Hey!

Wow, it has been a while since I last wrote. Sorry! Things have been so crazy here....

I didn't end up going back to the ranch last week because of a last minute change of plans I went to Gulu! The guy who works for cornerstone in Gulu is Laker, and he happened to be in kampala and said I could go to Gulu for the week so I went!

I was placed on a bus on Tuesday morning and rode by myself for six hours up to Gulu, then Laker picked me up in town. For those of you who aren't familiar with Africa, Gulu is a war torn area. It is peaceful now but up until a couple years ago the rebel forces (LRA) were very active in the area, and abducted children as child soldiers. They killed massive amounts of people and the community is trying to piece together their lives. I went to one IDP camp (internally displaced persons) that had 31,000 people living in it. They live 8-12 in a little hut, because their homes have been destroyed in the villages. We helped builed trenches for the water wells when I was there.

Laker and I worked with a group called Restore International for the week. It was two families from the states, who were coming to see the projects they support. So we painted a school and talked to kids, went to the camps and just heard their stories. The difference between the kids in Kampala and the kids in Gulu is that half of these kids up north have been traumatized by the war. I stayed in the girls home when I was there. Which is 16 girls who are single or double orphans or, their families can't afford them. The boys home in Gulu has 16 as well. Three of those boys were abducted by the LRA at one point in time. Their stories are unbelievable. Laker is the head of both of those homes, and is from Gulu as well.

I left Gulu on Friday, went to the Ranch for a night, came back saturday morning for Sarah and Philip's church wedding, stayed the night in Kampala, then went to Mukono on Sunday afternoon, then went to my village called Samaala on Tuesday afternoon...

My village..... IS BEAUTIFUL!! I live in a tiny tiny tiny house (25x8ft) with my roommate Tina. She is from Australia and has been here for 4 months already. We live on a Tea Plantation, so it looks a little like Ireland, except we have banana trees everywhere! its very green and tropical. we are placed between to mountains. I can't wait to post pictures of it when I get home. The village population is about 200 and we are the only white people, so we stand out a bit. There are about 180 kids at the school i teach at, 27 are boarding students. The youngest is Juma, he is 6 and I have fallen in love with him! Some of the kids are from the village and the others commute up to 2 hours walking every morning for school! The school is called Alpha Omega, and I am teaching P1 (6-7 yrs old) English and math, and P2 english. Juma is in my P1 class :) ... The kids understand English but do not like speaking it in the younger classes, so I am learning Luganda very fast!

Water.... no running water... no pumping well... the kids, village members, and us, have to walk 10-15 minutes to a natural well (where water runs down from the mountain) to collect water in large plastic containers. I am trying to learn how to carry it on my head like everyone else, but it is not as easy as it looks, trust me. We are suppose to have electricity but it is off more than it is on. I enjoy living by candle light though. The bathrooms, well I don't know how to describe them. A tiny cement room with a tiny rectangle cut out of the cement on the floor...Enough said.

Okay, school was cancelled in Thursday and Friday because of a conference, so I decided I would go back to Gulu for the weekend because I loved it so much! I left early Thursday morning, met Laker in Kampala 4 hours later... **side note: to get to my village one must take a taxi van (mutatu) with 20+ people from Kampala to Mukono (45 minutes), switch mutatus and go another 45 min to Kisogu, then take a boda boda (motorbike) for 20 minutes to my village. However, one ende up waiting for a boda in the village for an hour because it is sooooo remote!** Then we took a bus to Gulu and arrived at 9pm. I hung out with the girls in the home on Friday and then on Saturday we went to a different IDP camp that had 27,000 ppl in it. We painted a banner with the kids there that will be combined with a banner kids painted in Kampala to show unity between the regions. There is a lot of tension still between different tribes in the north and south. I had a BLAST with the kids! We bought pop for all of them and we spent most of the day there. They were so happy to paint and be kids again!

Then I left early this morning and now I am back in Mukono, heading to my village soon. I know this is long, and I left out a lot of details, but I will fill in the gaps later. I am sure the pictures will say it all once they are posted!

I hope this finds you all well!! Miss you!!
Grace and Peace,
bets

ps. I booked a 3 day safari for my last week here! yay!