Monday, March 26, 2007

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Tony/Uganda

TONY



Kali and I went up to Gulu and Lira this past week to see the broken towns and broken lives of the men, women, and children who have been victims of the 20 year war between Joseph Kony's Lord Resitance Army (LRA) and the government UPDF soliders. The LRA abducts children to become child soldiers and sex slaves. I'm not going to give a history lesson, but to understand more, there is tons of information on the internet about the situation.

No words can describe or adequately explain the experiences we had today. And no amount of time I spent here in Gulu would ever make me understand how these children feel. At the mere ages of 10 to 15 years old they have experienced more in their lives than I would ever see in 7 lifetimes in America. What follows is the story of Tony, a 15 year old boy I interviewed who is now living in the Cornerstone Youth Corps home in Gulu.

"My name is Tony. I am 15 years old. I am from the villiage Coro abeli. My brother Morris lives in the YC home with me. There are no more children in our home from our village. The village life was not fine. I was abducted by the LRA boys when I was 9. When I first got there I missed my parents very much, but after the LRA told me they killed my father and mother I had to forget. I was in the bush for 5 years. Life is so hard in the bush. I was beaten severely. We had to carry very heavy luggage for many kilometers. The hardest part about the bush was the hunger and thirst. They made us go to villages to loot, burn, and sometimes kill. We were marching back from looting, a two days walk to Sudan. There was an ambush from the UPDF soilders and I was injured. My heel was shot and so was my leg. I was 14 years old. The man who was carrying me had to put me down to run away. I stayed in that place for one week eating roots and leaves. The LRA came back to find me, but there was another ambush. The LRA went away and the UPDF found me. I gave them my gun and they took me to the hospital. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks."

"Then I went to the rehabilitaion center for 2 months. My brother did not recognize me until the fourth time he came to see me. We were happy. After rehab I went to live in the village with my brother. We had no parents. I got pigeons and baked bricks to make money for food. I like to draw. We registered to draw pictures for 500 shillings. We met David Laker and he went and told us to come live in YC home where we would have food."

"Life is very good now because I have opportunity to go to school. I want people to know about my life in the village because my life in the bush is not important now, because it has already passed. Life in the village is a life of struggling until one day you realize your dream. My struggle is when I leave YC home to go back to the villages and there is no food. My dream is to be a driver and a doctor and help."


Tony has been living at the home for a couple of weeks now. He is just a child but holds so much insight into life, as many of the Ugandans do who have suffered from the war. When I asked him what he wanted people to know about his life, he said he wanted people to know about his village, which is his current struggle, and his dream. So many of the people really strive to focus on the future and be hopeful. They have been through things harder than I can imagine, yet they aren't wallowing in pity for themselves. They are looking to the future, and working hard to make it better.
--
Ashley S. Zeiger

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Uganda: the Pearl of Africa

..."the pearl of Africa"...

Indeed, what a gem, what a breath of sweet warm air. Smiling faces, colorful dress, lively music, lush vegetation and a bright new culture to experience. Kali and I were luminous stepping off the plane into Entebbe, about 40 km away from Kampala, Uganda's capital. There was some miscommunication about our flight arrival, so we hopped in a taxi and managed to scrounge around and find the address to Cornerstone.

We were speechless the whole ride because all of our senses were so busy taking in our new surroundings. The smells of bananas roasting, fresh paint, and the warm, salty, smell of Lake Victoria reminded me of Jamaica.

Compared to Ethiopia, this is the Garden of Eden. Banana trees, blooming flowers, avocado's the size of eggplants, green green grass, parks, and soccer fields that are actually made of grass.

We made it to plot 37, Cornerstone headquarters, to a joyful, warming hugs from the Ugandans, welcoming us to their country as sisters. After our informal introductions to the team, we were presented with our first tast of Ugandan food.... red bean with rice and 'posho'-- mashed plantains. Delicious, but my brothers would have a ball spicing it up with a bit of Tony's or Crystal hot sauce.

Tim , the director of Cornerstone, met with us for a moment, basically saying you'll figure it out in time and here's how to get around.

So after being shown to our cozy little room called faith, we embarked on our first adventure, one that I had no idea would cause me to fear for my life and be one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.... the culprit: the boda boda.

A glorious idea indeed, yet in actuality quite a death sentence. Boda boda's' are essentially motorcycles for hire. Peter showed us how to get on one with a skirt and the correct positioning of our legs so that we would not be burned, a common mistake of foreigners. Seconds later we were flying down the street. I was laughing all the way into town, out of sheer delight and sheer terror. The drivers recklessly weave in and out of traffic around trucks and in between cars so that you are literally centimeters away from grazing a car. But the best part was his non-nonchalant attitude about the whole shindig. Granted he's probably been doing it for years, but not to even flinch impressed me. Needless to say, I know how I'll be getting my rush everyday.

--
Ashley S. Zeiger

Thursday, March 15, 2007

hi hi hi

well just wanted to send a quick update about our whereabouts. kali and i just finished working with SIM in Mekelle and have spent the past 3 days in Addis visiting the Mother Teresea orphanage, hanging out with Mesfin, Alex, Sammie, and Ladet as well as the Cherokee guests. It was great to see them all again. What joy we had when we walked into the orphanage and Melkana, the little boy with downs, ran up to me with a big smile on his face, gave me a hug, and led me directly to the swing set, (where we spent hours during the month of december.) We are heading to Tanzania tomorrow to meet up with my parents, Frank Richardson, and Kali's mom to climb Kilimanjaro. We are so excited for the climb and have been training in Mekelle running 5 miles everyday, but are still a little nervous about the climb. So please pray for all our safety and health as we attempt this summit, and that it would just be a great time of fellowship with our families before we head off to Uganda at the end of our climb. My sweet father is posting our updates on my blog now, so it's up and running... www.ashleyzeiger@blogspot.com hope all is well in the motherland and that the beginning of spring is bringing good spirits.



--
Ashley S. Zeiger