Walk to Atanga SS

Walk to Atanga SS

Monday, July 21, 2014

Long Term Compassion in a Short.....Squirrel!!

    Uganda has taught me patience, As I started to write this post, the page took two minutes to load.  What!! ...forget it.  I came to Uganda in 2007, because Shona brought a DVD to my classroom that showed some tragic stories of some children.  Invisible Children did some great work in northern Uganda and beyond, because it was able to package these tragedies and mobilize young American teenagers to help.  We saw their faces, heard their voices, and knew their names.  Not only of the children who suffered through the civil war, but of the filmmakers who told their story.  I guess it gave me some perspective to be an old man in a young kids' group, but I was not as enamored with the cult of personality as some of my younger colleagues.  I remember on several occasions watching my fellow teachers treat these "people" as stars and gushed after them like you would N'Sync or those Jonas brothers.  I admit it was kind of cool to see the young boys from the first IC videos as successful young men.  This year in Gulu, Invisible Children is essentially gone and what about those  they were helping?  I do not know the answer to that question.

     I am proud to have been apart of Teacher Exchange IC and proud of the work my colleagues brought to Uganda, but we must push to dedicate ourselves to not moving on to the next crying child in a worse hell than the relative calm of a 2014 Gulu.  Today I had lunch with a wonderful young man, to be true to my point in this story he will not be named.  As we talked, I found out that his parents died when he was 11.  Later today, I found out the details were probably more horrific and the horrors of war and violence and too many guns might have happened right in front of this young man.  He knows me as his teacher from Awere Secondary School in 2007.   He remembered specific ways I taught him 7 summers ago, and he thanked me for being his teacher.  So now the story has a continuance that I believe makes both of our lives more complete.  I get respect from many Ugandans and friends here because I come back and they know that they may see me again in a year or two.  Although in my own mind, my next trip is in doubt, because I feel I have to pay for the next trip myself.  This young man has a compelling story and I might if I was fundraising or speaking to a large group might share it with a school, perhaps.  Sometimes these stories can move us to action, and that can be good.  But before there was Invisible Children in Gulu, there was several Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet here, and when I leave in a couple of weeks they will still be here.  I worked hard to meet one of them this year, mostly because Sr. Pat Dunphy and Sr. Linda Straub are amazing people and I wanted to honor their friendship.

        There is no war in Gulu, and the evil Joseph Kony maybe has not been seen for years, but there are still so many wonderful young students here in Gulu that need help.  I think that is why I come back, because I know if I needed Leonsyo's help or Ronald's or Patrick's or Okaali's...they would strive beyond their means and their resources to help me.  That is what my two friends at EducateforChange.US are trying to do--make multiyear commitments to 40 plus students.

       Now I come back to Biloxi,as I do often in Uganda, and how Sam and Megan and Hayley and Emily and Shelby and Lauren and Laura... have made that trip a long term compassion because Mrs. Fields and Mrs. Nguyen  know we are coming back and I cannot wait until Kate or Katherine or. .???  returns to see Zenatta and her kids and the house we built there.  So my advice now comes out of my own experience and the blessings I have received from all these people I have met.  They become old friends and nothing in life is better than old friends.

      You should know you sent me back here.

Caveat: I am sending this out to friends who have not returned to Biloxi and Uganda. They might tell me, as they took their compassion and love to new places, that they believe in their choices also.  And maybe the lessons the learned in Uganda have helped them so much elsewhere.

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