Good night, Uganda

[For the BULLETS see below]

Hi Everyone,

Tomorrow night marks one month in Uganda. And a quick month it's been. If I have only five of those left I'll be back before morning.

Tonight I walked home from dinner alone. The moon was still hanging below the horizon as I set off from town, so the dirt road to my house also played its role as tactile guide in a wispy silence. An equatorial sun had radiated the ground and air all day, and its legacy faded defiantly into the breezy darkness.

As I rounded a corner a flicker of green light floated past me on the warm air. A firefly. Two more. Another, as I investigated, guarded by a jealous spider in its web. I looked back towards town.

The moon had just lifted itself over the edge of the earth and rose, red and bloated, into the eastern sky. A car passed.

The road where I turn to reach my house also leads to a Catholic Church. As I approached the turn I entered a hushed, shifting forest of people. Some carried candles like fireflies in the forest.

Once home a rush of drums and voices filled every space around and inside the house. We walked outside, to the church, in wonder. There a group of children sang and danced and drummed in careless harmony. Seeing the three of us many came over to say 'how-ah you.' I asked what they were singing. "To love Jesus," one said. I thought it a fine answer. One youngster sang a song for me. I sang one back. We sang one together. We all laughed.

Tonight Uganda and I got to know each other a little better.

BULLETS

• Nightlife in Gulu, for me, depends utterly on whether we have power. That is, if we have power, I can sit at home, read and write under the florescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Otherwise, I do the same by candlelight.
• My job here is to get Invisible Children Bracelets made by local people. Currently we employ a few more than 100 Ugandans, some of whom live in a nearby IDP camp. We'll probably be expanding that number quite soon.
• At least three of our employees in Koro IDP camp were once abducted by the LRA - the rebel group behind the 20 year war in the region. Others have lost family members, mostly husbands, to the war. All have been deeply affected.
• Almost all of our employees have at least one family member with a serious illness. Many are getting no treatment. Some are getting poor treatment. At least one woman who works for us has AIDS.
• Their main complaints are that they don't have enough food, adequate water, access to medical care, and essential home equipment, like a pot to cook in and firewood to cook over.
  
• On Monday I'm going to Kampala, Uganda's capital, for a little while.
• I'm currently reading "The Graves Are Not Yet Full" - an analysis of some of the major conflicts in Africa over the last 50 years. It's quite good, if a little wordy. Also some poetry by Czeslaw Milosz. He's really good. My poetry-reading friend Mitchell, who introduced me to Milosz, says that T.S. Eliot is even better.
  
• I'm currently writing a short satirical story on international development. I call it Development and Magic Beanstalk. It is, if I can say so myself, a bit presumptuous.

Goodnight, mine has been. And Happy Easter. Jesus lived for grace, died for justice, and rose for glory. If you like, you can do the same.

Yours,
James