mid week meetings

Happy Hump Day!

It has been good week, time seems to be flyin by! I have started getting into some pretty hefty program evaluation this week, starting by looking through countless reports, pages and pages of strategic plans, rewritting mission and vision statements with Hope, and thinking of logic models. Its a sowo's dream! lol. joking, but really it is cool to be able to do something here that not everyone could do. its not playing with kids or holding babies, and teaching english doesnt really take a huge skill set either. so its nice to have specific skills and knowledge to offer (although im finding I still have a lot to learn about NGO management and all. just looking things over with the help of Judy, a VSO volunteer with lots of experience.) Just nice to know to make things SMART and clearly laid out.

But enough work smerk for now, i will keep you posted on that. Ive also had the chance today to watch Uganda Rising, a documentary about the conflict in this region and learned a bit more that other sources havent covered. it was made by a Canadian NGO, so if you can find a copy, i highly recommend it. It looks a lot at the problems since the camps have closed and people have begun to return to their villages and tried to start over. I also traveled about 15km out of Gulu town today to th village where Hopes husband's family is from. Along the way, we passed through Coo-pe (pronounced choo pee) which is an old IDP (internally displaced person) camp. there were tons of huts clustered together on both sides of the road. The camp is closed now, but people still live there. at the edge of coo-pe was a huge mango tree, one Hope told me was where many children were killed by the rebels. They would bring the children there, just to the edge of the camp to threaten the villagers and scare them. ugh, so awful.

Once we passed Coo-pe, the houses were abandoned and destroyed, all thanks to the rebels 5+ years ago. People have no livelihoods to rebuild or resettle out in the villages yet. We arrived at the village to about a km of land that all belongs to Julius' family. The house where his mother was visiting and our destination was large and plastered, but had been torn up by the rebels. the glass in every window was broken, the counters had been pulled outside, and the land left untended to for probably a decade or more. They are slowly beginning to farm again, but there is no money to repair the house.

The huts in the area were all completely destroyed and no evidence is left of them. it was interesting to get out of town and hear some of the stories and see some of the remains of the war. I see things in town, people missing limbs, large scars on chests, shoulders, faces. I never quite know if they are from the war, and don't want to assume. So far, the people i have had a lot of contact with were all not here for the war. Havent been able to ask anyone their story and feel pretty strongly that i want to get to know them first, not just look for a story from someone. The evangelists I met had heard lots off stories, but i felt a bit awkward about how theyd extracted them from people. feel more secure in my approach- if you can even call it that.

all in all, things are going really well. my storage basement back in NC has standing water in it, creating a headache for Mark and dad... but luckily i have a great boy and dad to help me! and ive showered today, always makes me feel good- not one of my strengths here, tend to shower twice a week... eww, i know. would never do that at home... and more dirty here. working on that... lol.

will try to get some pictures up soon!
happy June!