I am trying to get a hold of some Jesuits in Gulu, and received an email from Ben Bocher helping me in this quest, and I got this Buddhist mantra from the bottom of his email.
It seems a good place to start this morning. Last night, I found Benard who really wanted me to help him learn basketball and a few other students and we went to the basketball court. Along the way, I saw a young boy driving cattle through the courts, and I stopped. Could this be, my friend, Ocen Juma, whom I had met last year ??? It turns out it was, but the rest of the story is sad. Last year, Ocen was warm and animated and carried on great conversations and asked great questions. This boy only responded in grunts, and I could not get much information from him. Was this the fact that a bright boy was missing his education to drive cattle for a few shillings a day? Boy, I wished I knew the whole story. I would love to have gotten the Ocen Juma that I met last year into school, but how? There is so much depth and obstacles to a lot of the stories here. It is amazing that there are great students here who have overcome all. Could this not have been Ocen? I feel that is my secret wish, that this boy merely said he was Ocen and somewhere there is my friend driving other cattle with a smile and a Apwoyo waiting for me. But then again if this is true, what about the boy who just grunts? Do I not want to hear his story and help him along his way.
Another friend Samuel played basketball with me yesterday. He was one of the kids that played last year, and showed great hustle, and great improvement in his basketball skills over the month or so I was in Gulu. He told me that he was demoted to P5. How could this be?
So, I am left to strive to do my best with what I can do, and leave the things I cannot change to prayer. I would live to drive a truck with new basketball standards and new basketballs to this playground. But the distance, and the skill sets here make this a near impossible task. Noticed I have said near impossible, not impossible. Uganda is a land, where hunger and disease and poverty are present. But is also a country where I have already seen people do the impossible.
So as I push the boulder up the mountain, I am encouraged because I was not the first to push, nor will I be the last to push.
John
Tonight, maybe think an extra thought or say a small prayer for those in Northern Uganda who are still left behind. Thanks.
2 comments:
Think not of his 'Grunt.", but instead think of what he would be thinking, seeing, observing as he walks along moving the cattle.
How much better off is his observation of the Earth because of what you HAVE taught him.
What he now knows, more than his old self, for having met and learned from you.
Without your knowledge he would be worse off than now. Knowledge is like compound interest, a little bit will grow over time to make a big change in everyones life. Even a little knowledge is like a pebble in a pond, it ripples out and interacts and effects others at distances we can not even comprehend.
Like the kitten hanging on the branch... Hang in there, Baby !!
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