and that tree. Home is in you. Home is in me. Home is in heaven where someday we'll be.  

The Flight of Time

The flight of time – Living at the equator, we have further to go in a day. Living in Uganda, it is a harder push and more time is required to accomplish. Life moves slower but time moves faster.

Today, I am sitting... still. Peering out at the lake a couple hours journey from where the Nile starts is northbound journey. Coffee.... Company... Contemplation... quiet... resting.