Hi Friends,
I hope this finds you all in the midst of beautiful summer afternoons and moments of great community! I wondered if I might take a moment of your time to tell you about an exciting piece of my summer. Looks like I'm heading back to Uganda this July and I can't wait...I'm psyched to get back over there and help however I can! We've got two weeks of working with medical clinics, schools, hospitals, and orphanages ahead of us. At the end, we'll take 2 days to look at the animals and revel in the beauty of nature before heading home. Last year was amazing. I was both heartbroken and inspired by what I saw. I was wrecked by injustice. I felt that even if I quit my job and worked full time to alleviate suffering it would never be enough. I would never be able to fix it. And that is true. But I also learned that hope is a powerful force. That it is sometimes the only thing that makes sense. If what we does brings food to some, medical care to others, and hope to even a few - it's so worth it. Hope. It's a game changer. So with that awareness, I'm pressing forward, focusing on the positive and doing what I can.
It comes down to these four reasons for me:
1) DO SOMETHING! My friend (who has lived in Uganda for many years and done incredible work there) and I were chatting last year about the efficiency of aid organizations, the smartness of how we do aid work, etc. I was - big surprise - wrestling with the academics of it all. What was the best system, what was the most bang for buck, how to do the most good with limited resources, etc. And I was a little overwhelmed. It's seems so hard, so complicated, so unending. And he, with the wisdom, that comes from years of doing this for a living said this: the need in Africa is so great that every little bit helps. We should try and do it to our absolute best and keep learning and evolving, but we should still DO SOMETHING. So that's reason number one, there is incredible need and I'm going to DO SOMETHING about it. (Last year we were able to do a project with his amazing organization, Aidchild, more info below.)
2) WHY GO? One of the questions that's often raised is why should I go? Why should you help send me versus just sending a wad of cash over instead? I hear that. Believe me. And it's a tough question, but here's how I see it. The Ugandans know that for us to come all the way over there is not without cost or consideration. It is expensive. Intentional. A decision not made lightly. They know we could be elsewhere. So knowing this, when they look us in the eyes and ask us why we came all this way, we get to say "for you" and that can be difference between hope and despair. Of course it's not a mind blowing miracle every time, but more times than not, they are amazed and moved that we would step away from our comfort to be with them. One of the projects for this trip is to mud a hut. That is for us to stand side by side with the Africans and help build a house. Sure, we could just throw money at it, but there's something powerful that happens when they see us, standing with them, working with them, to help. Not standing back and just having someone else do it, but partnering in efforts towards their well being. Finally, Gulu, a region in northern Uganda where we'll spend most of our time, has witnessed abhorrent violence. This region was hard hit by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and scene to countless abductions of children forced to become soldiers and mere girls to be their 'wives.' Yet despite the brutality of the past, the LRA has moved out of Uganda and restoration is beginning. As the area begins to stabilize, many of the NGOs who have done great work in the midst of the crisis are turning their attention to other areas. And that's ok, but we choose to continue to visit this region and walk with them not only through the terrors of the night, but to help rebuild with those daring to hope for a future without terror and violence. So why go? Because we not only get to help meet physical needs, but we are honored with the crazy joy of being able to remind those ravaged by terror and violence of their beauty and value.
3) JEAMI: Have you ever met Jeami? Jeami is the founder of Mercy's Village and a former roommate of mine from LA. Jeami's heart beats to Ugandan rhythms. She's doing something. She's been running trips there for years and recently has quit her job to launch and run her non-profit full time. This spring she bought a bunch of land to start a school in a rural outskirt of Gulu. Girls are undervalued (to put it mildly) in Uganda, so she'll focus on their empowerment through education. I'm not going to lay out all the ways that Mercy's Village is amazing because I put the website below, but when I see people who I know and trust, put their lives on the line to pursue something of beauty and worth to help others, I'm in. Man, I'm so in. To recap, reason number two, to stand with and support (and get to be a part of) the incredible work of a doer like Jeami to help kids like Mercy in villages like Gulu.
4) VISION: This one is perhaps the toughest to articulate, so please bear with me as I try. I've got a career I enjoy. But it's not enough, I know I was created to do more than the 9-5. I think what I'm ultimately called to do is work with the poor. But I don't know exactly what that looks like yet and if being on this trip gets me even half a step closer to figuring out how to do that and allows me to work with these beautiful people in the process, then it's worth the overtime, the humiliating fundraisers, the malaria pills, the mosquito bites, or whatever else. It is worth my time, effort, and cash.
So that's why I'm going.
All my best,
Brooke
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