People along the way.

    So decided if I was going to lose my Ugandan 20 pounds,  I better start doing some walking.  I live on the western edge of  "downtown" Gulu and my plan was to walk to Pece Stadium, which is on the eastern edge.  Gulu is very spread out as a those at Sir Samuel Baker and Ocer Campion consider themselves in Gulu and those are both twenty five minute boda rides.

     I have not yet gotten hold of Odawa Henry, my teaching partner, at Gulu SS in the second year I was here.  So I have been to his house/apartment for dinner twice and my plan was just to go there and see if I could find him.  It was hard at first to find his house because they were I think two new buildings between Pece Stadium and his house. I started wandering through some yards, not knowing  if I was wrong to walk through these places.  I finally saw 3 older people sitting on the ground staring at me.  I told them I was looking for Henry, and they told me he used to live there, but was now in Kitgum.  They encouraged me to call him, which I did in front of them to no avail.  All three of them could not have been nicer and were genuinely disappointed that I had not made a connection with my friend.

    On the way to Henry's I was greeted by the large booming voice of Aliker David, my friend from the first couple of summers.  When I looked right at him, he said, "Of course, it is me John."   A big handshake followed and we made plans for a future lunch or dinner.  Aliker has always greeted me so   warmly in the past and I look forward to our lunch.

    So the friend I looked for was not there, but the friend I was not looking for greeted me with a big, smiling greeting.  Life sometimes is a lot more fun when you find what you are not looking for.

    So returning home, and I am stopped by a boda boda driver.  It is not uncommon for people to recognize me from previous years, but I looked at the driver and I immediately knew that it was Michael a former security guard for Invisible Children.  As Invisible Children drastically reduces its footprint in Gulu, it is kind of sad to see great employees and great friends in jobs that I believe pay a lot less.  Michael is an amazing young man who was abducted by the LRA, taken into the bush.  He somehow contracted Cholera and the soldiers were worried about contagion so they tied his ankle to a long rope, and gave it a yank twice a day to see if he was still alive. Somehow Michael survived dying of Cholera tied to a rope in the middle of the bush, survived to escape and start his own family here.

    One more story--I left Holy Cross Mass and since I was moved by an usher to a prominent pew in the middle of the homily.  All he knew me in the packed church had a chance to say hi afterwards.  I met Doreen who was our great cook at the IC house for the first years of the program.  I met Grace who was Jill Knopic Pammler's partner teacher in the same year as Ocwa Alfred came to St. Louis and Nerinx......but the best was a young student who came up to me as a former student.  As a teacher, who likes to know each kid by name.  It kills me that I do not recognize more of my Ugandan students.  After exchanging greetings, she told me she was at Gulu SS and then asked, "Sir, How is Lisa Godfrey doing?"  The pen pal program was less successful than I would have liked and a      lot of that Responsibilty is mine.  Yet, at least 4 years later a young woman named Prossie Aloyo was trying to again reach out to her friend Lisa, makes me realize how much those letters sent from America are treasured.  I hope Lisa will find this story and find me and maybe we can somehow reunite these two friends.