Love nailed to a cross

There's no doubt about it, Aussies are awesome.

Just hearing the familiar accent gives me comfort. And last weekend I got to chill with a bunch of them.

Besides Danielle who is staying with me, we had a group of new and old friends come to Mbarara and spent a few brief moments showing them around town. Bonnie, who is doing a uni placement in Mbale in Eastern Uganda, had three of her siblings come to visit her and they all popped down here to have a look.

Even in a very short amount of time we managed to have an adventure with the boys having to push our van out of the mud we were stuck in.

Despite the brevity of their stay it was such fun and such a blessing to hang out together and I was totally stoked by the pressie they left, a sacrificial gift of Tim Tams and Cadbury's Easter Eggs.

Which reminds me. It's Easter this weekend coming. If all goes according to plan, Danielle and I will actually be facilitating a teacher seminar in Nakivale Refugee Settlement on Friday and Saturday. It seems the sanctity of the public holiday is lost here and even among Christians, the day is not viewed in quite the same way as I'm used to.

There will be no hot cross buns, there are no Easter eggs in the stores and I doubt the kids have ever heard of an Easter bunny. But even though they may not celebrate Easter like me, this country, with its high proportion of Christians, certainly knows what Easter is about.

As a Christian, the reflection and celebration of Easter is like a drop in the ocean. My life doesn't rest upon one weekend of reflection. My life revolves around this one event where Jesus saw me in all my weakness, humanness and sin, and gave his life in exchange for mine. This is the very core of who I am, what I believe and the catalyst for change in my life.

So this weekend I'll take the opportunity, whatever it is I end up doing, to reflect on the goodness and kindness of my Saviour, enjoy some chocolate eggs from home and continue to daily be thankful for his faithfulness, love and mercy towards me.

Blessings

Bron

Ps - plans are made to be changed. Danielle and I will now enjoy a quiet Easter here in Mbarara.

The One Where Monica and Richard are Just Friends. Episode 3.13

This past week I've been in Kibogo Village, Western Uganda, visiting our Australia HOPE International, Kibogo HOPE Nursery and Primary School with Danielle (a fellow Aussie, I may or may not have told you about in a previous blog, who is staying with me for three months, doing some voluntary work for HOPE in our schools and projects here). As Danielle is a teacher in Australia and has been on a previous trip to Uganda, we spent time in the school working with teachers giving them an opportunity to do some PD, which in Australia is pretty much a given but here in Uganda is a luxury. The teachers loved the fact that we came to be with them and we hope that they are able to use some of the resources and information we gave them in a way that is beneficial in their culture and context. I'm looking forward to going back to the school next term to follow up and see if what we talked about made sense to them enough so that it makes a difference in their school in a real, not a superficial way.

Danielle and I with the teachers of Kibogo and Kyabyoma HOPE Nursery and Primary Schools

On another note, I was watching an episode of Friends last week. I'm a bit of a fan of the show and while I only have the third season on DVD, I laugh out loud every time I watch it. Back in Australia, my friends and I, after watching many episodes together and apart, would often reference moments of the show or quote something from one of the episodes. Like many other thoughts that come to me here, I am forced to now amuse myself with them as my Ugandan friends are not so well acquainted with Western pop culture.

There are a couple of scenes in the episode where Joey has to put the book he is reading in the freezer, one, 'The Shining' because it is too scary and two, 'Little Women' because it is too sad. At the moment I am reading a book called 'Shake Hands With the Devil; the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda' and as I read I feel a bit like Joey and wish there was a freezer nearby.

I'd seen the book for the first time almost five years ago and had always thought I'd like to read it one day but happened to borrow it from some friends a few months ago and finally got around to starting it while on our team trip in February. If you can handle something that definitely covers some very dark material, I recommend reading it because it is very human, raw and revealing. I haven't got to the end yet and although I guess I know how it ends I keep on wishing that it will end differently. 800 000 people dead in 100 days. The author had a first hand view of the atrocities being the head of the UN mission in Rwanda at the time. And had to sit back and watch as it all unfolded with his hands tied by politics and the worlds indifference to the deaths of people who didn't seem to count.

I was twelve at the time of the genocide and I remember a little of what was in the news like images of refugees streaming in columns out of Rwanda into places like Tanzania and DR Congo and bodies floating down rivers into what I now know is Lake Victoria. I remember along with those images, governments trying to distance themselves from the word 'genocide', others condemning the world for their abandonment of these people and later on trite words like 'never again' which don't have any real meaning when there are conflicts happening everyday that millions around the world don't know about and will never care about.

For the last couple of days I've been keeping the book 'in the freezer' and have watched some Pride and Prejudice. I have the luxury of being able to tune out of the horror, unlike those who lived through it and unlike those who continue to live their lives in the midst of terror. My prayer is that these people would never be left in the freezer. That this global community we live in would pray, advocate and support change, to bring relief to suffering.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter

when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

Be blessed this week

bron

A lesson in Runyankore

According to my source of all wisdom, Wikipedia, Runyankore, or any of it's other seven names, is a language spoken as a native language by some 2.3 million people. Seeing as it is relatively limited in it's use it's maybe not the most practical language for me to be learning but I'm giving it a go. Although the words 'twelve noun classes' do scare me a little bit.

One of the best ways to see what you've learnt is to be able to teach, so here is your lesson.

Erizooba nagyezaho kureeba ekizibu niki aha computer.

Today I tried to see what the problem was with the computer.

Tinshonga.

No problem.

Ninza aha offici.

I am going to the office.

Oraregye. Tureebane nyenkyekare.

Goodnight. See you tomorrow.

Nibanyeta Bron, nindu ga Australia, nintura Boma, Mbarara.

I am called Bron, I come from Australia, I live in Boma, Mbarara.

Nikitangaza.

It's amazing.

Nohandiika ebaruha aha computer.

I wrote a letter on the computer (I wrote an email).

Yebare kuteeka.

Thankyou for cooking.

Mukama akuhe omugisha

bron

February, a pictorial essay.

Not sure what to make of all the people who suddenly showed up to visit

Hanging around while waiting to move into the almost finished girls dorm, HOPE Secondary School, Bembei, Bunia, DR Congo

Wonder… the joy of a red balloon

Getting into the spirit of things at the Staff vs Students soccer match at HOPE Primary School, Bunia

A dramatic sky over the 40 acres near Mbarara, Uganda

The numbers are large and the classrooms are small and few

Reuniting with old friends, Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda

Angering elephants, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Sunset over the last night of the crusade at Kyenjojo, Uganda

The 2013 Australia HOPE International Team, Matoke Inn, Entebbe Road, Uganda

Blessings,

bron