Go See the World — So many Wonderful, Wonderful People.: Yin Aye Iber

   What a day!! Maybe one of the best ever, so a couple of odds and ends at the market than back to my room.  Something that did not agree with me, so rush to the bathroom.   I decided to take my anti-biotics and several other pills and just rest for 2 hours, I had planned on taking the boys swimming at Bomah hotel.  This short trip is mostly connecting with old friends and setting things up for future trips (Stephens, Hellwig).  Last year the guys and I had such a wonderful trip to the pool I was hoping a little rest would help me answer the bell.  The pool was totally calm when Ronald and Geoffrey showed up and I told them a Ugandan mist pierce the stillness, I would follow but they must start.  Ronald, Geoffrey, and Amos have different levels of skill and comfort in the water so we spent some time this year actually teaching them how to swim and be more comfortable in the pool, they made amazing progress in just 45 minutes time.  I was showing them how to just be comatose in the water and how relaxing it could feel.  Soon I heard another voice asking them questions about me. It was my host for the evening Julius. He had invited me to dinner, as we left the pool we travelled together as a team.  It soon dawned on me that we were all going to dinner together.  I should have known, Julius is a preacher and a man of God, and he certainly would INCLUDE all. What would Christ have done?

          It is amazing what Julius had done and how many people he brings with him.  He is now preaching in his home to over 100 people every Friday and Sunday. Tonight at midnight he is riding a bus to Kampala to make sure his wife has a passport.  They will spend no time in Kampala after the passport office and immediately take another 8 hour bus ride home, so Julius can preach on Friday.  Joyce his wife and her friend just prepared the best meal I ever had in Uganda.  We had deep fried chicken and fried pork, roasted pork, american salad, Irish potatoes and more.  All of the dishes were cooked in a way I have not had in Uganda.  Unbelievable, the thought of going slow with my weakened stomach immediately vanished.  Oh and the pineapple was wonderful.  The boys and I had the most wonderful conversation all evening and were joined by a 22 year old student teacher at the end of the meal.

     We all started walking home in the dark to our 5 different homes.  Ronald even went the wrong way for awhile to continue this amazing evening. I am so blessed to have not one, but all 4 of these men in my life.    I will try to update this with more details later, but I am joining Amos at his school tomorrow morning and have to go to bed.   Of course, Julius called a boda boda driver he knew to make sure I got home.  Samuel was his name and he described Julius as his Father, the one who leads him to God.  1 kilometer from home the headlight on the motorcycle  went out.  Samuel asked me to get off the bike, I told him I could finish on foot, but he insisted no.  He picked up the heavy motorcycle shook it twice and the opened up the gas tank put his mouth on the opening and tried to suck the gasoline up.  (For us Gulu boda boda riders this is not all that uncommon).  The motorcycle rose to a start and we finished our journey.  For those of you who know a boda ride through the cool Ugandan night with the wind whipping at your face is a experience like no other.

After, arriving home and grabbing my iPad to FaceTime mom, I noticed two selfless kind colleagues at home Gail and Lisa had both come through.   

Get out see the world—people are quite something.

Everything has Value

     This morning I took a boda boda. (Motorcycle) into town to buy some envelopes to organize my expenses for the rest of the trip.  The ride of a mile or so cost me 57 cents.  On a ride earlier in the week, th boda driver told me he had to stop for petrol and gave the pump attendant 2000 shillings, enough for about a water bottle worth of petrol.  I bought the envelopes and walked past a shop that had several soccer balls on display.  All were used , but so,e were in pretty good shape.  In the last rack was a basketball with several panels coming off. It was for sale.  For some young one who could not afford the decent soccer balls, I guess the old basketball was to be his prize. It would not be displayed if someone was not going to buy it.

    I sometimes smile when I see recycle signs in Uganda, they are very thrifty and will reuse and repurpose a lot.  Plastic and plastic bags need working on.  But the plastic water bottles that started with water often are used 4 or five times and often that is how kerosene is sold to people.  It is easy to be here for a week and want to stop throwing so much away when I get home,  In Uganda old car wheels become grills to cook the Rolex (rolled eggs—breakfast burrito).  I usually come back more purposeful and conscious, you can let me know if you see it in my actions.

Why we kneel —Part I

When the Africa students would come and talk to a teacher. They would walk to the table in the staff room and kneel in front of it until their were instructed to rise. While I was at Amos' school, he stayed kneeling during the entire conversation with the teacher while we were discussing his school fees.

It would be tough to imagine American students kneeling in front of teachers. I think it would appear too subservient or beneath them. But if we can remember why we kneel, then we can maybe start down a path we all want to take. We kneel to show humility, not subservience, and by kneeling these students immediately show a respectfulness and a courtesy for others. It is the opposite of ego, of boastfulness, of arrogance. It is saying not "me first", but no you first my friend. I really enjoy going through a buffet line last. It is a simple pleasure I get by saying, "No it is your turn first, my friend, my colleague, my brother." By being humble it allows communication to happen. It is saying I want to go more than halfway to meet you where you are, and I am on my knees and expressing your interests and your wants first.

Humility does not deny our self or our worth, but rather it affirms the worth of each and every human being we see or meet. And by affirming the value of others first, it triumphs us also. So we say, "Here I am my brother, meeting you down on my knees to listen before I speak, help before I ask favor, love before I am loved." It, our humility, is the ultimate risk, it is asking us to show love to show that we care before we know it will be reciprocated. And sometimes our humility is not met immediately with compassion or love, it can be met with derision or hate or indifference. And in these cases, we must be true to ourselves, we must understand that by kneeling, by being humble, we have truly gained. We have sacrificed ourselves and the needs of ourselves for others. We are truly then "Men and Women for Others."

I am sitting on a bed, typing this blog, and looking at my feet, which still bear some stains of the incredible red mud that is prevalent all over Africa. All of us in our travels, riding in dusty Mutatus joked about how dirty our feet were. Most of us, kind of gave up, on cleaning our feet, and just tried to keep the rest of our body clean. It is this setting, at 48 years old, looking at my still somewhat dirty feet, that I can really understand the incredible humility of Jesus' washing of the feet. And just as important, how enjoyable it must have felt, as an apostle, having your friend, your brother, wash your feet. To kneel before you, and be that humble--that is my goal. To be humble, is to live at peace, and borrowing this line from the website "twopaths.com"----"Humility dissipates anger and heals old wounds. Humility allows us to see the dignity and worth of all God's people. Humility distinguishes the wise leader from the arrogant power seeker." And kneeling on the concrete or the hard wood pews in the churches of Gulu, I tried my best on bad knees to say to my Acholi brothers and sisters. That I was not better than them. I was just a man who was born into abundance and great wealth in the United States. But the wealth, I am seeking on my knees with you, the Acholi, is a far better prize.

A couple of years ago in a visit to the Jesuit Volunteer house, I saw the following quote which I have, of course, used on a basketball t-shirt for my team.

"The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker."

Several of you have praised my efforts in going to Africa, and treat me now as the mighty hero. But I strive to think of my actions, not as the hero, but as one of many honest workers giving the tiniest push. I met so many people in Africa doing more, taking bigger risks than what I have accomplished in the last six weeks. And also if you think of me as a hero, of someone accomplishing a great task, than it is easier for you not to act. But if you consider my actions in their true context, of just one tiny push, then you can do something. You might not have the same talents or the same opportunities, but there is always something that each of us can do. When I tell people, we are going to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2025, I am occasionally met by the skeptic. They say things like that will never work or others have tried and failed and if you look at the enormity of that goal it seems impossible. But if you look at each of us giving one tiny push, and I have met many in Africa giving those tiny pushes, then all of a sudden we can see the world beginning to move little by little. And once we get it moving, you never know what WE can accomplish.

I found out that the quote actually starts this way. "I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker."

So there my friends is the simple answer, I will continue to strive to accomplish the humble tasks, and to do that I have to start at the beginning. Just like my Acholi students, I will begin on my knees.

peace,

john 

4 girls in Uniform walking Home from School

 I saw these 4 young girls in pink shirts and blue skirts, laughing and talking.  In a different place one of the could have been Tessa, or Maggie, or Maura. They looked happy that the day was done and looked like they could have walked forever.  It turns out there daily walk to and from school was over an hour each way.  That is what it took so they did it each and every morning and each afternoon.  I need to walk more,  twice a month to St. Gabriel’s that should be a goal I can accomplish.  Have to start the walking school bus next year.  I am constantly amazed at how much the Ugandan students want to learn.  Earlier in the day it was 5 S2 boys around lunch.  I noticed one young man lagged from the group just so he could talk to me.  I told him I was a teacher of Mathematics in America, I asked how he did in Maths and he looked at me with pride and said loudly, “I do well in maths, Sir!”  Good thing I have 72 great 8th graders waiting for me in St. Louis or I might be staying.

    

Amos

   I think Amos was one of the first children I met and actually talked to in 2007.  We had a remarkable discussion argument about chickens.  I was amazes at how many chickens wandered around the 4 or 5 huts and wondered how they would return to the right place for dinner—they were the chief guest as they say in Gulu or entree as we say in America.  Amos wanted me to see, “Do you not see the chicken has 2 eyes”: pointing to his own eyes with 2 fingers and then to me.  I was aghast, “But it is a chicken, a chicken!”  We did not answer the chicken question then, but soon many days as I ducked into a 3 ft. Gate on a 12 ft. Fence, Amos would be waiting with new questions and new thoughts.

    One day that summer I asked why Amos was not in school that day.  He told me that he had been sent home because he had not paid his school fees. Invisible Children had told us that first year that they were many children like this, and we should not pay school fees.  The reason being, a tall American stepping in as a Savior for one 3 month period was not a path for success for these students.  I eventually found a way to get Amos back in school that time, knowing that to truly care about any student there had to be some follow up.  Ams did not have a straight path in school, he moved to Kampala, the big city and some school official decided that Gulu education was inferior to the great Kampala moved him back a year or two,  7th Grades, think of this, what if I showed up in August and told you you were a 6th grader and not an 8th grade, would you have the strength to move forward, to battle, to triumph?  I think of Henry and Elise who handled every new challenge —I think maybe so.  Or maybe a Zack and a Mary who battled through mountains this year.  (my students be clear as I write this at 10 a.m. I used those 4 names I could have used Sarah and Louis or Ava and Dominic, there are so many good stories and……more to come).  Let’s just say the effort of Amos to continue his education despite the obstacles was and is outstanding.

     There is a wedding and a reception 100 yards from my room today, so I am listening to very loud Ugandan Praise music.  A nice background for the Amos story.  As I kept in touch with Amos over the years he finished his schooling and was working 6 days a week for a luxury hotel ironing sheets.  In class, I will tell you what he earned in those days.  Through his hard work and alacrity, he moved up to be a waiter at the Churchill Downs.  (In my first year with IC we had our welcoming dinner there where I met my first teaching partner, Nyeko Alfred.  I just realized two of the hardest working, kindest people I have met in my life are both named Alfred and are both from Africa.).  Amos told me last night he had an aunt who believed in him and wanted more from his so he began to go back to school at a Teacher’s college.

      I had told the hotel manager that I wanted to see him so I could settle up on my room.  As GEoffrey and I tried to organize electronics in my room. A tall man in a sport coat filled the room. The hotel manager?  And then he smiled, it was Amos. His smile quickly filled the space, the 10 feet between us, the six years I had not seen him.  The space between friends can end so quickly as both of us remembered who we were, our journey together, (and cue the Wicked soundtrack) because I knew Amos I was changed for good.

      last night was a great dinner between the five of us Julius, Geoffrey, Ronald, Amos and myself.  I apologize that I started this blog this year with my stories of my frustrations and hardships.  My journey to Gulu had some problems, but how selfish am I to realize in this table of 5, I had carried the lightest burden by far.  Amos is now a P4 teacher at Gulu Primary,  he has 2 streams in his school, they divided it up to make it easier to teach he has about 95 students in each section.  NINETY-FIVE.  I think his aunt and I can agree Amos is probably a good teacher now and will be a great teacher one day.  Amos and I talked quite a bit before the other arrived.  He proudly showed me the receipt for the school fees he had paid for his daughter, Vanessa.  I had found a piece of paper packing for my trip it was a letter from the headmaster at Kusibi Army school acknowledging that I had paid school fees for Orach Amos.  

          There are some that brag that they bought Apple at $11/share.  I bought a share in Orach Amos in 2007.  They got the leading innovator in technology whose ideas would change our lives,  I got to say my friend Amos is changing the lives of 190 students at Gulu Primary school.

  If I am smart enough to get the picture of Amos up, you will see.Also scroll down to the bottom to see the Amos I met in 2007.

1st World Problems. 3rd World Problems, (subtitled Big Man in Small Places)

 On Monday, I said goodby to my friends as they ended their London trip by heading to Scotland. I thought I would be leaving early Tuesday Monring to head to Amsterdam then Entebbe. the airline told me Ineeded to get an electronic Visa before entering Uganda.  I had never needed one before and had always got them at the airport. So I sat down in a chair in the Uganda House (embassy) and started filling out the application, when it asked for my documents I used my phone to snap the pictures unfortunately my pictures were 2.2 Mb and they needed to be less that 250 Kb.  So back on the tube, back to my house got help from my brother Tom’s IT guys and John Stephens son, Mike, All was golden until I got to the last page and it would not let me pay.  I tried to start a new application, but it would not help me because there was already an application started.

Went to sleep at 10:pm and woke every hour to try to pay it would not let me.  Hopped in my Uber at 2:30 am hopefully I could talk my way on the plane.  The agent had none of my sob story, and now I thought holy cow, I am stuck and not going to Uganda.  I would be crestfallen, but I was also thinking of the things I had set up for both my Ugandan friends and my American students,  So I found a chair to sit in and plug in all my devices while I waited for normal people to wake up and help me.  There are 4 hotels at Heathrow Terminal 4 and I went with best one to see if they would let me check my bags for a few hours, the guys were great and talked me out of the expensive black cab to get back on the tube.

Despite my frustration, when I showed up at the Ugandan Embassy, they were very nice and very helpful, and got me a paper visa for my passport.  In the middle of it they asked for a credit card and I inadvertently gave them my debit card which was 5 minutes of panic before I got to verify through USAA.

Feeling chipper and full of success, I went to KLM and they kept referring me to online sites and What’s App bots.  No one at KLM London had the ability to sell me a ticket or modify my existing one!!! 90 minutes later I had a ticket because I bought it myself with my own credit card, of course it timed out one click away from getting the ticket.

I think I am boring you, I arrived safely in Entebbe and after 10 hours bus ride I am now home in Gulu.

Standing on the of Precipice of a New Journey

 I get to spend a few days in London with the oldest and dearest of friends cheering on the Cards and calling the Cubs (deleted grade school audience).  The people on this trip are my biggest supporters and have helped the homeless through large financial gifts or weeks of their time repairing walls and putting fresh flowers on the stoop.  Kindness no one asked for, but changes hearts.

If you want to get a feel for this blog. I reread this one and thought you would like it also.

http://mageeinuganda.blogspot.com/2016/06/sometimes-answer-was-there-all-time.html