Joyful Tears.

So we have officially arrived. The last time I wrote we were just outside of Kampala staying in a beautiful Guest House, which we will be returning to in a matter of days. But for now, we are in Lira, and we arrived here yesterday after a long, 5 hour journey which involved super fast driving down a long, bumpy road, many stops at roadside fruit and vegetable stands, a Nile River sighting, along with many baboon sightings. Needless to say it was a beautiful journey, minus the minutes we spent behind a very exposed garbage truck, and Peter and I were finally able to see what Uganda was all about!

We arrived at the COTN Guest House, in Lira around 6 in the evening on Monday. I must say when they opened the gate to the house Peter and I were overwhelmed by the beautiful children awaiting our arrival. We were greeted by so many little hands and both of us were overwhelmed by the celebrity status we had been granted. The kids then sang us some beautiful songs and introduced themselves. Oh it was a joyous night…and we went to bed really early!

Today, Tuesday, we woke up early yet AGAIN, and were informed at breakfast that devotions would be happening in a matter of minutes, would peter like to lead devotions they asked? He kindly declined, but insisted he would do it tomorrow. Devotions began with beautiful singing to the Lord, and I was so moved by how freely these people worshiped God that I was brought to tears. It was soo beautiful…their voices alone were beautiful, but together their sound was simply magnificent.

The day was a good, full day, and I arrived home with a bit of a sunburn on the chest, loads of pictures, sad stories and many memories. In the morning we went to the children’s home and toured the area. COTN owns 12 acres in Lira and currently has 5 occupied children’s homes consisting of 58 children. However, only 29 are fully sponsored, thus 29 are awaiting sponsorship. Those 29 children had arrived only months ago to the village and were extremely curious about the muzunga, white person, because we were the first white people they had ever seen. Many of the children have been directly impacted by the rebels, the Lord Resistance Army, and many have lost siblings, parents, and relatives. Some of the children themselves were forced to kill their own family, thus many of them have suffered from these traumatic experiences, thus COTN has counselors to counsel the children through their trauma. The counselors are amazing, and hearing their stories makes me yearn to be one of them!!

Later in the afternoon we were taken to a mass massacre site, where at least 200 people were slaughtered by the LRA and some children were abducted to become child soldiers. At the time I was so overwhelmed and shocked to hear the stories and to see the sites that I had read about only in books and magazines and seen in videos, like Invisible Children that I couldn’t even shed a tear, not a single tear. I had written papers about the Lord's Resistance Army and I had read countless articles about the Night Commuters, the thousands of children that commute by foot, in the night, to safe places in hopes of avoiding abduction, yet I couldn't even shed a tear when I was face to face with the tragedy. It was soo very different to hear about the impact of the conflict from the mouths of the people, the Ugandans, and when you hear it in the songs that the women sing.

When we were there, some of the women were practicing a local dance, so we were privileged to witness it and I even participated briefly until they all started laughing at me! They also sang for us, and I was lucky enough to have someone translating the words for me. Although there were moments I wished he wasn’t translating because the words were so hard to hear. They sang that Kony could cut their mouths off or their breasts off, he could take their children and kill their family, but in the end they still forgive. They sang with so much passion, and I have no idea HOW they can forgive such atrocities, but they do. I can’t EVEN imagine. Lucio, one of the counselors told us that one of the kids in the COTN home was forced to kill his own grandmother. It was either kill or be killed. In another song they thanked us for coming, for visiting and they hoped we would go home and tell people about what we had seen, about the impact of the conflict and they hoped it would never happen again.

Tears are streaming down my face as I write this because I am can't even begin to imagine what these people went through. I can't even begin to imagine the level of fear, distrust, hurt, and anger these people have experienced due to this conflict. Tears of anger, tears of deep, deep sorrow, and tears of joy slide down my cheeks as I think about the way these people have forgiven such atrocities. I cry for what has been lost and for what could have been, and I cry for what will be. My hope is that my experience and my thoughts move you, the reader, in such a way that you will do the research. The Internet is slow here so I have been writing stuff on peters computer and then saving it to a memory stick only to upload it onto the blog when I get Internet. So I don’t have the opportunity to post links and what not on here. But simply Google the LRA Uganda or night commuters and a whole new world will be opened up to you. Please don’t wait to hear about it until I get home…