Half a world away, I sometimes find my mind racing in the middle of an activity.
Tonight, we had a party for the Teacher Exchange teachers and their partner teachers with a few selected extra guests.
I made it my mission to get ice, so we could have cold beer. It was a long process with 4 of us, Tim H., Kelley M., and Joe D. from Group 1 going to a store that sells refurbished refrigerators and freezers. I think to prove to new customers that his freezers work, he makes ice. Kelley and I had gone earlier in the day, and I thought I had talked my new friend Juma into selling me all the ice he had made today, but their was a local woman who took my first batch for some fish (I did not feel chilling beer was more honorable than her cause--so I demurred). When Kelley arrived, Juma said, "Your friend George is coming back with a bucket." Tim laughed quite a bit about me being George. Juma's freezers did not quite work well enough so we gathered large chunks of half done ice and headed back to the party.
Old friends Odong Robert, Okaali John, and Aliker David Martin showed up early, so I started out by talking and sharing great stories with them. A great picture of these 2 to the right. A good start....
now skip some time...
I am now dancing with new friends and old friends in the middle of the front yard of our rental house and my mind starts to race.
On March 1, 2007 Shona Clarkson introduced me to the story of the Invisible Children. If you have not seen "The Rough Cut" let me know and we can watch it when I get back. In the middle of that movie we see the incredible moving story of a young boy named Jacob whose life has been turned upside down by the conflict in Northern Uganda.
and now I am back....Jumping up and down and dancing with Jacob who had the most wonderful smile on his face, trying his best to dance higher than I am tall, and laughing all the way (tonight in this night, I can even forgive that he was wearing a Cincinnati Reds cap). His laughter, and his triumph in school is amazing. Jacob will be going to university next year is amazing.
So I guess that is what hope looks like... and it is amazing to see it....
A little while longer we heard Empire State of Mind ( by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys) and when Alicia sings New York...New York with such power and amazement...
My mind raced again to 6 Ugandan teachers landing at JFK and beginning such an adventure in January that would touch so many of our lives. When I saw Okaali, and Robert, and Alex dancing to that song....it was almost too much...How I am so blessed to have seen so much in the last four years...to see hard work overcome violence...to see the smile and dedication of dedicated teachers end so promisingly in the classroom of Jean Fry at Nerinx and Eric LaBoube at SLUH.... to see so many of my Ugandan friends with such big smiles.
Robert and John never stopped laughing or smiling the whole night.
and then the African DJ said no more songs, it was time to go, but made a mistake and actually cued up the beginning bars of that Free Willy song,....somehow he continued to make mistakes and we heard the song about 2 and a half times.. there are 22 of my students who went to Biloxi in 2006 who will ever be intertwined with that song in my head....That trip and those 22 will always have a special place in my heart.....
and so that must be it for now, as my computer shows that I have 7 minutes left, and the other 26 teachers have gone to bed....
me I am kind of wishing this night never ended, but tonight I have my i-pod and will crank up a few good songs before I go to sleep....
and so in the words of Okaali John, "Aaaaaaaaaah! tic. tic. tic. tic. tic.
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