Here I am in Northern Uganda, in a little town called Pader, that also gives its name to the district. I live on a big grassy compound just out of town in a little 2 room house on the end of a larger building. I share the compound with some Canadian colleagues, Mike & Marianne Botting, referred to hereafter as M&M, their cat Honeybun, 3 guard dogs and two guards who operate on 12 hour shifts. M&M are much better than me at staying in touch; see their blog at http://seekingfirst.weebly.com.
I have been here since February 2012 and I am here as a Christian missionary; since Dr Livingston was in these parts the meaning of that term has moved a bit but we do still do our best to communicate the good news about Jesus. We are also trying to develop people's lives in terms of sanitation and health, lively-hoods, peace-building, education and well, just thinking. But we try to avoid normal western approach of separating out the 'spiritual' part from the 'development' aspects. There is a method in this 'madness'; development without an internal motivation seldom works, however self evident outsiders may think it all is. The fact is that accepting a new and better spiritual paradigm (faith in Jesus Christ) gives people a new view on their lives and a freedom to critically asses their lives and the old ways and to work out better ones. If you think that is weird and/or neo-colonial please read this article as a sanity check: http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/3502-matthew-parris-as-an-atheist-i-truly-believe-africa-needs-god . And whilst there is still scope for only communicating the gospel, we understand the good news to be good news for now as well as for the hereafter and that now is where we are living our lives.
Anyway, that is already too much for an intro. I have loads of stuff to talk to you about from Acholi to Zebra, passing through agriculture, deafness, gardening, menstruation (sorry), music, use of English and wildlife. Also quite a few other things that would make the list too long. Be patient and I will try to make it interesting. And I can tell you about Munu Muti too.
If there is something you want to ask, just use the comment facility and if I can blog about it, I will.
