Wild In Africa

Well, we made it home.  I can't put into words what a great experience it was to travel to Kenya and Uganda with my twosons.  It is a trip that we will always remember.  The boys did great and remained healthy the whole time.  I know they are glad to be back in their own beds and are now getting ready for school on Monday.  We will never forget the time we had together and the people we shared it with.  Thanks for reading and keep Kenya, Uganda, as well as all of Africa (especially those in the horn suffering from starvation) in your thoughts and prayers.   

Peace,

 

Joel

We had such a great time in Africa but almost kissed the ground in the London :). We are so blessed and have a new appreciation for our lives, balanced with a burden to continue to help our world and those who are suffering.

After being in Gulu for almost two weeks we headed back to Kampala for a night and then flew to visit Nairobi for a couple of days. I had few meetings and then our good friend Martin took us to Nakuru for a safari. What a great day for the boys. We even saw lions!
Martin is involved with radio in Kenya and other parts of East Africa. He works for an organization called Diguna. If you've been keeping up with the news you know about the drought and starvation in Somalia and Sudan even north Kenya. Well, Diguna have organized trucks of food aid and are currently en route to deliver. What a great way to show Gods love in a practical way.

Today was our last day with the kids.  It was sad to leave them but we are all ready to be heading back.  We are tired but in a good way, we know we have impacted some of these children in a very positive way.  The time here has been bittersweet... it's great to help a little bit but sad that there is still so much to do here (not just here but in every conflict region).  Most of these kids have been through hell but they don't let it stop them from hoping, believing, and smiling;

I'll never forget them.  Tomorrow we head back to Kampala and from there the boys and I go to Nairobi, Kenya to do some work for my Dad's radio program Sound Truth.  Then we have a day in London on the way back and get home Friday. Thanks for the encouragement and prayers.  

I wish I could upload more pics tonight but the internet is very slow.  I'll keep blogging till I get back Friday and try and post more pics.

This is our second to last day doing camps.  The kids today had a great time and really enjoyed participating in the activities.  We have really connected with the kids and hope and pray that our short stay has impacted their lives in a meaningful way.  I hope these kids can see that their lives are important, they have potential, and can make a difference in their homes, community, and country.  The pics today are of camp 2, the site and the kids.  One interesting and sad point about todays camp is that the school where the camp was held was a school that at one time was attacked by the LRA; you can still see the bullet holes in most of the buildings.  The photos of the kids in the classroom were taken as they were reading their journals in front of their classmates.

Today we started our second kids camp. We handed out name tags and camp info. We start classes around 9am Sat. Camp runs till Sunday afternoon. Once again Harrison will do sports, Liam music, and I'll do writing and photography. We are looking forward to a fun couple of days. The kids are really happy to have us back.

Thursday and Friday morning we had the chance to go visit Murchenson Falls (where the African Queen was filmed) and have a day off to relax. We saw lots of wild animals: Giraffe, Elephants, Baboons, Monkeys, and Warthogs. It was a welcomed break and a memory that we will never forget.

We had another good day. We continued our staff training. The boys helped with skits today. They acted out different situations that involved those suffering with PTSD and depression. They did a great job. Tomorrow we are taking a day off to visit Murchison Falls, a beautiful spot on the nile and perhaps see some lions :). I don't have access to the computer to get the pics from my other camera uploaded but I'll post more later. Promise.

Part of what Invest In Children do here in N. Uganda is train teachers and youth leaders how to deal with kids suffering with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). Part of that training is putting on a mini camp for the teachers. We do the classes that we do with the kids...music, art, creative writing, and sports. Today's training went well and my boys contributed a lot. I'm so proud of what they are doing.
For those of you that don't know the recent history of Gulu and N. Uganda, there was a civil war that resulted in many children being abducted and forced to fight. Many are still missing and some are back in town... older now and trying to deal with what they have been through. I wrote a paper or two about it in grad school... If you are interested I'll post it for you or you can google Uganda and the LRA.
Yesterday we had a pretty bad thunderstorm and a branch fell on our van and smashed the windshield. Nothing is easy to get in Africa but we managed to have a new one brought up from Kampala and put in today.
I've also uploaded a pic of my bed. We sleep with nets over our beds because of the mosquitos carrying malaria. Imagine if all the mosquitos we deal with in florida spread Malaria. Ugh. Anyway here are a few pics from the day.

Today we had a chance to rest and catch up on a bit of sleep. Liam was super happy because we bought a little stovetop burner and made grilled cheese sandwiches with mac and cheese. Harry and I got a chance to work out with some of the local guys here in Gulu @ the Acholi Inn. It has a make shift gym and also a pool. The gym has a couple of bench presses and is a better than it was a couple of years ago when car parts where used as weights. Tomorrow we are back to work helping train teachers and show them what we do at our camps.