The July Update/Goodbye

[John Simpson]

This Tuesday, July 15th, the morning bus will carry me and a few dear friends to Kampala.  We'll enjoy a last sunset on a beach near Entebbe, and say good-bye.  At 10:20p local time my flying begins, and on Wednesday in Charlotte (twenty-four hours later) at 3:30p EST I'll be home.  And I can't believe it...

 

What an amazing few weeks it has been.  I've handed the reigns of managing the Okweyo proposal over to Rev. Patrick, and since office work has taken a back seat, I've been free to leave the office and do some wonderful things.  Let me get them out quickly here...

 

... A really smart Primary 4 (sophomore in HS) student - ranked 3rd of 120 - came to the office to see me because he'd been sent from school.  The cassava he grew for school fees his father sold for drinking money.  He needed about $20 to be let back in.  The Education Sec. and I went over to the school, and got some money from a delinquent student sponsored by the diocese transferred to his account.  He's set for the rest of the term.

 

... Based in part on experiences like the one above, a dear friend from home encouraged me to find a way to get money to deserving kids when I go.  She'd already drummed up support from the few people she'd relayed the story to.  So, a fund is being chartered that will get fees to deserving students who come up on hard times.

 

... Had a chance encounter with someone I'd met once before around the Diocese.  Mark was outside the cafe I frequent, the muzungu hot spot in town.  He told fairly directly that his stomach was churning and his body was weak because of the ARVs (anti retro-virals, for HIV) he was taking.  His CD4 count, he told me, was 94; 200 and below is considered serious.  He's a farmer, and can't plant or harvest (both are happening now) because of doctor's orders, and he didn't have the energy anyway.  We talked about many kinds of struggles, then walked down to the market to get some posho (maize flour) and beans.  When we got home, three neighborhood kids ran after my motorbike into the compound, and entertained us with how hard they can hit the ground following handstands.  Debilitatingly complex hardship bookends with reckless joy.

 

... Over the past month, I've grown very close with Rev. James, his wife, and the five nephews and orphans he supports.  We've shared musical instruments, food, prayers, laughter...  His wife, Hilda, was in the hospital expecting surgery for a couple days (surgery didn't happen), and son David and I visited her and brough juice and snacks.  It's such a small thing, but feeling the need to, and being welcomed to, do these small things means being accepted, means being home.  (The three orphans - girls of about 10 years - I call 'the Rats', because they always travel together and you can hear them around the house as they giggle.  It doesn't sound as bad here as I'm sure it does at home...

 

... Scott, our guy at the Trust Fund for Victims, came by to say that the contract still needs to pass through a few more hands at the Hague, and that some of those hands are on leave now.  The prospect of August arriving with no cash-in-hand puts me at ease about my decision to go.  We also talked the ICCs efforts in Congo, Sudan, and possibly the Middle East.  We talked about George Bush's 'unsigning' of the Rome Treaty, and what our next president might do.

 

... Amazing conversations: There are roughly five westerners I know of who've been here as long as I.  Life in Northern Uganda is built for having meaningful conversation.  If it wasn't for the long struggle for peace, it will still be so simply because of the way of life.  Food service takes a long time, few TVs, time itself is malleable: no one is too far away or too busy to be bothered by an unannounced visit.  I'm lacking words here, so just know there are a few wonderful friends with whom I've shared treasured friendship and conversation.

 

... Maybe the greatest thing has been the appreciation shown by the staff at the diocese, those I worked beside, if not with, everyday.  Five of them are escorting me down to Entebbe; more would if they could.  The greatest compliment, the greatest gift to me, is to just be treated like one of gang.  That's real friendship, and that's what we share.  I'm really going to miss them.

 

To all, my pre-paid monthly internet is about to expire, so let me wrap up.  I hope you all know that your support, especially in encouragement once I arrived, was important and meant a great deal to me.  Also understand that as you sent me here, my community here is sending me to you, to share what I've seen and heard and done, and keep the people of Northern Uganda in our consciousness, that we continue to see this part of the Body of Christ (or maybe neither of you like me and I'm just being 'indian gifted').

 

See you in a couple days!

 

John Simpson
Missionary, Diocese of N. Uganda
www.ecm-raleigh.org/ecm-raleigh/Uganda