The Gulu Cluster has moved to the former Children of War Center. (COWC) I feel very connected to that place so I am actually happy that it has moved. Because they were renting the former office and WVU owns the COWC and it was no longer functioning in that capacity, they decided to move last year.
Harriet is the Cluster manager and she lead a very lively devotions. During one of the songs we formed a conga line singing a praise song in Luo. After singing I gave the message with a translator, and this was followed by introductions of the Gulu Cluster staff and those of us on the Vision Trip.
When devotions ended, we all headed to the open market to purchase some food stuffs for each of the families of our sponsored children. This included 3 litres of cooking oil, 10 kilos of corn flour, 1 kilo of sugar, 2 kilos of salt, 2 kilos of rice, two long bars of laundry washing soap, a big package of biscuits (cookies) and 2 kilos of onions. We needed to buy for a total of 18 sponsored children between the two churches. We came back to the hotel, divided everything up, placed them in large bags that we had also purchased. Because of the large number of sponsored children, it was not possible to visit all of the them at their homes. So most of the children came to our hotel with one or both parents and were there from approximately 10:30 am to 3:00 pm. I headed out around 10:30 am with several of the WVU staff to visit Beth's and my sponsored children. At the end of the day, everyone had a moving time with our sponsored children.
On my way to visit one of my children, we passed by a pond that was filled with people hunting Mudfish. Mudfish dig down into the mud, and apparently they go deeply. This pond was filled with people hunting for them. Many had spears whose head was a 1 to 2 feet long thin cylinder with a point. Some people were trying to dig for them with their hands. I didn't actually see anyone in the process of catching one but the second picture shows a man who is holding up his recently caught mudfish.
Harriet is the Cluster manager and she lead a very lively devotions. During one of the songs we formed a conga line singing a praise song in Luo. After singing I gave the message with a translator, and this was followed by introductions of the Gulu Cluster staff and those of us on the Vision Trip.
When devotions ended, we all headed to the open market to purchase some food stuffs for each of the families of our sponsored children. This included 3 litres of cooking oil, 10 kilos of corn flour, 1 kilo of sugar, 2 kilos of salt, 2 kilos of rice, two long bars of laundry washing soap, a big package of biscuits (cookies) and 2 kilos of onions. We needed to buy for a total of 18 sponsored children between the two churches. We came back to the hotel, divided everything up, placed them in large bags that we had also purchased. Because of the large number of sponsored children, it was not possible to visit all of the them at their homes. So most of the children came to our hotel with one or both parents and were there from approximately 10:30 am to 3:00 pm. I headed out around 10:30 am with several of the WVU staff to visit Beth's and my sponsored children. At the end of the day, everyone had a moving time with our sponsored children.
On my way to visit one of my children, we passed by a pond that was filled with people hunting Mudfish. Mudfish dig down into the mud, and apparently they go deeply. This pond was filled with people hunting for them. Many had spears whose head was a 1 to 2 feet long thin cylinder with a point. Some people were trying to dig for them with their hands. I didn't actually see anyone in the process of catching one but the second picture shows a man who is holding up his recently caught mudfish.
Two of my favorite sponsored children are Stephen and Ronald. They are best friends, their families are very close, and they are really cute. Stephen is affectionate and Ronald is shier, but I always visit them together with one boy sitting on my right and the other on the left. It turns out that the clothes that Miriam helped me buy in Entebbe for the children fit amazingly well. She did a great job. Below is a picture of the boys in the shirts I bought them. Stephen is on the left and Ronald on the right.
Oh, did I mention that today was the hottest day that I have experienced in Uganda? It hit 106 degrees. The humidity is low so it felt more like Phoenix than Miami. It was a great day.
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