Leaving Isohe and onto Torit and Lowi

The Monday morning we left Isohe I had a consult with the doctor.  An incredible Ugandan man, who regularly saves peoples lives, lives on the compound where we were staying.  He hadn't left for the hospital when I found him in the morning in our eating area... I was pretty sick.  My cold had moved into my chest.  Thankfully Fr. Herald had some medication which the doctor said would work for my condition.  

I was sad to leave Isohe ... it was a beautiful, and very peace filled place.  I really enjoyed the people there.

Oh... quick story:  On Thursday when we arrived, I met a wonderful woman named Hielda.  She works for the diocese of Torit and is a wonderful woman.  She is full of wisdom and smiles and laughter.  On Thursday evening I found a large cockroach in my room, I had Josh come and kill it for me.  But in the mean time Hielda stuck her head in.  She was leaving the next morning for Torit to see her father.  She offered to do my hair.  So we went outside and stayed up late... she rolled all of my dreads and we laughed and talked.  We agreed that we will meet again in Kampala.. we actually say each other 4 more times before I left Sudan!

But she gave me an amazing gift... she let me stay in her room!  It was so wonderful, it was comfortable and just a real blessing.  I wasn't feeling great, so to have my own space and a nice clean bed was really fantastic.  I was so grateful!!

We drove to Torit.  As always an adventure.  On one of our trips I saw a leopard cross the road in front of us!  No one else saw it.  The drive to Torit was quite long.  We arrived finally in the mid afternoon and got settled for a short stay in Torit. 

It was a lot of waiting... (Side note:  This was sort of a spot/start trip.  You were either waiting for a long time, or working really hard.  We got use to it)  Finally around 3 pm Angela and I got our room.  We both crashed for a long while.  Around 4:45 I went with Carole and Fr. Herald to see Mercy House... this is what Fr. Herald has been working for 2 years.  It was suppose to be finished a year ago, and we were suppose to be having our events in the chapel, but it wasn't finished.

We only had one night in Torit.  We had to send Angela and Josh away on Tuesday morning.  Maynor, Chris and some of the others left on Monday to go to Lowi to set up and take all the stuff.  The rest of us followed on Tuesday afternoon. 

We arrived around dinner time on Tuesday.  We got set up in our accommodations and I think we had a time of prayer.  I don't really remember.

Lowi was an amazing place.  It is a very spread out, there are a lot of people but they live in clusters of tukus.  We were the fist white people that many of the children had seen and we played the first videos EVER to be seen in this village!! 

We did a similar program in Lowi as we did in Chukudum.  I think it went well.  These people are generally Catholic, but know very little about their faith.  It was great to get a chance to share with them and help them to understand more about the Church.

Wednesday morning we took a grand adventure.  There was a mountain close to the semi school we were staying/working at... on top of the mountain was the old site of the minor seminary (a high school for boys considering priesthood) .  The ruins were incredible.  As was the view.

We crammed 18 people into our blue land rover and drove over up some of the craziest roads I've seen!  This was when I told Fr. Herald (who was driving) that I was very glad I really trusted him, otherwise I would have been out of that car!  It was crazy...

Pictures will follow later... I am off to my first day at Cornerstone!!!