in gulu...
We made it to Gulu! Thank you everyone for praying for our safety. That definitely helped to alleviate my anxiety. Once we were on the road, I found out that the road is much safer now that the peace talks are happening. For living in a war zone, the town of Gulu is surprisingly peaceful. Everyday the top stories in the Ugandan papers are all about the progression of the peace talks. It makes me wonder how much, if any of this makes it to the US press...
We are living in the HEALS office in Gulu. Our house is the center of much activity everyday! During the day, 39 people (most of them child mothers who lived in the bush in LRA captivity for many years) make bracelets. The bracelets are then sold on the Invisible Children website and the money is used to pay children's school fees here in Gulu. Yesterday the women taught Autumn, Abby and I how to make the bracelets. It's so fun to get to see this entire process taking place in my backyard! In the afternoons, the children come to our frontyard to play football, take photography and English classes and to do traditional dance and drumming. It is really incredible. They are amazing dancers and are attempting to teach us how to dance too. They laugh at us a lot! :)
Tonight Abby and I begin our first group counseling time with 8 girls. Tomorrow we will be leading a group of 8 boys. Out of that group of kids, Abby and I will begin meeting 1:1 with kids eventually.
I am so glad to be here and am so thankful for our group! The Acholis that we live and work with are wonderful and Abby, Casey, Autumn and I are enjoying each other a lot. We have fun group dynamics with 2 sets of siblings. The stories we hear and evidence of trauma we see is really hard, but we also laugh a lot and just enjoy being together.
More to come soon hopefully...
Haley
We are living in the HEALS office in Gulu. Our house is the center of much activity everyday! During the day, 39 people (most of them child mothers who lived in the bush in LRA captivity for many years) make bracelets. The bracelets are then sold on the Invisible Children website and the money is used to pay children's school fees here in Gulu. Yesterday the women taught Autumn, Abby and I how to make the bracelets. It's so fun to get to see this entire process taking place in my backyard! In the afternoons, the children come to our frontyard to play football, take photography and English classes and to do traditional dance and drumming. It is really incredible. They are amazing dancers and are attempting to teach us how to dance too. They laugh at us a lot! :)
Tonight Abby and I begin our first group counseling time with 8 girls. Tomorrow we will be leading a group of 8 boys. Out of that group of kids, Abby and I will begin meeting 1:1 with kids eventually.
I am so glad to be here and am so thankful for our group! The Acholis that we live and work with are wonderful and Abby, Casey, Autumn and I are enjoying each other a lot. We have fun group dynamics with 2 sets of siblings. The stories we hear and evidence of trauma we see is really hard, but we also laugh a lot and just enjoy being together.
More to come soon hopefully...
Haley
posted by intouganda at 6:37 AM
1 Comments:
you're there! haley i'm so excited...soak in the days, hours, and minutes in this land and with this people...cannot wait to hear the stories that will come. may you be wrapped in the strong protection of the Beloved...blessings to you sista. jen.
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