Oli otiya

Oli otiya,
That's how we say hello.

We had a great contact with a few people in parliament. Last Thursday night the Honorable Freddy came to our home in Mukono and talked to us about going to his home
town in Jinja to visit a few schools, one suburban and one rural. We got up
at 5 am and got to Jinja and met up with the M.P. and they drove us to the
first school in the middle of a ton of sugar cane fields. It was so
beautiful. The children sang to us and were just so precious. We did a
program we put together about teacher training which included child abuse,
how to show children you love them, aids prevention, heath and hygiene,
teamwork, and other activities. We split into groups and rotated. I was team
teaching health and hygiene and AIDS prevention and awareness. We taught it
to kids between the ages of 6-18. We also taught the staff. I really enjoyed
it. And the Honorable Freddy had the newspaper and a news team there. No
pressure right!?! So we went to two different schools and saw the huge
difference between the government and public schools and also the suburban
and rural areas. It was great. Then they took us to the waterfalls of the
Nile, and took us into town in Jinja where we ate an American dinner. It
really made me appreciate our culture and our food. We stayed in a small
campsite on the Nile river that night. Oh it was beautiful. We saw monkeys
and alligators. In the morning a group of us decided to go rafting down the
Nile, The second most intense rapids in the world. We went and we
conquered!!!

Anyhow, on Thursday a group of us had an opportunity to go
up north to Gulu. So we got on a bus and met with a member of parliament who
is the representative in Gulu. She set us up with her sister Lucy and she
took s around Gulu to different organizations and we tried to get contacts
there to work in the future.
I am so grateful I had the opportunity to go there. There are so many
organizations there who are trying to help with the women and children who
were affected by the war.
There were a bunch of new volunteers and we have so much work to do and I’m
so grateful we are all so willing and ready. I wish I could write all that
I saw and experienced, and I wish I could express all I felt. It really
changed my life. I hope to always remember and take these experiences with
me throughout my life.
~April Bladh
Angwen (in Acholi)