11:11 pm

It's late and I am tired.  I didn't get my 3 hours of napping in today.  That has only been a habit over the last week, as I've been feeling rather ill again.  My body is sort of on strike right now, saying the DTS is over so I should be resting a bit.  But I am pushing 10 times harder these days and my body is telling me I am sick.

10 talks.  5 days.  Countless activities.  12 posters.  45 envelopes.  1 bottle of coke.  Bricks.  Stones. Sand.  And energy.

That is going to be the next 7 days of my life.

I am officially giving the community planning retreat.  It will mix practical scheduling with character development training.  The material is fantastic, I am just hoping that all the pieces fall into place.  And that my body doesn't decide to totally break. 

One week.  Then I can break down on the bus to Kampala. 

So tonight it's Norah Jones, a bit of chocolate, and Servant Leadership, Synergy and Maintaining  Balance.

I have to say, today was a beautiful day.  It was the time I have felt most the fact that I live in a community.  It was beautiful as we made different commitments to the work we're doing here.  Some good byes are hard, but my best friends are all staying around.  I am so happy about this, and hopeful for what the future holds.  I LOVE the people who I live with.  I am greatly blessed. 

Tomorrow I am going to see someone about the food that makes me sick.  There is a chance that they'll have some thing that will help.  We'll see...

Talking Cows, Talking Drums

Someone told me that they really like it when I post on my blog.


It's 11:45 pm.  I am listening to Jars of Clay, a band I love.  This mix happens to have some random spanish music included, which always makes me laugh when it starts playing.  I generally dance a little while working.

I just finished a large, yellow poster which is about our "Emotional Bank Accounts"... a way of explaining how we can have good, helpful relationships with one another, especially in leadership positions.  It's all part of the course I am giving next week.

Today, I took a walk down the road behind the community center.  I hadn't wandered back there yet, and had been curious for a while.  It's just a dirt road which meanders through cow pastures and past huge banana plantations.   I think I might start running there... but don't hold me to that. 

As I walked a long I saw a number of cows.  A very common site.  Eventually I met a herd coming towards me on the road, and decided that it was a good time to turn around and go home. 

Then the cows started ... talking.  Or... dying.  Basically making very strange and loud noises.  You know the expression "You sound like a dying cow" (it's a Gornik family favorite)... well, a dying or groaning cow, really has a very loud and strange sound.  And we use the phrase appropriately. ( Someday ask me to do an impression.)  I kept looking behind me to make sure that I wasn't going to be crushed by a stampede of upset cattle.  Thankfully no such event occurred.  They did, however, catch up with me.  I went to check out the new class room building at the school and the herd decided that coming down that trek was where they wanted to go.  I complemented the cattle keeper on his beautiful animals.  Cows can be shy/fearful, and these ones have horns you really don't want to mess with. 

I was reminded, when I heard the talking cows, of one of the most profound moments on my trip this summer.

We were sitting outside in a tiny village called Lowi (sp?) in S. Sudan.  We'd just showed the first film ever to be seen there, and I had done some serious star gazing and held an unspeakably beautiful baby.

Later, a good number of the team had gathered and were chatting.  During a lull in the conversation I heard them.  I got so excited!  The talking drums!   I had read about this in my research of Africa, but never expected to actually here it.  The village we were in was made up of small clusters of homes, spread out over a large area.  These "talking drums" were sort of like our nightly news.  They have different rhythms to tell about what had happened that day. 

"Ba baba BAB bab"=  "The cow had it's calf today"  ...that sort of thing.  (of course I don't speak S. Sudanese drum) 

I was so excited to hear this beautiful communication.  The rest of the team laughed at me and said I was silly or easily excited.  But for me... it was profound.

Will development remove these beautiful, intricate traditions and customs, found in few other places in the world?

I ask myself these questions sometimes, as I converse with kind cow keepers and listen to the daily gossip echoing off the mountains of S. Sudan.

 

Away... then lots of info!

Hello All...
  The community has entered into a time of retreat for the next 8 days.  Then we have 6 days of community planning, during which I am giving a 5 day character development course.  I am excited to enter into this new area and to being this work.  After that time I will be going to Kampala/ Emmaus Center/ Masaka for about a week for rest, recovery, and many meetings. 

I promise that while I am in Kampala/ at Emmaus center I will update my journal as much as possible.  I am sorry that things have been so busy!  I am very excited to let you all know how my first Character development course goes!

Here's photos to tie you over...

20,000 +

Last night was an incredible experience!  I spoke in front of over 20,000 people!!!

My talk was based on the quote "Development demands bold transformation".  It was a bit intense, but hopefully there were enough layers that everyone present could get something.

I was so blessed to have Fr. Emmanuel translate for me.  He is an amazing translator!  He always gives great expression and speaks with passion. 

The only moment of real nerves was when they said I had to stand at a podium to speak because it was being recorded by Radio Maria, which reaches over 3 million people!!!  But as soon as the talk started I was flying.  No nerves, just speaking with passion from my heart.  It was a time of confirmation.  I am made to do development work, to help bring about this bold transformation.

During mass, before my talk, I went and sat among the crowds.  The Africans love it when you just are there.  Generally a few of them just stare at you.  But it's a great feels to be among thousands of people, singing in their language, and dancing... dancing... dancing. 

I was in the spotlight the whole evening last night.  I am glad for the strength that was given me.  It was a great time.

Life is a bit of a roller coaster right now.  I am taking the morning off because I am a bit sick, and also tired.  But over all, this whole massive conference experience in Africa, is a once in a life time experience!!  Thousands of people are sleeping outside in the field!

One of the biggest blessings was that I was surrounded by people who I really love.  The icing on the cake was that my good friend, Fr. Henry, came!  He walked up the steps of the pavilion right as I began my talk. Fr. Emmanuel, Fr. Henry and I got to process through the crowds together at the end of the night.  It was a profound and overwhelmingly wonderful experience.  The white people from Kisi and Antony were there too, and of course Fr. Emmanuel right next to me during the talk gave me a big boost.  Sr. Linda was listening from her room... we got to chat for a while afterwards. 

I looked good too.  :) 

So.  It was great.  It will continue to be good I think.  Now a bit of rest.

Hopefully I can get some photos from the photo team.

Stealing Time

Some Christmas Day fun with my "daughters" ... the 2 girls I am in charge of!

I was able to give them small gifts, which they were very grateful for!  :D

Harvest!!  This is my first harvest of Carrots... 15!  And 5 cucumbers.  The Cucumbers have been a huge success, though the plants are dying now.  I think they are being eaten by some bug. 

I am currently stealing time. I was told we had a meeting at 10:30. It is now 11 am, and I am in the room where the meeting was suppose to take place, and am totally alone. Welcome to Africa.

But I will take this moment to do a bit of updating about Christmas and New Years so that when the conference is over I won’t have to give you a millions posts!

On Christmas morning I slept in for a while, skipping breakfast with the Community. I was awakened by their very loud singing of a local Christmas carol at the end of breakfast. I rolled out of bed and went to help with wash up and cutting vegetables in the kitchen. I then had something to eat at the priest’s hosue and greeted Father and Sister Linda. Mass was a bit delayed, but eventually began. I sat outside under a shade off one side of the church. It is exponentially more comfortable and the view is great. The mass was unaccessabile for me, as it was all in Runyankore. But it was still good to celebrate.

We then had the most delious meet for lunch. I rested a bit and started watching Hairspray just as a fun treat. At 3 we met for a Christmas day football match. For some reason I randomly decided that I wanted to play. I managed to score on 2 of the students, but not during an actual game. I played barefoot, which is against every rule I have for myself in Africa! If I get any strange worms I’ll let you know. I was doing fine going barefoot (which is a great feeling), until I finished playing and managed to walk under a thorn tree, which sheds its thorns onto the ground below. Ouch.

I went to visit a friend who is pregnant who was staying with the principle of the school. I am friends with both (Jane and Agnes), so it was a nice visit. I helped peel matoke and we talked and just enjoyed. I think I watched some more Hairspray after that, and just chilled. I was tired from the football match! I haven’t run for an hour in a long time! It was really fun though.

Then at dinner we had a nice meal and entertainment. Each Ugandan tribe present ended up doing a traditional dance! It’s how they do things, their Christmas carol singing replacement. I joined the Bunyankores at the end and just pretended like I knew what I was doing. It was a lot of fun for sure. I then went to my room and video skyped with my family for an hour! It was lovely. It made me want Christmas cookies desperately. Then I went to sleep. All in all a good Christmas.

We had a few days of classes this week. We covered community and dating relationships, which went well. Now is when the DTS students are deciding what they will do when they leave here. Some of them will stay, others will go to different places. The week was very busy for the staff (including me) because we had to do evaluations for each student. It was a lot of work.

Then Friday we had a free day, and we prepared for overnight, as it is the last weekend of the month. I wasn’t excited about not really celebrating New Years and was feeling a bit down. But I decided just to enjoy as I could. We had a nice meal and then I decided to actually join in overnight, which I don’t usually do. It was fun to dance and sing around. I slept for an hour from 10:30 to 11:30, then we had mass to welcome the New Year. I sat in the far back corner and when New Years came, me and my friends around all started yelling really loudly and jumping up and down. It was fun.  Lots of big hugs and blessings for the New Year!

New Years day felt like a quiet Sunday, even though it was a Saturday. I FINALLY had a meeting with the Community leader about the upcoming planning retreat, on which I am giving Character development training! I am excited and nervous. The meeting was very productive. We’re on the same page, which is nice!

Then yesterday I moved from my house/room because of the conference. My motto for the next month is “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not break”… I am sure 2011 is going to be a year of incredible flexibility for me! I have no idea what to expect for the next 4 months as I begin my development work. We’ll see how it goes!

So things are really busy now, I am running into town today and then will get cracking on work around the place. I am working in Hospitality when I am not speaking/ helping with random conference things. Should be good and crazy!! I am hoping I don’t get malaria, I have no way to use a mosquito net in my new room!

Momentary interuption

Hello faithful readers...
I am sorry I have not updated about Christmas or New Years. Both were good and I will write about them at some point. I will try to do it this week. However, we are currently preparing for an incredibly massive conference for anywhere between 10,000 and 60,000 people. I've moved rooms, and have a lot of work to do! So forgive the lack of communication please!


Also I just wanted to thank everyone who has been responding to the recent fund raising request. Thank you all for your contributions! It helps a lot!

If you haven't, please consider becoming a Partner for Transformation by making a monthly donation. As I start off the new year, I am looking forward to doing community and Character development work with the help of my wonderful partners!

I am so grateful for all of you!

May this new year be filled with Joy for all of you!

Once again... more soon!