Sunday, April 11, 2010

It's amazing to see what your love has done.

So, It's been a while since I've written in my blog, mostly because What we've been doing has become routine, and I don't want to be writing how we went to the hospital again and saw some depressing things over and over. It seems it's been the same old thing we've been doing, up until this past week.

We had our week off this week. So Karsten, Dale and I went white water rafting on the Nile. It was quite an experience.

Our guide was named Alex, and was pretty cool. He let us jump out of the raft and float down the river during the calmer parts. The was very fun, but it wasn't the only time we were in the water.

We got flipped a couple times, which was also fun. You kinda just hang onto the rope strung around the boat and let yourself be tossed around like a rag-doll until you pass through the rapids and find your bearings again.

The next day was Safari.

It was an amzing place. Some of the highlights were seeing a lioness and her cub, loads of giraffes...and the food.

How amazing it is to eat something with more flavour than rice.

We got western style food, which tastes like heaven when you eat pretty much the same, somewhat boring food everyday.

Aside from that, the rest of the time was also amazing.

The scenery is beautiful.

The stars are spectacular.

The animals are awesome.


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We've got 2 months left of the program, and apparently they'll be more intense than the first bit, Which is welcome, but at the same time not.

Welcome because it means we'll be doing a lot less sitting in the classroom. Not welcome because it means a lot more physical and emotional stress.

At the end of April we will be taking lessons on trauma counseling. And after the lessons we will be spending a week or so in one of the Watoto villages called Suubi practicing what we have learned. We will be counseling war affected people. People who are victims of rape, violence and other things a human being should never have to experience.

After that we may (provided it fits in the schedule and the budget) be going up to Gulu - The main area where Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) have traveled to in Uganda. IDP are anyone and everyone who has run away from some sort of danger. Most of them went there because they feared being abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army and either be raped, made a sex slave or made to be a soldier and kill those who don't deserve to die.

Others at the IDP camps are simply there because that's where they were born. They know nothing else.

From what I've been told of the place, It makes the poverty in the slums of Kampala look like nothing. I've been told even a day trip up there will change you.


There's also a plan to build some houses in Suubi, Which I look forward to. It's been a while since I got to build something.

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As for me personally, how I'm doing depends on the day you ask me.

That's how it is for most people who come here.

You internalize much of what you see and do here and it does something to you.

I'm changing on the inside, and I can tell. I can tell by the way I think and see that world. It's a good thing.

But some day's it's a struggle. You wrestle with a lot.

Some days everything's awesome. You have fun and laugh and there's no real trouble.

But all this- The constant up and down with your emotions, the stuff you see- everything all combines in you and does something weird and God changes you.

It's a difficult process to understand or to explain.


I'm looking forward to seeing what I look like when all of this is done.

See you all then.

2 comments:

  1. Its so good to hear from you Jon!! Rafting on the Nile River must have been amazing. Even though you were maybe bored at the beginning of this whole experience, God has been preparing you for great things, and you could only hope that this will change and grow you, but you'll always LOOK like a Bordush.. ;D

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  2. hey jonny, saw the pics on karstens blog, looks like rafting was a blast. It was nice to see that youre having fun.. miss you . matt

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