Samaritan's Purse / UNWFP Food Distribution Slide-show

Here is a short slide-show about the food distributions we are running in Karamoja.

Kingdom Come, Part 2: Uganda

We recently had a visit from Elevation Church (Charlotte, NC). They collected a lot of footage about the various programs we have running in Uganda. See it below
Kingdom Come, Part 2: Uganda

meanwhile in a galaxy far far away.....

“Our lives are to be used and thus to be lived as fully as possible, and truly it seems that we are never so alive as when we concern ourselves with other people.” - Harry Chapin

6 1/2 months in Karamoja... it feels as if the time has passed through my fingers and im left with a hazy day dream of strange memories. I'm in a world that has so many questions and so few answers. I fear to search too deep, knowing full well that i may find answers lying asleep in the shadows of apathy. Can it be that a single person's action or inaction dictates the course of another person's being? Can it be that mankind is able to end hunger, stop poverty and heal the sick yet falls miserably short merely because of selfish ambition, indifference, sinful nature, etc etc...
Dwelling on the why leads down a dark path for which i have neither the courage nor the strength to go.

The what and the what....

It seems my blogging drought has been corresponding to the actual drought here in Karamoja. hmmm... exhale....and back to work.

The Face of Akorro In Karamoja

It has been quite a while since my last post but it seems work is getting the most of me these days. The food distributions continue to go forward and right now we are providing life saving food rations to nearly 540,000 people. April and May provided Karamoja with some hope of agricultural production as the rains came and numerous agencies including Samaritan's Purse provided inputs to the local farmers. June however greeted us with no rain and now the knee high crops are wilting in the face of what seems to be yet another drought (see All Africa - Karamoja Drought). The last month has also seen my physical health deteriorate due to a combination of malaria and a week long battle with food poisoning, however, it seems I am recovering and now I'm just trying to add weight to my scrawny 112lbs frame.

Rainy Daze

The rains seemed to have officially arrived as every afternoon we are assaulted by a heavy down pour. Im praying that it continues for the sake of my garden and the hungry bellies in Karamoja.
Below are some pictures i snapped about a month ago. They were taken while registering households in the mountainous region of Tapac. These days office work has had me too busy to escape into the field.

Somewhere Between Amnesia and Dali's Persistence of Memory

Emerging from some capsule void of time, change and memory, I feel I am awakening into a world once lost to me. Born into a sphere where my voice is silenced by the chasm of cultures and human capacity for understanding.

Mardi Gras 2009 or how I spent my second to last weekend in America

This weekend we were in Louisiana visiting Kristi's family and it happened to be Mardi Gras time. On Sunday evening we went to New Orleans and attended the Bacchus parade. We found a nice little spot on St. Charles and 2nd from where we watched the floats, bands, cars and people go by. Being a mardi gras virgin, I was quite amazed at the scale of the parades (there are several throughout the weekend) and the mardi gras spirit of the locals. It was a very cool cultural experience to be a part of.
Here are the pictures, which at times look more like a riot scene with fire and cops everywhere than a happy parade.

My Pictures For Samaritan's Purse

Samaritan's Purse recently used my pictures in a story they did about the HIV/AIDS testing program in Lira, Uganda. You can find the story by going here http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/peace_of_mind/
click on the little tv with "play multimedia" on it to see the slideshow.

Picture of the Day: Rice Fields in Uganda

Farmer showing off his rice fields close to Lira, Uganda

Uganda Revisited: Congolese Refugees

As many of you might remember, during our stay in Uganda the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) flared up. I had the opportunity to join a Samaritan's Purse team on a needs assessment trip to Kisoro District where large numbers of refugees were coming across the border. The area was honestly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen; a place of other-worldly ageless beauty where rolling green hills stretch as far as the eye can seen, lakes line the valley crevices and primeval trees reach far into the oceanic skies. We found a group of about 500 villagers living in temporary shacks just inside the Ugandan border. They told us that every day they would cross over the border to work in their gardens and then return at night. Their greatest needs were access to clean water and finding health care for their sick.
The majority of refugees were younger boys (ages 12-18) and many of them stated that the reason they left was because the rebel troops were recruiting child soldiers.
We also visited the UNHCR Refugee Camp called Nakivale. At the time of our visit approximately 13,000 refugees(primarily Congolese) were living here. One little girl about 8 years old that I met during our visit will forever stand out in my mind. The entire time we were there, she followed me around and kept telling me her story. She said she was living in the refugee camp by herself and the only living person left in her family was her grandmother. She had gotten separated from her during the trip to Uganda and desperately wanted us to help her find her.