Life in Lukodi

Hello friends! I was finally able to upload pictures today to this and the previous post (hooray!) so please have a look!

We reached Lukodi safe and sound on Saturday after an 8-hour drive. Lukodi is a village about 15 kilometers outside Gulu, a small city near the Sudanese border in northern Uganda. The trip was beautiful—gorgeous scenery, pretty birds, monkeys and baboons—but just a little bumpy. Check out these rockin’ potholes:


As of Saturday, our team has expanded from 20 to 36. We picked up 14 FOCUS students and staff (InterVarsity’s sister movement in Uganda) and met Tom S. (NEGII co-director) and Nancy (Tom B’s wife) at the airport.

Here’s the happy couple toasting their reunion:


And here’s Tom S, starting the trip off right with some road-side meat sticks:


We are very excited to begin this unique partnership between our two ministries. Because of the war and other stigmas about the region, most of the Ugandan students themselves have never been this far north. The language is different, as well as some of the customs. So this will be a cross-cultural experience on many levels!

Here in Gulu, life is much slower and simpler than in Kampala. (For those of us that enjoy being out in the boonies, it feels like heaven.) We are staying at the Child Voice International compound, which is adjacent to an Internally Displaced Persons camp. There is no electricity, so daylight has become extremely valuable to us all of a sudden!

Here are some shots of our accommodations for the next 10 days. We are living in traditional Acholi huts—mud/concrete floor and walls, covered with a thatched roof:


Inside the huts, we are sleeping in hammocks with built-in zippered mosquito nets. Very comfy actually, once you get the hang of it!


And here are our brand-new restroom facilities—"long drops," followed by the bathing area. To bathe, we carry big yellow jerry cans full of water and pour them into a shallow tub for a refreshing (i.e. brisk!) bucket bath:


While here, we will be partnering with Child Voice International, an organization that serves child mothers, former abductees and child brides of the Lord’s Resistance Army. There are 30 child mothers, ages 14-24, living here on the compound with their children. We will also be working with the Anglican Diocese on various outreach projects in both IDP camps and nearby college campuses.

But maybe most significantly, we will be doing all of these projects alongside our brothers and sisters from FOUCS. We are so excited for the opportunity to build relationships, to learn from one another, and to invite God to do his work among us!

If you would like to pray for us, one of the best ways you could pray right now is for healing and protection from illness. Several of us have gotten sick this week—everything from sinus infections to stomach bugs. Nothing serious, but we’d really love your prayers for everyone to be able to participate fully this week.

Thanks so much for following our journey and for upholding us in prayer! I’ll be in touch again soon!