Christmas Time in Gulu

True, not your typical Christmas party like those at home.

This kind of party lasts all day--morning until the sun sets.

Things begin at "8:00 am sharp". I am starting to catch on and so I show up at 9:30. There are a few people around and one of the tents is halfway up.

I walk with Timothy's wife and daughter to visit an aunt. We stay there for an hour. I noticed a scar in the back of this elderly lady's head. She was attacked once by the LRA in her home, cut with a machete. They set her hut on fire and left her to die, but she escaped. I don't catch any of this when we are with her because they speak in Luo of which I still don't know much, but Joska tells me later on.

We return around 11:00 and things are beginning. We cover quite a bit in this Christmas celebration. We celebrate the purchase of the land, the launch of the Heifer program, the opening of the clinic, and the microfinance program. The ladies are displaying their beautiful handcrafts, the kids are dancing their traditional dances and I wish each one of you could be here to experience it because I can't do justice in words or pictures (although I tried, and have hundreds of pictures to share with you some time.) I was tired because I had been sick the previous two days but I couldn't sit and rest, there was too much to be taking in.

Oh, and besides all of these highlights, you also missed a few other things. We were planting a number of trees around the land in celebration of the purchase. I was speaking with my director while the speeches were continuing by the head of different organizations/churches in the area. Suddenly I heard my name. Indeed, it was my turn to plant a tree and make a speech. I was not told of this, of course. But I did my best to fit into this high context culture and tried to come up with a speech. I was also given a new name at this time--Ayee Rwot Akello. You can call me Akello for short (because that's probably the easiest for you to pronounce.)

I'm sure the entertainment for most of you would've continued as you would've watched about 40 kids surround me, wrap one of the traditional cloths around my waist and tried to teach me some of the traditional dances. (I'm still working on them.)

At one point, some small Christmas gifts appeared from somewhere for all of the kids. As they received them, a few of them would come to me and ask what they were for. How do you explain a slinky when there are no steps around? I pulled one smaller brick in front of a larger one and tried to explain it. I think my explanation failed but they smiled politely. A few girls came to me with a jar of playdough and asked what it was for, then a group of boys approached me and asked how to put this small airplane together. Some of the pieces were already broken but we made it work.

I'm glad we had a Christmas party because it doesn't seem like Christmas very much at all as the sun is still scorching me in the hot mid-day sun. I do, however, wake up to a number of Christmas songs most mornings coming from some unknown source in town. Yesterday it was Feliz Navidad. But the Christmas party reminded me of the Savior and the people He came for. I was reminded of our need for this Prince of Peace in each one of our lives, whether we've lived in a war zone or not--our need for Him is still the same.