Sometimes my role within Acholi Quarters is about introducing new people to the community. Sometimes it's about following up on previous links made. Sometimes it's just about catching up with friends who increasingly feel like part of my Ugandan family.
Most of the time it's a combination of all of the above.
So yesterday and today I have had the joy of introducing new folks to the community, following up on a link set up between the Hopeful Haven 'educational day care' and a primary school in Birmingham, and catching up with Harriet, Miriam, and many of the other ladies that I am delighted to call my friends out here.
The new folks were two friends from Thornbury and their 9 year old sons. Yesterday we did some activities with the children in Hopeful Haven, looked round the community and had a lovely bit of time being shown how to make beads by the Acholi ladies. Sitting together in the shade of a building, rolling paper into beads is a very beautiful way to forget our differences and to just enjoy the experience of harmony and co-production
Today the focus was the 4th Mercy scout group - the two lads from UK are both from local cub groups, and so the time together was a real demonstration of the International nature of Scouting.
For the Thornbury lads, it was the chance to see a very different scouting set up - lots of drilling and parading, almost no equipment, no scout hut, no uniform to call their own, but even so a sense of belonging to something bigger than the impoverished community in which they live.
For the 4th Mercy scouts, it was the chance to meet some other youngsters their age, from the UK, and who were also wearing neckerchiefs, and who are part of the same international movement.
Yesterday also included seeing the delivery of some new benches for the children at Hopeful Haven, made by John who is a local carpenter in the Acholi community. The money was raised by the Birmingham school, and as a result of having the benches the children will no longer have to choose whether to use the bench as a bench or a desk - there's enough to have both!
It might all seem like little steps and trivial moments, but all those moments add up, and it's a privilege to be part of that.
Not long ago the Hopeful Haven didn't exist, and nor did the scout group. Now they do, and the Acholi children have the chance to think wider than just the here and now of survival and existence.
For the ladies also, those moments of sitting together and chatting, laughing and sharing, are precious times of sisterhood, of celebrating each other, of knowing that no-one is alone, and that we have each other in our hearts.
They are wonderful moments - of building bridges, of creating relationships, of letting the other (whether UK or Ugandan other) know that we are together, and that together we are stronger.
Looking forward to many more such moments!
Most of the time it's a combination of all of the above.
So yesterday and today I have had the joy of introducing new folks to the community, following up on a link set up between the Hopeful Haven 'educational day care' and a primary school in Birmingham, and catching up with Harriet, Miriam, and many of the other ladies that I am delighted to call my friends out here.
The new folks were two friends from Thornbury and their 9 year old sons. Yesterday we did some activities with the children in Hopeful Haven, looked round the community and had a lovely bit of time being shown how to make beads by the Acholi ladies. Sitting together in the shade of a building, rolling paper into beads is a very beautiful way to forget our differences and to just enjoy the experience of harmony and co-production
Today the focus was the 4th Mercy scout group - the two lads from UK are both from local cub groups, and so the time together was a real demonstration of the International nature of Scouting.
For the Thornbury lads, it was the chance to see a very different scouting set up - lots of drilling and parading, almost no equipment, no scout hut, no uniform to call their own, but even so a sense of belonging to something bigger than the impoverished community in which they live.
For the 4th Mercy scouts, it was the chance to meet some other youngsters their age, from the UK, and who were also wearing neckerchiefs, and who are part of the same international movement.
Yesterday also included seeing the delivery of some new benches for the children at Hopeful Haven, made by John who is a local carpenter in the Acholi community. The money was raised by the Birmingham school, and as a result of having the benches the children will no longer have to choose whether to use the bench as a bench or a desk - there's enough to have both!
It might all seem like little steps and trivial moments, but all those moments add up, and it's a privilege to be part of that.
Not long ago the Hopeful Haven didn't exist, and nor did the scout group. Now they do, and the Acholi children have the chance to think wider than just the here and now of survival and existence.
For the ladies also, those moments of sitting together and chatting, laughing and sharing, are precious times of sisterhood, of celebrating each other, of knowing that no-one is alone, and that we have each other in our hearts.
They are wonderful moments - of building bridges, of creating relationships, of letting the other (whether UK or Ugandan other) know that we are together, and that together we are stronger.
Looking forward to many more such moments!
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