Category Archives: Pilgrim Africa ’18

Sowing the Word

Dawn in Ajoatorum

During the dry season, the roads in Katakwi turn into a long ribbon of ochre, sinking into the occasional pothole and running through intermittent dust storms. So, it was no fun when the air conditioning in our Land Cruiser walked off the job in mid-afternoon yesterday. The car was packed with five of us, our luggage and several cases of Bibles we are bringing for the pastors in the region. We were headed to Usuk (pronounced OO-sook) and Ajoatorum, the village of Simon Peter Ojaman.

Simon Peter Ojaman

We first met Simon more than ten years ago. At that time, the whole area was essentially a refugee camp — hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the destructive wave of the Kony rebellion and the Lord’s Resistance Army. Today, the area has been resettled, many of the cattle have returned, and the villages are peaceful. Simon, once a young man in his twenties with an ambition to go to vocational school, is now a husband, father, district counselor and a prominent leader among his people. [For more on Simon’s story, click here].

My cow Lily and her calf

We finally did make it, dusty and tired, and were greeted like royalty. We shared greetings, had something to eat, walked around Simon’s property, inspected my white cow, Lily, and her jet black calf, and turned in early.

Today is the day of the thanksgiving ceremony, a sort of East African potlatch. Even though this is a largely Roman Catholic district, Simon has told me repeatedly I am to preside and preach at a Eucharist, which will be the centerpiece of the day. I have done this once already, in a much smaller gathering, with Father Aloysius, a Roman Catholic priest, cheerfully serving as Deacon. Still, there will be 600 people here today, and it strikes me as odd that I would be allowed the same privilege in a crowd this size.

Choir rehearsal

My reservations turn out to be warranted. Prior to the ceremony, I meet with two Roman Catholic clergy, Father Wasiwasi and Father Paul, priests new to the parish whom I have never met, and as I outline my understanding of my role in what I thought was to be an ecumenical service, I can see in their shocked looks that this is not at all what they have in mind. In spite of Simon’s assurances, it is clear they have been sent by their superiors to say Mass, to preach, and to make it back to Soroti in time for the six o’clock service there. It is also clear that not a word has been mentioned to them by anyone about me. I backpedal at high speed, and the moment is awkward but saved. Father Wasiwasi asks me if perhaps I could give “remarks” at the conclusion of the service. You bet, Father. Happy to.

The Ojaman family

I am not sure what Simon was thinking, anyway. Betsy and I are given special clothes, and are expected to walk in the procession with the immediate family, in the position of godparents. My outfit is bright purple (I kid you not) as is Simon’s. He can bring it off, being black, tall and slender, but I think I look like an enormous grape. Fr. Dan is amused and helps me feel better by taking several pictures and promising to post them on Facebook. By contrast, Betsy has a lovely dress that is the mirror image of the one worn by Stella Rose, Simon’s wife.

The Word about to be sown

The little clearing where the festivities begin is surrounded on three sides by plastic chairs under large canvas tents that provide shade from the searing sun. The crowd is already singing songs of praise as we enter. Betsy, Dan and I take our seats with the family on one side of the tent in which the altar has been set up. In the middle of the clearing, near the loudspeakers, are the cases of Bibles, in Ateso and English, along with Bible covers, waiting to be given away.

The Mass is brief by Ugandan standards, about an hour and twenty minutes. Fr. Paul’s homily is very good and the two priests lead with good humor and reverence, helped by an enthusiastic choir. Beyond the fifty catechists in attendance, few people come forward actually to receive. Betsy, Dan and I go forward for a blessing, which Father Wasiwasi earnestly gives. Afterwards, there are (of course) speeches. Simon stands and thanks every one and spends considerable time on Betsy and myself, recounting the decade of our help and friendship to the people of Teso, and I see that the rather cool regard of the presiding clergy is warming up fast.

During the speeches it also becomes clear that this is a political event as well as a social one. Simon is already a masterful politician, and singles out a dozen or so prominent friends to give their own remarks. He calls up one by one the leaders of various constituencies, and personally thanks everyone who has had anything to do with pulling off this day. Finally, he asks the representatives of the churches present to stand, and they do so in turn: Roman Catholics, Church of Uganda, two varieties of Pentecostals, Baptists, and two or three non-denominational assemblies — a remarkably ecumenical assembly.

Bread on the waters

When Fr. Wasiwasi asks me to conclude with my remarks, and I have thanked everyone I can think of, I shift to a little homily on Jesus’ famous assertion, “Whoever does the will of God is my mother, my sister, my brother.” I note that he was not rejecting his own family, but expanding it, and that the presence and work of Pilgrim Africa, along with Betsy, Dan and myself, is proof that God has done the same thing here, bringing great good out of the suffering which for so long engulfed this region. I ask the people to be reconciled within to one another within their own churches, so that the churches may continue to be reconciled to each other and work together for the common good and for the sake of the Kingdom. It’s all well received, and after the applause, we distribute the Bibles — 272 of them to pastors lay readers and catechists, Protestant and Catholic, blessed by a Roman priest and handed off by an Episcopal bishop and his wife.

At the end of it all we change clothes and head to Mbale for a meeting and retreat of the Ugandan and U.S. Boards of Pilgrim Africa. As we roar down the dusty roads again, I remember the first time I saw this area — the ruined villages, burned fields, huddled refugees, and I wonder if in the midst of this apparent peace and recovery, the churches are finally ready to come together to do great things.

The Empty Waiting Room: Eliminating Malaria

The waiting room at Kapujan

This is one of the most beautiful sights you will ever see.

It is the waiting room of the clinic in Kapujan. Before last year it would have been full, mainly of mothers and small children, afraid and sick with malaria. During the worst periods, the staff would sometimes have 80 cases a day.

The reason is the Katakwi Rotary Malaria Project (KRMP). Pilgrim is the implementing partner for this three-year study. Applying a protocol we developed in 2008, the project covers three sub-counties in Katakwi District serving a total of about 38,000 people. Today we visit two of the sub-counties, Toroma and Kapujan, and the results are astonishing. The picture speaks for itself.

It is hard to exaggerate the extent to which malaria affects daily life in Uganda. Over 100,000 people a year die in malaria-related deaths, mostly pregnant women and children under five. When a child is sick, at least one parent has to stay home instead of going to work, which, coupled with the effects of adult cases, means that up to a third of the country’s workforce can be out of commission on any given day.

But this protocol, a combination of indoor residual spraying (IRS) and mass drug administration (MDA) has virtually eliminated malaria for the target population, and could be the key to the near-eradication of the parasite in sub-Saharan Africa.

When we ran a trial project in Katakwi several years ago, we saw the same success for a total of 177,000 people. But there were sufficient flaws in our methodology and data that it took years to persuade the major players in international public health that we had something really revolutionary. After winning the attention of the President’s Malaria Initiative and the global fund, we were finally able to secure funding for this three-year study through the generosity of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The day begins with a visit to the offices of the local district chairman in Katakwi. We are warmly received. Thanks to Pilgrim Africa’s careful work building relationships in this region over many years, we have the enthusiastic support of politicians and churches. This is extremely important, since the project depends entirely on grassroots participation: methodically spraying every hut, making sure every person receives a drug that both kills the parasite and provides protection against new infection, encouraging the use of bed nets and the elimination of standing water in villages and compounds.

Hearing from the clinic staff at Toroma

After our courtesy call, we visit the two clinics.  We sit with the staff and hear the same story with a few variations.  The wards used to be full.  Now they are empty.  Nurses and doctors can turn their attention to other complaints that are serious but not yet life-threatening, such as respiratory infections or diarrhea.  They are able to intervene early, and since malaria weakens resistance to other diseases, the overall general health of the region has improved.  What malaria cases they do see involve people who elected not to participate in the protocol or people who got sick while visiting from outside the district. It is especially helpful to have Dr. Dan Hall with us, to hear his questions and see all of this through the eyes of a physician.

My son is no longer sick!

The hardest thing for people to understand has been why we can, for the moment, help only the people within the three sub-counties, when we were able to help nearly five times that number a few years ago. But Pilgrim staff have been on a relentless information campaign since before the study was actually launched, taking to the radio waves, patiently explaining over and over what a study is and why we have to be so restrictive.

After the clinics, we visit three households which have participated in the study.  The stories are the same.  For many of them, this is the first time in their lives that they have gone for months without anyone in their families being ill.

We are all healthy. Please have some goat!

The third and last visit comes with a bonus.  We are greeted by a very senior lady who has put on a party dress to receive us.  As she sits on the floor to talk with us, a traditional posture for a host, her family brings in a large platter of roasted goat.  Nothing is better than roasted goat!

By the time we leave it is late afternoon.  We are heading to Usuk, to the remote village of Ajoatorum, where our friends Simon Peter and his family are gathering for a thanksgiving ceremony tomorrow.

Beacon of Hope: Pilgrim Africa Day Two

The visit to Beacon of Hope is always a high point of any visit here. Founded twelve years ago as a school for war-affected kids, this secondary boarding school now hosts a student body of over 600. A large number of the children are on full scholarship, and nearly all of them come from the villages of Teso. There are six grades, through the senior year in high school. For many of the kids, this is the first time they have been away from home. However, village life can be hard, and in many places there are deep patterns of abuse — alcoholism, domestic violence, disputes over property, as well as the endemic problems of the rural poor, hunger caused by drought or floods and, above all, malaria. Here the children find a stable environment and the guidance of a faculty and staff who see as their first mission the call to love the students no matter what.

The new assembly hall

Our visit follows a familiar pattern — talking with faculty and administrative staff, and then attending an assembly of the whole student body and their teachers. Over the last ten years this would have taken place under the enormous fig tree which had given shade to every full gathering of the school. Our lack of an assembly hall big enough for all our students to sit for national exams at the same time was a constant threat to our accreditation. The board prayed constantly, yet many of our fundraising efforts did not bear fruit, until in God’s time the donors appeared and the hall was built. As I step into it and see hundreds of children brought together under a real roof, I almost start to cry.

But there is a shadow over the morning. Today there is also an announcement that the head teacher will be leaving to pursue other opportunities. Justin is well loved and has been at the school for ten years, and the news is received with sadness. The adults in the room have to address this.

The death of a giant

I talk about the fig tree. Twenty minutes earlier, as we were driving through the gate, the first thing I saw was that the glorious old fig tree had been cut down. I couldn’t believe my eyes. In its place there were only enormous stumps and logs awaiting removal. The tree, I was told, was old and weakening, in danger of dropping its huge branches without warning. It had to be taken down. I tell the children that it is almost impossible for me to think of the school without the tree, but in fact the school continues, because it is not about the tree, not even about the faculty, certainly not about “Papa Bishop,” but about them and about the generations that will follow them. I then ask them to remember the teaching of Jesus. In a moment when his disciples are fighting over who shall be the greatest, the Lord brings a child before them, and says, “Unless you become like this child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” I say to them all, you are that child, chosen and precious in the sight of God, of infinite worth, each with a particular calling and with no limit as to what God can do with you and through you. And we are watching, so that as you grow in grace and love, in wisdom and skill, we can pray that we will become more and more like you.

In addition to my own talk, Betsy gives greetings. She is revered as “Toto,” the Ateso word for “Mama,” and her words of encouragement and warm and gentle spirit are greeted with broad smiles. In addition, there are brief speeches by Henry, the new head of education for Pilgrim Africa and by Solomon, our agriculture director who has had a long-standing relationship with the school. By the end, the kids seem ready to take on the world again.

The dancers

A group of students, who are called simply “the MDD” (music, dance and drama), have been rehearsing a couple of presentations for the last three days. First, they perform two rousing traditional dances. The wars in the region over thirty years took away many elements of Teso culture, and the MDD program, under the direction of Moses Opio, seeks to re-establish those treasures among the young. The performance brings down the house. Another group performs a little play about a teenage girl whose father is murdered and who is nearly forced into marriage so her family will not be destitute, until the recruiters come from Beacon of Hope and offer her a place at the school.

Murder most foul!

Two things strike me about this little drama. First, this scenario is not fiction. Any one of our kids could tell you the ways that BOH is a lifeline for them, and I know of more than one case where a dead father and a forced engagement were the immediate background to a child’s admission. Second, the children are able thoroughly to enjoy the whole story. The murderer, the prospective fiancé and his father are played broadly and seem both horrible and somehow ridiculous. The children laugh with scorn at the “bad guys” and cheer the girl! This is a sign of healing. In the early days of Beacon of Hope, it was important to give space for the student to tell the stories of what they endured during the war, and they did it in various ways. At one point we distributed a few dozen inexpensive video cameras to let them make films; at first these were very sober, even dark. But as the kids healed, they discovered their power to control their own narrative, and treating their tormentors as an object of ridicule was an assertion of their own recovery. As I watch this skit play out, I laugh and cheer right along with them.

Hassan and Rover

The morning ends in a neighboring building with an introduction to the robotics program. It is hard to believe that a school with absolutely no luxuries has built a robotics team that is now winning recognition in international competition from New York to Israel. This is also led by Moses Opio and I am awed by the young people who are the backbone of this program. The lead student, Hassan, runs a rather frightening contraption through a series of maneuvers — picking up, tossing, dropping and parking a couple of different objects– all this taking place in a classroom where at one time we stored sunflowers before pressing their seeds into cooking oil, a technology leap across three centuries!

On the way out, we also note a few weak spots. The chem lab is virtually shut down, and needs an injection of fresh chemicals and glassware, and I ask for a list of these and other needed items. There are other matters — some administrative, some strategic — which I mentally note for the board meeting on Saturday.

Then, all too soon, it is time to leave. We say quick goodbyes. We learn later that the results of the national exams called the UCE have just come in. Our scores put us near the top among all the schools in Soroti district.

Most importantly, not a single kid failed.

Pilgrim Africa 2018 Agenda

Since 2007, I have helped direct Pilgrim Africa, an ecumenical ministry of evangelism and redevelopment for northeast Uganda.  I will be writing and supplying updates over the course of my current trip to that region to support the work of Pilgrim Africa in public health, malaria control, education, and agriculture; to build relationships for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh with the churches of Uganda; and to explore mission possibilities for us as a diocese, especially in the areas of medicine and education.

February 8, 2018   Day 1

The trek to Soroti is a pilgrimage. Flights from Toronto to Kampala via Istanbul and Kigali, then a journey by road of 360 kilometers to this small town which is the headquarters for Pilgrim Africa’s rural operations. Monday and Tuesday were days of travel, and today begins the agenda for the trip.

I am traveling with Betsy and with the Reverend Dr. Dan Hall, surgeon and priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  Over the next five days we have the following tasks:

  1. Visit Saint Andrew’s School in Buwologoma. Thanks to Ann McStay of St. Paul’s, Mt. Lebanon, and with the sponsorship of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, the United Thank Offering made a grant of $76,000 for new construction in this institution which serves blind and hearing-impaired children.  My visit is to ensure the funds were spent as required and to nurture the relationships begun through the grant.
  2. Visit Beacon of Hope School, Pilgrim Africa’s boarding school in Soroti. Begun in 2006 as a sanctuary for former child soldiers and girls trafficked during the insurgency, BOH has evolved into one of northern Uganda’s premier secondary schools, featuring (among other things) a robotics program that is drawing international attention.
  3. Visit the Soroti branch of the Bible Society to arrange for the purchase of Bibles for churches in the Soroti and Katakwi districts, an ecumenical outreach that will benefit both Protestant and Catholic parishes.
  4. Attend a clan gathering among old friends in Usuk where Betsy and I are expected as guests of honor, and where I will participate in an outdoor Mass for several hundred people.
  5. Visit field operations of Pilgrim Africa’s anti-malaria protocol in Katakwi. This study, funded by the Gates Foundation, will likely eliminate malaria for the majority of 38,000 people and lay the groundwork for greatly expanded work.
  6. Participate in a joint retreat and meeting for Pilgrim’s Ugandan and American boards, with particular attention to strategic planning for the future.

The day begins with a visit to the Beacon of Hope, and travel will branch out from there.  Please keep us in your prayers!