Adjumani Adventures

I returned last Tuesday after spending about a week at our site in Adjumani. Megan, Francis, Richard (Kampala COH mentor), and I traveled to the northern site with the intent of checking up on a few things and completing some small projects. The trip was quite good and accomplished much, I think. But, to sum it up simply, I would describe it as a mixture of fun and fortitude.The roads in Adjumani were much worse on this visit. The recent rains had left many areas soft and uneven. We came upon several vehicles that had gotten stuck, as well as a large lorry that had overturned in the soft ground. It had been piled high with goods and people on their way to Sudan. Although no one was hurt, the people had been stranded on the road for 3 days while they waited for someone to come help them lift the lorry from the muck. We arrived at the scene just before a small crane lifted the lorry back into an upright position.

Pictures: A "bad spot" in the road (L); Soldiers on patrol along the road to Adjumani (R).
The little Rav4 we were driving did a good job navigating the muddy terrain and, although the going was slow, we made it to Adjumani with no problems.


One of our goals in Adjumani was to locate about 15 students and either take an updated photograph or collect from them one of their tri-annual letters that is sent to their sponsors. (The letters were supposed to be sent about a month ago, but these students had been AWOL during the “letter writing” time due to travels, sickness, school work, etc.) The Adjumani site presents the greatest challenge in terms of communication. The great majority of COH students there live in outlying refugee camps and have no access to telephones. To complicate matters, the refugee camps are not all within the same area. They are spread in all different directions and distances from the main part of town, and often the roads within the camps are arduous to navigate. Consequently, locating 15 students can actually be quite a daunting and time consuming task. We had to visit about 7 different camps/schools over the course of 4 days to locate all the students. On one visit to Alere refugee camp, we followed a very rough road to the school and found ourselves on quite an adventure that included finding a way around a tree fallen across the road and climbing up a steep hill only to find that the road was too rough ahead to pass. We ended up backing all the way back down the hill and looking for an alternative route.

Pictures: The tree blocking the road (L); and finding our own path through the trees around a deep trench that ran across the road (R).

















However, we did make it to the school and enjoyed visited with the students (who were preparing for a day of cultural music and dancing for the next day). The entire journey from traveling the roads to finding and visiting with all the students at the school took several hours.

Pictures: The COH students at Alere Secondary School (L); Richard with one of our students from Ukusijoni Primary School (R).


















On another occasion, Francis, Richard, and I visited a primary school in Robidere camp only to find that one of the two COH students we needed to see had stayed home sick that day. Since we didn’t know where she lived in the camp (refugee camps unfortunately have no addresses or well marked avenues), the other COH student at the school guided us to the sick girl’s home. Upon arriving, we did not find the girl at home, and the mother, being suspicious of us, would not tell us where she was. So we explained more about who we were and why we were there, using the other student with us as an interpreter. Finally, the missing girl appeared (not looking very sick, I might add). While she was writing her letter, Francis, Richard, and I decided to climb some imposing rocks nearby. I had already interacted some with the children in the camp, who, as usual, were delightfully surprised to see a “mzungu” in their neighborhood.

Photos: Two girl from our project, the one on the left is the one who was "sick". Her mother is in the background cooking (Top); Me with some children from the camp (Bottom).


When we walked out to climb the rocks, all of the children followed us. It was quite a funny, and even touching, scene to see them shyly follow us from a distance, and then file up the rocks behind us. (We ended up having to help several of the smaller ones down in the end.)

Photos: Looking back down toward the camp - you can see some of the children following us at the bottom of the photo (top L); the children trying to climb up the rocks behind us (top R); a view of the surrounding area from atop the rocks (bottom L); looking down at some of the kids below (bottom R).

















While in Adjumani, we also aided in the cleanup and organization of the office and met with a new group of mentors that had recently joined the project. We were glad for the opportunity to present a mini-orientation and to pray for the new mentors (in photo below).

Adjumani has had its share of problems in the past year, one of which has been a lack of mentors. We are praying that the new mentors will help to ease the burden on the current “coordinators” at the site, and that they will aid in communication with the students so that we can know current needs and problems.

On our last day, we finished earlier and headed out to Arra Fishing Lodge north of Adjumani. The lodge is situated on part of the Albert Nile, a branch of the Nile River, and is surrounded by rocky terrain and marshy areas. We relaxed for a couple hours, enjoyed the scenery, and visited the “crossing point” down the road where a small ferry taxis people to and from opposite sides of the river.

Photos: Gorgeous sunset over the Nile (L); Rocky terrain (R).

I thank God for the success and safety, despite a few snags, of our trip!