The Acholi--Always Friendly, Always Working

No Water Still!!! and Cleanliness

The euphoria of showering in the rain was a little short-lived as it is now Tuesday afternoon and we still do not have water. Sarah Hartley, kind of the boss, told me that these water outages have lasted as long as 10 days. Btw, when I say no water we do have drinking water, in a old-fashioned water cooler, except that it is not cool. Except tomorrow morning we had no drinking water either, luckily I had a little bit in a water bottle on my dresser, and I also had some in my fake Nalgene bottle. So I again shaved with sunscreen, that is actually quite easy although it does gum up the razor a bit. And I used my bucket of rain water to mini-shower in my room. The flush toilet is starting to get quite nasty, so this afternoon I donated my rain water to the cause. Unfortunately, it did not flush, so it was just wasted. Through all of this life is actually easy, it (the shortages are just annoying). Doreen still makes us a wonderful breakfast and dinner each day. Doreen had a good Monday, because some of the staff played Chicken poker. Tournament poker where instead of $10,000 buy-in like the WSOP, the buy-in is one live chicken. Jamie and Karl did not get to the market in time and were unable to find the buy-in. But anyway Doreen was the recipient of I think Chris’ win as she was given most of the chickens. They ran around between the houses for awhile, but soon Doreen put in a basket. Just to mess with them, I coughed out “dinner” every time I passed them. I could not tell, but their chicken noises sounded a lot like, “When is the last time you showered, fat man, b-balk, b-balk”. But then again my chicken is not that good.

While we acknowledge the obstacles that this means, we are living better than most of the Acholi people. On our way to Awere, we pass the latrines for the Prison Primary School, and on the wrong day, that smell is something I wish I could capture on film or on videotape just to share. Btw, Prison Primary School is by the prison, it has nothing to with the prison, and the Acholi have no problem being practical and naming the school by the prison, the Prison Primary School. I guess if one of the town’s names is “Man who pees himself”, prison primary sounds pretty good.

Wow, I still have not made the point I wanted to make. The Acholi spend a lot of time cleaning. Agnes sweeps and mops my bedroom floor and the rest of the house 5 times a day. When I get to the Awere faculty room, the same women is sweeping out the entire room. They do not use brooms, but merely straw tied together, so to sweep you have to really bend over. She then wipes down every table. The dust and dirt is everywhere, and I can really tell why they use the red earth theme in a lot of their flags. But they constantly work at sweeping, even the street (wider mud path) in front of their business. There is no trash pickup, so everything must be burned, and there are no real trash cans. It is amazing how much less I throw away knowing that I do not have a big trash can to throw it in.

Had a great class this morning, and it was filmed by Amy Collins, so there is video although the students were less involved than they have in the past. Had a real good time with my class in Senior 3C. Then I rushed back to the IC house, so I could take a boda to Sacred Heart. It was a long boda ride, and a lot of the mud had been washed off the road, leaving big rocks. The boda drivers were very skillful, finding the six inch wide smooth path amongst the 18 ft wide road. I talked with several of the teachers at Sacred Heart and then sat in a class of Senior 6A students. At this time in their secondary schools, the students have specialized to only 3 sometimes 4 areas of study. And Senior 6 might translate more appropriately to first year of university, but still the concentration and skill level of this class would rival the very best of our Nerinx Hall students on their best day. Calculus here is not the end of the line, but more of a tool they use in the middle of the class when they need a slope. The whole class was impressive. I am trying to send two pictures of the class along with this blog. Hopefully, Jack Magee can get them posted quickly.

The message I conveyed to the Director of Studies at Sacred Heart. He told me America was great and the confidence of Americans is extraordinary. I told them that I thought America could be great, but we needed to know more about the world. So there is both of our challenges, me to deliver the message and the experience of what I have seen. And for you my family, friends, students, and colleagues that we together open our eyes to all of the people of this world, and realize just a few simple actions of Americans can change the world. And if you knew or had met the Acholi, this goal would be one you would feel compelled to do.

Peace,

john